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“I really liked Captain America when I was a kid.”

Victory races through me when Noah offers me a slight smile. “Really?”

“Yep. I used to wish they’d put me in the Vita-Ray Chamber, too. I was small for my age, but I wanted to become huge and strong like Steve.”

Noah blinks. “But you are huge and strong.”

A chuckle escapes me. “Well, now I am.”

He glances thoughtfully down at himself, as if taking stock of his scrawny limbs. “Will I grow to be as big as you? Since you’re my dad?”

Dad. I haven’t dared imagine what it might feel like to hear someone use that word for me.

“I think it’s highly likely,” I assure him.

“But what if I don’t? What if I stay small forever?”

I offer him a smile. “It’s okay to be small. It doesn’t mean you’reany less powerful. You’re an Alpha’s son, Noah. You were born strong, no matter what size you are.”

Noah grins. “You’re really nice. I don’t know why my mom doesn’t like you.”

I almost laugh, but manage to choke it down. Before I can respond to that, however, Alina reappears with Noah’s chocolate milk.

“Noah, it’s not that I don’t like him,” she corrects him lightly, clearly having overheard the tail end of our conversation. “Your father and I are just very different people.”

“Not really,” our son counters matter-of-factly. “You’re Mates, aren’t you? That means you’re not different at all. That’s what my friend Ryan told me today at recess.”

Alina sighs. “We can talk about this later, okay?”

Noah makes a gesture that communicates something like sure, whatever, Mom, and I have to hold back another laugh. This kid is funny. Smart, too. I have a feeling Kseniya would say he has an old soul.

The pack would love him. And I think he’d love them back.

He belongs with the Greenbriars, and so does Alina. If they don’t come home, they’re going to be in danger. In fact, they’re already in danger, given the Blackburn scent that I detected yesterday.

I’ll play nice with Alina for now and follow her so-called rules. But if it comes down to it, I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure their safety.

Chapter 9

Alina

For the last hour of my shift, I watch Rowan like a hawk from behind the bar.

Zahra, propped on a stool with a mug of overly-sugared coffee, watches me watch him.

“I mean, I’m not offended you didn’t mention who Noah’s father is,” she remarks at one point. “But you could have at least had the decency to tell me your Mate is sexy as hell. You won the lottery.”

“He’s not my Mate anymore,” I grumble. “And I’ve won nothing.”

Zahra instantly sobers. “Right. I’m sorry.”

She knows now that Rowan rejected the Mating bond, but I haven’t yet been able to explain the prophecy. Wise women like Kseniya aren’t common in most modern packs. The only reason she and her predecessors have any power at all among the Greenbriars is because the Prophet has been a formal role among the Celtic shifter bloodlines for centuries. And there’s nothing a Greenbriar loves more than tradition.

Even though she’s my best friend, I’m relieved when Zahra gets a call that one of the elders needs help from a healer. It leaves me to brood in solitude as I mix drinks and serve beers.

Noah seems to be enjoying himself, though. That should make me happy. Of course I want him to get along with his father.

It’s just…he’s been all mine for a decade now. I’ve been his only parent. And I was so young when I had him—barely eighteen years old. I’ve lived my entire adult life being his mother, his sole provider.