Chapter 64

Kayla

Noah’s hands were still warm where they had lingered a little too long on my arms, and I hadn’t even registered how close we were standing until I heard the sound of that furious, familiar voice coming from behind me.

I barely had time to turn around and realize what was happening before Nicholas was storming up the alley toward us, his eyes dark and furious. He looked angrier than I had seen him last, but his anger wasn’t directed at me. It was aimed at Noah.

“I said, get away from her,” he repeated.

Nicholas’s voice cut through the air like a knife, cold and sharp enough to make me take a step back without even realizing it. But Noah, to his credit or perhaps even stupidity, didn’t budge.

“Nicholas, wait—” I started, reaching out, but before I could stop him, Nicholas grabbed Noah by the collar and slammed him back against the brick wall. The sound echoed through the narrow alleyway, mingling with the harsh sound of my gasp.

Noah winced but held his ground, his eyes flickering between Nicholas and me. “I was just talking to her,” he said evenly. “You’re overreacting, Nicholas. Again.”

Nicholas leaned in closer, his voice more low and dangerous than I’d ever heard it. “Don’t lie to me, Noah. I saw the way you were just looking at her.” His fist twisted in Noah’s shirt, the veins in his arm straining with barely-contained rage. “You’re not just ‘talking’. I know how a man looks when he wants a woman.”

“Nicholas, stop!” I said, stepping forward. “It’s not like that. Seriously, this is ridiculous.”

“Is it, though?” Nicholas didn’t even glance at me, his amber eyes still burning like small fires into Noah’s. “If that’s the case, then why don’t you enlighten me? What were you telling her that couldn’t wait until I was around?”

Noah exhaled slowly, his lips tightening before he glanced at me. For a brief moment, I thought he would let it slide. Maybe he’d tell Nicholas it was nothing, walk away, and we could all forget this ever happened.

But instead, he just made it worse.

“I was just about to tell her how I feel about her,” Noah said, his voice calm but firm. “I thought she should know the truth.”

Nicholas’s grip faltered for half a second, but he didn’t let go. His knuckles turned white against the fabric of Noah’s jacket, and I could practically see the storm brewing behind his eyes.

I swallowed hard, caught somewhere between shock and disbelief. “Noah, what are you doing?” I whispered, but he didn’t stop.

“Kayla, I know that your relationship with Nicholas isn’t real,” Noah said, his eyes locked onto mine now. “I know this is all for show. And because of that, I feel like it’s well within my rights to tell the truth about my feelings.”

As Noah spoke, he shifted slightly, trying to loosen Nicholas’s grip. Not that it did much good. Nicholas held onto his collar as if he feared Noah might grab me and run away if he did.

“I have feelings for you, Kayla,” Noah said, looking at me. “Real ones. And I think… I think you might be my fated mate.”

The world seemed to tilt for a second. The air in my lungs vanished, leaving me breathless and stunned as his words washed over me like ice cold water from a bucket.

Fated mate.

Noah thought I was his fated mate.

Nicholas went still. Entirely too still, like a statue made of marble. But his hand loosened on Noah’s jacket for just a fraction of a second before his fist clenched again. “Say that again,” he growled, his voice low enough to send a shiver down my spine.

Noah squared his shoulders and lifted his chin. “I said I think Kayla might be my mate. In fact, I have pretty good reason to believe it.”

“She’s my mate,” Nicholas hissed, gesturing toward my neck where—beneath a thick scarf—my fresh mating mark was still red and pulsing with a strange, tender feeling.

“You’ve marked her, yes,” Noah said as calmly as ever. “But Nicholas, you know as well as I do the power of a true fated mate bond. Nothing can cancel that out. Your own mother—”

The second Noah mentioned Nicholas’s mother, something snapped. Nicholas didn’t even hesitate.

His fist shot out, aiming straight for Noah’s face, but I reacted without thinking. “No!” I shoved forward, putting myself between them just as his fist came hurtling toward Noah.

Nicholas stopped his fist mere centimeters from my face, his knuckles trembling. He was so close to hitting me that I could feel the heat of his skin against my cheek, the raw energy vibrating off of him, and for a moment, the world seemed to narrow down to just the two of us. His chest rose and fell heavily, his breath coming in ragged pulls as he stared at me with something wild and unrestrained in his eyes.

All the while, I just stared at him, silently willing him to move that extra distance. Hit me.

Finally, his hand slowly dropped to his side, his jaw clenching as he took a step back.

Even then, I didn’t move. I couldn’t.

Nicholas’s gaze lingered on me, but just for a second. And then, without a word, something flickered through the bond. A few scattered flashes of memories that weren’t mine, but his—the guildsman he’d been talking to yesterday instead of Rebecca, the restaurant, the wedding planner, and then…

The faint sound of Grace’s voice, the dim light of the cell where he had sat with her the night before, bringing her a meal.

No other woman. No one else.

Just him, alone, doing what he always did. Carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

I blinked, startled by the realization. The truth of it settled somewhere deep in my chest, curling up in the quiet space where doubt had been living for far too long.

Nicholas hadn’t lied to me this morning. Not once.

I reached up slowly, brushing my fingers against the mate mark on my neck, feeling the faint hum that always lingered beneath my skin. It felt… warmer now. Softer, somehow. Not hot and electric like it had when he’d used it against me yesterday, but… tender. Soothing. Like a pleasant hum.

Nicholas was already turning to leave, his shoulders tense and his hands curling into fists at his sides. “Just stay away from her, Noah,” he said, his voice cold and detached. “And I won’t warn you again.”

Noah didn’t respond. He just watched silently as Nicholas stalked away, his footsteps fading into the distance.

For a long moment, I stood there in stunned silence in the alleyway, my hand still pressed to the mark on my neck, my heart thudding in my chest like a drum.

“Kayla,” Noah said quietly, pulling me back to the present. I turned to him, exhaling slowly. “I meant what I said.”

I forced a weak smile, but it didn’t quite reach my eyes. “I know you did.”

And that was the problem. I believed him. As for being fated mates… I wasn’t so sure about that. I had no way of knowing without a wolf of my own, and I didn’t know Noah well enough just yet to easily take his word for it.

But that wasn’t the main issue. It was the fact that, even if Noah was my fated mate…

I glanced down the alley where Nicholas had disappeared, and my chest twisted for reasons that I wasn’t sure if I was ready to recognize. All I knew was that I needed to face Noah now.

I took a deep breath and turned to look at him again.