Page 4 of Forever Mine

“Annie, you don't understand. I can't explain it, but we cannot stop here. Please, just get them and let's go.”

“It's not good for you to be so agitated. You were making such good progress.”

Goosebumps stood up across my entire body and I quickly scanned the area, settling on a man. He was tall, muscular. I could tell even with the impressive suit he wore. He had sandy-brown hair and when I met his golden eyes I felt more exposed than ever. A ripple of calm started to flow through me from my head down to my toes. It resulted in a full-on panic setting in.

When a group exiting the restaurant broke my view, I turned and grabbed Annie and dragged her into the building. They were just calling Jacob's name for a table and he smiled as we approached, then instantly frowned.

“What's wrong?”

“We have to go. NOW. I can't explain it, just please. Where's Oscar?”

I could feel my heart beating fast in my chest and I was struggling to breathe evenly.

“Okay, okay,” Annie said, rubbing my back in a soothing manner. “Jacob, get Oscar and meet us in the car. Jane, just breathe, sweetie. In and out. In and out.” She kept talking calmly all the way to the car.

When Oscar saw me he just smiled sadly, climbed into the backseat next to me as Jacob started the car and pulled out, and wrapped his small arms around me. “It's okay, Mommy. Their chocolate milk wasn't even that good.”

Liam

Chapter 3

Scanning the area, I couldn't find my mysterious woman. Maddie. Madelyn Collier had disappeared when we were teens. She and Lily had been close childhood friends, and while I had my own friends, I always hung out with my twin, too, especially when Maddie was around. Her father was Alpha of the Collier Pack in Wyoming. I had visited her family on numerous occasions. Their land was magnificent, even better than Westin with its wide-open fields to run in. They weren't the largest pack in numbers, but their massive property was quite impressive.

I remember the day we found out about Maddie's disappearance. I spent much of that week comforting Lily, distraught over the news of her friend. All anyone knew was that Maddie and a friend from the pack had snuck out to attend a concert in a city several hours away. She had been grounded and told not to go, but when Madelyn Collier set her mind to something, there was no changing it.

Her friend's account said that they arrived and were having a good time when they met some boys who offered them beer. Jordan, the friend, said Maddie accepted, but she did not. When Jordan went to use the restroom during the intermission of the concert, Maddie refused to go with her and when she returned, Madelyn was gone. Vanished. No sign of the boys either, but there wasn't a good enough description of any of them to track them down.

Madelyn had never been seen again. It was largely assumed that something awful happened and she was dead. The family even held a memorial for her to help the pack, but I knew her father was still looking for her, holding on to the hope that she would one day return home.

I hadn't thought of Madelyn Collier in years. Something about the frightened woman had triggered her memory. I had heard the woman with her clearly call her Jane, not Maddie, but I couldn't stop the feeling of unease that arose in me. Something was clearly wrong, and it hadn't entirely gone unnoticed that my wolf had recognized her too. She had to be a shifter for that to happen.

Mate.The word kept playing over and over in my head. Impossible. Still, it freaked me out enough that I started walking the parking lot looking for her. I saw the boy I'd shared a drink with at the bar get into a car. He smiled sadly at me and gave a little wave. I watched as the car pulled away and only as it passed did I realize the woman I was looking for was sitting in the backseat with him.

I rushed into the restaurant and gave the hostess a description of the man that the boy had pointed out as Papi, who was waiting for a table. She looked it up for me, even while telling me she wasn't supposed to. Jacob Winthrop. The hostess was a chatty one and started telling me how odd it was, that the girl had come in freaking out and just as their table of four was called, they all left.

Jacob Winthrop.

It wasn't much, but it was something. My wolf was restless and my skin was itching as it did when I needed to shift. No way was that happening here. I took a deep breath to calm myself. It backfired. All I could smell was her lingering scent above all else. It was so strong, I dared believe I could actually track her. Leaving the restaurant, I sat in my car and took out my phone. Pulling up a web browser, I typed in the name Jacob Winthrop.

The first site on the list was for a genetics conference in San Francisco, where guest speaker Dr. Jacob Winthrop would be speaking on some new gene found in humans. Blah blah blah, I didn't really care about the details. The picture on the website confirmed he was the man I was looking for. Nothing was going to stop me from going after her and getting to the bottom of who she was.

My phone rang in my hand. I glanced down and saw my twin's face on the screen. Sighing, I answered. “Hey, Lil.”

“You still down in town?”

“Yeah, just about to head out, why?”

“Can you stop at the party store and pick up another bag of balloons?”

Balloons? Oh crap, Zander's birthday party! In the time since I'd first laid eyes on the woman, I had completely forgotten about my nephew's party.

“Um, yeah, sure.”

“What's wrong?” Lily knew me better than anyone. I wouldn't be able to hide this from her, but I wasn't ready to share it either. She had this sixth sense when it came to me. I sometimes pretended I could feel and understand things about her too, but only because it made her happy to know I felt the connection. It was all a bunch of bunk, that twin bond and stuff, but she believed so much that I just played along.

“Nothing's wrong, Lil. I have one more stop anyway and then will head back. I'll get your balloons.”

“Something's wrong. I can feel it.”

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