Page 32 of Her Fake Mate

He hesitates, his eyes looking down on the ground. “She was crying.”

My heart skips a beat. “What?”

“When she left. She was crying. Not in front of us, but she had been. She went to go get some stuff from the grocery store, but when she came back, she didn’t have any food, and she had been crying. I could smell it, and her eyes were all red and puffy. When she cries a lot, her face looks like shit, and it takes a long time to go back to normal,” he mutters.

I take a step forward. “Did she say why she’d been crying?”

“No. Just that she was going somewhere, and she’d be back. She said that it was really important that I knew she’d be back.”

That makes sense. She wouldn’t want her brother to feel abandoned again. “Okay. And she didn’t say where she was going?”

“No, but she took one of the cars that Briony said we could use. So you need to know she didn’t steal it, okay? I know you think that we steal shit, but Mia would never. She is going to get something, and she’ll be back soon.”

I shut my eyes. I never should have said that stupid stuff about fox shifters being thieves. It’s a stereotype, one that obviously doesn’t apply to all foxes. I don’t even know if it applies to any foxes.

Looking back, I was such an idiot. Zander Black. Lead enforcer. The one who made sure that when all the pack’s minds were on one thing, they’d stay that way. The one who had social currency to spend and chose to spend it on harassing innocent foxes.

“I’m sorry, Josh. I never should have said that.”

His eyes snap to mine. They’re a little less yellow now, more the same shade of green as his sister. “What?”

“About foxes. You aren’t thieves. It was a stupid, ignorant thing to say, and I don’t know why I said it.”

I was just being… me. The Zander that everyone expects, instead of the Zander who follows his heart and listens to the truth.

“So Mia didn’t tell you where she was going?”

“No. But…” Josh hesitates. He knows something.

“It’s okay. You can tell me,” I say softly.

“She said something about a seven-hour drive.”

My heart thumps. “Seven hours? Why would that be important?”

“Because that’s how long it takes.”

“How long what takes, Josh?”

His eyes are fully green, no yellow in sight, when they lock on mine.

“That’s how long it takes to get home.”

Home.

Why on earth is Mia headed back to New Mexico?

Since she’s in a pack vehicle, I have the ability to track it. She’s scooting along the highway at a breakneck pace, headed south. Hopefully she won’t take the main interstate, because if that’s the case…

I’ll catch up with her. I tell myself that I will.

Currently, however, my mind is chewing on the fact that Mia just… left. Without telling me.

Does it have something to do with the water rights buried on their old land? I told her that I would help her with the appeal. I’ve already messaged my dad’s friend, who’s the wolf representative at the Supernatural Bureau. He said he would make time for me soon.

This makes no sense. Unless…

My heart sinks.

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