Maya frowned. “I don’t think the dream ever left her, but she put it on the backburner thinking she had all the time in the world, only…she didn’t. She died before she ever got the chance to realize her dreams.”
Cole gave her a sympathetic look. “I know about the accident. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to drudge up painful memories.”
He’d read a brief report about Maya and her brother that stated her parents had been killed in a car wreck, but reading something in black and white, and hearing about it firsthand, seeing its effects, were two different things entirely.
“It’s okay. It’s actually kind of a relief to talk about them. Noah doesn’t like it when I bring them up, so—”
She shrugged.
“You must miss them terribly.”
“I do. As a family, we were close. We did everything together. When my parents died there was just Noah and me, and I promised to protect him.” She scuffed one foot on the elevator floor. “I guess I didn’t do a very good job of it, did I?”
“Don’t say that. I’m sure you did everything in your power to look after Noah, but he’s a grown man, and he chose to go down that route, in the same way that you chose to do something else with your life. Something better.”
“I just wish I could have done more. I wish it hadn’t come to this. He’s…he’s all I’ve got left.”
The words ‘no, he’s not, you’ve got me,’ were on the tip of Cole’s tongue, and he fought to keep them contained. Cole had a huge family and as Maya was his mate, his family was hers now, too. He wished he could tell her all that, but despite his wolf’s urging, even he could tell the time wasn’t right. Soon.
When they got out of the elevator car, Cole led the way to his escalade. He bleeped open the locks then opened the passenger door and helped his mate up onto the seat.
When he was seated behind the wheel, Maya turned to him. “You know, the ride home is very much appreciated, but it’s a little unusual, isn’t it?”
“Is it?” He tried to plaster an innocent expression on his face, and Maya’s eyes narrowed in response.
“Yes, it is. So, what’s with the chauffer routine?”
Cole chuckled. “Am I that transparent?”
She nodded. “Spill it.”
He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck as he pulled out onto the street.
“Okay, well, I suppose I felt somewhat of an instant connection with you, and I wanted to explore it—to get to know you better.”
Maya frowned. “Surely there are rules against that? With your job I mean.”
She wasn’t wrong. What she didn’t know was that when it came to the mate of a shifter, those rules were slightly more…fluidin nature.
“Have you committed any crimes?” Cole asked.
“No!” Maya said quickly.
“There you go then. You’re not involved in any criminal activity, and you were merely helping us with our investigation. You helped. And now, we’re free to get to know one another.”
Her eyebrows knitted together, and Cole ached to reach across and smooth out the lines with his thumb.
“I don’t think it works like that,” she whispered.
A smile tugged at Cole’s lips. Oh, it definitely didn’t, but Maya was his, and his superiors would tell him to stay away from her over his dead body.
He deftly weaved his way through the afternoon traffic, having committed Maya’s address to memory. He knew the area well as his youngest brother had just bought a starter home there. It wasn’t as nice as the area where Cole currently lived, but it was up and coming.
“So, how did you get into law enforcement?” Maya asked.
“My dad is a beat cop,” Cole explained. “And my older brother Liam followed in his footsteps. I nearly went down that route, too but, I don’t know, the FBI just called to me.” He chuckled. “I was powerless to resist.”
“And you enjoy it?”
