by V. Vaughn
I need something good to sway him. Some way to prove I’m supposed to be a werebear and need Max to change me. It occurs to me that true mates are arranged by destiny. Fated mates. Surely, if they believe in that, then werebear must think other things are destined to be. All I need is a reason destiny sent me to Max; one that makes him think I’m here for something much bigger than the strong pairing he and Audrey, both as alphas, would have. I grin when an idea comes to me. What if I’ve been sent to save a clan from the evil of the Eradicators?
Eight
Audrey
Eggs sizzle when I drop them on the browned butter in a frying pan. Max is standing beside me and he squashes avocado with a fork onto toast for us. I got in late from Madison’s party last night, and since his light wasn’t on in his room, I went to bed instead of inviting trouble by entering his room after a few drinks.
But it doesn’t take alcohol to make me feel the way I do right now. His scent can’t be covered by the aroma of eggs cooking, and it’s making desire smolder in me. I glance over at him and notice his nostrils flare. A low rumble of a growl starts in Max’s chest before he tries to cover it up with a cough. I move to reach for the pepper grinder in front of him, and he catches my waist with his hand. “I’d have gotten that for you.”
His fingers linger on my skin for a moment as I turn to look up at him and see passion in his eyes. I’m finding it hard to breathe, and when his gaze lands on my mouth he inhales sharply.
We’re in dangerous territory and I’d really like to tell my alpha side to shut up, but it manages to take over. As much as I want to, I can’t jump up on the counter and have my way with him until he declares I’m his true mate. I slide away from Max and try to focus on the eggs as I take a deep breath to clear my head. I say, “Madison confirmed she’s Josie’s roommate. She said she’s worried that Josie feels like she’s abandoned her because of Trent.”
Max blows out a whoosh of air before he lets his alpha side take over too. “Think we have a problem there?”
“I’ve told Reese about it, and since he has Josie’s phone, I’m sure he’ll take care of it.”
“Good,” he says. “What did you think of her?”
“She’s either really good at being a spy, or she’s really the happy cheerleader type who will be a super mom, finding joy in her children’s accomplishments.”
Max looks at me with a smile. “No evil glint in her eye?”
“No, just the true-mate love sparkle whenever she spoke about or caught sight of Trent.”
A knife thuds softly on the cutting board as he slices a tomato. “Maybe she’s having second thoughts about being a spy now that she’s bonded to her true mate.”
“Ah, well, that’s the thing.” I plop two of the fried eggs onto toast that is topped with avocado and tomato slices. “I don’t think they’ve bonded yet. I didn’t see any telltale scars.” Even though werebear heal quickly, the true-mate-bonding bite leaves a scar that never completely fades. It’s a way to be marked for everyone to know you’re taken as well as to seal your fate together.
“It probably doesn’t matter. I can’t imagine that would make it any easier to betray or even kill your mate.” Max takes his plate and moves to the table to eat.
“Probably not,” I say as I move the pan off the stove and bring my breakfast over to the table to eat with Max. “My gut says Madison is exactly who she appears to be. She even seems to have a bit of a girl crush on me for being an alpha. She was quite curious about it, but her questions had to do with what it’s like to grow up as royalty so to speak. She didn’t ask about greater powers or even how an alpha rules a clan. It was very much fan-girl stuff.”
“Nice,” Max grins at me. “Always good for the ego to have a fan girl.”
I chuckle. “What about Josie?”
Max shrugs while chewing a mouthful of food. Once he swallows it down, he says, “She’s tougher to read. She got really defensive when I started to ask questions about her sneaking onto Le Roux land.” He takes a sip of coffee. “Maybe it’s my attraction to her, but she convinced me she went to extremes to see her true mate again. Josie said your sisters slammed the door on her and that she didn’t believe they would have told me she’d stopped by.”
I smile about the way the twins tried to protect me. “You would have found out if she hadn’t snuck back onto our land, but I can see why Josie might not think so.”
“She also said she’s unhappy being a prisoner here.”
“Huh,” I scoff before catching myself. Even though I know Josie’s accommodations are hardly like a prison cell, I’m also jaded when it comes to her. I change my expression to what I hope looks like concern. “How so? I can’t imagine Reese would mistreat her.”
“He doesn’t. But she feels trapped. Imagine how you’d feel if your every move was being watched and you weren’t free to do anything you wanted.”
“Like a child who’ll one day be alpha?”
Max chuckles. “A little, I guess. But it’s got to be strange being forced to stay someplace where nobody is your friend.”
I hate that Max defending Josie makes me feel threatened, but I bite back my snappy retort by shoving food in my mouth so that I can find the words to respond more appropriately. “Yes. I can imagine that’s hard. She’s probably feeling on edge and wondering what her future holds if you don’t pick her. Heck, even if you do. How much does she know about being a werebear?”
“I’m not sure. She asks a lot of questions that make me think it’s not much, but—”
“She could be pumping you for information to share with the Eradicators.”
“Exactly.” Max scowls. “I’ll be careful how much I tell her.”
His expression and tone make me think he’s considering what he’s already said to Josie. “You’ve already told her too much, haven’t you?”
“Of course not,” he snaps back. “I haven’t told her anything that would make werebear vulnerable.”
I study him for a moment, wishing I could trust what he’s saying is true. But I know how strong true-mate attraction is and how it might cloud his judgement. “What did you tell her?”
Max narrows his eyes at me in anger.
“Hey. You’d ask me if the situation was reversed, and you know it.”
He nods as his expression relaxes. “Not much. I explained that you’re third in line to be alpha and that if I picked you, it wouldn’t be impossible for either one of us to find a replacement to lead our clan.”
I smile because it had to be hard for him to even suggest he might give up his clan to become a member of mine. “How diplomatic of you.”
He grins and takes a sip of his coffee.
“What else did you tell her?”
“I explained our leaders are called prime and prima and that if she wanted to be a warrior as prima she could be.”
“She does have a fierceness that would make her a good warrior, but I’m not so sure she’d be the type who could follow orders.”
“I agree with you on that, at least for right now, but something about her makes me think she wasn’t always so hard core.”
“What do you mean?”
He shakes his head. “I can’t pinpoint it, but she has a self-assurance about her that makes me think she was raised in a safe, nurturing environment.”
“Okay, so maybe something major happened to her that made her turn to the Eradicators. Does she talk about her parents?”
“Her mom passed, and she told me she didn’t grow up with a father. I’m not sure if that’s the truth.”
“Hmmm. Maybe she was thrown in foster care when her mother died, perhaps during her last few years of high school, and that’s what hardened her.”
“Maybe. It’s also entirely possible we’re grasping at straws and Josie is who she says she is.”
I realize it’s hard for both of us to be objective about Josie, but something about her bothers me, and I’m convinced it’s more than jealousy making me think so. I
wonder if Max is still feeling any trepidation too. “Is that what your gut is telling you?”
He stares at me for a moment, and I watch his casual expression turn to the steely-strong features of an alpha. “My gut is telling me we’re right to be looking at both Josie and Madison. As to which of them is an enemy? I can’t tell.”
I nod and realize we need to take our suspicions to my parents. “I think you’re right.”
Nine
Madison
The sun coming in the window of Trent’s bedroom wakes me up, and I roll over to find my mate is gone. I sit up, fully expecting the fog of a slight hangover. But I’m not even close to feeling the effects of drinking last night. I’m clear headed and as energetic as if I went to bed on time without a single drink. I smile at the wonders of being a werebear with a high tolerance for alcohol and quick healing abilities.
The scent of coffee is in the air when I get up to use the bathroom, and I peer out the window to see Trent is in the yard cleaning up from the party. Guilt fills me because I’d planned to help Livy do that today. After throwing on sweats and yanking my hair up in a messy ponytail, I jog down the stairs to find Livy washing dishes.
“Hey,” I say to get her attention, and I walk over to stand beside her so I can dry dishes.
She turns to me and smiles. “Talk about an epic party.”
I chuckle as I recall some of the shenanigans from last night. “I’m surprised the picnic table didn’t break in half when Jan and Neil got on it to dance.”
“Right? How about the ax throwing contest the two warriors had?”
A serving bowl is heavy in my hands as I laugh. I recall neighbors racing to their homes to gather their axes for what could have been a glorified event on a sports channel. The two men kept increasing the difficulty of their challenge. “I was ready for them to start throwing the axes with their teeth.”
Livy laughs with me. “They probably would have if John hadn’t shut them down.”
“Thank you for such a great party. I think everyone had a lot of fun.”
The door from the backyard opens, and John says, “I’m sure they did. We don’t have a single alcoholic drink left.”
“Ah, so that’s why people finally left,” Livy jokes.
John sets a stack of metal tubs that had been used as ice buckets down with a thud by the basement door. “Did you have a good time, Madison?”
“I did. Thank you so much for throwing a party in my honor.”
“You’re very welcome.” He smiles. “Trent’s about to make a dump run and get donuts if you want to join him.”
“Thanks. I think I will.”
When I get out to the driveway, I see Trent filling up his pickup truck with trash bags, and I grab one to add to the pile.
“Hey there,” he says before pulling me in for a kiss. “Sleep well?”
I grin as the memory of what we did before going to sleep last night flashes in my mind. “I sure did. And now I get why you’re always so chipper in the morning. I feel like I didn’t have anything to drink last night.”
“It is pretty great.” He slams the tailgate shut. “But we do get hangovers. I have no doubt a few members of the clan aren’t quite so cheery this morning.”
We both climb in the truck, and Trent backs out of the driveway. While my party was great, my happiness fades as worry for my roommate fills my head, and I pull out my phone. I noticed last night that Josie had left me a message saying she was going away with Axe. The guy was her boyfriend for a while, but she dropped him after the night she met Max in the diner. Not only is it peculiar she’d go back to Axe, but it strikes me as odd she’d go on a trip during the week and miss classes. And while it’s possible she and Axe are skipping them, I can’t shake the feeling she’s not telling me the truth.
Once Trent’s on the main road I say, “Josie says she’s going away for a few days with Axe. Does that sound fishy to you?”
“I thought she met her true mate.” He shakes his head. “I’m not sure what’s up with that girl.”
“Exactly. I can’t imagine going away with someone else after you’ve met your true mate, even if you don’t know how to find him again. Do you mind if we swing by my dorm room on the way back from the dump?” It feels like forever to me, but it’s only been a couple days since I left Josie a cinnamon roll, and it could be the clue we need to find out if she’s telling the truth. “I need to get a couple of things anyway, and we can check to see if Josie has even been in the room since the last time I was there.”
“Of course.” Trent frowns at me. “You’re really worried.”
“I am. It’s probably nothing, but I need to be sure.”
“Then we’ll go. I need to grab a few things from my room at the frat house, too.”
After we finish our trip to the dump, Trent takes me to a bakery where we get a dozen donuts with the intention of bringing some home to his parents. Jelly oozes out onto my tongue as I bite into one, and I savor how sweet the flavor is as we drive across campus to my dorm.
When I finish the donut, I say, “That tasted so amazing. I’m not sure food being this delicious is a good thing.”
“Why not?” Trent reaches in the bag between us to grab a third donut.
“I’m going to get huge!”
“I doubt it. In fact, if you don’t have a second donut, I’m going to worry that you’ll begin to lose weight with the fast metabolism werebear have.”
“And that would be bad because?”
He glances over at my chest. “Because I’d miss those.”
I laugh. He does love my breasts and takes every opportunity to touch them. “Fine.” The bag rustles as I reach in for another donut. But I don’t enjoy it the same way I did the first one because my worry for Josie is so strong. I’m glad when we finally park in the lot across from my dorm.
Once we get to my room, I spot the cinnamon roll I left for Josie, apparently untouched, and I realize I had a good reason to be concerned. I glance over at the closet where I had put her detergent on top of her dirty clothes as a strong hint for her to do laundry, and while I can’t be sure, it appears nothing has been moved since the last time I was here. I look around the room to see if anything else looks different and say, “Trent, she hasn’t been here.”
“Are you sure?” He picks up the cinnamon roll and taps the hard, stale pastry on the desk. “What a waste.”
“Right?” I joke back, but I’m not amused.
Trent doesn’t appear to be either. “So where do we think she went? It’s possible she’s been staying at Axe’s.”
I frown. “I doubt it. It doesn’t make sense at all that she’d be spending so much time with him. Maybe she took off to go find Max. But why would she lie to me about it?”
“Should we search her things for clues?”
It feels wrong to riffle through Josie’s stuff, but if she’s in trouble, her privacy is a small price to pay to try to help her. “I suppose that’s a good idea.”
For the next hour Trent and I search my room, checking under the mattresses and even searching Josie’s pockets for anything she might have hidden that could give us a clue as to who she really is or where she might be. But we don’t find anything out of the ordinary. I think about how we didn’t find her knife, and it makes me believe wherever she went, she took it with her.
I go back to her backpack and pull out the books again to make sure I didn’t miss a pocket she stored her knife in. When I open a notebook, I find blank pages, which could be explained by her using her laptop for notes. Something I don’t have the password for. But then I notice something else. “Isn’t it odd that Josie doesn’t have any papers or exams in her backpack? I wonder if she has even been to class this semester.”
“Class.” Trent grimaces. “I should study at some point today for the classes I’ve been ignoring because of us.”
“Me too,” I say, but the concern I should have for my grades can’t compare to my fears about Josie. “Trent, I think
we need to tell someone about our suspicions concerning Josie.”
“Who? We don’t have any evidence she’s a spy or an assassin besides a feeling. I’m afraid anyone we tell is going to laugh at us.”
He’s right, and I let out a heavy sigh. “I know. But you have to admit things about her seem off, and I think she’s missing.”
“Or she left, Madison.” When I glare at him for not taking me seriously, he says, “Let’s go to the frat house and see if we can find Axe. It’s possible he and Josie really did go away together, and if not, then maybe he knows where Josie could be.”
I nod and move to leave my dorm room. Dread is heavy on my chest like a lead weight, because I’m sure Josie didn’t go away with Axe. She’s lying, and while I’m afraid to find out why, I can’t let this rest. I was sent visions of Josie training on that gun range for a reason. Whatever it is, I’m not going to stop searching for the answer until I find it.
Ten
Josie
My heart is pounding against my chest as sweat stings my eyes, and the familiar sound of a jump rope scraping along the floor as my feet thud on the mat fills my ears. The exercise gives me a sense of purpose, and I’m comforted by the way Reese acts like my trainer. This is my version of normal, and I’m holding on to it as best I can to fight the panic I feel being cooped up in a place I’m not allowed to leave at will. It’s also the best way for me to think, and now that Reese confirmed they’d kill me if Max chooses Audrey, I’ve got to come up with a solid plan to save myself so I can complete my mission to help destroy the werebear race.
I glance at the huge man jumping rope across from me. Muscles along Reese’s thighs bulge with his movements. The guy is a brick wall, and while I’m not the type to fall for the dude who can be my savior, I get the appeal. I wouldn’t mind Reese throwing me over his shoulder and — I trip over my rope and stop for a moment to catch my breath.
