“Goodnight, Lily.”
Within a few moments, her breathing had evened out and he knew she’d slipped into slumber. He thought he would follow quickly, but though he was tired, his body worn out and his eyes heavy, sleep eluded him as his mind went in circles.
He kept bouncing back and forth between the memory and the past hour with Lily. His lion was driving him nuts, because when he thought about the memory, he became agitated, then when he thought about Lily, the cat calmed. Going from one extreme to the other was wearing on him.
Giving into his memory, too tired to fight it, he frowned into the darkness. It felt like there was something there, on the edge of it, that he was missing. He just couldn’t figure out what it was. Something about the way he’d been in hysterics when he chanted chance.
But he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what the fuck it meant.
Give it time. She’s unlocking you, his lion said, his pacing frantic as he reacted to the memory.
Noah’s frown deepened. Unlocking me? What do you mean?
You’ve kept everything buried. And it’s locked me up, too. But soon. Soon, you’ll know.
What the hell are you talking about? he demanded.
But his lion stubbornly refused to say more. What he said didn’t make sense, though. Noah hadn’t buried anything. For what felt like his whole life—especially considering he only had memories going back to age eight—he’d been trying to remember his past.
The dream he had that night was the first memory to surface.
Huffing a frustrated breath, he winced as his cat shredded his chest. Thinking about it wasn’t giving him any answers and only seemed to make everything worse. The ache inside him and the missing piece were almost overwhelming him.
Lily snuffled softly, turning her face into his shoulder, bringing him back to the present. And as soon as he started focusing on her, the ache eased and his cat calmed.
He’d been right when he told Tarun that he didn’t think the missing piece was his mate. It clearly wasn’t, because he had his mate in his arms, and it was still present. But there was no denying that she made it a million times better.
Like he’d told Lily, he felt like he had control over himself again. He hadn’t felt like that since before Brandon died, and he was in
credibly grateful to her for that. He felt like he owed her so much—for giving him his control back, for being so amazing about what he was, for just being herself—and, if she let him, he’d spend the rest of his life loving her so well and so hard that maybe, he’d feel like he repaid just a little of what he owed.
Guilt brushed him as he thought briefly of Brandon, but it was just a small amount compared to what he used to feel. He was starting to heal, just like Lily was, and he was beginning to think it was an amazing gift that they were doing their healing together.
It seemed that even in death, Brandon was giving them one last gift. He’d brought Noah and Lily together, and he wasn’t sure how she felt, but to him, there was absolutely no greater gift in the world.
Chapter Eleven
Lily studied Damara closely as she, Dmitri, and Liam walked into Lily and Noah’s hotel room. For some reason, knowing the other two men were shifters didn’t phase her, but knowing Damara was one fascinated her.
Damara looked at her, a knowing smirk on her face. “You figured it out, didn’t you?”
Flushing because she’d clearly been too obvious, she shrugged with a laugh. “Yesterday.”
Damara laughed. “That didn’t take you long at all.”
“And what made you assume that I didn’t tell her?” Noah asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Because I know you. And it didn’t take me long around her to realize she was an extremely intelligent woman.”
“All right, enough chit chat for now,” Liam growled, causing Lily’s head to whip toward him. He had a thick Irish accent, and she hadn’t realized he wasn’t American. “Fill us in on what you know.”
As Noah told them what they’d figured out, she opened her laptop and quickly pulled up the screenshots. Turning it around on the bed, she waited as Noah told them about the website she hacked into.
When everyone glanced her way, she pointed to the computer. “I took screenshots of the website before I backed out and wiped the traces of my search away. This is it, as well as pictures of the women being auctioned off, their ID numbers, and descriptions.”
The other three crowded around as Damara clicked through the pictures, her face going from curious to pissed off as she went. “Blake told us what was going on, but it’s different when you see the pictures and realize these are real women being held hostage and sold off to scum bags.”
“We’ll get the fucker,” Liam growled. “Don’t doubt that. If not today, then at some point, we’ll get him, and everyone else involved in this.”