“Isn’t that risky? Someone’s bound to notice, right?”
“Not at all. Our pups will have to adapt to humans to survive in the world. We have several humans in the pack, like Buddy. I’ve heard of human-wolf bond mates in other packs as well.” Debra gave him a knowing smile. “So don’t feel alone. You’re not.”
Wait! What? Noah stopped. Debra kept going. Uncle Ed nearly ran into Noah. “What are you talking about?”
Aunt Debra glanced back over her shoulder, eyes wide, and slapped a hand over her mouth. Maybe she hadn’t intended to say so much. Finally, she shook her head and sighed. “Your bond with Slade. Don’t think the whole pack hasn’t noticed. Two men. Oh, the times they are a-changing.”
Ed clapped a vise grip on Noah’s shoulder, spinning him around. “Bonded? Did you bond? With a human? Humans killed my pack. My family. Your family. How could you possibly bond with one?” Those were the most words he’d ever spoken in Noah’s presence.
What the hell? “First, Slade isn’t like other humans. Second, if we bonded, it was an accident.” Bonded? What the hell did that even mean?
“Did he trick you?” Anger? From mild-mannered Uncle Ed?
“Now, dear,” Debra started.
“Don’t ‘dear’ me. Humans killed his entire family except for you and me. They’d kill us too if we let them.” Spittle flew from Ed’s mouth. “Don’t you remember what happened?”
Noah backed up. Ed kept his hand clamped tight. “Do you have any idea how many in this pack lost loved ones to humans? If not for Sheriff Mac, they’d have killed the bastard by now.”
“What?” Everyone Noah met seemed to like Slade.
Then again, whenever Slade sat among the pack, Mac was there, or Buddy, or Sam. Coincidence?
While Noah loved having family again, Slade was his friend. More than a friend. Noah got into his uncle’s face, glaring down from a two-inch height difference. “Slade rescued me. Promised he’d help me find a pack. A promise he kept.”
“Led the hunters to us, you mean,” Ed muttered.
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Now, Ed, you’ve gone far enough!” Debra put herself between Ed and Noah, turning her back on her mate. “There are a handful of antihuman wolves, so don’t believe the whole pack is against you. Hell, when me and Ed showed up, they wouldn’t have welcomed us either if not for their alpha at the time, Mac’s father.”
“You want a cub of your own so bad you’re willing to overlook our nephew bringing an enemy into our camp,” Ed snapped.
“You were happy to see him too. Cried for days!” Debra whirled on Ed, throwing her hands into the air.
“Until I realized he’d bonded with a damned human! Like his daddy.”
“What?” Noah’s father bonded with a human? What about his mother?
“Ed, you don’t know that she led her family to the pack. Hell, they killed her mate and pups!”
“Yeah, well, maybe she wanted them dead!”
What the ever-loving fuck?
“You can’t believe that,” Debra shot back. This was so not the pleasant family outing Noah envisioned over breakfast.
Ed’s face purpled. “I can believe anything out of a fucking Pri—”
“Shut up! Right this minute!” Debra snarled at her husband. Ed snarled back. Their teeth elongated, fur sprouting over their skin.
Noah ran.
A half mile later, Noah stopped at a stream. No sounds of his aunt and uncle. Should he go back? Find his way to the road and flag down a ride? If he shifted, he might be able to find his way back to the compound.
A human mother? Really? He had no memories of her, couldn’t remember his dad. If she were human, she’d be like Slade, right? Someone who loved a wolf?
He sank down by a log, ignoring the dampness seeping into the seat of his jeans. Human. His mother had been human. Had they killed her too, or was Ed telling the truth, and she’d led hunters to the pack? If so, why?