Page 52 of The Enforcers: NOAH

Chapter 19

Mina was still angry, still scared, still hurt and heartbroken. She wanted to believe Noah really cared, that he hadn’t lied to her, but she didn’t know if she could trust him.

She’d always been alone, and right now she felt more alone than ever.

“Well?” she said. “What did you want to show me?”

He gestured across the clearing at the crazy shed, where Tank was still sitting in the doorway. “That,” he said. “Look over there and tell me what you see.”

She could barely see the white wolf beyond the huge bulk of the bear-man, pacing up and down the back wall of the shed. But she could hear its wicked snarling.

Suddenly, the wolf launched himself at the bear-man, and Mina flinched back at the impact. Tank caught the wolf in his huge arms, holding its jaws shut with one enormous hand, immobilizing its body with the other. The wolf’s claws raked down his torso, and Mina could see trails of blood seeping down from a dozen fresh or half-healed wounds.

He threw the wolf down, and it scrambled back and started pacing again. The whole time, Tank was talking nonstop in a low, repetitive voice, like a crazy person.

She didn’t know what Noah wanted from her. All she could give him was honesty.

“I see blood and violence and danger,” she said. “I see a wolf that’s lost any humanity he ever had, and a crazy man who taunts an already frightened animal into attacking him over and over because he has some kind of need for physical punishment.”

She added in a low voice, “I see Brock’s future, and it terrifies me.”

She suddenly wanted Noah to turn and comfort her, to put his arms around her and somehow make her feel safe like he’d done before all this craziness happened.

But he didn’t. He just stood with his hands on the porch railing, staring at the bloodbath happening across the clearing. The wolf attacked again, drawing more blood, and the bear-man stopped him, still talking, and threw the wolf back across the shed. They were both moving more slowly now.

“Yeah,” Noah said, so quietly she had to move closer to hear him. “This is one reason why I didn’t tell you. Because you’re right, in a way. This world—my world—is way more violent and primal than you’re used to. It’s hard sometimes, and dangerous, and maybe not a place for people who don’t have canines and claws and shifter healing.”

He sighed. “I wanted us to have more time. So you could get to know me, maybe get to care for me before I had to show you all this. But there’s another reason I didn’t tell you. Because you know what I see when I look over there?”

She shook her head. She didn’t, but she suddenly wanted to. She wanted to know what was inside Noah Gray Wolf Reilly, and how he saw the world.

“I see what happens to shifters when the wrong humans find out what they are. Those two over there aren’t doing that because that’s what shifters do. Every shifter in this crew has been broken by humans. Captured. Tortured. Their friends and family have been slaughtered, or sold to rich ‘collectors,’ or to labs or sex traffickers.”

Mina couldn’t help a tiny gasp. “That’s horrible,” she whispered.

“We keep ourselves secret for a reason,” he said. “The number one rule for shifters—the fucking prime directive—is not to ever let human society know we exist. And yeah, sometimes our leaders do some pretty extreme things to keep the word from getting out. But when I look at that—” he nodded toward the shed, “—and when I think of what could happen to Brock if he falls into the wrong hands, I can see why our Council does whatever they have to, to try to keep us safe.”

He sighed. “And obviously, even that isn’t always enough.”

Mina felt sick to her stomach. Things were falling into place in her mind, things she hadn’t put together before.

She moved closer to Noah and put her hand on his, where it rested on the porch railing. “Is that what happened to you? That thing you don’t talk about?”

He cut his eyes sideways, then looked across the clearing again. “It was another shifter who messed me up, but she’d been genetically altered by a group of rogue scientists who experiment on shifters. She was batshit crazy and had mind control powers, and she made me do stuff I don’t even remember. But since the things I can remember make me sick to my stomach, I’m actually kind of glad I can’t remember the others.”

“Oh, Noah,” she said, leaning her head against his shoulder.

“That’s not why I brought you out here, though,” he said. “You want to know what else I see when I look over there?”

Mina nodded.

“I see brotherhood, and loyalty, and courage,” he said. “I see a wolf who’s here, messed up but safe, because another man carried him on his back for ten fucking miles. I see a bear who’s broken inside and who has every reason to hate the world, but he still took two bullets tonight for people he didn’t even know. Then he came back here and instead of going to bed where he belongs, he decided to stay up all night in the cold so his best friend wouldn’t have to be alone with his terror and misery.”

Tears began to stream down Mina’s face.

Noah went on, “I know you can’t hear what he’s saying from here, but I can. He’s not taunting Tristan. He’s telling him about all the things they’ve done together, little stupid day to day shit, trying to remind him he’s human so he can find his way back. If Tank were in bear form, he wouldn’t be getting so bloodied up, but he keeps changing back to human so Tristan can hear his voice.”

Mina took in a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know. It looked so…scary.”