A cramp hit Slade with the force of a sledgehammer, doubling him over.
Noah’s eyes went wide. “Go now. Before the symptoms get worse.”
With nothing more he could do, Slade climbed behind the wheel, sitting with the door open a long moment. Was he strong enough to ride away? If Noah asked for a last kiss, Slade might not be able to leave, which would do neither of them any good.
Helmet clutched to his chest, Noah gave a shaky smile, turned, and went back into the house.
A vise crushed Slade’s heart. “Are you happy now, you sorcerer sonofabitch,” he muttered under his breath. Firing up the Durango, he tore his eyes away from the closed door separating him from Noah, driving away from the best man he’d ever known.
Chapter Forty
Noahsatontheback porch of the snug little house he’d shared with Slade, sipping coffee. Numb. Totally numb. For so many mornings, he’d done the same with Slade, talking, kissing, or hurrying back inside when flirty talk escalated to “do me now!” A lead weight sat in his chest instead of a heart.
Slade never lied to him. They’d always known they’d have to part in the end. Foreknowledge didn’t lessen the pain. At least Noah wasn’t alone. Already he felt the pack around him, getting up, going about their day.
How selfish of him to want to give this up for a man—a human man—after all Paul’s efforts to see him settled. Paul hadn’t been a young wolf ten years ago and never lived to see this day. Noah couldn’t let down the closest thing to a father he remembered. Then there was his aunt and uncle, rejoicing over a nephew returned from the dead. Well, Aunt Debra, anyway.
Slade had brothers he rarely saw because he couldn’t visit.
“Thought I’d find you here,” came a rumbling voice. Sheriff Mac strolled onto the porch. “Mind if I set a spell?”
Noah nodded to the chair next to him—Slade’s chair when they didn’t sit together.
“I saw Slade leave this morning with his trailer.”
Noah tried twice, clearing his throat before managing to get any words past his dry-as-dust throat. “He had to go.”
“Why?”
How much should Noah say? As much time as Mac spent with Slade, Slade was bound to have told him something. And it wasn’t like Mac didn’t know of sorcerers. So, Noah opened his mouth, and out came the entire story of Slade’s curse.
Mac listened quietly, asking the occasional polite question, then leaned back in his chair, staring out at the woods. The sun shone through the treetops. Dawn came and left hours ago. How far had Slade gone? “I don’t feel right without him.”
Mac shook his head. “You’re bonded. That’s a bond that’ll never truly be broken.”
Noah took a deep breath. All his life, he’d believed he needed a pack to survive. So much so that he’d thought those ideas came from his head. They didn’t. They came from Paul’s. Parents wanted the best for their pups, as Paul wanted for Noah.
What if Noah wanted something else? But what if he left for Slade and never found another pack again?
Certainty clicked in his mind. The answer would be, “so what?”
“I don’t belong here,” he finally confessed, voice a low murmur. “As much as I appreciate all the pack has done for me, how they’ve welcomed me, from the bottom of my soul, I know I’m not supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be with him.”
Mac quietly regarded Noah for several long moments. Noah didn’t avert his gaze as a lesser wolf should to an alpha. Finally, Mac sighed. “I’ve seen how you look at each other. You love him. I believe he feels the same for you. I’ll miss you and worry for you, but I agree. Your place is with your mate.”
“What?” Noah couldn’t be hearing right. Here was Mac, alpha of the only pack Noah had ever known, suggesting he go with a human? “We worked hard to find other wolves, to find me a place to belong with my own kind. Then there’s the whole truce thing with the hunters. Am I an ingrate if I leave now?”
Mac flashed a wry smile. “You’re still grateful, aren't you? That hasn’t changed. As much as you say we’ve done for you, look what you’ve done for us. Soon, all wolves will be safer because two souls who others said shouldn’t be together fell in love.”
Noah’s brain couldn’t process. Was Mac honestly suggesting…
“As someone who’s loved and lost, I’d do anything to spend another day with the one I loved.” Mac patted Noah’s knee. “Don’t make a mistake you’ll regret the rest of your life for the sake of what others might think.”
“Weren’t you the one who said wolves needed a pack?”
“True. I’ve seen you with your biker. You’re as bonded as any of our mated wolves. I’ve never fully trusted more than a handful of humans since they killed so many of our kind, and I don’t claim to know everything. Maybe humans can be pack too. If you can, though, I wish you’d come visit from time to time.”
The heaviness in Noah’s heart lifted slightly.
