“Coming!” He yells from somewhere else in the house.

  Adam, one of her oldest kids, comes into the kitchen, and I catch a whiff of cologne. Elise hands him the child she’s holding. “Dad will be out in a minute.”

  Adam scowls and takes the little boy, holding him away from his body. “Date, Mom. Spaghetti on my shirt is not cool.”

  “She’ll think you’re good with children. Every woman’s dream.”

  He sighs and looks at the child as he keeps him at arm’s length. “C’mon, little man, let’s get you cleaned up.”

  Elise looks at me as she shoves one of the many stray strands of hair out of her face. I wonder if she’s even combed her hair today. “Kimi’s waiting for us out back.”

  “The new cottage?”

  “Yes, thank god,” Elise says as we make our way to the back door. “I might actually get some peace once in a while now.”

  I laugh, knowing Kimi must think the same thing. She lives with Ian and Elise, and I have a feeling that after decades of living alone the noise of a family of ten must make her crazy some days.

  We find Kimi sitting on a mat placed on the concrete floor of the framed house. There aren’t any walls yet, and a fire is burning in a portable fire pit in front of her. Her smile makes her eyes nearly disappear in her weathered face.

  I step into the house and look around. “It’s coming along nicely. Think it’ll be ready by the time the snow flies?”

  “It better,” says Elise as she grabs a mat and sits down.

  I join them so that we make a triangle around the fire. “I’ve been thinking more about why Connell is in the afterworld. You know how my magic has exploded in me and now I’m really strong. Do you think someone could be keeping him away so that his magic doesn’t increase in power too?

  Kimi nods as Elise says, “We were just talking about that earlier. It’s a strong possibility.”

  “But who would do it, and why wouldn’t they tell us?”

  Kimi says. “We do know where he is. Who put him there?” She shrugs. “Doesn’t matter.”

  I frown at her because I’m pretty sure it does matter, and I think she has an idea but doesn’t want to tell me. “Okay. So, what’s our plan today? When I talk to Connell, what should we focus on?”

  “You should tell him to practice his magic,” Elise says. “Kimi and I will both be with you looking for clues while we’re there, so keep him talking as long as you can.”

  “Clues to what?”

  “We’ll know that when we see them,” Kimi says.

  “And, Audrey?” Elise says.

  “Yeah?”

  “If anything feels off, or you hear either Kimi or I call your name, cut off your magic. Got it?”

  A chill runs down my spine as I recall the last time we did this. A vision of Josie and Max kissing interrupted my conversation with Connell. I nod, because I have no desire to watch whatever the two of them are doing tonight.

  Kimi reaches her hands out to us, and I grab one along with Elise’s to form our circle. Kimi begins to chant in the ancient language of her tribe. I don’t understand the words, but the musical element conveys power and mystique before I’m propelled into a trance.

  I see Connell. He’s wearing a puffy winter jacket and jeans. He’s pacing his cave as he sings an old rock song with lyrics he’s making up. “I’ve got two tickets to see the ice, pack your mittens, it’ll be real nice.”

  “Connell!” Relief fills me, even if I’m still pissed that he was foolish enough to get captured in the first place.

  He glances around. “Audrey?” He looks up at me and smiles. “Hey, I’m going on a trip.”

  I notice his hair is messy as if he’s been running his hands through it the way he does when he’s sketching designs like a mad man, afraid he won’t get them all out. “Yeah, where are you going?”

  He shrugs and blinks a few times as if it’s a hard question. I wonder if he’s drugged, and concern makes my chest tighten. “Not sure,” he says. “But I figure once I get out of here I deserve a vacation. Maybe Iceland.”

  “That sounds nice. Any idea when that might be?”

  “She tells me it shouldn’t be much longer. Things are shaping up nicely.” He laughs and then pumps his eyebrows. “So is she.”

  “Your captor? She’s pretty? What’s her name?”

  He nods as he scowls. “I’m really bored, Audrey. I asked for paper and a pencil, but she told me they wouldn’t work here.” He tilts his head at me as if he’s confused. “Where am I?”

  “You could practice your magic. Will you do that for me, Connell?”

  “Okay. Do you—”

  The vision is cut off abruptly, and I blink as I adjust to the bright light of the fire. “What happened?”

  Kimi makes a small noise of disgust.

  “Someone decided we’d seen enough,” Elise says, and she glances at Kimi with a smile. “We got some good stuff.”

  Kimi lets out a grunt as if she’s a teenage boy who finds talking to be too much trouble.

  “What?” I ask. “What did you find out?”

  Kimi gives Elise a stern look and says, “Things.”

  She’s definitely losing her filter as she ages, and I let out a sigh. “Can I at least tell my mother he’s okay?”

  “Yes,” Elise says. “Ease her mind.”

  Kimi looks at me with a serious expression. “It’s fine, Audrey. He is where he needs to be. We’ll call him back when it’s time.”

  I narrow my eyes at her. Kimi is good at giving you just enough information to figure things out for yourself, and I think she’s telling me that they know how to get Connell back. But he won’t be going to Iceland. I have a feeling there’s a reason Kimi and Elise aren’t bringing him back yet. I think they feel it’s safer to leave him where he is until we need his magic to save our clan.

  Nine

  Max

  The giggle that just came out of Josie throws me. I think she even blushed. It’s the last thing I’d expect from a girl who appears to be as tough as a warrior. And controlled. Who plays bean bags like their life depends on winning? I’ve got a lot of questions about this human and where she really came from.

  Reese told me how she finagled her way onto Le Roux land. She came first looking for me, and when they turned her away, she snuck back during the middle of my near-death experience when the warriors were distracted. He told me she’s a fighter and to watch out. But right now, she’s acting like a college girl who is completely into me.

  I toss my bean bag, and it goes in the hole easily. “You said you grew up in Connecticut, right?”

  “I did.” Josie’s last bag hits the board with a thud and slides in.

  “Sisters? Brothers?” My last bag goes in, leaving us tied for zero as a score.

  “Just a mom, and a few guys who played stepdad over the years,” she says as we move over to the board to retrieve our bags. She turns to walk backward. “I’m likely the typical human-slash-werebear. Illegitimate, if that’s even a thing these days, and either a secret my mother kept from my bio dad or one he was happy to send away.” She squats down to grab bean bags.

  Josie is matter-of-fact with her tone, but her words spell out bitter to me. I imagine feeling as if you were unwanted, even by a guy you never knew, would leave a scar. It makes me think she doesn’t trust men. I’m about to show her she can. Or can’t. Because if I choose Audrey over her, I’ll confirm what she’s grown up believing.

  I grab my beer from the table to take a swig as she walks over to me and deposits our bean bags on the table before grabbing her beer too. “You seem to know a few things about what you are,” I say. “How long have you known? Did your mother tell you?”

  Josie shakes her head as she swallows down a mouthful of her draft. “My mother only told me what I was just before she died. She said I should go to Maine to learn more. I lucked out when I ended up with a roommate who is a half too. She just found her true mate and shares what she finds out with me.”

  It’s a small tell, but Josie didn’t look into my eyes as she spoke. She averted her gaze to just over my shoulder, which makes me think she’s not telling me the whole truth. And the fact her roommate is another half is a rather big coincidence. It’s unlikely two halves would end up roommates at a university. I can count on one hand how many halves we’ve had come to the Lévesque clan over the twenty or so years we’ve allowed them to. It makes me wonder if Josie’s roommate has a part in whatever is going to shake down between the Eradicators and us, and I make a note to find out who this roommate of Josie’s is.

  I toss a bean bag up in the air, and it slaps in my hand as I say, “We might need to make this game harder.”

  Josie grins. “The only way a bag going in counts is if it’s knocked in by another.”

  I chuckle. “The one that knocks it in counts too?”

  “Sure.”

  “I like it. Game on.” We walk over to the board where we just retrieved our bean bags and take our places on either side of it. I ask, “What do you think about this whole true-mate business?”

  “Honestly? It sounded like a crock to me until I experienced it myself. I—" She pauses to toss her bag and make it land on the board twenty-seven feet away. Josie turns to look at me. “I slammed a stranger up against a wall and kissed him because of the attraction. It’s a little scary.”

  I smile at her as the memory of her kiss rushes forward, and my balls begin to ache with a hard-on about to happen. My bear didn’t get the recent memo that we shouldn’t trust Josie. “Yeah. But in a good way.”

  “I’m glad you think so.” She shrugs and takes a step closer to me. “I might do it again.”

  Wow. Josie’s got great aim at more than bean bag toss, because I want to grab her and kiss her right now. I reach out and lift a strand of her silky black hair. She has it down in waves that cascade over her shoulders. I picture that hair on a pillow, messy with a lock stuck to the sweat on her face as I— Whoa. I blow out a breath, let go of her hair, and step back. My cock is hard as a rock, and as much as I want to kiss her right now, I’m afraid if I do, I won’t be able to stop there.

  I toss a bean bag instead as the vision of Audrey in my bed comes to mind. My stomach churns with guilt. I know I shouldn’t let myself worry about that, because both women should have the same effect on me as my true mates. But if I think I’m confused now, I can only imagine what sleeping with Josie would do. Damn, though. My bear is clawing at me to claim her, and I’m fighting the urge with everything I’ve got.

  I turn away from the game to grab my beer and get my head straight. I could chalk up her pushiness to get to me to the true-mate attraction. That’s what my bear is going with, and I’m leaning toward his assessment. I am supposed to be learning about Josie to see if she’s the woman the prophecy says I should pick. The image of Cat, the witch I met in Colorado, flashes in my mind, and I hear her words; Think with your head, not your dick. The fact I’m as physically attracted to Josie right now as I am to Audrey isn’t exactly helping me with that advice.

  Josie comes over to stand next to me and grabs her beer. “Tell me more about how the alpha thing works,” she says. “You said you are one, but your clan is in Western Canada. Would whomever you pick have to move back there with you?”

  “Good question. If it were you, then yes. But Audrey?” I let out a sigh because thinking about my other true mate brings my stomachache back. “She’s an alpha too, and that makes it complicated.”

  Josie moves closer to me and her scent, an earthy aroma mixed with something dangerous and exciting, fills my nose as she says, “Future leaders to two clans thousands of miles apart. You can’t exactly move one clan to the other, so what happens?”

  I gaze into her green eyes, wanting to get lost in them. My fingers twitch with the urge to touch her. “I have no idea. I suppose whichever clan needs us more is the one we’ll stay with. Audrey has a long time before she’ll become the leader of her clan. Her grandmother is still in charge.”

  “Ah, so her…”

  Josie reaches out and touches my arm, and the electricity of our connection zings up to my heart. I mumble, “Mother.”

  Her voice gets softer as she gazes up at me. “Her mother would become the clan’s alpha first.”

  “Yes. In my family, I’m the direct heir. If I turned it down—” I chuckle because I can’t turn it down. It doesn’t work that way. When my father and I learned I had to come to Maine to help Audrey save werebear, it wasn’t a strong consideration. Extinction would make the Lévesque clan’s next alpha a moot point. And if I die in the process of saving my kind? “There are ways to replace me. My father could have more children. Or I could have some and one of mine would move back to Canada when they began to show signs of being an alpha.”

  “Signs?” Josie places a hand on my chest, and my heart skips a beat before it fills with the glow of our true-mate connection.

  “Yeah.” I should pull back, but I don’t. Her touch feels too good, and my bear fills me with a need to have her. To take what is ours. I go ahead and listen to my bear while I tell myself it’s important that I give Josie a fair chance at securing me as her true mate for life. I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her against me. “Werebear are typically born as twins or triplets, and you don’t know which one is an alpha until puberty when we are able to shift.”

  “Got it. So, no little cubs running around.” Josie smiles, and I notice her teeth are white and very straight, as if she’s worn braces. It makes me wonder if Reese’s assessment of her is wrong. Perhaps she managed just fine without a father in her life. She could just be a competitive person who is driven by her bear to get me any way she can.

  Goosebumps rise up on my skin when she runs her palm up my chest to rest her hand on my shoulder. I say, “Actually—” I shake my head, because the desire for this woman is blocking out logic, and I no longer want to talk. I can get into witch-werebear mates another time. I tilt her chin up with the intention of kissing her. Her lips part as she gazes up at me, and in that moment, I know I’ve tipped over the edge of no return. My bear rumbles in my chest as he takes over, and Josie tilts her head back as I lean down to capture her mouth with mine.

  Ten

  Madison

  My belly is full of the most delicious breakfast I’ve ever eaten for dinner. Or at all. As a werebear with an acute sense of taste, sugar takes on a whole new level and might even compare to what human orgasms are like. And bacon… Wow. It’s a good thing I have a fast metabolism now.

  I’m also exhausted. The hot water of Trent’s shower helped soothe my aching muscles to the point I’m about to collapse. Steam has fogged the bathroom mirror, and I decide I don’t need to look at myself to comb out my hair. I walk into Trent’s bedroom wrapped in my towel, and I smile when I see him sitting up in bed without a shirt on. If I had the energy, I’d launch myself at him and have my way with him.

  “Hey,” he says as I move toward him. “Want me to do that?”

  “Yes,” I drop my arm because it was shaking from being held up.

  He pats the bed, and I go over to sit on it with my back to him so he can comb my hair.

  “How are you feeling?” he asks.

  “Other than being exhausted, not too bad. I’m totally amazed at how quickly you—we—heal. It’s like I can feel it happening.”

  “Yeah. It’s handy.”

  When he’s finished combing out my hair, I turn to look at my true mate. I tested out our telepathic communication skills at dinner, and it’s like the best party trick ever. I love you.

  I love you, too. Trent smiles at me as I stand up to get dressed. I walk over to the bureau and pull on a soft T-shirt of his to sleep in before climbing into bed next to him.

  “So,” he says, “You’re glad you changed?”

  I lean into his chest and smile up at him. “Very. I feel—” I think about how to describe my emotions. It’s like everything good was dialed up to ten. Even my love for Trent feels magnified. “Happier than I ever imagined. Thank you.” I lean in and kiss him lightly.

  “Just wait until tomorrow when you get to shift. It’s the most amazing thing. Being a bear is such freedom. When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to be able to shift.”

  “Was it all you expected when you finally could?”

  He takes my hand and threads his fingers through mine. I notice he doesn’t feel as hot to me as he used to. Now that I’m a shifter, I have a higher body temperature too. Trent says, “I had a hard time during my teens. I struggled with controlling my anger and was awful to my parents. I seriously thought there was something wrong with me.”

  “I think a lot of teens do. I know I cried a lot back then.”

  Trent nods. “I was worse. I’d heard rumors of mental illness in the werebear community. Bipolar disorder. And there’s no way to cure it. I was afraid I had it and didn’t dare tell anyone for fear they’d— well, kill me because I was a danger to the clan. So when I got out of control, shifting and running through the woods as a bear was my therapy.”

  Empathy for him fills my heart. “Oh my gosh, Trent. That had to have been so hard.”

  “It was. I did finally manage to control my emotions and realized I was fine.” He chuckles. “Wow, I’ve never told anyone that.”

  “Well, who better to tell than your true mate?”

  “That’s true,” he says. Sheets rustle as he slides down in the bed to rest his head on a pillow, and I move to lie on his chest. “You’re going to have to take it to the grave.”

  “Cross my heart,” I say. I lean up on my elbow and gaze down at the man I love more than anything in this world. I want to make love to him now that we’ve bonded, but I can barely keep my eyes open. I lean in to kiss him.