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Chapter 17

Mia

Warmth tingled across the back of my neck as something stirred behind my heart telling me Noah was here. Again.

For four days, I’d avoided him by focusing all my attention on cleaning Joan’s house. But he kept coming back.

I padded up the stairs to the window. The same window where I first saw Noah in wolf form, waiting in the forest for me. Pulling back the drapes, I peered at the spot. Thor stood there, waiting for me.

My heart cracked and I doubt it would ever repair itself. Every time I spared a glance out the window to the backyard, Noah or Thor stood in the same location. He’d left my house like I’d asked, but he hadn’t left me. He hadn’t given up.

Had I?

I didn’t know. Mating with me without my knowledge, I could probably forgive. We were both caught up in the moment and I was as much to blame as him. When I thought back to that night, he’d tried to tell me something, tried to slow things down, but I hadn’t wanted any of that. I’d only wanted him.

Now that bond connected us for life.

To say I didn’t feel any different was a lie. When I stopped and thought about it, an invisible thread drew me to Noah before we sealed our bond. Destiny pulled us together the moment I stepped into his bar.

No, even before that. His wolf. Fifteen years ago, that same invisible thread lured me to a wolf lurking in the forest behind this house. I mean, since when did a wolf and a teenage girl ever become best friends?

Thor’s head turned my way and his gaze held mine.

I mentally searched inside me for…something. Hatred, the desire to kill, a thirst for his blood. Anything to remind me that Noah had triggered the hunter curse. Did it awake instantly, or did it happen over time? Not knowing the answers to any of this frustrated the hell out of me. If I stayed, if I allowed myself to build a future with Noah, would I wake up one day wanting to drain his blood?

Until I was positive I wouldn’t, I couldn’t be with him. I couldn’t risk it.

No matter how much I loved him—Oh, God. The fluttering in my stomach when I thought of him, the deep yearning inside my chest to forgive him. Those feelings weren’t the result of our mating bond. I loved him. Despite his actions, despite our different worlds, and the curse that threatened to tear us apart, I damn well loved him.

How did I not see that?

I longed for a home and a family who loved me back, and with Noah, I could have all that. But I was a freaking hunter. A danger to them all. Staying in Woodland Falls put not just Noah in danger, but every other shifter. The Cole family. Ivy and Liam’s baby.

I focused on Thor. His front paws inched onto the grass. That dull ache in my heart intensified, consuming my lungs and every other half-dead organ in my chest.

My whole life I’d bounced from one situation to the next, living in the shadows of everyone else’s choices and expectations. I’d come to Woodland Falls aching to stand on my own two feet. To create my own path, not one forged on the choices of others.

Today, I took back control.

If Noah wouldn’t let me go, then I needed to make that choice for the both of us. I needed to leave. I refused to tear apart their family because of some ancient curse thrust upon mine. A family I no longer held ties with.

I couldn’t risk staying here any longer.

With one final glance at Thor, at Noah, I released the drapes and held my breath until they fell back into place. I turned from the window. Noah wanted me to meet him halfway, but this time I wouldn’t.

This moment wasn’t the start of our epic love story. This was the moment I ended the Whitcome hunters forever.

* * *

Noah

I sensed Ash approach from behind, but I didn’t bother turning to greet him.

“Has she come out yet?” he asked when he stood beside me.

I shook my head. She hadn’t peered out the window for forty-eight hours.

For six days, I’d parked my ass in the woods behind her house, alternating between wolf and human form. We both ached for her, so it was only fair that we took shifts. Each afternoon, I caught her peering down from her bedroom window as she had fifteen years ago, but unlike then, she never met me halfway.