Page 22 of Her Fake Mate

Yeah. You’re in trouble now.

“What’s happening here?” Zander asks in his deepest voice.

One of the other enforcers, a woman named Kate, nods at them. “Caught them about five seconds before the human cops showed up.”

“Doing what?” I demand as each kid’s respective parents arrive to collect them. Another enforcer unclicks the cuffs, the smell of silver making my nose itch.

They used silver cuffs. On my brother.

“Graffiti. There’s a building with some new art,” the first enforcer says with heavy sarcasm.

“We’ll take it from here, Kate,” Zander rumbles. Kate unlocks Josh’s cuffs. He glares at Zander but shrivels as Zander cuts him a pretty nasty glare right back.

Part of me wants to jump between them. Smooth the situation over, so there’s no conflict.

But Josh had handcuffs on. I never want to see that again.

I put my hand on his shoulder, and I’m about to lead him away when one of the wolves’ father steps in front of us. “They said it was the fox’s fault.”

“Excuse me?”

“My son.” He waves at a very smug looking juvenile wolf. “He said it was the fox who told them to do it.”

“No, I didn’t,” Josh says.

“Whatever. Don’t lie,” the teen wolf snarls.

“My son would never do anything like this,” the wolf dad says in a too-loud voice.

“Dave. We don’t know what happened. I’m sure none of these kids were thinking right,” Zander snarls.

The wolf dad’s eyes flash. “Oh, just because you’re sleeping with one of them, you’re on their side?”

Zander moves.

He puffs up to his full height, and energy seems to crackle around his shoulders. “You’re questioning me, David?”

A low rumble emanates from his chest.

The other wolf looks away. “No,” he says sullenly.

“Evander and I will do an investigation. We’ll figure out what happened, and then the appropriate pack laws will be applied. To all of the offenders,” Zander says firmly.

The wolf father shoots me a dirty glare, then walks away.

Everyone dissipates, leaving Josh, Zander, and me.

Zander looks at Josh. “Let’s go.”

“Just because you’re dating my sister doesn’t make you my dad,” Josh says, pouting.

“No,” Zander says calmly. “It doesn’t. But I’ve dealt with shithead teenage wolves for a long time. I’m not trying to be anyone’s dad. I am trying to make sure that your actions don’t reflect poorly on your sister and the kids who count on both of you,” he adds.

Josh has the good sense to look a little chastised.

“Let’s go. We can talk later,” Zander says.

With one last pout, Josh gets in Zander’s truck. I follow.

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