Chapter 14 #2
“Has he ever bitten you?” Maverick’s voice was low. Too low.
“No, Maverick. No one has ever bitten me but you. And I’m sure you’re not a virgin, either.”
“Of course not.”
“Exactly. When was the last time you had sex?”
“Last March.”
“You answered that way too quickly.”
“Werewolves go through breeding season every March. Sex is basically unavoidable for a few days of that, after a certain age.”
My eyes widened. “A few days?”
He nodded. “Our anatomy changes. It’s the only part of the year where we’re fertile.”
“I don’t think I want more details than that.”
“Alright.”
“We should get going.”
“If you say so.” He pulled out of the gas station. We ate as we drove.
“Who did you spend breeding season with?” I asked.
“Alisa. I trust her not to develop feelings.”
She was the blonde with the mate mark who had been driving me around. I liked her, dammit.
I shouldn’t have been annoyed that I’d met the woman he fucked last March, but I kind of was. I decided I’d better not ask how many breeding seasons they had spent together.
“What happened to her mate?” I couldn’t help but ask the question. She had a mark, and it obviously wasn’t because of Maverick. It wouldn’t have scarred unless she bit him too.
“She lost him in the war. It was an epic love situation, and she doesn’t plan to take another mate at any point. Does Timber want to mate with you?”
Well, that made me feel shitty for being annoyed at her.
“He thinks it’s inevitable. He’s texted me a few times since the pictures of me and you went viral,” I admitted. Maverick had been honest with me, so I would feel bad if I lied about that.
“He what?” Maverick demanded, holding his hand out for my phone. “Show me.”
“You’re driving, I’m not—”
He pulled onto the shoulder of the road and looked at me.
The man was dead serious.
I reluctantly typed in my phone’s code, pulled up the messages, and handed it over.
Maverick scanned the messages, glaring down at the device.
Timber
Let me know when you’re done with the wolf.
I hadn’t answered.
Timber
Make sure that furry fuckball knows you belong with me.
I hadn’t answered that one, either.
Timber
Tell me if he touches you. I will get involved if I have to.
…That one, I had answered.
Me
I don’t belong to you, and if he finds out you’re texting me, he’s going to hunt you down. Just back off
Timber
The last eight years prove otherwise
I’m sure I can handle him
Timber had fought in the war, so I didn’t think the fight would be a slam dunk for Maverick, but it sounded like the wolves had continued fighting after it ended. The vampires definitely hadn’t.
And he said he had to fight in challenges, which I was starting to think meant he literally fought someone every time they wanted his throne.
Maverick reread the messages before scrolling up to all of the texts we’d sent over the past year. There hadn’t been anything intimate. Just a few messages setting up a… meeting.
I took the phone back.
“If he messages you again, tell me. Immediately.” Maverick’s voice was low. “I won’t sit here while that fucker tries to seduce you. If he tries it again, he’s dead.”
“Calling me his is hardly seductive.”
Maverick pulled back onto the road, his fingers tight on the steering wheel. “Like hell it isn’t.”
I silently blocked his number so there was no way for him to try to “seduce” me again. I didn’t want to get one of the few remaining vampires in Vast killed.
I changed the subject, hoping to ease the sudden tension. “You never told me why you think Cassidy is killing people in the investment company.”
Yeah, I was doing a really good job at investigating the murder.
“There are a lot of reasons. Mainly, we’re having issues with our security footage, and one of her guys is probably the only person who could be behind it.
Plus, her pack stumbled into some financial issues a few months ago.
They made some bad investments, and they didn’t have as much of a cushion as we do.
Mating with me would be an easy way for them to get around those problems.”
“She would get your money?” I lifted an eyebrow.
“Yup. A pack merge would ensure it, and mates are partners in every way. The mental connection between a mated pair is too intense for there to be any other option.”
That would probably encourage a lot more than just one woman to try to mate with him. “I bet you could have your pick in trophy wives.”
“If I wanted a trophy wife, I would have been mated a long time ago.”
“Were you ranked high in the war?”
“Too high.”
I grimaced.
I didn’t think I wanted more details than that.
“If you and I mated, do you know if that mental connection thing would happen?” I asked. “Not that I’m interested.”
He chuckled. “I do know, and it would. The mate bond would patch you in fully, as if you were any other wolf. My blood would be the only thing that could sustain you, the same way it would if you were to mate with another vampire, too.”
“How do you know?”
“This isn’t the first time fate paired a wolf and a vampire.”
He’d said that before. I just hadn’t asked for details.
I wanted to ask, but it looked like we were only a few minutes away, and I knew I should try to get more information about the potential murderer out of him, for the sake of my failing plan.
“The money thing could be a reason for anyone to want to mate with you, but it doesn’t make sense that they’d try to make that happen by targeting your investment firm. If they were going to mate with you, wouldn’t they want you to have as much money as possible?”
He nodded. “Unless they thought blackmail was their best bet at getting to me. Which would make sense for her, since nothing else has succeeded.”
“Do all of your ideas depend on everyone thinking you’re a big enough catch to murder a few humans in an attempt to mate with you?”
“I am the werewolf king.”
“It would take money to pay a vampire assassin,” I said. “A lot of it. No one in Vast City would want to wreck our reputation even more, so they would’ve had to bring someone in from out of town or convince someone to turn a human to make a temporary assassin.”
“Turning humans was outlawed everywhere when the war ended.” Maverick turned onto a dirt road. “We haven’t found any evidence suggesting anyone in particular, so right now, we’re just guessing.”
“I don’t think you should admit that.”
“Probably not. The alternative is to wait until they come after you, though, which is obviously unacceptable to me.”
“You’re the one who wanted me to be bait, Mav.”
“That was Rhone. And it took a fuck ton of convincing. If he was anyone else, I would’ve killed him for even suggesting it,” Maverick said bluntly.
“If the killer is someone in the office, they probably won’t come after me. The vampire thing complicates it, but everyone likes me overall.”
We passed a few ranch-style houses, and Cassidy’s pack officially had my full attention.
I could definitely see the appeal of rural living. Everything was so quiet and calm. I’d probably get bored at some point, but it would be fun to try.
“There’s one more reason we suspect Cassidy,” Maverick admitted, his focus on the dirt road even though it seemed like he’d been down it at least a few times before. “It was part of the reason I didn’t mate with her.”
“What is it?”
“It’s… complicated.”
I waited.
One minute passed.
Two.
Three.
Four.
We continued flying past houses. They grew closer together as we went.
“If you want me to pretend I’m claiming you as my mate while we poke around this lady’s pack, I think I deserve to have all of the information.”
He nodded, but didn’t explain.
“Maverick,” I pushed.
“I’m trying to figure out how to phrase it without hurting you.”
My forehead creased. What could it possibly be? “I don’t understand. Did she birth your baby or something? You and I aren’t actually together, so I don’t—”
“Nothing like that, Bloom. She hates vampires. She’s the reason the war started in the first place.” He let out a long breath. “She wanted me because I was really fucking good at killing them, and she hates that my pack and I ended the war without wiping the last of you out.”
I went still. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
I should’ve guessed that.
I tried not to let it freak me out. Maverick obviously didn’t want me dead, and the war had been over for a really long time. “So she could be targeting you just by making vampires look like murderers again.”
He nodded. “There’s a vampire in my pack. The humans don’t know, but she does.”
“How is there a vampire in your pack?”
“He’s mated to my Omega. Nolan. His name is Oren.
They got together during the war. It was a big part of the reason I took down the Alpha I replaced.
” He glanced over at me. “I don’t hate vampires.
They were out of control with turning humans, but the war was a lot worse than it needed to be.
It should’ve ended decades earlier than it did. ”
I nodded slowly. “So if Cassidy didn’t want you dead for having a vampire in your pack, she’s going to want to kill both of us now that the world knows I’m your soulmate.”
“Probably.”
“And she really might be the murderer.”
“We’ll know by the time we leave.”
That was good.
Unfortunately, Harper was officially right about my badass plan.
There was no way I was solving this murder on my own. I didn’t know anywhere near enough about werewolf society to figure it out.
My best bet at finding the killer so I could pin Steven’s death on them, was probably going to be playing along with Maverick’s plan.
I was going to have to put on my acting hat and pretend I was claiming Maverick like a wolf.
Yay.