Page 23 of Forbidden Moon
Charles shook his head. “I needed them somewhere else. Can you two work together or will your pack rivalry get in the way?”
Maya stiffened, but it was Garrett who answered smoothly. “We’ve got this. Give us the information and we’ll head out.”
Charles handed them a scribbled address. “They know you’re coming, but not what this is about, though I suspect they may have heard. They’re in western Connecticut, technically in Dirigo territory, but I get the sense they move a lot.”
Maya frowned. “That’s not too far from here, just a couple of hours. It’s possible they could be involved.”
“Or know something,” Charles said. “Talk to them. See what they know. I wish Caleb could go with you and see if they were involved, but Maya, you could scent if any of them were at the scene, right?”
She nodded and stood. “We can leave right now. My jeep is outside.”
She braced herself for Garrett’s argument, but he only stood and followed her outside, getting in the passenger side. Before she started the engine, she reached in the back and dragged his jacket up front.
“I brought your jacket. Thanks for lending it to me.” Her wolf protested at letting it go, but she needed to do it or she feared becoming too attached. She could already feel the bond strengthening the more time they spent together. And, if she had his jacket, his scent would settle with her, creating a stronger bond. Or maybe that was his intention?
He took it and folded it on his lap. “Thanks. I forgot how cool it gets up here at night. I’ve been working in the southern states and it’s a lot warmer there.”
She plugged the address into her GPS, then headed out of the parking lot and onto the highway. They drove in silence for several minutes, then Maya cleared her throat.
“How did your interviews go?”
Garrett paused for a long moment, as if considering what to say. “About as expected. The enforcers didn’t have much to offer beyond denying the allegations, saying they had nothing to do with it.”
She snorted. “Of course they would say that.”
He stared out the side window as if considering his next words. Or maybe he was that transfixed by the western Massachusetts scenery. Highly doubtful. “But they didn’t seem to know the new border.”
“Because it’s not the border. If they didn’t know it, it’s because that’s Dirigo territory and they weren’t supposed to be on it. Who did you speak with?” Garrett named a couple enforcers, and she grunted. “Low level soldiers. They haven’t been on this border in months. They’re northern soldiers. You need the ones assigned here. Murray, Jones, Dobson, Sanchez, Ellis. They’re the ones I run into more often than not. Have you seen them?”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “What about my cousin, Brandon?”
She flinched. “I stay away from him, as do most of my pack. He rarely runs patrols anyway. Why?”
He shrugged. “Just asking. I’ll check on those names. I was told there was a patrol switch, and that is fairly common along the border.”
“News to me. These have been the same soldiers I’ve been dealing with for the past few years. And I could swear I scented Murray and Dobson at the scene.”
* * *
Fuck. His father had lied again, if Maya could be believed. Should he believe her over his own pack? Just because she was his mate didn’t mean she was automatically right. She could be mistaken. There was no way she came across all members of his pack on a regular basis. They could easily rotate enforcers and she would not be aware of it, unless her pack spied more closely on Saranac than they implied, which meant they may have triggered this incident with an act of aggression, not that attacking pups was ever an appropriate retaliation. It could have all been a misunderstanding, though.
Or maybe it was the Tri-State pack members, now gone rogue, causing trouble between the packs.
Until they knew more, he didn’t want to speculate. But, since he had Maya as a captive audience, his wolf needed to know something. His hands were buried in his jacket, and he could smell her scent all over it. That made sense since she wore it the previous day, but it seemed more saturated than if she had just worn it for a couple of hours at the scene. Her scent was embedded in the fibers, like she had worn it for hours, and he wondered why.
Her black coffee drizzled with rum and a hint of sugar for sweetness scent twined around him, teased his senses. It triggered the mate bond, inciting the frenzy, driving his wolf mad, goading him to claim her. But the time wasn’t right, may never be right for them. Yet, she had worn his jacket, had wanted his scent near beyond the time when she needed the warmth. So, on some level, his scent soothed her.
“Are we going to talk about the bond?”
“Nope,” she shot back almost before he finished the question.
“Why not? No one is around to hear us. This is the perfect time.”
She veered the jeep off the highway suddenly to a small rest area that was little more than a pull off for tired truck drivers. There was nothing there beyond an out building with bathrooms and a few trucks whose drivers were sleeping off the long drive. She slammed the jeep into park and got out, stalking toward the forest.
Cautiously, he followed her, not sure what was going on. “Maya? Are you planning on killing me and leaving my body in the woods?”
She gave him a fake smile, all teeth and no humor. “Hilarious. No, you wanted to talk, so talk.”