Page 62 of Fake It ’Til You Mate It

“What?”

That’s both of the Lobo brothers at the same time. I shrug.

“It’s something I noticed after I found Declan. I dropped like I normally did, but when I woke up, Max was there. The next time I thought I was going to faint, he steadied me. Anytime I’ve felt weak, he was right there to give me his strength. My opossum,” I say, tapping my chest, “can sense his wolf. She knows that Max… all of Max… will protect us. I don’t need to faint anymore because there’s nothing that he can’t protect me from.”

Max loops his arm over my shoulder, tugging me to him so that he can kiss the top of my head before tucking me against his side. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to.

His promise to keep me alive is thrumming down our bond.

But Riordan just won’t let it go.

“I can help with that.”

Max sits up, moving so quickly that I nearly land on my side behind him when I fall over. “Riordan⁠—”

“No, Max. It’s okay. You mated her and that makes her family. She ought to know.”

It takes me a second to push myself back to a seated position. Max, looking abashed, helps, but I brush him off. Oh, no. I’m way more interested in what his brother just said.

Know why? I think I might have a clue. Score one for Miss Marple. “Roxy said you were cursed.”

That takes the wind out of Riordan’s sails. His head shoots right toward his brother.

Max holds up his hands, leaning back into the sofa. “I didn’t tell her.”

Riordan frowns. “No one else knows.”

“Trust me, that doesn’t mean anything when it comes to Roxy.” Case in point, the scroll on the coffee table next to Gus. “So what does this curse mean? And why do you think you can help me? Do you, like turn into a scary beast or something?”

Riordan gives me a droll look. “I’m a big, black wolf. Isn’t that scary enough?”

Maybe before I mated a predator. “No.”

“Well. That’s not it. It’s worse.” He exhales. “A lot worse.”

“Come on. It can’t be that bad.”

“Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. About fifteen years ago, when Max and me were in our teens… he was sixteen and I was nineteen… I knew that I was the Alpha-heir. When Dad stepped down, I would take over the pack. I didn’t earn it. I didn’t challenge him for it. It was going to be handed to me, and I was a cocky prick about it.”

“Riordan…”

“It’s okay, Max. I know it. I treated everyone in Moon burrow like shit. I treated you like shit because you would be my Beta.” A hollow laugh escapes him. “I thought I was untouchable… until I angered a witch who was passing through. I told her to get out of Moonburrow if she wasn’t going to respect me. She said I needed to learn to earn it. I told her that I would one day be Alpha and everyone would listen to me.

“She said, ‘Why wait?,’ and she cursed me so that, any order that came out of my mouth, whoever heard me had to listen. They have to listen. They have to obey. It’s what I thought I wanted, but the reality is… how can you lead if you steal your pack’s free will? Who would follow me?”

I know the answer to that: no one.

A lot of things suddenly make sense. How Riordan is so careful to say things like ‘should’ and ‘suggest’. He gives options, and all along, I thought it was because he didn’t want to stop on the Alpha’s toes.

Oh, no. He must’ve stepped down, letting Max become the Alpha instead, the older brother relegated to the Beta role he once scorned.

Huh. No wonder his laugh was so hollow...

“Damn,” I said. And that’s all I said.

“It sucks,” he says, the understatement of the year. “But I’ve learned control. An Alpha doesn’t demand obedience. He commands loyalty. I’ve strived to do that. Max is our Alpha. My job as his Beta is to support him. In this case, he’s too close to you. He won’t want to risk you.”

He’s right. Max wouldn’t.