The first time she saw his black eyes gleam with almost confused amusement. The way she felt when he watched her, the way she watched for him each night. The way her heart had shattered when she feared he had been lost to her.
"I love you," she whispered, and felt the tears that burned in her eyes. "Oh God, Noble, please don't be lying to me about this 'belonging' to you stuff, because I love you."
He jerked against her again, causing her breath to catch as the barb caressed nerve endings rarely subjected to touch. Miniexplosions cascaded through her, little releases that rocked her to the core. There should never be pleasure like this. Pleasure like this was addictive, it could become necessary.
"Mine," he growled at her ear then. "Always mine, Haley. My heart, my love, my soul." And that was more than love, and why she hadn't known what had been staring her in the face for the past year.
"Mine," she whispered back.
More than love.
Chapter 10
"Aww, how sweet." The menacing drawl had Noble tensing as he pulled away from Haley, the air of danger, of death, filling the room as he turned his head and snarled.
Alaiya Jennings was propped against the doorway between the living room and kitchen. She wore her black breed mission uniform, which she had obviously not turned in when Jonas revoked her position as Enforcer. The utility-and-weapons belt was strapped to her hips and secured to her thigh. She was dressed to kill. And he knew, she intended to kill Haley. As well as him.
Noble felt Haley's nails pierce his side, felt the fear that began to flow through her, and the anger. She turned her head and stared at the breed watching them.
Smiling, Alaiya lifted a cookie and bit into it while she held the imposing, snub-barreled high-powered rifle she carried in one arm.
"The cookies are really good." She lifted her brows.
"Such a shame. Not many people can make good homemade cookies anymore. And now we're going to lose another fine homemaker." She clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Pity."
"How did you manage to get into the house?" he snarled.
Noble eased up until he was sitting in front of Haley, watching the barrel of the powerful short rifle carefully. He knew the mark of that weapon, though it had only been seen rarely. When explosives didn't work, Uriel always found a way in, and the hole that gun made was not something men survived.
"Now, Noble, that would be revealing trade secrets. Assassins never do that."
"Uriel," he muttered, disgust filling his tone.
Alaiya smiled.
"Are my men still alive?"
"Alive. Sleeping, but alive. I'm not a total monster, you know. Jason wouldn't have died if he hadn't seen me." Her giggle was maniacal. The girlish sound scraped across Noble's nerve endings and lifted the hairs at the back of his neck. "Oh and your security system." She waved her hand negligently. "So trite Noble. Did you think any professional assassin would have missed the buried cameras? Really, darling. I thought you better than that."
He was better than that. The cameras inside the house were still working, and the moment another heat signature had been detected, the information would have been sent to Sanctuary.
The cavalry would be coming, but it could be too late if he wasn't careful.
"You're not saying anything." Alaiya frowned as Noble felt Haley's forehead press against his shoulder.
"You should be congratulating me on how I managed to outsmart you."
"Yeah, congrats," he muttered, and she giggled again.
Noble could feel Haley behind him, shuddering. Fear was whipping through her, but not panic. She wasn't breaking down on him, she was sitting strong, staying behind him, not distracting him. And son of a bitch, he felt a gun press against his back. Where the hell had she come up with a weapon?
"What do you want me to say, Alaiya?" he asked her, keeping his hands in sight as he watched her. "We knew it was a breed, we just weren't certain who."
"Poor Jonas." She sighed. "He's been racing around Sanctuary, trying so hard to figure out who it is. I even helped him a time or two." Amusement gleamed in her brown eyes. "That was so funny. I, of course, played the distraught mateless mate. Very irritated, very saddened that I had lost Mercury to that bitch Rio. He never guessed, of course, that he was being played."
"He'll figure it out," Noble asserted. "Did you figure out who your mate is?" Supposedly, she had believed another breed, Mercury, was her mate weeks before. She stared back at him blandly then. "I've always known who my mate was. The act was merely that, an act to throw Jonas and his enforcers off-balance. To allay suspicion, it was much easier to walk into Sanctuary demanding a mate."
He felt Haley whisper I love you against his back.