Page 61 of Fake It ’Til You Mate It

Only one problem.

Riordan lowers himself to the love seat. Me and Max are seating together on the sofa, Gus curled up in my lap. As though he can sense the other wolf needs him, Gus scampers from my lap to the coffee table, rising up on the edge so that Riordan can give him scratchies.

Tossing the scroll away from him, the Beta absently scratches the underside of Gus’s chin. “We don’t have proof. Proof that he was in on the poison deal. But we want to get him for murder, don’t we?”

Obviously. This is a shifter town, though. Do we really need proof?

Actually, I know the answer to that. We do. Of course we do. If Max just took out packmates all willy nilly, who would trust him to lead? He’d be a murderous dictator, not an Alpha.

My mate knows it.

“He’s working with a witch. We can get the coven involved, but hey’ll side with one of our own without proof. All we have is a contract, and since Roxy will be a target when it gets out that she gave it to me, I can’t use it.”

I squeeze his thigh, grateful that he’s protecting my friend. “We’ll figure something out.”

Riordan clears his throat. “I might have an idea.” All eyes on him as Gus settles down to curl up on the coffee table, he adds, “He seems to be targeting Honey. I say we let him.”

Excuse me? “You want him to kill me?”

“Of course not. That’s ridiculous. We just let him think that he can kill you.”

Max growls. I don’t even attempt to stop him. Like, really? What the hell, Riordan? I thought you were cool.

“Let me explain. She’s an opossum, yeah? We know she has that fancy trick where plays dead. We can do this two ways. Either she goes catatonic, letting Leo think someone beat her to it and she’s safe because he thinks she’s dead, or we let him try to hunt her down and, when he tries, she faints, and we let him think he scared her to death. Either way, he might target someone who is already dead, and we can use her as a third victim to get proof without her having to die.”

“But what if he does kill me? For, like, realsies?”

“He won’t. We’ll be there. We’ll be the witnesses. And then we’ll make him talk.”

Max was silent during the outlining of Riordan’s plan. You’d think he was just dismissing it as a poor one. Nope, he was trying to keep his temper in check before he completely exploded.

Oh, like he does now.

“Have you lost your mind? You want my mate to be bait? Right after I found her?”

I stroke the side of his neck, trying my best to calm him. “Technically, I found you.”

“You did, and then you hid in plain sight for months. Now my eyes are wide open. Declan was one of mine. So was Abigail. Leo was in my inner circle, but I didn’t see the danger lurking there, either. I do now. I can’t let you do this.”

“Can’t?” I ask. “Or won’t.”

And that’s the thing about mating a predator. They will always, always outrank you when it counts. They’re stronger, faster, more fierce. I act like I can ignore any of his commands, but if Max really put his wolf into it, I’d be unable to do anything but bare my throat and submit to him.

That’s not how it works for mates. If there’s any imbalance in the mating at all, it’s the more dominant partner bending over to raise up their weaker mate.

If I want to go along with Riordan’s cockamamie plan, I should get to choose. If Max can make this decision for me without any pushback, what happens the next time he thinks he knows better?

We’re not bonded yet. Oh, we have a bond. I can’t pretend that doesn’t exist. It did even before the physical act of sex. But now that we did mate, if we perform the shifter Claiming Ceremony, I’ll be tied to Max Lobo for the rest of my life. Not yet, though.

Not ever if this doesn’t work...

“It has to be Honey,” Rirodan says softly. “I’m sorry, but you know I’m right. Whoever is hurting our packmates, they’ve gone after her. The cupcake… the tea… they involved her in this. But we have the element of surprise on our side. Most of Moonburrow still thinks she’s a witch. Not everyone knows that she’s an opossum shifter. He won’t think she’s playing dead. He’ll think she is dead. Remember? Even we were almost fooled.”

That’s right. I didn’t wake up in the morgue, but it was a close call the way they were peering down at me in the alley behind the bakery. They thought I was almost dead until I wasn’t.

But if Riordan’s whole insane plan hinges on me being able to play possum… we might have a small problem.

“Yeah. One thing about that… I don’t think I can play dead anymore.”