Mind Mates (Pull of the Moon Book 2) by Mary Hughes Page A

was followed by stomps that rang across the pavement. “I expected you an hour ago. My beta won’t let me go after my own wife because he says you will be here to take care of it. He says it’s safer for her for you to take care of it. So I wait…and wait…and wait for you to take care of it. ” Noah stalked up on the passenger side of the car and glared in. “I am fucking done with waiting.”
    “I can see that.” Gabriel quirked an eyebrow. “Don’t set your fur on fire. I have out of state plates. As a ticket-bait car, I had to drive under the speed limit. We came as quickly as we could.”
    “We…?” Noah’s golden eyes twitched to Emma. “Singer!” He roared her name—and lunged for her as if he’d tear out her throat.
    Emma cringed instinctively toward Gabriel.
    His strong arms instantly circled her, surprisingly solid and heavy with muscle. She burrowed into his sheltering warmth, away from Noah’s rage. Why was it aimed at her? She’d never done him harm. She’d only met him a couple times before she’d gone to Michigan, before he’d become alpha. He always struck her as a nice, composed guy before this, the kind to certainly take action if she reported Bruiser’s abuse.
    As she cringed in Gabriel’s arms, sure she was about to be torn into meat, she thought maybe now wasn’t the best time to mention a rival alpha and his harem.
    “How dare you show up here?” Noah’s growl had a rip of feral wolf in it.
    Surprisingly, the growl and the heat of his anger bounced off the bulwark of Gabriel’s arms. Though Noah’s gales could blow and buffet, she was safe in her alpha nerd’s embrace.
    “What is wrong with you, Blackwood?” Gabriel’s voice rumbled against her back.
    “She…she…” Noah smacked a hand on the car door. “Damn it, the reason my wife is locked up is that bitch! ”
    “If you ever call Emma that again,” Gabriel said in a cold, deadly tone she’d never heard before, “I will personally gut you. Understand?”
    There was a stunned silence. She peeked out of her shelter to see Noah reared back from the car, eyebrows practically to his hairline with shock.
    “What is it to you?” he asked finally.
    “Emma is mine… my employee, that is. Besides that, she’s a fine woman deserving of respect. Whatever terrible thing you think she did, I’m sure she didn’t. And even if she had, I will not have her threatened. Understand? ”
    “I understand,” Noah snapped. “But she’s the one who betrayed Sophia to the Wit—”
    “Don’t,” Gabriel said.
    “Witches’ Council,” Noah finished.
    Gabriel’s arms twitched as if he were wincing.
    “It’s okay,” Emma said. “I figured it out.” She’d have pulled away to see his face, but she liked being pillowed against the hard mounds of his chest too much. “You’re a witch too, aren’t you?”
    “Buttered fucktoast,” he muttered. “You’re so damned smart.”
    “It’s no big deal.” Wolves knew about magic and witches. “You could’ve told me—”
    “Doesn’t matter,” Noah snarled. “I want her punished for her atrocity. Hand her over.”
    “No.” Gabriel used what she recognized as his ultra-reasonable dealing-with-assholes tone. “Where’s your proof?”
    “The Council Enforcer,” Noah sputtered. “The shithead who locked my wife away. He said so.”
    “You went to see him?”
    “No! I was tired of getting shunted to your voicemail so I sent Mason. My beta reported the information.”
    “The Enforcer said Emma’s name?”
    “As good as. He said it was a pack wolf who hadn’t yet sworn fealty to me. I’d already figured out it was a wolf working out of town. Her. ” He pointed, the V of his dark brows underlining the accusation.
    “No way. Not Emma. Dozens of wolves left the pack to find work when Scauth was still alpha. It could be any of them.”
    If anything, Noah’s scowl darkened. “Except most came back for the wedding and swore the binding oath then. Only three