Page 8 of Mysteries, Menace, and Mates

“Then why do you avoid me? And don’t tell me I’m imagining it, because we both know that’s bullshit.”

“I….” Brick swallowed. “Youreallydon’t want to talk to me, okay? I’m not the guy you think I am.”

“Well, I’m never gonna get to know who you are if you keep walking off every time I get within a few feet of you.”

Brick’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “I’m the reason the Gerans threw you into that camp.”

Wait—what?

Of all the possible answers Jamie had anticipated, this wasn’t one of them.

He blinked. “You?”

Brick nodded. “I told them all about you. And Saul. That’s why they knew he was coming.”

Jamie couldn’t see through the tide of red that rose up and blocked his vision. He wasthisclose to shifting and tearing every scrap of white fur from this bastard’s back—until his brain kicked in.

Now wait a minute. Horvan trusts him. Why would Horvan trust a traitor? Why would he even keep Brick on his team, knowing what he’d done?

Unless he didn’t. There was always that possibility, even if it seemed unlikely. Horvan was one smart bear.

Seth obviously trusts Brick too.And Seth was no slouch in the brains department either.

That left one avenue to be explored.

“There’s more to this story, isn’t there?”

Brick hesitated for a moment, and then the words tumbled out of him. Jamie listened in growing horror as Brick revealed how the Gerans had taken his parents, threatened them if Brick didn’t supply the information they needed—and how it had emerged that the Gerans had killed them anyway, never intending to release them.

Jamie was ashamed to have been a Geran… and thankful he’d learned the truth at last.

Brick regarded him with glistening eyes. “I’m so sorry. As soon as I heard Dellan had lost contact with you, I knew they must have taken you, and that it was all my fault.”

Jamie’s rage had subsided. What was two months in a camp compared to what Brick had suffered?

“You did what you had to do to save your parents. And because you did, I was reunited with myrealdad and a new half brother. I might neverhave found them but for you.” Jamie threw his arms around Brick’s large frame and hugged him.

Brick stiffened for a second, then relaxed, a sob escaping him.

“Thank God.”

Jamie turned his head toward the voice. Seth was smiling.

“I was about to arrange an intervention. I kept telling Brick it would all work out fine, but he wouldn’t believe me.” He gave Brick a pointed stare. “See?”

Brick chuckled. “Okay, okay, you told me.” He wiped his eyes.

Seth came over to them and put his arms around them. The three stood in silence, and for the first time in a long while, Jamie was at peace.

I have my real family at last.

And it didn’t matter that only a few of them were his flesh and blood.

MILO PACEDup and down the hallway of the wing where the Maine inmates were staying. He’d been on edge ever since the plane had landed in Boston and he’d lost sight of Jana.

Except that was a lie. He knew she was okay—he could hear her in his head, and she sounded cheerful. She was in good hands. Aelryn’s people had been kindness itself. Okay, so the accommodation was not unlike the camp in that they slept in dormitories—understandable when their present location was a school—but that was where the similarities ended. Comfortable beds, showers, andoh my Godso much food. The clothes had arrived only hours after they did, and judging by Jana’s squeals, she was more than happy to be out of her previous clothing.

More likely she’s happy to be out of anything that reminds her of the camp.

---