10. Nolan

Chapter 10

Nolan

S omething is wrong. I know it before I get home. The air feels… wrong. I swear I can hear the leaves rustling on plants as I walk by.

Something is absolutely not fucking right.

I’m sprinting by the time I see my front door. I practically pull it off the hinges trying to get inside.

“Coral?” I yell as soon as I’m there.

I’m expecting to hear her voice drifting from the bedroom. From the garden. From the greenhouse. From the yard.

There’s nothing except silence. Silence that makes my nerves stand on edge.

“Coral?” I call again. This time, it’s desperate.

Panic is clawing at my throat. Where the hell is she? Where?—

A butterfly catches my eye. It drifts in from the outside, landing on a piece of paper on the dining room table.

It’s a note. From Coral. She went to the cottage, to get some things…

The shaking of leaves confirms what I’ve been thinking. The fucking plants are trying to warn me: Coral is in trouble.

I don’t hesitate. I shift, the power achingly hard to access, but I manage it. It’s slow. So much slower than it should be. I don’t care, though. I have to find her.

The run to Coral’s meadow takes too long. With every footprint, every heartbeat, I’m thinking of all the terrible things that could happen to her. She’s powerful. She could probably defend herself. But I don’t know that she’d think about it fast enough—and I don’t think she’d put her plants in harm’s way. She’s good, in a way that few things are good these days.

If she’s hurt, I’m never going to fucking forgive myself.

Just outside of the meadow, I see three shapes moving around her cottage. The wind shifts, and I smell them. Two shifters. A lion and a bear.

And Coral.

Rage blinds me. I can’t see clearly. I have laser-like focus on the two hulking shapes that are hunched over her while she scurries around, grabbing things and putting them into a bag.

I go for the lion first. He’s smaller, and he might go down faster. Since they’re both in human form and I have the element of surprise, I might be able to get the jump on him.

Springing from the shadows, I grab him by the throat. I feel the arteries in his neck pop under my teeth, but just to be sure, I shake his neck as hard as I can. The feeling of it snapping, and of the lion turning into a ragdoll in my teeth, is the most satisfying thing I’ve ever felt in my life.

“Nolan!” Coral yells. “Watch out!”

The fucking bear.

I duck, but I’m not fast enough. A massive paw hits me in the side, knocking the air from my lungs. I yelp, then everything goes silent for a minute as the ground rushes up to meet me.

“Nolan!” Coral screams. “No!”

The bear looms. I see one huge paw, arched above me…

Something hits me. Like fucking lightning.

Suddenly, power rushes through me. Power like I’ve absolutely never experienced before. I feel invincible, like I can feel every single blade of fucking grass around me, and I can almost sense the bear moving before he does.

It’s fucking great.

I spring up, snarling. The bear roars and lumbers toward me, but with my senses so sharp, it doesn’t fucking matter. I rush him. He snaps at me, his massive paws batting at me, but I dart away. He’s huge. I’m big, and I know right now if I can just get my jaws on him, I can?—

Roots shoot up out of the ground. They grab the bear, who lets out a roar of frustration, crashing to the dirt. The roots net over him, pulling him down. Holding him there. Right where I want him.

I leap forward again, pinching my jaws against the back of his neck. I bite down. Hard.

Beneath all the fur and gristle, the bear’s neck snaps clean in half.

Blood dripping off of my teeth, I stagger back. I’m panting, breathing hard, but not nearly as hard as I should be.

The power is fucking incredible. It’s swamping me, swarming around me. I swear I can see little green threads of energy, weaving around me, making a net, pulling me toward…

Coral .

Looking over at her, I almost collapse with shock.

Coral is glowing.

She looks like she’s on fire. Her skin radiates a warm, golden light, and her blue eyes are electric. They’re wide with shock.

“Nolan… what…” she says.

I can feel her confusion. I can feel it. Holy hell.

“They might come back,” she whispers. “There’s more. A whole bunch of them. He said that they would murder everyone in Oakwood if I didn’t come. He said they would kill everyone just like they did in Seattle…” Her eyes squeeze shut.

Pain lances through me like a hot iron. I kneel, hoping Coral will understand what I’m asking. Get on my back, baby.

She blinks, rotating her head like she… heard me.

Dropping the bag, Coral climbs on my back.

Hold on, I urge her.

When she answers, murmuring her agreement into my fur, triumph surges through me.

Coral is my fated mate. The person meant for me. Which means she’s mine.

Forever.

When we get to the alpha’s house, I gently let Coral down from my back. I shift, the magic so easy, it feels like I’m just stepping from one form into the next.

I grab Coral’s hand. “We need to tell Thorne.”

She nods. I’ll tell her about being my mate when we do.

Banging on the door of his house, I start yelling. “Thorne! Come out! Now!”

Sleepily, Thorne opens the door. “You better have a fucking good reason?—”

“There’s a pack of lions out in the woods,” Coral blurts. “They tried to take me, to force me to work for them. They say I’m a princess, and I’m not sure if that’s true, but they also said that they would kill everyone in Oakwood if I didn’t go with them.”

Princess?

Thorne blinks. “What?”

“You have to go now. Nolan killed two of them, but the rest are coming…”

Thorne growls, grabbing his phone. He dials and snaps an order to Evander, then looks over at me. “Stay here.”

I nod.

He shifts, sprinting into the forest. Howling, strong and eerie, follows. Then, there’s silence.

On the alpha’s porch, I sit. Coral walks to the side shed, where extra clothes are kept in every shifter’s house, and brings me back some pants. I pull them on and hold out my arms. Coral comes forward, and I hold her close, tugging her into my lap.

“Princess?” I murmur against her ear.

She shrugs. “It’s a thing. Faeries have kind of a hierarchy. Like bees. Actually, our communities are called hives. Some of us are more powerful than others, but I don’t know if I’m a princess.”

“Would your parents have been royal?”

“No. Like bees. It’s kind of just… something that happens. You’re either a royal faerie or you’re not, and you don’t really have a choice in the matter.”

“So you could be a princess?”

Coral wrinkles her nose. “In theory. But I’d have to talk to more faeries to know.”

“Do you want to?”

She looks up at me. “I’m not sure. Not really. The only thing I want, honestly, is you.”

I tuck her close, kissing her on the head. The sound of howling drifts over to me. It sounds like it’s going well.

“Do you know what it means, if someone is your fated mate?”

Coral pulls away, studying me. “Is that what that huge burst of magic was?”

“Would you be worried if it was?”

Her smile is tentative, like moonlight. “No. I wouldn’t be worried. In fact, I think I’d?—”

I stop because I hear footsteps.

“Nolan,” Thorne snaps. He’s back, panting, his fingers on a radio that can loop around his neck. He dashes to the side of the house, grabbing some pants out of the locker, before coming back to us.

I hold onto Coral. Tightly.

The radio crackles in his hand. I hear Evander’s voice, barking an update. It sounds like the lions in the woods weren’t prepared for a counterattack, and they’re not taking the chance to fight back.

Thorne listens, then nods. He looks over at us. “We’re all hands on deck. You were right, there’s a pride of fucking lions in the woods. What?—”

“Nolan is my fated mate,” Coral announces.

Thorne goes still.

“I think you can probably sense it. But I wanted to let you know. And I appreciate you all helping me, but I can… I don’t know. Run them over with some trees, if I have to,” she says. There’s a little tremble in her voice, though, that tells both Thorne and me that she’s not nearly ready to do that.

Thorne stares at us for a minute longer. “Congratulations,” he grunts.

“Thank you.”

“We can come help. We can?—”

Thorne shakes his head. “You’re part of the pack, Coral. The pack protects itself. Stay here. With your mate. The lions are running now, and we’ll handle any further attacks after that tomorrow.”

Coral goes a little limp. “Thank you,” she whispers.

“No need. You’re pack. Go home. We’ll talk in the morning,” Thorne says before he shifts.

I watch him run away, then stand with Coral in my arms. “Do you want to go home?”

“Yes, please.”

“Okay. Just hold on. I’ll take you home.”

“Nolan?”

I pause, looking down at her.

Coral moves slightly, pressing a kiss on my lips. “I’m glad it’s you.”

When I kiss her back, I’m saying the same thing, echoing through our connection like a megaphone.

I’m glad it’s you, too.