“Yes. We need to make a…I don’t know…a diplomatic mission to them. Let the alpha know they’re in danger from the Red Maw and ask if I might be able to speak with the ladies in town. Someone there might trigger something within me.”
Rainier put his hand to his forehead. “Let me get this straight. You want to go to the town where your ex-girlfriend now lives with, and is mated to, the current alpha? You also want to ask thatsamealpha if you can go through some kind of dating mission in his town? Not only that, you will then tell that alpha that a rival all-male pack wants to attackthem, and they need to partner with you? All while trying not to kill that alpha for stealing your woman, and not trying to win said woman back from that alpha? Did I cover all the basics?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds crazy,” I said, grinning at him.
“Because it is!” he shouted, throwing his hands in the air.
“Look, Rain,” I said, lifting the journal up. “If this is true, I’ve only got a couple months left until she’s gone forever. We did that ritual, and it proved June wasn’t Naphele. I could live with that. I’d fully committed to leaving Naphele behind and livingmy life with June. That all changed when she left me. She made a choice, and that choice was Anders. It burns like acid when I think about it, but I can’tforceher to love me. Finding Naphele’s reincarnation might be my only chance at love and happiness.”
Rainier’s shoulders sagged. “You read what that book said, right? It’s like we’ve been saying. You aren’t going to find a carbon copy of your lost mate. At best she’ll be buried so deep you won’t really see her. She’ll be the whispers and shadows of the person you knew.”
“My heart will see her,” I said. “There will be a connection. That’s all I need. We can work from there.”
“You had a connection with June too.”
We stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, I tucked the journal under my arm. “Take Stephen’s other stuff to the storage building. He’d want us to use it.”
I walked away without another word, unable and unwilling to accept what Rainier had said. He was right, though, Ihadmade a connection to June. It had had all the hallmarks of a fated mate connection. And if Junewasn’tNaphele, then how would I know when I met the real thing? That was a question I hoped I could answer in Idlewild.
Deep in my mind, a war raged, one side roaring and clawing for me to rush to Idlewild and try to drag June away from Anders. The other side told me it was over, and I needed to find Naphele.
And I didn’t know which was the right path.
52
JUNIPER
Stocking shelves in my grandparents’ secondhand store gave me a strange sense of nostalgia mixed with déjà vu. Outside, the weather was unseasonably warm, drifting up to the high fifties, and I’d spotted some daffodils starting to peek out of the ground on the way over. That, along with the bluegrass music Gran always played during store hours, made it hard not to smile to myself as I worked. This was what I’d wanted: a peaceful life helping my grandparents. This day had done more to make me feel like I wasback homethan anything else.
“Sweetheart, can you grab that box of paperback books from the back?” Gran asked as she stood near the cash register. “I’d like to put them on display at the window. Melinda Walker brought them over. Her aunt passed, and the woman had ahugecollection. She’s gonna bring more boxes over tomorrow.”
“Sure thing,” I said, straightening the pile of shirts I’d folded.
In the back room, I found a big cardboard box right by the donation door. I pulled out the first book. The cover was a picture of a woman in Victorian dress, her cleavage bulging out, and a muscular man standing behind her, his huge bicep wrapped around her midsection, and his face close to her neck. The title wasNights with a Prince.
“Oh my.” I dug through the other books and began to laugh. “Looks like Melinda’s aunt was a woman after my own heart.”
A book calledWicked Lustcaught my eye, and I tucked it into my purse before carrying the box out front. I’d slip it back into the display once I’d read it. After my time with Levi—and the great sex I’d had with him—the last several weeks had been…lacking in that area. Reading some smut might help get me by, especially since Anders was growing increasingly insistent on speeding things up.
Ever since I’d turned down his crude offer tofuck, he’d been dropping subtle hints at wanting totry some things out. My body was still not responding to him. There was simply no spark between us. Once we went through with the mating ceremony, I’d be forced to consummate the relationship, but until then, I was determined to work up the courage to do it, and to convince myself that it wouldn’t be that bad when the time eventually came. A lot of people ended up matched with someone they didn’t know or didn’t find attractive in that way, but they eventually grew to care for, and even love, their mate. All I had to do was hope that happened for me.
As I stepped back out onto the sales floor, I froze when I saw Anders leaning against the counter and chatting to Gran. It was like he’d been summoned by my very thoughts.
“Anders, what are you doing here?”
“Just chatting with this wonderful lady,” he said, nodding at my grandmother. “Came in and saw all these things. Had to ask about them.”
He gestured to the occult display Gran had set up a week ago. An antique Ouija board, incense holders, pentagram necklaces, and a stack of ancient tarot cards my grandfather had picked up at an estate sale a few months back.
“Got us talking about local legends and stuff. Like our friend Leviathan Cross,” Anders said, almost but not quite sneering atthe name as he said it. “Mister boogeyman, the Demon Wolf himself.”
“I was telling Anders how the sight runs in your Grandpa’s family,” Gran said.
Anders snorted. “I didn’t think people still believed in that hocus pocus shit anymore.”
“It’s not hocus pocus,” Gran said, looking a little disappointed. “It was real. One of the ancient shifter gifts.”
Anders rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I mean, everyone’s heard of it, sure, but I doubt we have people who can really see the past or future or whatever. Shit, let me give you a hand with that box.” He hurried over, holding his arms out to take the collection of books.
