Page 30 of The Wolf's Surrogate

“You like her,” Fred said in a low voice. “I know you don’t want to, but you like her, Liam. And there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I don’t like her.”

He scoffed. “You like her enough to knock her up.”

“That’s such a gross way to put it. I explained it to you earlier. I shot my load into a cup and then—”

“Andthena doctor delivered the goods. I get it. You don’t have to get so worked up about it, goddess.”

I glared at him. “Would you behave? She’s right downstairs.”

“I couldn’t tell.”

“I can’t believe I let my sister marry you.”

He snickered. “I can’t believe she hasn’t murdered me yet.”

“That’s actually pretty funny.”

Fred jostled me with his elbow. “Have you checked in with Jermaine? I saw he sent in the troops.”

“He only sent two shifters to make sure the perimeter was secure around the house.”

“Any movement from Martin?”

I turned around to locate my phone. It sat under a pile of papers documenting the backroads in the area. That would come in handy if we had to make a run for the hills. As far as I knew, Martin wasn’t familiar with Beaufort. He’d grown up in Greenville, so he wasn’t attached to this particular area.

Whatever would work in our favor would work for me.

I held my phone up and clicked on Jermaine’s name. A few rings later, I had him on the line. I didn’t want to put him on speaker, so I had Fred lean close to the phone.

“Status check,” I whispered. “Any sign of Phil Martin?”

“Negative. We lost him when he left the drunk tank.”

My jaw ached as I gritted my teeth. “How?”

“Our inside uniform got pulled away. I had eyes outside, but we haven’t seen him leave the precinct.”

“Is he still inside?”

Jermaine sighed. “Negative.”

“You gotta be kidding me,” I snapped. I held the phone to my ear. “I need eyes on the ground, Jermaine. What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry, Liam. I can’t send too many people out or else Blake will get suspicious. Do you want him to know what’s going on?”

I looked at my best friend who was standing right across from me. With his impeccably trained ears, he could probably guess what Jermaine had just asked me. The look on my face would probably confirm it.

I took a sharp breath. “Not yet.”

“If we’re lucky, he’ll leave town without incident.”

“This is a gross oversight on your part, Jermaine. I expect better from you.”

Jermaine started to speak but cut himself short. He took a deep breath and sighed it out. “Listen, sometimes, mated life isn’t all roses and smiles, okay? Problems can be distracting. I’m not perfect.”

That’s exactly why I wanted a surrogate,I thought. But even just that logical recognition alone felt empty.

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