Nix held tight.
“I’m going to work on not hiding us in public.”
The smile that earned him was worth a million dollars.
Apparently Aric and the others from earlier had already spread the word, which was fine by Nix. Saved them both from having to repeat themselves. As they sat at a table with Blue, Kalen, and Kalen’s mate, Mackenzie, Nix steeled himself to endure the congrats and backslaps, which weren’t long in coming. But he didn’t know what to say when several people showed curiosity about why he and Noah hadn’t officially mated.
Glancing over, he caught Noah turning his head away, cheeks flushed, and realized that his sweet mate was upset. Noah apparently didn’t think the teasing was any funnier than he did, but he got the distinct impression he was upset with Nix, not their friends.
Jesus Christ, this mate shit was complicated!
They put a brave face on it, getting through their meal. Once, Nix noted that Noah and Blue had their heads together whispering about something. Nix caught the words “practice tomorrow,” and shrugged it off for the time being. Not that he wasn’t curious, but whatever it was, he knew the prince and Noah were just friends. Noah wouldn’t lie to him about that.
“How’s Leonidis?” Noah asked Mackenzie. In addition to being Kalen’s mate, she was one of the doctors who worked with Melina.
Nix couldn’t care less if the tiger had fallen off the face of the earth. But his mate was a gentle soul, and clearly a better man than himself.
“He’s fine,” Mac reassured Noah. “When he attacked you, he’d just woken up and was confused and terrified. He didn’t know where he was, and he feels awful about what happened. At some point, he wants to apologize to you.”
“Over my stone-cold-dead fucking body,” Nix spat. Everyone around them froze, and he calmly went back to his meal.
Noah shot him a glare before returning his attention to Mac. “We’ll discuss that later.”
“Sure thing.”
Finally Nix could see that Noah’s head was drooping and he was just pushing his food around.
“You’ve had a big day,” Nix said, patting Noah’s thigh. “Let’s get you to bed.”
That earned him a few snickers, but thankfully no comments. Nix just rolled his eyes, helped Noah from his seat, and they were on their way back to his quarters.
“That was some caveman impression back there.”
“Do you expect me to apologize?”
“No. But I’m going to let Leo apologize, because that will be important to his recovery and mental well-being. He already has enough to deal with, and he doesn’t need me on his conscience, too.”
He had a point. Nix, however, wasn’t ready to concede it, so he dropped the subject.
His baby was so tired, there was no fooling around that night. As he pulled Noah into his arms, though, he knew he was a lucky man.
There would be plenty of loving going on, soon as the sun came up.
5
Noah loved his morning wake-ups courtesy of a certain sexy wolf.
One thing for sure that he definitely had no cause to complain about—Nix was a very dedicated, voracious lover.
The man wanted him on every surface, in every position. Something or somewhere new each day. They’d been back to their stream a couple of times in the week during Noah’s recovery, and had even done the dirty in one of the stairwells in the main building—and had nearly been caught by Nick Westfall. Noah was sure the man knew what they’d been doing, and blushed every time he saw the imposing commander.
This morning, Nix was dragging him along, up the same stairwell past the scene of the earlier crime. “Where are we going? There’s nothing up here.”
“Oh, but there is.”
“What?”
“The roof.”