Page 30 of Her Fake Mate

I would slam on the gas and speed away, but this is Oakwood, not L.A. I crawl at an appropriate speed to the stop sign, where I keep going straight. I drive until I hit the town limits. I turn on the gravel road that leads to our little set of cabins. I make it almost the whole way home, and then I pull over.

Finally, I let out the tears that have been swimming in my eyes since I left.

I cry. Not a little cry, either. Big, racking sobs. I shake. This is an ugly cry, and I know it.

I’m sure when Terra cries, it’s pretty. Dainty, maybe. Elegant, definitely.

Not me.

This is a nightmare. And it’s my nightmare.

I have nothing to blow my nose with in this car. I do my best to fix myself up, but I can’t see, I can barely breathe, and my head is pounding.

This was the point, Mia.

I wanted this. I signed up for it, even if I didn’t exactly plan for it. The vision was that the foxes would be more accepted in the pack, and Zander would get Terra. I could have sworn when I met her that she wasn’t interested in him. That she was hung up on whoever Zander had given her a weird look about. She hadn’t been interested in him.

I guess she changed her mind.

Well. Mission accomplished. Cue the aircraft carriers and the parade.

Now, I just need to…

I freeze.

Need to what?

I have nothing else to do. I’m a farmer with no farm. I’m a fox with no parents, a shifter with no family, only a hodgepodge of traumatized children and elders who barely made it out alive. All I have is that stupid appeal.

Unless…

My fingers tighten on the steering wheel.

It’s a seven-hour drive to New Mexico. Seven hours and forty-five minutes to where there’s a safe, buried underground, containing water rights for a property that’s as ancient as the pueblos around it.

I would be stealing the Oakwood pack’s car to do it.

Not stealing. I’d bring it back, of course. With a certain set of documents inside.

I look down at my clothes. I should probably get something a little more… appropriate before I go.

I put the car in drive and pull out into the road again.

The leash has nothing. We just needed a place to go. We just needed a place to stay.

But with my plan? We’ll finally have a home.

Chapter 8

Zander

When I finally make it up to the fox cabins, it’s late afternoon. Idly, I wonder if I should have offered to get the kids from school. I hope that I don’t miss Mia on the road, but I don’t see anyone coming down the gravel when I come up, so she’s probably still there.

I’m so excited to see her again, I feel a little… buzzy. Like there’s a nervous jitter in my legs. My skin feels itchy. I want to run with her again, through the woods. She’s such a beautiful fox. As with most shifters, she’s bigger than the animal would be on its own, but her coat was luscious looking—a thick, copper red that’s only a shade lighter than her hair.

Her little fox smile is so perfect for her personality.

That same settled, sure feeling comes over me. There’s no doubt in my mind that this woman is the woman I want to be my mate. I just wish my parents could meet her.

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