Noah sat on the edge of his inflatable bed, and though he ached everywhere, he was the only one able to sit with even reasonable comfort.
That was because of the man who had tackled him: Wade de Gottardi.
It turned out the stranger was not only a family member, but also a NightShade agent. Noah was outranked on both counts.
When the blast hit, Wade had protected him. In his wolf form, he’d huddled as best he could over Noah. Their shapes didn’t match up, and Noah still had plenty of cuts, but—unlike Christina—his ass wasn’t peppered with nicks and bruises.
The thick fur had been some help protecting Wade, too. Noah didn’t know if the other man had decided that Noah was some mewling baby who needed to be covered, or if it was just one of those heat-of-the-moment reactions. Noah was the stranger, and Wade was on home turf—at least that part made more sense now.
Still, the fur hadn’t protected the other agent enough against the kind of shrapnel coming their way. Noah had felt the hits to his skin, even through the tactical pants, and face-down in the grass, he’d realized that Wade’s instruction to run had been the correct one.
He’d felt the odd movements after the blast had finished its shock wave and figured out that the wolf on his back was sliding to one side and slowly changing. Out of respect, Noah didn’t look until Wade said, “Sorry. It’s probably not every day you get tackled by a naked man.”
Noah had started laughing. He laughed until his bones hurt. Whether it was shock or what the still unknown man who’d saved him had said, Noah couldn’t tell. Still chuckling, he’d turned his head and looked at the hazel green eyes alight with either a sense of kinship or his own hysteria. Noah played his best card in response. “I’m not against getting tackled by naked men, but I really need about three dates first. I also have to know their name.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, his laughter died. He’d probably been hit in the head harder than he’d thought. Despite being saved, he still wasn't quite confident which side the brown-haired, hazel-eyed man was on. And Noah had decided to announce which team he played for. Dumb move.
His only saving grace was that he quickly changed the subject. Once his brain had registered what he'd said, he jumped to another topic. He choked out, “Are you okay?”
The man opened his mouth, but it turned out he wasn’t okay. But they hadn’t noticed because he was laughing so hard. “This hurts.”
“Don't laugh. There’s shrapnel in your back.” He’d looked and winced immediately. There were shards, black and shiny, protruding from Wade’s naked back, changing color in the afternoon light. They looked almost like glass, the pointy ends buried deep in the back of his savior’s skin.
He didn't even know what it was. He reached out for a moment, trying to figure out if the shards should be left in place because they were stanching the blood flow or if they were poisoning the man and should be removed immediately. Noah decided to ask the person whose life was at stake if he knew about it. “Do you want me to pull them out?”
At least this time, his tone came across as serious and professional, despite the fact that they were still two grown men lying face-down in the tall grass. One of them naked.
The man shook his head. “The change to wolf should push them out.”
Noah probably looked surprised. That this man already knew that changing would push out any embedded shrapnel was concerning.
His voice pulled Noah back. “Give me a minute. We need to head in. We're not going back out in that.”
He’d pointed toward the west, the direction Noah had been headed when the blast hit. Then he moved a few feet further away, putting some grass between him and Noah. As close as he was, Noah should have heard the sounds of changing, but his ears were still ringing from the blast. And he realized it was entirely plausible that he and Wade had been shouting their entire conversation at each other.
Great, he thought. Everyone heard me tell which side I’m hitting for.
The man had changed quickly, and Noah had run his hands through the fur, checking for loose glass shards. He found a few caught in the hair, but not any still dug into the skin during these disturbingly intimate movements. He kept his thoughts professional. That was the thing about this kind of work: the foxhole mentality of war was real.
As he spent a moment checking limbs for the man, his brain had wandered back to his earlier thoughts on Will and whether wolves got arthritis, and how they might change if their joints felt like that. It might be worse with injuries everywhere, even small ones.
Eventually, he’d declared Wade okay, though they both had small cuts—some concerningly deep—in a variety of places. They’d headed back to the houses.
Though the others were grateful and glad to see Noah, everyone was thrilled to see Wade. That was his name.
Christina reached out to hug the man but backed off when she realized they were all cut up. Walter welcomed him with a smile she didn’t unpack very often—at least not that Noah had seen. She immediately told Wade that she'd had a captive but had dropped him when the blast went off.
At least Noah hadn't been cavorting with the enemy, finding out that Wade was an agent had stunned him and embarrassed him even further. So he sat on the edge of the bed now, in his corner. Walter, GJ, and Christina occupied their own respective corners, and Wade somehow holding court in the middle.
He, too, had been cleaned up. He now wore loose khaki pants and a white T-shirt with a plaid button-down over that. With the glasses added, it would have been nearly impossible to recognize him as the wolf who tackled Noah and saved him.
“Are you bunking with us?” Christina had asked. She laughed and offered him an inflatable mattress in the center of the room. Wade had given her the side eye and replied, “Why, yes, I'd love to have anyone drop down on me from the trapdoor. Maybe jump directly onto my bed while I sleep. No, thank you.”
Then he’d turned more serious. “Let’s all stay underground until we make some decisions. I’ll be back in the morning and I plan to stay with you, starting tomorrow. Tonight though, I'm bunking in with the family. I haven't been back in a while.”
Noah’s brain churned with too many possibilities. He tried to consider things as they pertained only to him, ignoring the family here and what was quickly escalating into a war. He’d signed up to track one person, and he’d just taken shrapnel.
He needed to talk to Westerfield privately. On the one hand, he was invested. He felt for the de Gottardi/Little family, and he wanted to win this war. On the other hand, maybe he should be called home.
It might be the better option for all of them.
Christina had said, “Come here, Wade,” and patted a spot on the bed next to her. She raised up on one hip, leaned onto one elbow, and sank slightly into the air mattress.
Wade joined her, sitting with one butt cheek on the edge. But it was still enough to rock her precarious position. Everyone was having a tough time. Even GJ, who’d been smart about getting aimed the right way, had not managed to avoid being shredded in spots.
Once Wade was seated and Christina had righted herself, she addressed whole group.
“Alright, I need to catch you up.” She turned first to Wade. “The big news from today is something you might not know yet. I talked with your grandfather.”
Noah could only assume that would be Will. Wonderful. Not only was Wade de Gottardi a family member, he was the grandson of their leader.
Yep, bad choices in the field, Noah, he reprimanded himself again. He needed to keep his mouth shut next time an attractive, naked man tackled him in the line of duty.
But Christina was still talking. “The army out there… Marks may be in charge of it, but he's not the top of the chain.”
GJ’s head jerked back at the announcement, but she didn’t say anything. Her expression morphed to suggest that wasn’t right, but whether it was because the news just surprised her or if she’d thought her Grandpa was the shit, Noah couldn’t tell.
“You want to take one guess who it is?” Christina looked at Wade. Wade looked around the room.
When it became clear from the looks on everyone's faces that no one else even came close to having a clue, he said, “Given that blast and the smell and the shards… I thought it was just… Honestly, that's wolf lore. I never thought I'd actually see it. If I hadn't heard the legends as a kid, I wouldn't have even known what to do.”
Noah was stunned. Wolf lore? Even Christina looked surprised at Wade’s words, and she already knew the answer.
“It sounds like Aegis.”
And that sounded like a made-up fairy tale, Noah thought, wondering if Wade was maybe a little crazy. But he was even more stunned when Christina nodded.
“That’s exactly who it is.”