Page 1 of Shattered Mates

Prologue

River

Sitting in Maciah’s office, my stomach churns. It’s been nearly a month since the fight in South Carolina. A month of pain and suffering and having no clue what the hell is going on.

Finding out Jules is my mate was like winning the lottery and getting kicked in the balls at the same time. My wolf had howled with joy, but I’d known better.

My joy did not mean that I was ready to claim her, my inner beast snaps at me.

Yes, I’m well aware.

Still, I’ve yet to match his excitement.

Jules is young—too young. And waiting? It’s painful. I know with time it will get easier, but my heart and my mind want two different things and the war between them isn’t fun.

Maciah enters the office I’ve been waiting in, and my tension only rises. He hasn’t said much to me in the passing weeks. His only request has been for me to remain unseen by as many as possible. Until he asked me to come to Portland.

“River.” He takes a seat across from me. “Sorry to keep you waiting. How are things?”

“Fine,” I reply sharply. Being alone hasn’t helped my mood either.

The vampire leans forward, resting his arms on his desk, his muddy red eyes locked on me. “You’re full of shit, but I suspected as much. Your situation isn’t ideal, but I have something that might help.”

While Maciah is my boss, he’s also family to me. I try to keep the two separate, but some days are harder than others.

“What’s that?” I ask, hopeful that he hasn’t just been pushing me out. A wolf forced to be away from their mate isn’t often a sane one for long—even when it’s the right thing to do.

He slides a small vial of purple liquid toward me that rolls across the desk until I catch it. “And this would be?”

“Something for you and your wolf,” he says with a frown. “And a requirement for your next job.”

That instantly has me on alert and setting the vial back on the desk as if it might burn through my skin.

“What job?” I ask. While I knew I was likely coming here for an assignment, I don’t like his tone and I don’t like that he’s requiring me to take something.

Maciah sits back in his chair, then slides toward his filing cabinet where he pulls out a folder. He returns, handing the papers inside to me.

“We learned something a few weeks ago, but we had to be sure it was true,” he says as I look at a few interviews from Astor’s men who we’d captured. “Nobody saw you in that hallway with Jules except the man she killed.”

Son of a bitch.

“You want me to go back undercover.” The words are like acid on my tongue, tearing down my throat and intensifying the now turbulent churning of my guts.

He nods just once. “But not like before.”

A part of me doesn’t want to ask any other questions. No, that part wants to tuck tail and run as quickly back to East Texas as I can, but that isn’t who I am.

I became a protector not because I thought it would be fun, but because this is who I am. I save people and I enjoy it. I just might need to remind myself of that more often.

Maciah continues when I don’t reply. “If you do this—which I hope you will—you’re going to be cut off from everyone, River. You’ll no longer have a phone that anyone other than me has access to. You’ll be forced to give up who you are, and I can’t tell you for how long. It’s a sacrifice I truly hate to ask of you, but you’re the only one I trust for this, and you’re in the perfect position to do so.”

As he speaks, my eyes focus on the papers in my hands. Four different interrogations, all of them pointing fingers at me. Making me out to be the bad guy that Astor quickly favored and who got shit done, making them all assume that I was more involved than I was.

Apparently, I did my job a little too well. I can’t be too disappointed in that, considering it saved Jules’ life and so many others’. Yet, it’s also nothing I’m proud of.

“River, talk to me,” Maciah says as I continue to read the words over and over again. “You don’t have to do this.”

My eyes finally look up at my uncle. “But I do.”

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