Noelle led Marc through the narrow streets in her blocky car. It was old, per human standards, and comprised nearly entirely of metal that clanked and groaned with every small hole in the street. It was a much older model of the Jeep Anya drove around. Marc thought it funny that both of the twins’ mates drove Jeeps.

“Where are you taking me?” Marc grumbled.

Noelle threw him a sidelong glance that clearly said shut up. Marc wasn’t in the mood for her dominance plays and repeated his question with more force. She finally sighed and pulled the vehicle off the road.

“Just because I asked you a damn question doesn’t mean you have to pull over.”

Noelle laughed. “I didn’t pull over because you asked a question. We’re here.”

Marc’s head perked up. He peered past the glass and into the night darkness beyond. It was punctuated by small streetlights, most attached to buildings to deter would-be robbers. The world around them was paved with chipping pavement and the buildings were all leaning one way or another.

“You can’t be serious.”

“What did you expect? A nice, clean neighborhood and a mid-morning visit?” Noelle had spent more time off the Territory than Marc had. He’d been content to lose himself in the adventure of books, but Noelle had missed the outside world. She’d missed the music the most, Marc figured. He could tell from the old record player taking up much of the tiny space in her home and the way she blasted it in the dead of night.

He didn’t tell her he sometimes stayed up late to listen with her. Once he knew she was his mate, he wanted to know everything about her. Yet, he knew getting too close to the beast would be risking bloodshed, so he often learned about his mate through the music she listened to when she thought no one was looking.

He longed for her on the nights she played Fleetwood Mac. He ached to hold her on the nights she played Metallica. There had been times when mystery vinyl records had appeared on her doorstep. She’d left them on the tiny porch until she realized they weren’t going anywhere. Soon enough, Marc heard his music selections playing in the dead of night. It made him feel a little closer to the woman desperate to belong to someone else.

Sure, she’d explained why she’d been so desperate to belong to Dane, why she defied him when she realized it would never happen, but that didn’t make the ache in Marc’s chest any lesser.

“Are you getting out of the car?” Noelle snapped with her door partially open. Her hand rested on the handle as if she, too, wasn’t ready to exit the sanctuary of the jeep.

Marc saw her face highlighted by the Jeep’s interior lights. The glow of the world outside the Jeep softened the shadows and made his mate seem impossibly young. She was older than him, he suspected. The tale she wove to settle his anger definitely hinted at it, a story starting in a time when the States were still young and moving through the years as she faced the hardest times of her life.

Marc did something he knew she might resent him for. He quickly leaned forward and captured her mouth. The gear shift between them dug into his ribs, but he couldn’t care less. Her lips parted with surprise and he slipped his tongue through. She tasted better than he imagined as he flicked her tongue with his own.

She surprised him. Her fingertips touched the edge of his stubble covered jaw, gently gripping his face to hold him where he was as her teeth nipped his lower lip. Her nails raked down the front of his throat and stirred things inside of Marc that were not appropriate for the inside of the Jeep. At least, not space wise.

Then, Noelle pulled back. Her hand on his breastbone held him in place, pushing back when he pressed forward. He ached for more. His hands twitched with the need to hold her, to pull her into his body, but Marc leaned back and shoved his emotions and desires down into the well of calm he’d cultivated. He could wait, he reminded himself. He’d waited for over ten years. He could wait a bit longer.

Noelle pressed her lips together and her eyes danced along everything that was not Marc. The need made his gut clench, sharp and sudden, but he refused to act on it.

His mate was not young or inexperienced, not if that kiss was any indication. She was hardened by the world. He loved that she was his, the mate the universe saw fit to stand by him in the long years to come. He did not have to worry about the frailty of a human mate.

“Get your ass out of my car,” she snapped before sliding out and disappearing into the night.

“Are you ever going to be nice to anyone in your life?”

“I’m nice to Liana and Miri,” she countered as he slid out of the passenger seat.

He snorted. “You weren’t very nice to Liana when she first arrived and Miri is a child. I’d hope you would be nice to a child.”

Noelle shrugged, just a dark shape in the night. “People earn respect through their actions. Liana earned it when she defeated the dragon that killed Miri’s family.”

“And, what about me? Will I ever earn your respect?”

Noelle opened her mouth to reply then snapped it shut again. She turned to face the path ahead of them, taking a long moment before she spoke. “You’ve always had my respect.”

Marc cast a sidelong glance at his mate. Perhaps he had earned her respect. She’d never treated him with the ire she’d shown much of the rest of their family. Instead, her words held much of the playfulness that Luc’s pranks often did. They might end disastrously, but they were always meant in jest.

Marc could only laugh at the idea that he was mated to the female version of his brother. It wasn’t that they were similar in the kind of people they were, but that they filled the world with sound if only so that they couldn’t hear the roaring silence in their own ears. They joked and teased those around them, those they loved, in ways that weren’t easy to understand at first. Noelle’s words might have been rough, but they were always said with humor.

Without thinking, Marc’s hand reached out and grasped Noelle’s. It was small and nearly fragile feeling in his grip. He’d never tell her that, of course. Instead, he gripped it so that she might not escape his touch just yet. It seemed as if, maybe, she didn’t want to escape it yet.

 

***

 

Noelle let Marc hold her hand in the night. It was such a small gesture. No one would notice under the guise of the night.

Yet, she didn’t understand her desire to hide this small token of affection. What was she so afraid of? She’d spent years trying to become another dragon’s mate and when she found her own, she wanted to deny it. She hadn’t even loved Dane.

What was wrong with her?

She didn’t deserve Marc. That was one thing she knew. Noelle knew what she was, a reality she’d been trying to come to terms with since she entered the American Territory family. She was not brave or selfless. She was selfish and weak. She’d failed her little sister. She’d failed her family.

Would she fail Marc in his mission to get his mother back? Perhaps she should get him the ID and let him go on with his life. Maybe it would be smarter for her to stay home while he did what he had to do.

She shook her head to dispel the doubt clinging to her mind. This was not the time nor the place for such thoughts. Her mind was still racing from the unexpected kiss inside the Jeep. It had made her stomach tight, made her desire things she had not experienced for a very long time. There was no need for men in her life when she had more important things to do, like look for her sister and seize leadership of her family.

Noelle raked a hand through her short, black hair. Her life up until that moment seemed so at odds with who she was. She’d been trying to do things that were clearly out of her reach. Mary was gone. Dane would never be hers. The family would never follow her.

Noelle spent a large amount of time off the Territory with the ID she bought from the man they were about to visit, because she knew many of the dragons in the family feared her or despised her. She didn’t blame them after keeping them at a sharp-clawed, hand’s length away. She would have kept it that way if the bond between her and Marc hadn’t revealed itself.

Now, she found herself holding the hand of another person she could very well lose. How would she be able to come back from that? Noelle sucked in a breath and told herself to buck up. She couldn’t risk losing Marc, even if her heart wasn’t sure about him. She wouldn’t let him walk into the facility alone and fail him.

“Ready?” she asked, trying to hide the shakiness of her voice.

This wasn’t the Noelle she knew herself to be. The Noelle she wanted to be was fearless and steadfast. But, the grip on Marc’s hand felt so tenuous, like he might slip away at any moment.

“Lead the way, master of the things best done under the guise of night,” Marc said as he bowed dramatically low.

Noelle patted the back of his head as she passed and the humor of the action made her feel a little more like herself. When they returned to the Territory, she would put a record on and blast the volume so loud the walls shook. Then, if she was lucky, she would forget the uneasy emotions stirring inside of her.

The narrow passage up the stairs was constricting. Noelle often felt trapped in the hall of rickety stairs, wondering if her dragon form would be able to push through the brick walls around her. It made her want to take the stairs two at a time, but she knew the top of the stairs would be worse.

The stale air smelled of chemicals, the kind nobody should ingest. The smell permeated everything and she often wondered how Norman dealt with it. It made her want to call Dane and haul the dragon’s ass back to the Territory, but they’d come to a deal. He wouldn’t tell anyone about her fake ID and she wouldn’t tell Dane there was a dragon living off the Territory.

Noelle paused at the top of the stairs. She hadn’t thought this through. Glancing back, she remembered that Marc was one of Dane’s righthand men. Norman would know with one glance who he was. Would he help them if he thought she was selling him out to Dane? It made her stomach tight with worry.

“What is it?” Marc asked, his breath tight like he, too, was trying hard not to breathe too deep.

She shifted from foot to foot. “The guy inside… he’s a dragon. The guy is a bit off his rocker and enjoys some pretty heavy drugs. I get free documents from him, but in exchange I’ve promised never to tell Dane about his existence.”

Marc opened his mouth, a question on the tip of his tongue, before he worked out the answer for himself. “Because Dane would march up here and throw the man into his own rehab on the Territory, right?”

Noelle nodded. They both knew Dane wanted to save the world. It was part of what made him such a good leader. He wanted the best for each and every dragon under his protection, even if it hurt himself. That was what set him apart from the council the nomadic dragons followed.

Before either of them could come up with a good lie or find a way to hide Marc until it was absolutely necessary, the door behind Noelle whipped open. The dragon in the doorway was impossibly thin. He looked like a rock musician from the early seventies, the drugs eating away at him until it looked as though there was nearly a necromantic power sustaining him. His slim cut, black jeans clung low on his narrow hips and his button-down t-shirt hung open to reveal each and every rib bone he possessed beneath his thin skin.

The man’s eyes briefly touched upon Noelle before skipping over to Marc. His mouth flung wide, his eyes accusatory toward Noelle before the door slammed shut once more. Noelle’s shoulders dropped. The only good thing about Norman’s drug problem was that it made her much stronger than he was.

She gripped the door handle and gave one hard shove. The solid wood door didn’t break, but the molding around the door frame splintered and the door gave way. Together, Noelle and Marc stepped into the apartment. It was nearly empty. There was a small couch that might have come off the side of a street somewhere with a turned over bucket as a coffee table. In the corner of the place, there was a desk and a gray sheet hanging, suspended from the wall as a back drop for the camera before it.

“Get out of my life,” Norman howled from somewhere inside the apartment.

Noelle sighed. If he was high, they weren’t getting any work done from him tonight. “I’m not turning you over. Not today.”

There was a moment of silence. Then a metallic crash filled the apartment. Noelle shared a glance with Marc before he rolled his eyes and sauntered toward the narrow kitchen. Marc disappeared through the doorway and more metallic clanking sounded before he reappeared with Norman in his hands.

The thin dragon man glared at her with absolute hatred. Noelle bared her teeth to remind him who was the stronger beast in the room. She hadn’t seen Norman’s beast, but she was sure it had been affected by the cocktails he injected into his veins.

“We need false identification, Norm. That’s all.”

The man’s glare didn’t let up. He wouldn’t believe a word she said. There was no getting through to him. He was a paranoid creature, be it because of the drugs or his own personality, Noelle wasn’t sure. He’d spent much of his time with her, spouting theories about the missing dragons all across the country. It seemed he hadn’t been far off after the recent turn of events.

“Don’t you already have one?” Norm spat at her.

She nodded, trying to have patience. It was not something Noelle was known for. She would have rather thrown Norm into the wall than listen to him, but, she knew Marc wouldn’t like her methods too much.

“I need a new identity. So does he. We’re breaking into a Guardian facility to rescue a captured dragon.”

Norm’s eyes grew wide. The threat stored in his muscles dissipated and his shoulders sank a little bit. “Why didn’t you say so?”

Noelle swallowed the string of obscenities she wanted to let out and motioned for Marc to drop the weasel of a dragon. Norm quickly scampered over to the desk in the corner and began opening and slamming drawers. Noelle never asked how Norman had become one of the best document forgers in the states. The man had lots of time on his hands, she guessed. He could have been doing it for as long as she’d been alive.

Norm ducked under his desk and came up with a box of hair ribbons and bows, his eyes meeting hers with a sheen of mirth over them. “You’re going to have to soften that image of yours, little lady, if GOE is ever going to see you as an innocent young thing.”

Marc glanced over at his mate, his lips pressed shut to keep his laughter to himself. Noelle glanced down into the box in question and found a number of headbands, bows, and ribbons in a variety of colors.

The annoying thing was that Norman was right. Noelle’s casual resting bitch face gave her the air of authority that wouldn’t be questioned, but if she wanted people to speak freely around her, she had to look like a fresh faced child. The bows in the box weren’t appealing in the least. Noelle feared that if she wore one in the ID photo, she’d have to wear them during her time in the facility.

Instead, she reached in and plucked out a wide headband. It pushed her angled haircut away from her face and made her look a century younger. Marc could no longer contain his laughter. She could hear his quiet snickering behind his hand and shot him a glare.

He smiled and it diffused the fire she felt until she found herself smiling in turn. How had that happened? Noelle wrapped herself in the heat of anger, an iron shield against the world around her. In one moment, Marc had torn it down and left her bare. Noelle’s lips flattened and she turned toward the task at hand.

Having a mate was confusing. Could she no longer be herself? Did she have to turn into a new person to fit into this bond? If that was how this worked, Noelle wasn’t sure she wanted anything to do with it. She was happy with the shield she’d erected around herself, but as she snuck another glance at Marc, she wondered if she would be just as happy if she let him behind that shield.

“Sit your booty down, little lady,” Norman cried out into the apartment.

Noelle raised an eyebrow in challenge. Norman only smiled, knowing he could get away with it as long as she needed something from him. He might have already guessed that Marc wouldn’t let her rough him up, either. Marc was Dane’s friend and Dane was known for being a bit softer than most dragon leaders.

Noelle snarled at him as she walked past on her way to the rickety stool in front of the gray sheet. It wobbled beneath her for a moment, but she found her balance and looked up into the lens of the camera.

“Try to smile like a real person for once in your life,” Norman suggested.

His words only earned him another snarl. Marc chimed in behind the annoying dragon man, reminding her why they were there. Noelle had to suck in a deep breath and found a thrum of a guitar chord humming through her mind. It made her spine straighten and her shoulders loosen until she found a true smile touching her lips.

Her eyes drifted away from the camera and found Marc’s like she’d been pulled there. Her smile widened right before a flash blinded her. As the flash slowly faded from her view, she found Marc watching her with a similar smile.

She lingered on the rickety stool, wondering what her sister would think of Marc. Of course, Mary would have found him handsome. She found most of the male species handsome. Would Mary have seen the fire in the fire-less dragon man? Would she see the burning desire to rescue the world? She wished her sister was there to whisper to her late at night, to listen to her reveal her own fears and desires.

Maybe then, Noelle could straighten out the mess inside of her into something reasonable. Maybe then, she could allow herself to let go of the anger she used like a shield. But, Mary wasn’t here. Her sister was gone and Noelle hadn’t been able to protect her.

“Earth to the little lady.” Norman snapped his bony fingers in front of her face.

“Do it again and I will snap them for you,” she warned.

Norman shrugged.

“What are you even on tonight?” She asked, trying to see into his eyes as if that would reveal what cocktail he’d consumed. How long did the drugs last in a dragon’s body? Was he constantly pumping the chemicals into his veins, or did it somehow react differently for dragons?

Norman shook his head. “Grounded as can be tonight. Just feels a bit nice to have fellows you can trust in your presence, what with all the GOE predicaments going on around us. I know they aren’t about to snatch me up with you two here.”

“Then why did you run from us in the first place?” Noelle asked with exasperation.

“More importantly,” Marc interceded. “Why not just move onto the Territory?”

Norman straightened and looked back at the dragon man behind him, Noelle couldn’t see the look on Norman’s face, but she heard the tone of his voice.

“And become part of the mass target? No thank you. I’ve see how your bunch likes to poke the hornet’s nest and I’m not about that life. Been there, done that.”

Noelle froze. Had she heard him correctly? Marc was faster than she was, though. He caught on to what Norman had just confessed.

“You were caught by GOE, weren’t you.” More of a statement than a question, it hit the nail on the head. Marc closed the space between him and the desk.

Norman paused, his eyes far away as he looked down at the desk. He seemed to travel back in time, to a place filled with darkness and pain if the lines around his eyes and mouth were any indication.

Norman’s head suddenly snapped upward and his irritating smile was back in place. “No time to look into the past,” he said as he fell back into the façade of the jovial druggie. “Got to look out for myself from here on out.”

Marc didn’t look happy with Norman’s answer, but Noelle felt something stirring inside of her. She launched herself off the stool. Why hadn’t she thought to ask this of any of the nomadic dragons that came to the Territory? Why was she just now possessed by this question? Perhaps it was the way Norman still had a bit of his mind to himself. Perhaps it was the irritating relationship they’d built where she didn’t really hate him or his humorous jabs as much as she pretended to.

Noelle launched herself at the desk, gripping the edge of it with both hands until her knuckles were white. “Did you see a dragon that looked like me there? Was there a female gold dragon anywhere in your facility?”

Norman’s brows shot upward with surprise. This was the most emotion Noelle had ever shown the dragon man that hadn’t been anger. He studied her face for a long moment before shaking his head.

“I wish I could tell you,” he said, his voice low. “In all honesty, I went and fried my brain on purpose. Who wants to walk around this earth with that kind of past in their memory? I certainly didn’t. If there was another dragon like yourself on the premises, I wouldn’t even remember.”

Noelle stifled her growl of frustration. She had a new purpose now. When she returned to the Territory, she’d hunt down some of the nomadic dragons and pellet them with questions. Why hadn’t she thought of this before? There were new doors open for her and her search for Mary.

Her eyes slid toward Marc. Soon, they’d be entering a GOE facility. As they worked under their false names, they wouldn’t be able to go back to the Territory. They couldn’t risk being seen leaving a GOE facility and entering the dragon Territory. It would raise all sorts of red flags.

How soon would they be going undercover? How much time did she have to ask about her sister? Noelle sucked in a deep breath and tried to settle herself. She was suddenly anxious to run back to the Territory, but she had to remind herself that she’d spent the past decades searching. Using the next few days to rescue Lucia Avila was more important.

That’s what she had to tell herself.