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“It’s not. It was her fault,” Evangeline argued, her expression turning dark. Didn’t matter that, without Cilla’s interference, Evangeline was regaining more and more memories every day. If looks could kill, Evangeline would manage what Maddox just missed—Cilla would be a dead witch at last. “She’ll get what she deserves in the end. I don’t want you to spend another second thinking about her and what she did. I won’t let her win. She owned my memories for too long. Forgetting her will be poetic justice.”
Maddox exhaled. “You’re right. I know you are.” Bending down, he stole a quick kiss. It felt wrong asking for more while Colt was lying unconscious a few feet from them, but he needed that at least. Pulling away, he ran his tongue over his lips. “How did I get you to be my mate again?”
“Luck,” she said, punctuating the word with a small kiss of her own right on his chin. “Love.” Another kiss, this one on his cheek. “And a touch of fate, I think.” And a final lingering kiss on his mouth.
“Hey, fellas. Knock, knock, alright?” There was a ghostly hand reaching through the wood, waving slightly as Dodge interrupted the pair. “I hope you ain’t doin’ nothin’ I can’t do in your brother’s room, Mad Dog.”
Maddox scowled as he reluctantly moved away from Evangeline. “Cool it, Dodge. You know I hate that name.”
“It’s still better than Hounddog, ain’t it?”
Evangeline stifled a small chuckle. There hadn’t been much to laugh at since that day at her apartment, but Dodge always managed to lighten the mood.
“Did he just say ‘knock, knock’?” she asked, making sure. “He’s a ghost. He floats right through the walls. Why is he knocking?”
“Dodge thinks he’s charming. It’s his way of acting like he’s giving us some privacy in here,” Maddox muttered in explanation. Raising his voice enough to be heard, he called, “Come on in, you peeping tom. Lucky for you we still have our clothes on.”
Evangeline elbowed her mate in the side as Dodge drifted through the wood, a strange expression on his face. At first he was wearing his usual cocky smirk, his derby tilted forward to hide one of his electric blue eyes. Once he had fully passed into the room, he lifted his hand, resetting his phantom hat so that Maddox could tell that something wasn’t right. Frowning now, his brow furrowed as Dodge looked over at Colt. It was almost as if he was seeing his best friend for the first time.
Maddox felt the wisp of humor flee from the room. Dodge was Colt’s best friend, but Maddox had known the ghost for almost twenty years. Something wasn’t right.
He nodded over at him. “Hey, Dodge. You okay?”
“Yeah. Me? I’m fine. Just… just thinkin’ about something. Anyway, it seems Colt’s got himself another visitor.”
“Again? The witch was already here.” Luciana had balls, he’d give her that. The head witch stopped by last night to check on Colt. Like the time in the hospital, though, she left when Maddox snapped at her. He had decided she knew more than she was telling and it pissed him off. As far as he was concerned, until she was ready to help Colt, she could stay the hell away from him. “If she came back, tell her she can slink away again for all I care.”
“Well, that’s the thing, Mad. It, uh, it ain’t her.”
Dodge was Colt’s only friend. None of the pack would dare enter Colt’s territory unless they were trying to challenge him while he was healing—which was the same thing as signing their death warrant. Maddox would kill to protect his brother and every shifter in the area—packmate or not—knew it.
It couldn’t be anyone else. Maddox made sure of it. He had even gone so far as to be the buffer between Colt and their parents; that’s how much the guilt got to him. It was bad enough that he finally had to admit that he was released from the Cage, but the worst part was having to tell them that Colton had been thrown out of a window trying to save Evangeline.
Sarah was dying to dote on her baby boy. To calm her, Maddox promised, once Colt was back on his feet, she could come mother him all she wanted. And, yes, he would bring Evangeline to his parents’ den so that Sarah could see for herself that her older son was finally happy and whole.
But if it wasn’t Dodge, the witch, or his well-meaning parents… it couldn’t be anyone else.
Unless—
His claws unsheathed with a soft snick, his lips twisted in a possessive snarl.
“Who is it?” he asked Dodge. “If it’s Wright, you better scare him off before I do. I told him to stop sniffing around here.”
Evangeline sighed. “I keep hoping Adam will give up.”
“Fucking Adam,” sneered Maddox.
Apart from seeing Colt back to his full strength, there was nothing he wanted more than to challenge the human cop once and for all. Evangeline refused to let him. He didn't blame her. The outcome was inevitable: Maddox would tear the Ant from limb to limb and, because of Wright’s connections and the damn Claws Clause, Maddox would be put down in a heartbeat.
Evangeline didn't want to lose either one of them. But that didn’t mean she was keen on seeing her ex again, either.
After the crime scene was cleared and their statements had been taken, Evangeline and Maddox went straight to the hospital to be with Colt. Wright followed them there, cornered Evangeline while Maddox was filling out paperwork for his brother, and tried to convince her to press charges against Maddox for the kidnapping.
Evangeline immediately invoked the Claws Clause; now that they were officially bonded, the bond between them superseded any other laws. Wright tried to plead his case, explaining why he lied to her. She wouldn’t budge. Once he left, his tail tucked between his legs, Evangeline immediately found Maddox and told him what had happened. Her description of the devastated look on Wright’s face was probably the only thing that kept Maddox from hunting him down. That, and the fact that Colt had suddenly come to while he was halfway toward the exit. The orderlies and security team needed his help more than Wright needed to be taught a lesson.
The Ant took it as a sign that he still had a chance. Wright showed up at the Bumptown last night while Maddox was busy coaxing—well, threatening—Colt into eating his spiked dinner. Evangeline had been downstairs, washing dishes and catching up with Dodge when Wright knocked at the front door.
Evangeline turned him away. By the time Dodge popped into Colt’s room and got Maddox, Wright had already disappeared. Only Evangeline’s murmured please kept him from shifting on the spot and chasing after Wright’s cruiser.
