“It’s Pruitt now, and they’re out on a walk,” I reply with a nod, but don’t turn to face Noah. I can’t look at his face without wanting to punch it in. He knew this whole time that my mate was alive, and he never said anything. He was the officer that used to drive me home when I would get caught drinking and vandalizing shit when I was a teenager. He knew and understood why I was acting out, but he never said a word.
“She isn’t going to handle this well.” He comes to a stop next to me. From the corner of my eye, I see he is still dressed in his police chief uniform.
Noah isn’t short by any means, but I still have a couple inches on the pack beta. I stand even taller when I turn to look at him. “Pru will be fine.” I scowl at him.
“I’m not talking about your mate. I’m talking about Addison. She’s sacrificed her life to protect Grey—I mean Pruitt. And Addison feels like she’s failing her by getting sick.” Noah reaches up and scratches the side of his face. His auburn beard is starting to gray, just like his hair. “She doesn’t want to leave her.”
“No one is ever really ready to die,” I snap at him. “People talk a big game about being at peace with death, but it’s bullshit. If they had a choice, they would choose life over death every time. People just say that so the ones they leave behind feel better about losing a loved one. It sucks when things out of your control make choices for you, doesn’t it?”
“You want to do this before the girls get back, or would you like to wait for an audience?” Noah calmly asks as he removes his aviator sunglasses and places them on a coffee table.
“Now works for me,” I growl. Last night Pru had stopped me from going after Noah, but no one is here to stop me now.
“Alright.” Noah nods once and turns to face me straight on.
“You knew she was alive, and you kept it a secret from the pack, from me,” I start, deciding to begin with words instead of fists. “You saw how much I struggled after losing her, and you never said anything. I left my home, and the pack, my family, and you never said anything. How could you sit back and watch me fall apart when you could have fixed it with one simple conversation? She could have come back years ago, and we could have protected her, but you never gave us that option. You made the decision for all of us!” I roar at him.
“Have you ever once stepped back and thought about how this affected everyone else? Noah asks. “Or were you just busy thinking about yourself? You are so caught up in how having Grey taken away affected you and your life.” Noah’s voice is stern, but he doesn’t yell. He never yells. “How about you take a second to think about how this affected everyone else? Grey’s memories were erased, and her wolf was bound, maybe forever. Addison gave up her entire life to take care of her dead friend’s child. Your parents had to watch you self-destruct for years before you left. Every time I had to call them after you got in trouble with the law, they thought I was calling to tell them I found you dead somewhere. Your siblings, who love you very much, by the way, had to walk on eggshells around you their whole childhood because anything could set you off. And then after you left and didn’t keep in touch, they thought many times you had been killed.”
“But she was my mate!” I shout at him, shoving him in the chest.
“You’re not the only one who lost the person they loved that day!” Noah shoves me back, something I was not expecting. Nor was I expecting his announcement.
“You loved Genevieve?” I ask, dumbfounded.
Noah doesn’t say anything for almost a full minute. “No. I was in love with Addison.” he finally admits. “I am in love with Addison.”
“But she’s human,” I say, stating the obvious.
“No shit.” He rolls his eyes at me. “Doesn’t change the fact I’ve been in love with her for years. She was secretly in Montana to visit Genevieve, and I found them drunk on wine in a bar a couple towns over. It was a total coincidence I was even there. And the second her eyes met mine across the bar, I was a goner. But I suppose you know what that’s like…”
Human and shifter relationships aren’t unheard of. It’s just they never last. They can be deeply in love with each other, but it will never be enough for the shifter. A shifter needs their mate, and since shifters can’t mate with humans, the relationship eventually falls apart. Also, Shifters are only fertile after they have gone through the mating ceremony with their mate, and they have been bonded. That means a human and shifter could never start a family together.
“Noah, you know that relationship never would have worked, right?”
“Deep down, I know, but I still wonder if we could have been together.” Noah is notoriously private, the fact he’s being so open with me now shocks me.
“What if your true mate had come along while you were with Addison? Trust me, there is no denying the pull of your true mate.” I shake my head. “You would have had to leave Addison and the life you built with her. Even if you still loved her, you would love your true mate more.”
“Trust me, I know all of this, but I still can’t help how I felt, how I feel now,” Noah explains. “I wish we were able to mate outside of our species.”
“There would be fewer rogues if that was an option,” I offer. “The birthrate would rise too, I assume.”
“It would be interesting to see
