Shit.
“He was a dealer of magical artwork and artifacts. I think he resided in Mexico. I’m trying to remember what Dragan tried to steal…”
A car door slammed, and I looked up. Harlow and the others were waiting. “Thanks. I really appreciate it. Text me if you can remember his name.”
I pulled my phone down to hang up, but her voice stopped me. “I know about you and Jaxson. He told me about the mate bond.”
My breath hitched as a cold sweat dampened the back of my neck. Her words hit me in the chest harder than a bullet.
Damn you, Jaxson.
“It’s not that simple,” I whispered as I shut my eyes tight with frustration.
As if I needed one more complication in my life. If either of us did. Hell, the moment he told me about the mate bond, I’d gone into a rage, and he’d said, “Do you think I’m any happier about this than you are? Do you think I want this? Because I don’t.”
Complicatedwould be an understatement.
“I’ve seen how he looks at you. I won’t tell you what to do, but you have to realize that it’s extremely dangerous to be with him. His father—”
“His father has nothing to do with anything. Nor do you. Or the fates. You and my parents took the choice of being a wolf from me.” I clenched my phone, almost to the point of breaking the screen. “If Jaxson and I end up together, it won’t be because three crazy old crones decided it was so. It will be my choice. Just like being a wolf is my choice now, despite what the three of you did.”
My throat seized up, and I disconnected the call.
The phone rang, but I muted it. I was certain an apology was hanging on the other line, but I didn’t want to hear it.
I’d had to funnel my anger just to hang up, because although we’d only known each other a short time, I missed her voice. Like my car, she was all that I had left of my parents, and I didn’t know how to face their betrayal, or hers.
I didn’t know how to face Casey. He was the closest thing I had to a brother or a best friend, but I knew he’d never get over what I was or that I’d kept the secret from him. We might make peace, but would he ever look at me the same now that I was a wolf? Now that I was the goddamned Dockside alpha’s mate?
I swiped away the tear that slipped down my cheek.
“Everything all right?”
I jumped. Jaxson.
His broad frame was silhouetted against the lights of the station. Powerful. Composed. Whole.
Everything I wasn’t.
Just being close to him made my body buzz with anticipation, and all I wanted to do was fall into his strong arms and sob.
Instead, I growled and narrowed my eyes. “You told Laurel about our mate bond.”
“I did,” he said calmly, but his jaw tightened. “She needed to know.”
A lie. Telling Laurel had just been a way for Jaxson to hurt her. A way to stake his claim on me. Fuck that.
I jabbed my finger into his chest. “Let me set one thing straight, Jaxson. You don’t own me. Got it?”
An infuriatingly confident smile ticked up at the corner of his mouth. “I wouldn’t dare. The insurance premiums would be too high, even for me.”
My jaw dropped as shock washed over me. “You ass. You think you can make a bad joke, and this all goes away?”
“It’s my second of the night. That has to count for something.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t.”
He held out his hand. “Gas station burrito? You have to be starving.”
The aroma of it was…all right. But it was food, and my treacherous stomach grumbled, just as it had on the bridge to Magic Side when we first met.
I took it defiantly. “Yes, I’m starving. But what is it with you and burritos? You own a world-class restaurant, and it’s the only thing you have in your freezer that even resembles breakfast.”
“I thought you liked them, so I stocked up.”
I bit into the warm burrito but managed to snarl at him between bites. “I ate them because it was the only thing you had.”
He shrugged. “They remind me of working the docks as a kid. It’s what I took for lunch. Things were simpler then. Grab a burrito, go to work.”
I chewed less aggressively at him. After all we’d been through, were we really arguing about burritos? Was he just trying to distract me from the shitstorm headed our way, like he had by making me work the lunch rush at Eclipse?
No way I was going to let him manipulate me that way, either.
A horn honked, and he looked over his shoulder. “Harlow wants to roll. Are you ready?”
I swallowed the last bite of warm, bean-and-cheese-filled goodness. “My aunt disintegrated Dragan, so there aren’t any bones, except—and this is gross—his finger, which a vampire art collector cut off ages ago. So we’re probably fucked.”
Jaxson’s eyebrows went up. “An art collector?”
“That, and magic artifacts, according to my aunt. He lives in Mexico. He also would’ve had to have kept the finger, which seems like a long shot. We probably need to find another solution.” I grunted as I wadded up the used wrapper, almost wishing I had another.
Jaxson rubbed his beard. “Maybe, but it’s something. Sounds like we need someone who knows the artifact trade to figure out who he is, as well as a Seeker to find the finger. Good thing I know the perfect pair—and they owe me a pretty big favor.”
With that, he turned and headed back to Harlow’s SUV, leaving me bewildered, with my emotions a mix of fear and anger and heartbreak.
And for a moment, the slightest sliver of hope.