Page 36 of Never Submit

“That’s normal, after a shift. Especially if it’s your first time.” He’s confused; they all are. “We’ll talk about it.”

“It wasn’t an actual shift.” I have to correct him. “Just a partial. I was trying to get out of the cage, and I needed extra strength. I pried the bars apart.”

“Shh, you don’t have to say anything else right now. There’s plenty of time,” Noble continues.

“Stop lying to her.” Torin is ruthless. “We’re running out of time, and she might be delirious but she has to understand it. And the part she’s playing.”

Rather than argue, Noble keeps silent, snuggling me at his side. I draw in one deep breath after another, inhaling his scent, memorizing it. He warms something new deep inside me that I can’t explain.

It’s like I feel him beside me, but I also feel him in my chest, in my head. In my heart. There’s a space inside me that I didn’t realize was empty until he filled it.

I must doze off because the next thing I know, the SUV pulls to a stop with a slight lurching motion.

“Easy does it. We’re here now. We’re home.”

Noble’s voice sounds like it’s coming through a wall of water, and when I yawn again, my ears pop. I’m slightlymore awake than I was when I got into the car, but the grogginess makes me nervous.

“Where?” I ask.

“The Steel Claw building. You’re safe here, don’t you worry.”

A chilly blast of air is a contrast to the hazy heat in the SUV. Then Noble is gone and I’m crying out for him, reaching for the place where he used to be. He finally gathers me up in his arms and carries me out of the parking garage and toward an elevator I blearily make out in the distance.

I’m in Noble’s arms, and I’m home. It’s impossible to describe the feeling of safety that filled me the second I saw him but being here with him is everything. I keep my arms looped around his neck and my face buried at his nape.

“I’ve got you now,” he says in a low tone. Like I’m some kind of terrified creature who needs to be talked down from a ledge. “No one is ever going to fucking hurt you again.”

It’s nothing I ever thought I wanted to hear, but the moment those words leave his lips, I sag closer. Clutching at Noble like he’s a rock in the stormy ocean, but damn it, he is.

Something happened to us up on the mountain. An indescribable connection that blazed through me like fire on a cold winter day and infused my dying limbs with enough electricity to keep me from the edge.

“I’ll have one of the omega nurses come up and take a look at her,” Torin says from up ahead. “If she’s a shifter now, then it will be unnecessary.” He strides toward the elevator and stabs his finger at the button. The doors slide open, and Noble follows him outside.

“She needs a nurse, so thank you,” Noble says as if he’s swallowing over every word.

Torin only growls, and his reflection in the shiny metal shows no emotion.

“As to your theory…” Noble trails off, like he’s considering what to say. “It makes sense.”

“It makes no fucking sense, but it’s what we’re working with. If the Moonstone did absorb into her, then she’d be the first of her kind. A wolf, but not.”

“So you believe her when she says she changed?”

I’m right here, boys.

“We’ll see,” Torin hedges.

We reach the penthouse in what feels like seconds. Torin walks ahead and disappears into his office, closing the door behind him. The space smells like him. Rich and spiced and scented with something earthy. Masculine.

I guess Torin’s done with me for now.

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Noble says and turns left, through one of the open doors. A bedroom–his bedroom, I’m assuming. His presence overwhelms the space, from the unmade forest-green sheets on the bed to the dark-painted walls, and a stack of folded sweaters on the wooden desk. It’s all Noble.

He kicks the door shut behind him.

My very own knight in shining armor, right here.

He gently places me to sit on the edge of the bed. I don’t want to let go of him. Not now. Not for however long it takes for me to…I don’t know. Make peace with things.

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