He shakes his head but he doesn’t confirm or deny anything.
“Oh please, don’t get shy on me now. You called me sweetheart earlier and were all come hither when it was just us outside.”
Gannon’s smirk falls and he tosses a bewildered look my way. “What are you talking about?”
I roll my eyes. He’s fucking with me again, but I’m not letting him get away with it. If I have to face my shit, he does too.
“It’s fine if you got so overwhelmed by my presence that you dropped your shield. It happens to the best of us,” I joke, poking him about the first conversation we had about mindspeak and how judgy he was about my lack of control.
“No, really, Noah, what are you talking about?” he reiterates, only this time he looks genuinely concerned.
My grin melts away, and I look from him to the others and then back again. “On the deck earlier. I heard you. You called my name. You said come here, sweetheart. I asked you about it, and you said it was you, that you’d been out on patrol.”
He shoots up out of his seat, standing, and I’m hit with a violent scent that’s as potent as bomb smoke. “I was out on patrol, but I didn’t mindspeak with you when I was. I didn’t say any of that.”
“Well, someone did,” I argue, turning to the other guys expectantly.
And then my stomach drops.
Someone did, but not them.
Ellery is up off the couch and striding to the open doors that lead out to the deck before I even know what’s happening. Ruger is right behind him.
I’ve hardly had time to stand before the pair of them leap off the deck and start combing through the woods. Their eyes are trained on the ground as they make pass after pass through the surrounding trees, not caring about their nearly nude states, unbothered by the chill in the air.
My chest gets tight and my pulse thunders.
Perth comes to stand next to me. He doesn’t say anything, but when he holds out his arm, I lean into him and let him tuck me in close to his side.
Minutes roll by as Ruger and Ellery search, and I start to believe that they won’t find anything.
Then I watch as Ellery crouches and studies a particular patch of mud. His finger dips down to trace over a shape on the ground. Fear crawls up my throat and starts to pound in my head as he looks over at me.
I can see the words etched in his furious features before they spill out of his mouth. I want to shove my hand over his lips and keep him from once again shattering my reality, but I know it’s useless.
Ellery’s bright blue eyes harden with promises of pain and punishment. “There was someone here. They left their boot tread in the mud.” His words reach my ears easily, though he’s standing nearly one hundred feet away.
Perth pulls me closer and I cling to him as Gannon steps in front of me, as though his presence can shield me from the horrible truth.
Ruger hurries through the trees to join Ellery, to see what the sheriff is talking about with his own eyes. Ellery searches the forest around him as though the trees will whisper who it was, but the woods stay quiet.
A vicious snarl spills out of the celestial, and his glowing blue eyes land on me. “Someone was definitely watching you, and just like your room at the inn, there’s not a trace of scent to tell us who.”
24
RUGER
“Your alpha lives in a Bass Pro Shop?” Noah stares up at the massive stone and wood cabin in skeptical awe.
Ellery’s neck goes brick red. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone compare his parents’ grandiose home, which has four distinct wings, to a giant human sporting goods store—but there’s a first time for everything.
I swallow a snicker as my gaze rolls over the house, which is built of gray stone at the base and has wide round wooden beams running across the top and lining the pitch of the roof. With giant gables and two-story windows galore, I’ve always thought of it more as a Swiss chalet on roids, but I can see her point.
Ellery tries to explain away the opulence of the ten car garage when her eyes turn to look at that part of the house, which connects to the main home via a covered skywalk. “It’s a bit much. But a lot of pack business goes down here—meetings with betas and enforcers, pack gatherings, parleys with other packs and eerie representatives, things like that.” Ellery shrugs.
“Alpha Morgan is king of the castle, and our boy Ellery here is the prince. Our beloved celestial,” Perth declares as he slings an arm around Ellery’s neck and winks at Noah. Gannon trails behind and rolls his eyes.
I shake my head at Perth. Always trying to stir the pot, little shit.
Ellery scoffs as though Perth’s statement is outrageous instead of fact. He doesn’t actually deny anything though—because he knows he can’t. Instead, he straightens his blue jacket, tosses his hands in the pockets of his dress pants, and tries to change the subject.
“You look nice,” he tells Noah, his smile warm as his eyes drink her down like she’s a cool glass of water on the hottest day of the summer.
She glances at her mustard-colored sweater and runs her palms over her torso. She’s paired the tight-fitting top with dark jeans and boots that make her the perfect height for kissing.
Shit. Don’t think about kissing. Or how hot she is. We’re lucky she’s even here right now. Don’t blow it.
“Thanks,” Noah replies lightly, a tinge of pink coloring her cheeks. “You guys clean up well. I honestly feel a little underdressed,” she admits, gesturing toward the slacks and button-down shirts we’re all sporting. “Karen would be proud,” she snarks.
I grin, though I’m personally glad the deputy has the night off and we get Noah to ourselves without the constantly running side commentary. I touch my shirt a little self-consciously though. We always dress up for these things. Mostly because it makes Melana Arcan, Ellery’s mom and our luna, happy. Deep down though, it’s because of the wall of shame.
Luna Arcan doesn’t call it that, of course. To her, the wall shows off her amateur photography skills with a priceless collection of memories caught on film. All the rest of us see though are pictures capturing every awkward moment.
Ellery would give anything to burn the framed photo of him in a wrinkled Piglet shirt that Perth dared him to wear at age twelve, his big smile showing off a chunk of something green caught in his teeth.
There are far too many snapped and displayed prints of our bed hair, us stuffing our faces, trying to light our farts on fire, or merely just existing all gangly and awkward before puberty did its thing. We’ve learned our lesson. Now, we all come ready with blinding grins, respectful outfits, and our heads on a swivel for the luna and her sneaky camera.
Unfortunately, I don’t know how to explain any of this to Noah. Judging by the other guys’ silence, they don’t either. We’re on shaky ground with her, and making her feel self-conscious about photos on top of everything else…just nope.
After the confrontation this morning, things are even more uncertain than they were before. And we were already tiptoeing across quicksand.
It probably doesn’t help that we’re all too worried to outright ask if her instincts are telling her what ours are, that she’s our mate. But that will only put more pressure on her, and that’s the last thing she needs.