“Here.” Miles looked up, just in time to catch the shirt Naomi tossed toward him.

 

Miles grinned in thanks, glad to see the Alpha after their most recent brush with death. Also, after his most recent accomplishment in werewolf-dom. He'd been able to fully shift, he was able to fight back against the mad wolf. He was immensely proud of himself.

 

“How're ya'll holding up?” Naomi mused, plopping down on the ground next to Shawn. He was propped against the opposite wall, his eyes closed as he tried to stave of his headache.

 

“Shawn got knocked pretty hard into the wall, he seems to be fine other than a possible concussion, but he's pretty aware. Bruising probably is the worst.” Miles held up his own arm, where he'd gotten bit by the Alpha in the fight. It looked a lot worse than it felt, purple and rusty red with dried blood, taking up a good chunk of his forearm, but it seemed to have healed a good amount already. That was something he was going to be extremely grateful for with the whole werewolf thing. It tickled like nothing he'd ever felt before, but not having to explain a giant chunk missing from his arm was easily worth a few hours of tingles.

 

Naomi assessed his arm and nodded, then she smiled. “You did pretty good by yourself up there. Not many newly turned werewolves could go up against a rogue and walk away with just that.”

 

Miles beamed, the praise making his chest burn with pride. He could totally do this werewolf thing. Granted... he did all of that with Shawn around... The shift wasn't on purpose either, really. He just saw Shawn get hurt and he wanted to protect him. It felt like he and the wolf wanted to avenge him at the moment so the shift just sort of took.

 

“So, where is it?” Shawn muttered, speaking for the first time since they'd hit the ground. Right, that would be good to know. He hoped it didn't go out and hurt anyone else...

 

Naomi's expression fell and she sighed, scrubbing a hand over her face. “He wasn't in the room when I got there. From the scent trail he left he shifted and left out of the front, but by the time I'd picked it up outside it had disappeared.”

 

Miles thought on it for a bit then tilted his head. “Is that possible? To make his scent just disappear?”

 

The Alpha nodded, fiddling with the charms on her necklace. “Yeah. It's a bit too much to explain right now, though.” She dropped her gaze to the ground, frowning. “What I'm curious about... why didn't he follow you two? Normally an Alpha that has gone to the lengths of climbing twenty stories to get to someone will follow through. It's an instinct at that point, to give chase to your prey. A rogue Alpha wouldn't have the mental capacity or the moral compass to care about exposing our kind.” She dropped the charms, instead opting to start chewing on her nail as she continued.

 

“Second, he went after Shawn, not you. If he'd come back for any reason I'd think it'd be to get back his claim on you, not create a new were with Shawn... It just...” She huffed, her breath blowing a bit of hair into her face. “It makes no sense. He's not like any rogue Alpha I've ever encountered.”

 

The three of them went quiet, all staring at the ground. After a couple minutes Shawn spoke up, voice small and quiet like Miles had never heard him before. “Do you think... he'll keep coming after me?”

 

Naomi looked over at Shawn, her eyes flickering over him. He looked so vulnerable, small and scared and breakable. God, Shawn was so damn fragile... if that Alpha went after him, without Naomi or Miles there... He shuddered, that feral being in his chest flaring to life in anger at the thought.

 

“Probably.” Naomi's soft voice felt like a freight train. Miles shifted, picking himself up from his spot on the wall opposite Shawn to sit beside him, placing a steady hand on Shawn's knee. The smaller man blew out an unsteady breath, looking up at Naomi as she barreled on. “I'm not going to lie to you, because giving you a false sense of security will just put you in even more danger. But... I do know a way to help, and you wouldn't even need either of us to be nearby.”

 

Shawn seemed to perk up at that. “Really?”

 

Naomi nodded. “I have a couple of connections, shamans and mages, they know every manner of self-defense against every supernatural being they know of. They could provide you with some safeguards against him.”

 

Miles listened to Shawn's pulse start to calm, the younger man blowing out a shuddering breath. “Great. When can I meet them?”

 

Naomi bit her lip. “That'd be the only issue... The one's I know nearby are tied up, the Council employs some of them to help clean up any damage left over from the rogue Alphas. I know the both of you will have to go back to your homes before they'd be available.” She glanced to Miles for a moment, like she knew her next words might upset him. “We wouldn't be able to get you any protection from him until Tuesday at the earliest.”

 

Three days from now?! “That maniac could track him down by that time, though! We can't have him unprotected that long!”

 

“Um.” Shawn shifted, his tone a little hurt. Miles realized then that he made it sound like Shawn was some sort of damsel in distress. Honestly, though, in the world they'd been thrown into... it wasn't too far from the truth.

 

Naomi held up a calming hand, shaking her head. “I have a solution. Like I said, I have my connections. I just gotta get some information before I can finalize any plans, alright?”

 

Miles shrunk back. Damn. Shut down twice in a row.

 

The Alpha turned her attention to Shawn, her calm expression settling back into place. “So, I need to know where you're going back to, when you'll be back, and if you have any allergies.” Both Miles and Shawn raised their eyebrows at the last question, and Naomi rolled her eyes. “It's important. If you have an allergy to roses then any charms with rose petals will be a no go. Can't have you in any sort of weakened state if he comes to find you.”

 

“Oh.” Shawn dropped the incredulous look and nodded. “No allergies I know of, Amityville, New York, and I should be back by eight at night tomorrow.”

 

Naomi nodded, taking down everything Shawn said into her phone. A couple seconds later she smiled, lifting her head to look at the both of them. “There's a shaman near there. She'll get some charms and wards ready, along with a couple bags of mountain ash. I'll message you the directions to her shop when she's ready. I'll make sure she shows you how they work. If you have any issues at all with her just give her a reminder about who sent you.” She shrugged when, again, they both gave her matching looks of disbelief. “She can be stubborn, and I have a reputation.”

 

Miles leaned back rubbing idly at his healing arm, fingertips brushing over his skin to ease the gentle tickling of flesh stitching back together. He couldn't stomach the thought of looking down to see what it looked like, the feeling more than enough. “So, what are we doing about... my control issues?” He dropped his eyes down to the ground as both of them set their gazes on him. “I don't know if it's going to be an issue but... I just want to make sure I don't accidentally shift in public, or on camera.”

 

Naomi's gray eyes flicked over to Shawn for a split second before she hummed. “You can borrow some of Shawn's clothes.”

 

He doesn't know about the mate thing, though! Miles cleared his throat, ready to ask Naomi for another solution, when Shawn spoke up. “That's fine. I know the scent helps...” He turned to Miles, giving a goofy grin. “Just no blood or tearing out of them.”

 

Miles nodded, trying not to show his nervousness through his responding smile. He didn't know how Shawn would feel about the whole 'mate' thing. He'd probably be cool with being a beacon of support for him, Shawn was a very good shoulder to lean on when needed. The... other part of the mate thing...

 

Miles shoved the image to the back of his brain, grimacing involuntarily. Still not a welcome image.

 

“So, what's the plan for the rest of the day?” Shawn's voice brought Miles attention back to the present, he was pouting up at the hotel, in the general direction of the destroyed room. “Maybe nothing super extravagant... it's gonna cost a leg and an arm to pay off all the damage for that.”

 

“Actually.” Naomi started, her features amused. “It's covered already. None of the human staff will know anything even happened.” She turned to both the boys, grinning in the face of the credulous expressions they wore. “I did say the council employed mages and shamans. They usually take care of damage control. I notified them of Miles' turning, so they already soundproofed both of your rooms, along with repairing any damage that takes place due to supernatural occurrences.” They continued to stare. Naomi shrugged. “They've had a lot of time to perfect hiding our existence.”

 

Miles felt a little bit like he should be offended by the gross invasion of privacy. At what point would these mages/shaman people have gotten close enough to do this? Then again, it made sense. He could only imagine how the human race would panic if they found out that giant monsters like that Alpha existed.

 

Actually... it made the fact that no one at all heard them in the alley screaming their heads off running away from him make a whole lot more sense...

 

“How about we grab a bite to eat and come back to get packed?” Shawn suggested, and Miles perked up, nodding excitedly. Food was good. Miles felt like he could eat an entire store's worth of food right now.

 

“Maybe someplace with big portions.” Naomi chuckled, watching as Miles bounded up, bouncing around like a kid in a candy store. “Miles is a growing wolf-boy, after all.”

 

Shawn snorted and Miles shrugged, leading the way down the alley as he opened the app on his phone to find someplace nearby. So, Miles was super-humanly hungry all the time, whatever. They were all just jealous of his fantastic relationship with food.