I shake my head at him, prowling back towards him like a hungry lion. A purr in my throat as I talk. “Dr. Teo… ”
“Don’t,” he jabs his finger at me.
I throw my hands up in surrender before I sit up and hold them out for him to take me in again. But you know, lionesses like to look good for their lions, and I plump my hair and push my tits way out, smirking at him when he watches me … angrily. I was after hungrily.
“Come on, Noah,” I whine softly. “I’m doing okay.”
He watches me closely, and I relax under his steely gaze. Closing my eyes, even I manage a few deep breaths before looking back at him again.
“I’m sorry, Noah,” I say softly. All night he’s held me tight, and even though we’ve got pack members to save, a whole fucking community to blow apart if needs be, we haven’t had the chance yet to deal with me not meeting him like I promised.
“Don’t apologise! I know it was completely out of your control, but this dark voice in my head gets so fucking loud sometimes” he says, snarling behind his hands. “I feel, so… I can see you there, but it took a long time, Lennon. My head was full of all these things I thought had happened.”
Gabe appears back in the tent, shaking his head looking remarkably restrained and surprisingly dressed.
“Jesus, seriously, I went to get you food, and she like fucking chased me back down the corridor! They need to get a fucking leash for their omega… she’s crazy, babe. You never told me Bailey Henderson was a nutter!” In true Gabriel style he defuses and deflects like a champion, or perhaps he simply focuses on what he sees as more important—here and now.
He makes his way closer but takes a detour and kind of does a reverse hug, wrapping his arms around and up Noah’s chest, and talking quietly into his ear. And while I always suspected that Gabriel would be free spirited in who he loved, I didn’t really think Noah would be. But Noah’s not in the least weirded out and isn’t blatantly ignoring the way the three of us kissed way past the heat of the moment last night. I really hope Noah gives himself the chance to discover who he is as a person. Deep inside. Because he really does have a lot of love to give.
“Noah, she’ll be okay. We need to give her a bit of space, and be on her ass, but Len’s not going anywhere. I promise.” With a little love nibble on the top of Noah’s shoulder, Gabe releases him and the both of them climb back on the bed. Sadly, Noah pulls on a pair of his tight boxer shorts first though. Our discussion is going to be hard enough, at least I should have something good to focus on.
Gabe reaches over to grab a bag off the floor, dragging a brand-new laptop onto his lap, and while he does that, Noah takes the chance to pick me up and set me between his legs. We all kind of bob around again as Gabe bounces over and his fingers fly across the keyboard. He somehow splits the screen so we see four different sites open at the one time.
The first is of my house, the second is paused on the recording of what happened, the third is a map, and the last is the framework of the website for A Ra Wn.
“The diversion you created took all their focus and had them scrambling. They didn’t set foot in your house and the place is locked up tight.” He uses the mouse to access the cameras in my house, and it looks exactly like we left it. Our bags not even unpacked.
I swipe away a tear that threatens when I see Ares’ empty bed. Getting over my boy is going to have me stumbling and crying a lot, but I lean against Noah, knowing he’ll be there to help. He threads our hands together and gives them a gentle squeeze.
“We’ll make them pay,” he offers quietly.
Gabe adds his hand. “It’s true, Len.”
I blow out a big sigh. “Okay, give me something else to think about.”
Gabe goes straight into the next screen. “Live streaming over to your site was genius. I was able to log in and we got a lot from the thirty seconds you gave us. I did some slight editing to remove a couple of things.” Gabe raises his eyebrow in challenge. I’m sure he’s not after any confirmation, but I interrupt him.
“The guy was an absolute prick, and I think you’d be more pissed off, Gabriel, if I had left him alive.”
“You wasted valuable time. The two you dealt with to get to the car would have been sufficient. I’m sorry, Len, but I am not leaping to your rescue when Valak comes at you. It was honourable, but really fucking…”
“Don’t you dare say stupid,” I snap as I start to sit up. I know in part it’s the residual effects of the medication making me flip and flop emotionally, still, it’s unsettling.
“A stupid person would not have made that shot,” he soothes, reaching out to stop my escape. “I wonder what the person who taught you to shoot like that would say though. Because even justified, you put yourself at risk and potentially made yourself a bigger target.” Gabe twists around, cupping my face. “Len, it really is so simple, and I’m sure Noah agrees, we can’t lose you, and we’re here to help you. I joked before about dying from a broken heart, but let’s not test the theory.”
“I had to, for Ares,” I offer simply. He doesn’t let his hand fall away. And I use the moment, and their touch like a focusing tool to lock up the need to lash out.
“Who did train you?” Noah asks. “I’m not trained in weapons or defending myself, but Gabe said what you did, how you did it, and how quickly you got out of there, was exceptional.”
“In the protection world, it’s kind of a rude question, but I’m sure Len will tell us eventually, right?” Gabe says. “Anyway, we can do a debrief with the others. Now, see that, right there?” His finger touches on the screen where the map is and it enlarges and updates.
“Your brother’s tracker.” I lean in and watch the small dot moving. “He’s alive.”
“Yeah, of course he is. And he’s about to be released.”
“What? How?”
“By us, Len. Keep up, would you?” He chuckles before the screen changes again, and he accesses a camera in someone’s computer to stream.
