Love and Deception

Chapter Five

Noah

She’d just come from a run. He could smell the wild on her and it was enticing scent. He locked his muscles onto his bones to prevent any kind of movement. Sitting on the window ledge longer than he’d planned was a small price to pay in his mind. If he didn’t get a grip he was going to tackle her instead of getting answers. One elegant eyebrow rose on her face and he widened his eyes. She expected him to start? “I got here first.” He said arrogantly not surprised by the incredibly Carlie-like expression that graced her face. Smug disbelief. It was a peculiarity he had only seen in her.

“Well since this is my house that makes you a felon for breaking and entering. Who are you?”

“Noah Frederick Drayvin. And you?” She frowned and curled one lip off her teeth. Damn him but this aggression was sexy as hell.

“Caroline Lee Dray…Sutter.” She corrected. She’d been about to give his name though and his wolf was purring happily at the thought.

“That’s not possible.” She gave him another quirked brow but said nothing. She did however ease out of her defensive crouch. He decided to test his control and uncoiled his limbs into her apartment, closing the window behind him. She stayed just as she was with clothes intact. Her eyes widened slightly as he stood to his full height but she still didn’t say anything. “You died.” He said softly. He was calm already. She’d always had that effect on him. Calm his wolf or boil his blood depending on the look she gave him. Her brows hit her hairline this time.

“Clearly not.”

“I watched you.” He demanded more firmly. He tried to shut out the images, the memories of the past that always left him feel skinned alive but they flooded his mind anyway. “We were driving in the snow. I wasn’t even going that fast. I turned to you and then you saw the other car. I swerved to avoid it but ended up flipping the car over and slamming into a tree. I lost consciousness for a few minutes but when I woke up we were both outside the car. God, the blood.” He shuddered feeling the tang of it tickling his throat as if he were once again lying on that pavement staring into her dying face. “You said my name and then your eyes closed. You…died.” He ended the painful narrative with a carefully enunciated repetition of the start of it. Her eyes were studying him somewhere between fear and utter shock. “Explain to me how you are standing here, in Chicago of all places, oh and how you’re a werewolf.” It took her a moment to respond but when she did it was angrily. Again, not surprising.

“You died! When we flipped you pulled me out of the car and then collapsed onto the ground. I could see your ribs Noah, your bones. I remember not being able to feel my legs and being cold. Then I tried to get you to stay awake but…” She wrapped her arms around her own body. He’d taken three steps towards her before he’d realized it and forced himself to stop. “When I woke up I was in the hospital. They told me you were dead. The doctor he was…well he was something else. Something not quite human. He said he knew what I was and when I was confused he explained the werewolf thing to me. Told me about your whole family being wolves.” Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “We’ll get back to why you never told me later.” He frowned furiously trying to figure out who would have benefitted from faking his death.

“But…why did you believe it? Just because some doctor told you?” He hadn’t believed it when they’d told him. Hell he hadn’t even been willing to accept the possibility when he’d seen her corpse.

“I saw a photograph of your funeral. Your family sent it to me.” Noah felt his mouth fall open slightly. “You don’t believe me?” No he didn’t. She nodded once then disappeared down the narrow hallway. He heard her pull open a drawer and then she returned a moment later and thrust a well-worn picture into his hands. He stared at the image of his family gathered around a tombstone. For a wild moment he thought someone had sent her a picture of her own funeral, but it passed when he realized he wasn’t in the picture. He had definitely been at her funeral. Made quite a scene too as his father was wont to remind him. He flipped it over to see in his father’s script We couldn’t wait. I apologize. Hopefully this helps with your grief. E. It was good. His father’s habit of ignoring the lower case made his hand writing fairly easy to copy. However when they’d copied his handwriting they clearly hadn’t caught on to his manner of speaking. He never, ever, would’ve apologized. To anyone. Nor would he at once be cruel and then kind in the space of three sentences. It just wasn’t his style.

“This is forged.” She frowned at him. “My father doesn’t speak much less write like this. I know you only met him the one time so I wouldn’t expect you to know.” He said once he saw anger flicker to life behind eyes that were turning amber. “He is however my father and I’ve known him my whole life. Trust me when I say this is not from him.” Her frown lessened but didn’t disappear. “Why didn’t you go to them?” He asked quietly. She was standing close enough to touch and he did. He ran the back of a finger down her cheek and waited for her to look up at him. “They would’ve cared for you or at the very least helped.” She shook her head.

“I couldn’t. Besides I was overwhelmed with being a werewolf and healing rapidly. The doctor mentioned he knew someone who could help so I left for Chicago.”

“And this person who helped you?” He watched as her eyes grew hard and her face shut down, closing him out.

“He helped as much as he could.”

“Name.” She shook her head firmly. “Name.” Noah demanded again. Yellow eyes flashed up to his nearly molten with fury.

“You don’t get to be angry with me Noah. You lied! The whole time we were together you lied!”

“I did not!” He yelled tossing the stupid fake photo behind him.

“Really? What do you call it?”

“Omitting certain information until it became pertinent.” She scowled darkly.

“So it wasn’t pertinent that I was sleeping with a werewolf? That you could snap at any moment and tear me to pieces? Funny I find that information very pertinent.” His chest rumbled as the low growl tumbled out.

“A: lycanthropy is not a sexually transmitted disease. B: I would never hurt you no matter how angry I was or whatever the circumstances. It. Can’t. Happen.” He punctuated each word with an angry hand gesture. “And lastly, I didn’t tell you yet because you were human. I was courting you like humans do, not like wolves do.”

“What is that supposed to mean? And humans don’t lie to each other!” He barked out a harsh sounding laugh.

“Oh please I won’t even dignify that with a retort.” His response infuriated her more but he wasn’t about to discuss sociology with her right now. “When wolves mate, they mate for life. We know it by smell and it’s instantaneous. We just know. So that day I came into your diner and stared at you all creepy? That was me realizing who you were. My eating there several times a week thereafter was me courting you.”

“It was…”

“Well I certainly wasn’t there for the food!”

Carlie

She had to keep him arguing with her. If he stopped yelling she would stop yelling and then she would think about what he'd said. It wasn't possible. It just couldn't be. "Well then mister I-know-everything how does one become a werewolf?" She gave him a glare she only half felt. He was being logical even though it was crummy. What would she have done if he'd told her he was a wolf before the accident? Probably run screaming after demanding proof which he no doubt would've given.

"You get bitten or born that way." He answered with a snarl. He'd gotten too close to her and now she was having trouble focusing. As if her attention needed another direction to be split into.

"So you were going to what? Bite me?" He resumed his arrogant pose from before, the one she had memorized so well.

"I would've asked." Asked? Asked her if she wanted to become a werewolf? Ha! Her suspicion must have shown on her face because a cocky grin spread across his. "Don't think so? So now not only am I a liar but I would've forced you into a difficult lifestyle against your will. You really must not be Carlie at all." He studied her harder raking her features with his eyes.

"I wasn't bitten." She said returning to a safer topic. "I wasn't born a werewolf and I wasn't bitten so how did I turn into this?" His face got confused and then dark.

"I don't know. The only way I know to turn someone is to be bitten. I was born this way. As were my father and his father and his father and so on." He made an imperious hand wave that was so Noah she found her eyes glued to the hand. She was starting to hope it was true and that was bad. Very bad. Because if it wasn't, and hello how could it be, it was going to hurt like hell when he was gone again.

"Then if I'm you're mate does that make you mine?" He nodded absently.

"The connection goes both ways." She frowned.

"I don't feel anything different than I used to." Except the raging suspicion that this was a ploy to weaken her defenses. Why, she had no idea.

"The only thing that would've changed is your reactions to your feelings."

"Such as?" He smirked once again lost to arrogance.

"Picture me with someone else." She started to object so he just held up a finger. "Just do it. In your head pick a woman, any woman, and imagine my lips on hers. Imagine her hands on me." She did as he asked and was immediately rocked with a surge of rage so potent she almost shifted. Her fangs were out and a throaty growl was echoing around the room. Noah's smirk grew into a rare genuine smile. "See." She got her beast under control but staring at the real Noah, alive and in her living room. That was going to cause problems in the future if this was a two way connection. If Noah ever saw her with Lucius he'd flip his s**t. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm trying to understand things." He nodded but continued to stare at her. "If this is real…" She had to keep it hypothetical. Had to keep her head straight. No matter how convincing this faux Noah was. "Why didn't you look for me?" She watched as grief etched lines into his face again.

"There was a body. A very convincing replica of you. My father…he had a very hard time getting me to accept your death. I did look for you but everywhere I turned I met a dead end."

"Why wouldn't you accept it then?" He backed up a pace and leaned against the back of her ratty sofa. Something about the image struck her as wrong. Noah had only ever been in the finer part of her life. Having him here, in the black part wasn't right. He didn't fit there.

"Werewolves don't outlive their mates. We become so much a part of each other that we literally cannot exist if the other is gone. I kept on living so you couldn't be dead." He said with a shrug.

"Didn't you ever consider the possibility that I wasn't your mate?" He frowned.

"Not really. It was brought up. Several times and from just about everyone I knew but I know what I know. Besides, there were times when I felt you. When I was in my wolf form I would feel a brush of consciousness. But whenever I tried to search for it, it disappeared." Her eyes widened.

"That was you?" He moved back to standing straight in a blur of motion. "I didn't know what that was…" God if she had they would've found each other sooner. She felt herself falling into the belief of what was being presented to her. Fantastical though it was it fit. All of the circumstances. And no one had ever known about the other presence that occasionally brushed her mind. How could he know about it unless it really was him?

"If I had known where you were Carlie I swear that nothing, nothing, would've kept me from you." He had apparently reached the same conclusion she had.

"Prove it." What had she just said? Damnit she needed to get a grip on herself. Not that she had even a second to take it back because Noah's eyes flashed and then she was pushed against her little island counter hard enough to cause her to grunt. He didn't bother apologizing only reached down to claim her lips with his. White hot fire jolted through her veins setting all of it racing around. Her hands gripped onto his shoulders not to push him away but to try and get him closer. The fire burned through her body changing, no not changing but molding something that had already been there into something that could never be moved. She relaxed her grip on him remembering her own strength and that she was probably hurting him. Only to realize no she really wasn't. He was a werewolf too. Same super strength, same speedy healing. Her hands tightened once more as the bruising pressure of his lips against hers continued.

Only to have his lips soften and his body ease off slightly. Not stop but not so urgent anymore. His hands reached around behind her to press her body against his. No longer trying to crush them together as if life would end if they didn't. She hadn't minded the mind numbing consumption but this; this was the Noah she remembered. All slow and confident. She kissed him back remembering she didn't have to be any gentler with him than he was with her. It was a curious new shift in her state of being. The only other time she had been kissed she had needed to be careful of her strength. Careful not to tear the bouncer limb from limb. And it had felt wrong. All of it. Her wolf had risen to the surface, thirsty for blood. This was nothing like that. The only thing her wolf wanted was for it to go on forever. He didn't seem in a mood to disagree.

Lucius had never tried to kiss her. Never. He must've known what her reaction would be if he had. But then, didn't that mean he knew that Noah must have been… Her thoughts fled as Noah's tongue licked her bottom lip then found its way into her mouth when she gasped. Reason followed her thoughts and soon she was trying to decide if she should push him towards her room or just shred his clothes and have him right where they were. Her phone went off just as she was reaching for his belt loops and subsequently saved that particular pair of jeans from dismemberment. "Ignore it." He mumbled against her mouth, fingers questing under her shirt to relearn a body they knew well. She did until it rang again almost instantly. Only two people were that persistent. Lucius and the hospital. Neither of which could be ignored. She turned from a now growling Noah to grab her phone saw the ID and flipped it open. Fear chased away all lustful thoughts as the clipped voice of the pediatrics nurse came over the line.

"Mrs. Drayvin? You need to get here. He's declining rapidly."

"I'm coming." She slammed the phone down and shoved Noah who was eyeing her curiously. "I have to go. I'll explain when I get back. Don't leave." She added before she slammed the door behind her and raced as fast as her legs could carry her.