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Safety washed over him.He was safe, wherever Alex was. He knew that instinctively, and the urge to run dissipated. And he decided he could tell Alex so he turned to face him. It didn’t matter if anyone else heard. “One of the guys never tried to hide what he was. He just loomed over me and told me he was my alpha, then commanded me to shift.” He felt the winces around the room but kept his gaze on Alex. “It hurt.”

Alex nodded. “It would, but this afternoon didn’t, did it?”

Noah shook his head.

Alex smiled. “You’re doing really well.” Alex’s words warmed Noah and gave him the courage to carry on.

“Dad told me I was just a deer.” Noah’s face flushed. “I was glad when he was disappointed, and he left me alone for a while.”

Alex looked up and around the room. “He’s a white stag.”

Noah felt the shock on everyone’s faces running through his body and would have crumpled if not for the steady weight of Alex’s hand. “Does that mean anything?”

Riley smiled. “There’s not many of you is all, but nothing to worry about. And I’m guessing that’s why you haven’t been eating much.” Mo shot a puzzled look at Zack.

“Vegetarian,” Zack supplied.

“I eat meat,” Noah said, a little defensively. “It just doesn’t sit okay in my stomach.”

Asher nodded. “It’s an easy fix and nothing to worry about.”

“Dad didn’t seem to care after that, and for ages nothing happened, but then I got curious.”

Zack huffed, but it was done with a smile on his face.

Alex seemed to be his center. He didn’t care about the others. “Go on,” Alex encouraged.

Noah sighed. “I could smell something after that shift. Something I couldn’t identify, but something I had to discover, and eventually snooping about—because his house is insanely big—I found another floor I didn’t know existed.”

“Sean Pearson’s house was built in 1912,” Asher said. “It was an old farmhouse originally, but the land was sold and the house was remodeled extensively. Pearson bought it twenty years ago when the original owner died with no immediate family,” and Noah looked at him in surprise. Asher grinned. “Five minutes on the internet if you know where to look.”

Noah returned the smile and felt better. He didn’t know Asher very well, but he seemed cool, and he didn’t make Noah feel like he’d done something wrong, and it made him brave enough to carry on. “Well, I found Jacob.”

Everyone was silent a moment and then Mo spoke. “I can’t believe how hard that must have been.”

Noah shook his head. “It was hard to keep it a secret, but Jacob was amazing.”

Mo nodded in agreement. “I have a sister, but I’ve always wanted a brother as well.”

“We met in secret, or I thought we did. Turned out he had hidden cameras.”

“Pearson?” Victor asked.

“Yep. Jacob’s in a wheelchair like I said. We talked for what seemed like forever. As soon as his nurse left, I would go up, and this carried on for weeks.”

Asher looked up from his phone. “There’s no Jacob Pearson registered anywhere.”

“Jacob said he didn’t exist,” Noah explained. “That he remembered his mom, but Pearson had paid her to go. He knew about shifters, but didn't know why he was in the wheelchair.”

“So just to confirm,” Martin clarified. “Same father but different moms?”

Alex pushed his juice toward him and he took a couple of swallows, but nodded agreement.

“We were chatting one day and Sean just walked in through this panel in the wall. Like a secret door. I could hear the bottom door open, and I had time to hide, but he caught us from there.” Noah gulped, and he struggled to stay calm. “He left Jacob in his chair without a nurse to care for him for two days.” It had been a mess. He was sure from the sharp inhales that he didn’t need to spell it out. “They made me watch it on the camera, but they locked me in. I couldn’t go to him. Couldn’t help.”

It wasn’t just Alex this time, but Mo who got up and folded his arms around him, which made the burning in Noah’s throat way worse. “They said I had to come here,” he whispered. “Get you to like me.” He looked at Mo, and Mo smiled.

“Well good, because that was easy. We do like you.”