Page 30 of Targeted By Love
“That wouldn’t teach him shit. He does what he wants, when he wants, with no care about anyone or anything. He’ll be dead long before he ever tries to change.”
He studied me for a long moment. “So tell me—you and my brother, you’re mates. Did you always know it was him?”
Talk about a change in direction.
“Know? Maybe not, because I didn’t understand this world. But I always loved your brother. Back then, we were just young and foolish. I guess we didn’t realize what we had could be real.” First love wasn’t forever love. That wasn’t how it worked. At least that was what I’d been told my entire life by people, media, and literature.
“It’s not like that,” he said, scratching his chin. “He wasn’t old enough yet. He wasn’t ready to mate. We don’t sense our true mates until about 25. You don’t want three-year-olds on the playground finding their mates. That’s a whole lot of pressure for a young kid, to know who they are going to one day mate and make a life with. Being young is hard enough.”
I thought about it for a second. “Yeah, that would be kind of… ewww.”
“Exactly. You both needed to grow up, and look how that worked out. You’re happy. He’s happy. And you both might have someone trying to kill you because my brother didn’t carry out the hit.”
“I for sure do.” I was going under the assumption he was teasing and not that he thought that was a tick in the plus column.
“Details,” he said with a grin. Yeah, he was trying to lighten the mood, and I appreciated it. “You any good at chess?”
I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. Thiago was a good guy, and I had a feeling even if we’d met in a very different situation, we’d have felt a connection. Not a love match, but a friendship, for sure. “No, I’m not good at chess.”
“How about Old Maid?”
“Old Maid, I can do.” Probably. I’d played it as a kid, and it couldn’t be that difficult to remember the rules.
He walked over to a shelf to grab the cards, but his phone rang. He looked down at it and frowned. “I gotta take this. I’m starving. You?”
The phone went off again. Shouldn’t he be answering it? I nodded that I was hungry, nervous he would miss the call and it might be Maynard. “I’ll make something.”
“Be right back.”
“Okay.” I headed for the kitchen, thinking about Maynard, trying to hold on to the feeling of when our bond first snapped together.
I went from a vision of my naked mate all sweaty and happy to a sharp pain shooting through my arm and my world fading to black. I struggled, trying to get away, to break free from the darkness and the person whose hands were on me, but it was no use, I was fading too quickly.
Fuck.
16
MAYNARD
“Maynard!”
Alpha didn’t scare me. Yeah, he could hurt me real bad if he chose, but if he asked me to do something, I did it. I was pack, he was the boss. Whether a shifter pack, mafia, or a shifter mafia organization that blended in with the pack, Alpha’s word was law.
Our Crescent Moon shifter council members sat on one side of the conference table while the Alphas from the other shifter mafia organizations sat opposite them. Alpha was at one end. There were no welcoming glances and the tension was tangible, I could almost see it shimmering in the air.
Boaz stood at the back of the room. He couldn’t extend me any favors, not that I expected it.
I bobbed my head at Alpha before lifting my head high and strode to the other end of the table, my spine straight, though my belly was revolting.
I sensed many of them were about to take their fur, skin, feathers, or scales. My wolf was primed for a battle. But hecouldn’t take them all on; besides, there were bears, lions, and a dragon present.
Bah, dragons. Flying lizards.
Shush. If we’d been anywhere else, meeting under different circumstances, I would have reminded my beast that shifters were inclusive and didn’t discriminate.
“Speak, Maynard.”
I didn’t want to admit to my extracurricular activities. Not even Alpha was aware, as Boaz had summarized the situation, without giving specifics.