Thankfully, Carter didn’t ask him to elaborate, and Max didn’t offer anything. They were silent for all of ten seconds before Carter spoke again. Max was getting the impression that the man didn’t like silence. More was the pity.
“That’s a nasty cut you’re sporting. Must sting like a mother.”
Max nodded. “Yeah. I ran into our shifters tonight. Four of them.”
“No shit? They were in shifted form?”
“Yeah, they were stalking someone.”
“Who?”
Max hesitated for a moment before answering. “A woman.”
“Lemme guess, a woman who lives in that house back there?”
Max heaved a sigh. “Yeah.”
It wasn’t like he could withhold all this information anyway, it was his duty to report everything that had happened. He turned to the man sitting next to him and stared at him for a long moment.
“She was my mate.”
“Jesus Christ, dude, really?”
Max nodded.
“Shit. What happened?”
He was still wondering the same thing himself. His mate.
Our mate. We must go to her. Win her.
She doesn’t want to be won. Anyway, she’s not a goldfish at a fair.
It took him a moment to realize Carter was looking his way, expecting an answer. Oh well, the man knew pretty much the whole story now anyway. Max leaned back in his seat and relayed everything that had happened. When he’d finished talking, Carter was suspiciously silent. Max turned to him to find the man scowling.
“What?” Max asked.
“She said she wasn’t happy about the bond and didn’t want it?”
Max nodded.
It was only when Carter put the car in park that Max realized they had already arrived back at the field office.
“But, what did you do?” he asked.
Max frowned. “What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.”
“But you must have done something.” He narrowed his eyes. “Were you your usual charming self?”
Max glared at the man. “I’m done discussing this.” He unclipped his safety belt and opened the door.
“Hey, I’m sorry, I’m not having a go at you,” Carter said, raising his hands in a show of peace. “I just meant, you know, did you show her any sort of affection?”
“Affection? I just met her.”
“You shouldn’t have questioned her,” Carter said.
“But I was trying to find out why the shifters were after her.”
