LOGINThank you for joining me for Noah's story! See blurb below.
Noah
I never spent much time thinking about my future mate. I simply trusted fate to send her to me when the time was right. And foolishly assumed she'd want me the way I'd want her. That's just the way fate works, right?
So when Cassandra Winters returns to Ironwood and our bond snaps into place, I couldn't be happier. I don't care that she's my Alpha's ex-girlfriend or that she already has a son. Fate chose her for me and I trust fate with the details.
Only she doesn't want me at all. She wants my Alpha. And she'd rather lie, cheat and steal to get him than accept her scent-matched mate. Once I realize that, rejecting her is easy. She's not worthy of me anyway.
When my Alpha steps down and hands the pack over to me, life finally starts to look up and I resolve to put Cassandra and the past behind me. Until the past comes back to haunt me in the form of RMS- Rejected Mate Syndrome.
They tell me I only have two options: Bond my unworthy Luna or let the disease win.
Cassandra
Banished. Exiled. Ostracised. All just fancy words to describe the truth of what I really am. A rogue.
I've made peace with it. It's no more than I deserve after what I've done. To Jaxon, To my sister. To my own mate.
Jaxon Vale was mine until fate took him from me and gave him to my sister instead. I should have accepted he was never meant to be mine and let him go. But I let jealousy consume me until all I could think about was taking him from her and making him mine again.
I lied and manipulated to get what I wanted. Hurt my sister, my fated mate, even my own son. And it cost me everything. I'd give anything to take it all back now. But I can't.
Life as a rogue is hard and it's far from safe, but I get by. I have no other choice. Until the unthinkable happens and forces me to do the one thing I swore I'd never do...
Beg him for mercy.
NoahMarco’s pack house sits at the edge of a wide valley, the kind of territory that feels settled in its bones. Liam’s got his grandfather on the ropes, beating the pants off him in a game of go fish, so I took the moment to sneak away, to head outside and breathe the fresh air. I lean against the rail and dial my phone.Jaxon picks up on the second ring.“You’re at Marco’s,” he says. “Skye texted me a few minutes ago.”“Of course she did.” I roll my eyes though I know he can’t see it. “She said it’s going well. She also said, and I’m quoting, he’s good for her and if he screws it up I’ll end him.”“That sounds like the Skye I know.”“It sounds like all of us. She made some mistakes but it’s time for all of us to move on.” Jaxon says. “Now, how about you tell me what’s been happening in your life? It’s been too long since you’ve regaled me with tales of your exploits.”I tell him. Finally. I tell him all of it: the RMS, the months of using Cassie and Piper both while lying to myself
CassandraThe gate at Ironwood looks different in the morning.I’ve seen it at dusk, with my hands white on the steering wheel and a sleeping child in the back. I’ve seen it at dawn, with cracked ribs and a guard reaching for his radio. I’ve seen it from the inside, going out through the eastern patrol exit with a man I thought I knew. I’ve never seen it like this: sun on the stone, the grass wet, nobody waiting to decide who or what I am.I stop just inside the line and I think about all the versions of myself who have crossed this threshold.The first one arrived with an end game already planned out. She knew exactly what she wanted and how she was going to get it. She felt the bond with Noah and chose to ignore it, so sure she was being clever. That version didn’t know half of what she thought she did. The second came back with nothing. Cracked ribs, a four-year-old asleep against the window, and a speech that fell apart somewhere on the road along the way. She had absolutely no pl
Cassandra “I’m so sorry.” Noah’s apology is small, soft, nothing like the beast who just unleashed his animal and claimed me over a desk.”He sweeps me into his arms, dropping reverent kisses to my cheek, my jaw, my neck, before focusing his attention on the mark he left on my shoulder. He carries me to the sofa and settles me in his lap, gently tucking my head to the side so he can keep lapping at his bite, tending to it like it’s the most precious gift in existence, and draping a blanket over us at the same time.“For what?” I’m so blissed out, each stroke of his tongue sending rolling waves of pleasure through me, that I can barely form words. The dreamlike state he has me in only adds to my genuine confusion.“For claiming you like that. Taking you like some rabid animal instead of making it the romantic moment you deserved.” He confesses, true remorse coloring his tone. “Don’t you dare apologize for that!” I bite back. “That was the most amazing moment of my life, right next to
Cassandra Noah stalks around the desk. I stand to meet him because I’m not going to be kissed sitting down, not when I need to feel every inch of him against every inch of me. I reach for him but he stops in front of me.“I’ve been wanting to do this since you walked through the door,” he says.“Which time?” I ask, playing coy.“All of them.” He growls, a deep rumble that goes straight to my core. He hauls me into his arms and kisses me like a starving man, hungry, devouring. And I let him. Of course I let him. I’ve been letting him in my bones for a year and only my pride has been saying no. His hand comes up to my jaw, careful, almost reverent, the opposite of the raw, primal claiming of his lips. And I kiss him back with everything I’ve been holding inside since I read that file. Hurt and anger, yes. But also intense longing and desperate need. And love. Always love. This isn’t the bond guiding us like a compass finding north. This is the place the compass was always pointing to
Cassandra I asked the question. I wish I could take it back, not sure I’m going to like the answer. But some driving force inside me has a desperate need to know. Now all I can do is wait for the answer. Noah doesn’t hesitate though. That’s the first thing I register, and I hold onto it, because I’ve spent my adult life watching people hesitate. The half-second where the answer is being selected. The fractional pause where the useful thing gets chosen over the true one. I’ve done it myself so many times I could map it in my sleep.He doesn’t do it. “Yes,” he answers with the confidence of a man who knows exactly what he wants. “You know how I know?” I shake my head, too stunned to form words.“Because I hated you.” He says it flatly, without cruelty, the way you state a fact you’ve examined from every side. “Properly. Completely. For months. I woke up hating you and I went to bed hating you and I built a whole system of small deliberate cruelties around it, and you took every one o
NoahCassie doesn’t cry. She doesn’t rage. I’d understand if she did. I deserve those things. Instead, she goes very still, the way I’ve seen her react when she gets bad news, or is expecting the bottom to drop out of her happiness. I’ve seen it before. I know what it looks like. Only this time, I put that look on her face.“Did you keep me here for symptom control?” she asks, her tone flat, detached.And there it is.The question I’ve been dreading since the moment she walked back into my life and I made the decision to let her stay, knowing full well how selfish it was.I hold her gaze when I answer. I don’t deserve to look away from her pain. Not this time. “At first,” I admit.Her expression doesn’t move, but I see it land.“And then?”“And then I stopped being able to tell the difference,” I shrug. “I want to give you the actual answer, not the one that sounds better.” I take a breath. “I have a document. I wrote it a few weeks ago. After that night on the porch. It’s the most h
Skye Cassandra turns, and if I didn't know better, I'd think the guilt on her face was genuine. "Skye. I'm so sorry, this must look—""What is this?" I repeat, louder now.Jaxon moves past me, his expression hard. "It's temporary. Cassandra and Liam need a place to stay until we can arrange somethi
Skye I want to believe Noah. God, I want to believe that some part of Jaxon actually cares. But I've spent three years reading meaning into empty gestures, and I can't do it anymore."The elders won't let him cast you aside," Noah continues. "You've earned their respect. More than that—you've earne
Skye The words drop into the silence like stones into still water.Jaxon's eyes narrow. "What did you just say?""You heard me." My hands are steady now, even as my heart splinters. "Whatever sick arrangement you and Cassandra have planned, count me out. I won't be part of this.""You don't mean th
Skye Of all the futures I imagined for myself, I never dreamed one day I would have to choose between my husband and my unborn child.My hand trembles as I smooth down the front of my dress—a soft blue one that Jaxon once said he liked. I've spent an hour on my appearance, wanting to look my best







