Page 13 of Her Fake Mate

“This is Mia,” Zander says after way too much hesitation. “She’s… we’re dating.”

“Dating?”

He nods.

Terra smiles. It’s beautiful, of course, but I realize something else as she does it.

She’s relieved.

My stomach sinks.

“That’s so good. I’m so happy for you, Zan,” she says with genuine happiness. “Sorry, Mia, Zander isn’t the best with social stuff sometimes.”

I laugh. “Yeah, that’s the truth.”

“And I’d be happy to show you some of my skincare. I actually make my own. Mom and I do. You should come by sometime, we sell it at a little stand outside of her house.”

“That would be great,” I beam.

Zander grunts. “Good to see you, Terra.”

“You too, Zander.” She drifts away, and we watch her go. When I turn to look back at Zander, he’s staring at her.

My heart thumps.

Seeing Zander like this is putting him in a whole new light. He’s not Zander the badass pack enforcer who is being forced to fake date a fox. He’s Zander, average wolf shifter. Staring after a woman who doesn’t want him. There’s no way that I’m going to be able to make her jealous, though, because she’s not interested in Zander. There is no part of her that wants to be with him.

If he doesn’t realize that…

No. It’s not my job to babysit him. He needs to figure that one out on his own.

“She’s nice,” I say cautiously.

Zander gives me a tiny nod. “Let’s check the next aisle. Hornet remover,” he reminds me.

He meanders away, and I watch him go.

Zander Black has a heart after all. And, weirdly, I think it might be a little more broken than I thought.

Even more weirdly… I think I kind of care.

Chapter 4

Zander

Hand coverings.

What the hell was I thinking?

The hornets’ nest doesn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought. It doesn’t take me that long, but I realize after that there’s a little bit of dry rot around the nest. Already.

This place was literally just put up, and there’s already dry rot.

Darn mountain weather.

So, I need to fix that, too. I tell Mia that the porch is safe for children after the hornets are gone, which leads to the prompt appearance of not one, but four small children.

I beat a hasty retreat. It’s just a lot of children.

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