Page 75 of The Alpha’s Unclaimed Mate

They troop inside, the door banging shut behind them. The second it does, the grins slide off both my friends, and the yard goes still.

Cole climbs to his feet, brushing grass off his jeans. “All right. What’s going on?” No play is left in him now. “You don’t call the two of us out of nowhere and plant us on your door for no reason. Is Bella in danger?”

I look at the two of them. Daniel and I learned the game on that muddy strip behind the pack house with these two dogging our heels the whole time. We all grew up together, including Adrian. None of them ever turned their backs on Bella. They still swing by to check on her, the last piece of my brother any of us has left.

“Something’s happened, and I can’t take it to my uncle,” I say.

Tomas pushes up onto his elbows. “Well, spit it out. What happened with Bella?”

“It’s not just Bella.” I keep my voice low, in case it travels. “My daughter, too.”

Cole blinks while Tomas straightens up.

“Your what?” Cole gapes at me.

“Mia.” I hold his stare. “She’s mine.”

Tomas gets there first, counting back the years. “Mia’s yours. Which makes Jessa...” He works it a second. “Hold on. When did the two of you ever...”

“I don’t remember it happening.” Saying it aloud still turns my stomach. “That’s kind of another problem. Voss knows. He also knew she was pregnant.”

Cole’s lip curls. “Voss, that little jackass.” He shakes his head. “He’s been off ever since you started calling. Phone’s dead half the time, and word is he’s looking to change his number.”

“That’s interesting,” I murmur.

Tomas cracks his knuckles. “Say the word, I’ll drive out there tonight and shake it loose out of him.”

“Not yet.” I keep my tone even. “No sense spooking him worse than he already is. What I need is to trace where I actually was those weeks ten years ago, down to the last bar and hotel room.” I look between them. “You two were there for most of it. Can you help?”

Tomas nods slowly. “The bar. That sports place off the river with the bat wings, the one we practically lived in that season.” He glances at Cole. “The same owner runs it to this day.”

Cole’s brow furrows, a memory working loose. “You were off for quite a while there, Marc, three days or four. Your touch went to hell in practice, and you looked half sick.” He sits forward. “I flagged it to Voss back then. He waved it off, said you were drinking too hard.” A second passes. “But I’ve watched you put a whole table under and walk out straight. That wasn’t the drink. You snapped back afterward, so I stopped chewing on it.”

I purse my lips. “No bar keeps ten-year-old security footage.”

“Of course not.” Tomas grins. “But the owner forgets nothing, and half the regulars from back then still prop up that same rail. It was a quiet place with no press, which is why we could drink there in peace. People remember us there. I’ll go ask around myself.”

“Show him my picture.” I think it through. “Ask him straight whether I came in with a woman one night that season. I’ll send you a photo of Jessa so he knows the face.”

Cole studies me. “You truly don’t remember this woman, nothing at all?”

“No.” I drag a hand over my jaw. “But my wolf knows her. It’s been climbing the walls since the day she turned up, and it gets louder every time I’m near her.”

Tomas and Cole trade a look. I don’t like where it’s headed.

“Marcus.” Tomas keeps it careful. “You sure she’s not your fated mate?”

“I don’t think so.” The denial comes easily, worn smooth from saying it to Adrian already. “Daniel told me what it was like when he found Hannah. What I’ve got with Jessa isn’t that. My wolf strains toward her, sure. There’s no cord drawn tight between us, though. I’d feel it if there were.”

I pause. “Fated or not, she’s still mine. Both of them are.”

Cole huffs. “Does she know that? Because from where I’m sitting, she barely puts up with you.”

I laugh humorlessly. “She’s got reason to be pissed. Voss really fucked things up for me.” I rub the back of my neck. “She doesn’t know I’ve worked out that Mia’s mine. I’m trying to figure out how to reassure her that I have no plans to abscond with our kid.”

Tomas rubs his temple. “So you know, but she doesn’t know that you know?”

“I feel like we’re speaking in riddles out here,” Cole mutters.