Page 65 of Alpha's Impostor Bride

Her first question was not “What are you?” but “Are you alright?”

She looked after me without asking questions. Not until I fully recovered did the dam break. Finn shifted into his human form a week after he was born. Maya counted his ten fingers and ten toes and gave him a bottle of my breast milk, which I had already begun to pump. Then, she finally looked at me and asked, “So, what are you, a werewolf?”

Over seven years later, I still smile at the memory.

Later, I had to tell her very clearly not to run experiments on Finn. It’s not that I don’t trust Maya. It’s just that I know she’s very analytical, and sometimes she doesn’t understand where the line is. She wasn’t doing anything dangerous to my child, simply measuring how quickly he could shift, how fast he could run, how strong his bite was. None of her data-gathering was harmful to him, or even invasive, but it troubled me to see her studying my child like that. However, I know she loves Finn dearly.

Which is why I’m sitting in this café, discussing Erik’s proposal with her.

“I think it’s the practical decision to make,” Maya says, her gray eyes glinting seriously behind her round, rimless glasses. “Besides, this is all you’ve ever worried about: Finn being safe. Your ex won’t be able to touch him, right?”

Her referring to Cedric as my ex is such a human thing to do. It tells me that she doesn’t really understand the concept of fated mates. Neither does Erik, it seems. He doesn’t have a fated mate, which is why it was easy for him to make me the offer he did.

Whatever Cedric did to me, whatever he put me through, it doesn’t change the fact that our souls are bound. His actions shattered my wolf’s pride and confidence. They shattered my confidence in myself. Even now, there are times when I can’t sleep at night, wondering why I wasn’t enough.

Logically, I understand the why of it. If I think about it practically, he had to do what he did. But all the justification in the world won’t do away with the pain that still claws at my throat, bringing me back to the same point over and over again, the one my wolf reiterates.

Why weren’t we enough?

“I would prefer to have my identity concealed,” I tell Maya. “I don’t want to act as his mate. I don’t want to touch Erik physically. My wolf is a sentient being within me. Despite what we went through, the idea of touching another male is difficult for us.”

“So, you’re going to be alone for the rest of your life?” Maya looks displeased by the idea. “If your ex is so comfortable being with another woman, why can’t you be with another man?”

“I don’t know. I can’t make decisions for my physical body when my wolf is in denial. And honestly, Maya, I have no desire to be with anybody.” I sigh. “I have my son. I have everything I ever wanted.”

“Are you still in love with him?” she asks slowly.

Her question takes me aback. In love with Cedric?

“It’s been eight years,” I whisper, my eyes drifting to the top of the wooden table. I fiddle with my coffee cup, the sounds of the café fading away. “I don’t think I love him. I don’t know what this feeling is. Can you love someone who betrays you? You would be foolish if you did, wouldn’t you?”

Maya takes a bite of her cake, appearing to be thinking over my words. “Maybe. If a man did that to me, I would spit on his grave and dance on it. But that’s just me. Look, whatever decision you make, just think it through first. It wouldn’t be the worst decision to pretend to be Erik’s mate. You’d finally be free from everything.”

“But I won’t be able to do my job. I’ll have to leave my career behind. I’ll have to fully step into wolf society, which I don’t want to do.”

She taps her fork on the edge of my cup. “I get that. I wouldn’t be able to leave my job for anything. Just do what you think is best. You don’t have to over analyze everything. Which reminds me, I have to get going.” She shoves the remaining cake in her mouth and gets up. “I’ll see you this weekend. We have a team-building exercise at the institute. Something about how going skiing with each other is going to help us work in the lab together better. I swear, these people are nuts. Just do your job, get the money, and move on. I’ve never understood this team-building nonsense. It’s a waste of time when I could be working.”

My lips twitch as I watch my friend complain. I know she’s going to have the time of her life. She loves skiing. But she also loves her job.

I wait for Maya to leave before taking out the file that Erik sent to me. In it is everything about the two missing teenagers. Friends for years, nothing about them stands out. They’re absolutely ordinary.

I stare at the photograph in the manila folder. It’s of a circle in red paint, inside of which the kids’ wallets and phones were neatly piled.

I slam the file close. It’s just like with the other victims. Their belongings had also been left behind, on a small cross drawn in blood.

I frown, racking my brain.

Why leave those things in plain sight? Why not hide the evidence of the kidnapping? Unless they’re being arrogant. They want us to know.

Opening the folder again, I move the picture aside and focus my attention on the faces of the two victims. They can’t be older than fifteen. Young, confident, they walked through the woods to reach the other side, where the business district in their area is located. Young shifters like this would have shifted into their wolf forms rather than walked. If they were captured and rendered unconscious, they would have shifted back. The wolves here wear the special clothing that disappears when they shift. That is how their belongings must have been taken from them.

I can understand why Erik came to me with this case. So far, his intelligence unit has been investigating from a shifter’s point of view. I studied under humans. I know that motivations can differ. If we are dealing with humans here, I may be able to help. But there is no way humans would have been able to overpower Harold. And two young juveniles? Impossible.

Tranquilizers don’t work on us. Even our own kind hasn’t been able to create something that can knock us out, so how could humans?

At least, that’s the general consensus.

Wolf shifters don’t believe in the concept of autopsies. They find the whole ordeal disrespectful, which is why none was conducted for Harold. But a preliminary exam report showed clear signs of torture when he was found.

---