Colt wasn’t sure he heard that right. “What?”
“I said kissy noises.” Maddox smacked his lips together, spraying his spit all over the place. “She gave those to her precious Adam. I never got them.” He slumped in the chair, the empty bottle swaying and clanking. “So she’s gotta be happy.”
“She’s not,” Colt stated flatly.
“How do you know?”
“Because she’s not with you. Kissy noises? Come on. You don’t need to make noises when her tongue was halfway down your throat most of the time. So you might have given up, Maddox, but I sure the fuck haven’t. She’s your mate—no one can make her happy but you. You know that. If you weren’t too busy getting shit-faced in my house, you’d realize that and make your move. Evangeline fell for a wolf, not a pussy.”
When he saw the warning flash in Maddox’s golden eyes, Colt realized he might have pushed him too far. It was hard to gauge how firm he needed to be, the alcohol throwing them both off. When his brother started to snarl, showing a hint of his fangs, Colt decided to retreat a little. Just a little, though. The more wolf Maddox revealed, the faster his shifter metabolism would burn the whiskey off.
That’s exactly what Colt wanted. He needed Maddox sober.
A beating from a ferocious older brother he could handle. If a drunk Maddox started sniffling and singing power ballads from the ‘80’s again, Colt was summoning Dodge and letting him take over. Sure, he was loyal, but he wasn’t suicidal. A plastered wolf shifter howling along to Def Leppard’s “Love Bites”? Pass the silver bullets, please.
Maddox leaned forward. His grip tightened on the neck of the empty bottle, as if he’d like to bean Colt over the head with it. “I haven’t given up on nothing, you dick. But what do you want me to do? She doesn’t feel the bond—”
“There’s something wrong with your bond, we both know that. A normal bond, it would never have broken without a reason, and broken bonds mend pretty fucking quick between mated pairs. You keep acting like it’s something you’ve got to do but, well...” Colt took a deep breath. “Here’s the thing. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. I’ve been thinking—”
“Nothing good ever comes after ‘I’ve been thinking’,” Maddox observed, scowling. His eyes were still flashing, like a pair of high beams cutting through the darkness.
“Fuck you,” Colt snapped back automatically, his voice lacking heat. He almost couldn’t believe how nervous he felt since he didn’t know how Maddox was going to react. Always unpredictable, this might set him off. “Your bond. After the accident, they offered to let witches remove your bond. How do you know… maybe they removed Evangeline’s instead.”
“She would never have wanted them—”
“She was hurt, Maddox. Bad. When they brought her to the hospital, no one knew if she would survive. But she was still one hundred percent human then, and… they wouldn’t have needed her permission to remove her bond. Her parents could have given the okay. And if they did… well, you felt it when she ‘died’. Maybe… maybe that was the bond being severed on her end.”
“You’re telling me…” Maddox blinked, trying to understand. Confusion gave way to fury as what Colt just said seemed to hit home. He tensed, leaning forward, his free hand reaching up to pull at the front strands of his hair. “I… I hear you, but all this whiskey in me, I’m not sure I know what you’re telling me. Damn it!”
With a sudden angry roar, Maddox reared back and threw the empty bottle. It screamed by like a bullet, whizzing past Colt until it hit the opposite wall, shattering on impact.
Raising his eyebrows, Colt said, “You better clean that up.”
13
“Later,” snapped Maddox. His eyes glowed with deadly focus. Still glazed, still drunk, but he was trying his hardest to pay attention. “Now explain to me exactly what you’re trying to say.”
Colt tried. He spoke softly, surely, explaining his suspicions. How, without a bonding license, Ordinance 7304 didn’t apply to Maddox and Evangeline’s mating. Nobody would’ve invoked the stipulations in the Claws Clause that said that bonds were sacred. With Evangeline on the edge of death, her parents could have chosen to sever the bond and no one would’ve stopped them.
Especially since they had no idea that their daughter had eloped with Maddox that morning. Only Maddox’s family knew. Maddox would’ve told them all—the cops, the paramedics, her parents—except the crash knocked him out upon impact. He didn’t stay out long, but enough time had passed that Evangeline had already been whisked away to a human-only hospital before he came to again.
They told Maddox she was dead on arrival. Someone had obviously lied. But why? And, the more Colt thought about it, the more sense it made. A mate bond was so powerful, Maddox should’ve been able to follow the bond inside of him and know that she still was alive.
Unless a witch was involved.
Colt had to work to bite back his snarl.
He fucking hated witches.
Maddox listened to everything Colt laid out. When Colt was done, Maddox climbed out of the chair, scattering the empty whiskey bottles from his path.
“It’s just something to think about.”
“They always hated me. Her mother especially. It didn’t have anything to do with me, not really. It’s my wolf. They hated the idea that Evangeline was a shifter’s mate.” Maddox stopped pacing. There was a little wobble in his step so the whiskey was still affecting his body. His mind, though? He was getting it. “If Evangeline was hurt, they would’ve blamed me in a heartbeat. They had the money to get the diamonds to hire the best witch in the state. They could’ve done it.”
“Someone did do it,” Colt said. “I don’t know who for sure, but I’d be willing to bet anything I’ve got that they’re responsible. Gonna make family dinners kind of awkward in the future.”
Maddox didn’t seem to appreciate his joke. Scowling, he said, “What family dinners? Evangeline chose someone else. The fucking Claws Clause is clear. She might be my mate but, unless she chooses to bond with me, I’m shit out of luck.”
“Then screw the Claws Clause. Take her. If she’s not around her parents or that other guy, maybe the bond will come back. She’s your mate, Mad. Take her and prove it.”
“Yeah, right. The Ants will have me thrown in the Cage so fast, my ass’ll leave skid marks on the floor of my cell. Be serious, Colt. Hell, I thought I was the drunk one here.”
“I am serious. It’s how an Alpha always did it. Stupid Claws Clause didn’t even come about until… what? Fifty years ago? For centuries, a shifter found its mate, claimed its mate, and doted on its mate. It never failed before. The bond knows. Even the humans admit that after a while. Besides, Evangeline chose you once before. Give her the chance and she’ll choose you again.”
Maddox blinked. “You… you mean this. Really mean this. What happened to ‘that’s kidnapping and it’s against the laws’?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I distinctually... no, distinctly… I distinctly remember that. When I first met Evangeline and I knew she was my mate. You said not to take her, ‘cause the Ants consider that kidnapping.”
That sounded like something Colt would’ve said. But that was before.
Before he watched Maddox and Evangeline fall in love. Before Colt saw just how happy his mate made Maddox. Before—
“So? It’s not like whoever had your bond cut didn’t already go against the laws. You’re just evening the playing field.”
Shaking his head, Maddox muttered, “Oof. There’s still way too much whiskey in my gut for me to listen to this shit.”
“Why? Because you think it’s too risky?”
“No. Because I’m beginning to think you’ve got a point. Evangeline already agreed to be my mate once. The bond’s coming back… for me, at least. And we’re still fucking married. It… it wouldn’t be taking her, right? Just bringing her back home.”
Colt could tell that Maddox’s drunk brain wa
s reaching. And, while he made a very excellent point, they both knew that the law wouldn’t see it that way.
Know what?
Fuck the law.
Evangeline was Maddox’s mate. And Colton Wolfe was going to do anything and everything he could to bring them back together.
“Exactly.”
The next morning, after Maddox slept off his whiskey binge in Colt’s spare room, he wanted to believe that Colt was kidding. That, while Maddox was too inebriated to retaliate, his brother was deliberately fucking with him.
Taking Evangeline? Paras didn’t see it the same way—not when it came to a mate—but there were so many Ant laws against it, Maddox would be risking his neck if he even tried it.
It had to be a joke.
Only it wasn’t.
Laying on his back, remembering most of the conversation from last night, Maddox realized that Colt was serious when he said they could do it.
He was only too willing to help, too.
At first Maddox thought it might be the whiskey talking, but it wasn’t long before he couldn’t blame the booze any longer and, over lunch, Colt was still explaining how easy it would be to just run off with Evangeline.
Sober, aware, and missing his mate painfully, Maddox began to buy into the idea himself. And the more they plotted and planned and connived, it became clear that his younger brother got a kick out of trying to beat the Claws Clause.
He eagerly offered up the continued use of his truck, and even suggested using his house as a base of operation. Grateful for the offer, Maddox had to tell him no. He couldn't risk involving his family or any of his extended pack with this crazy idea. Something also warned him against bringing Evangeline to a Bumptown. The temptation to get that stupid piece of paper signed once and for all would be hard to resist, but he couldn't do that, not when Evangeline didn't even recognize him.
Besides, he had a place of his own in mind. The house he shared with Evangeline in Wolf’s Creek would be too obvious, so that one was out, but the cabin… apart from his pack and his mate, no one had ever been there.
It was the cabin his father had offered up to Maddox and Evangeline for their honeymoon. Even though their wedding had been intimate—with Colt as the only witness at a quick courthouse wedding—his parents arranged for the newly married pair to spend a week at the cabin just outside of Woodbridge, the town where Maddox and Evangeline had met.
It was pack property, set beyond a small mountainous area, with plenty of land to roam on—and as much privacy as they would need for the final claiming that would make their bond permanent.
They never made it to the cabin. A freak rainstorm seemed to follow them through the trees and onto the narrow path that led through the mountains. With less than fifteen minutes left before they would’ve arrived at the cabin, the road gave way, the car ran through the old guardrail, and the crash tore Evangeline from his arms for the next three years.
No one would think he would take Evangeline there. Even Maddox thought he was tempting fate. But he had to do it.
It felt right.
Colt tried arguing. Of course he did. Maddox hadn’t expected anything less. If he allowed him to, Maddox did not doubt that Colt would run out to Grayson and bring Evangeline back as easily as if he was picking up a gallon of milk from the corner store. He had to think quick, which wasn’t easy considering his head was still foggy and running on whiskey fumes.
“I need you to do a huge favor for me.”
Colt hesitated, obviously torn between wanting to do whatever he could to help Maddox and suspecting that Maddox was just trying to get him out of the way. His brother was smart like that. And while Colt already called Terrence and arranged for the cabin to be empty—without telling his father exactly why—he was wary of what other favors Maddox would need.
He sighed. “Okay. What is it?”
“Hunt down a witch.”
Colt’s brilliant blue eyes went suddenly icy. “What’s the catch?”
“Catch? Well, you can’t actually hunt the witch, for one. It was a figure of speech.”
His brother huffed. “It’s not nice to tease the wolf.”
“I mean it, Colton. Once I get Angie”—because now that he signed onto this plan, it wasn’t an if he went after her again, but when—“if you’re right, if there’s magic at work here, I’m gonna need a witch. If a witch can remove a bond, maybe they can figure a way to put it back the way it was on Angie’s end.”
It made sense to him. Maddox figured, if the government witches could take bonds away, he could pay a freelance witch even more to replace it. There wasn’t time to seduce Evangeline, to remind her why she fell in love with him in the first place, and rebuild their mate bond. He didn’t want to wait a second longer than he had to because, every second he wasn’t with her, was another second that Adam might be.
It was as sound a plan as he was going to get. The D.P.R. wasn’t going to help him. The Bond Laws left him with his paws tied. He needed that consent decree signed, the bonding license filed, which meant he had to do whatever he could to bring that bond back. It could only be notarized when both mates swore that there was a bond.
A witch was his last hope.
“Maybe get in touch with Cilla, if she’s still around, but I’m not picky,” Maddox said. “Anyone who knows the craft and can help me. I’ll get the diamonds if you get the witch. I want the best and I trust you to do that for me.”
Sending Colt to find one was a stroke of genius to his still half-inebriated brain. Not only was Colton the only one he could trust to be his partner in this crime, but—in the very likely scenario the plan got shot to shit—he didn't want his brother around for any of the fallout.
His parents were safe. After twisting his brother’s arm, Maddox got Colt to swear he wouldn’t tell Terrence and Sarah Wolfe about his sighting of Evangeline until Maddox had claimed her for real. The days following the car crash were hazy, but he knew how much it killed his parents to watch him voluntarily walk into the Cage, knowing there was little chance he’d ever walk out again. Until he was sure that he wouldn’t be going back, he refused to give his parents hope that things would be different. That they would be better.
It was for the same reason he refused to let them visit him when he was incarcerated. Maddox had only endured Colt’s monthly visits because he knew that his brother would’ve torn down the damn place brick by brick if they tried to keep him out.
After all Colt had done for him over the last three years, Maddox owed him everything. At the very least, he wanted to make sure that Colt didn’t get mixed up in his desperate scheme.
Even if it was his idea in the first place.
“Take Dodge with you,” Maddox suggested, bringing up Colt’s best friend. Dodge McCoy was a ghost with magic of his own. He could go invisible, walk through doors, and never forgot anything. Ever. “Maybe he’ll help.”
Colt’s expression shut down. “Dodge doesn’t leave the Bumptown much anymore.” He paused for a moment. Then, in an emotionless tone, added, “It’s getting closer.”
Maddox winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Hey, I always knew he had an expiration date. I mean, he’s a ghost. He died once.”
“Maybe the witches will be able to help him, too.”
“That’s what I thought.” Colt shook his head. “He tried. No luck. When it’s time, it’s time. Dodge always knew that.”
Maddox raised his hand, rubbing away at the back of his neck. He was suddenly super uncomfortable. “Hey, uh— is there anything I can—”
Colt stopped him. “Go. Find your mate. I’m gonna chalk your little chick flick moment here up to the whiskey still in your system. I’m a big boy. I’ll miss Dodge, but if you’re waiting for me to start sniffling...”
“You’re such an ass, Colton.”
Colt’s lips quirked upward just enough to be considered a grin. “Doesn’t it make you happy to know that not everything has changed?”
&n
bsp; 14
She shouldn’t be back at Mugs.
It was a bad idea.
Her mother would have her head, and Adam would totally lose his if he knew.
Good thing neither of them did.
Evangeline entered the coffee shop. She intended to get in, get her coffee, and go. Just one quick look, that was all she was going to allow. And even that was ridiculous because who would continue to go back and spend the day away drinking coffee like they had nothing else better to do?
Well, except for her, of course.
Before she opened the door, Evangeline took a deep breath. She tried to pretend that she didn’t care one way or another if he was inside. And then, when she entered Mugs and found that he had claimed the same seat he had on Friday, she tried to fool herself into thinking that her giddy excitement that caused her belly to flip-flop was just hunger pangs because she’d missed breakfast that morning.
As if he’d been waiting for her, his head jerked up the instant Evangeline moved through the doorway.
He waved.
Go to the counter, she told herself. Go to the counter, order your drink—
Her feet betrayed her. While she was still in the middle of talking herself into avoiding her coffee date from last week, her lower half didn’t seem to be on board. Before she realized it, she’d veered off to the right, heading straight toward him.
Evangeline smiled when she stopped next to his table, butterflies flapping nervously in the pit of her stomach when his lips curved in a sexy, answering grin.
“Um, hi… I wasn’t sure if you’d be here today. You kind of ran out without saying goodbye last time.”
“Sorry about that. I got a buzz while you were on the phone. It was a family emergency.” He paused for a second, then added, “My brother. Colton.”
Evangeline got the strangest feeling that he expected her to know his brother. Come to think of it, it dawned on her that, despite the hour-long chat they had before the weekend, she didn't even know his name.
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