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Colt ran his tongue along the inside of his mouth, checking his teeth. He could’ve sworn that last punch knocked a couple of them loose. Luckily for him, they all seemed to be accounted for. Not too bad. When they last fought years ago, Colt lost two molars and chipped a fang.
He felt Maddox’s weight shift on his back. Peering over his shoulder, he found Maddox leaning forward, rubbing the rough, ruined skin on his neck with both hands. Colt didn’t even think Maddox was aware he was doing it.
The scars from the silver collar reminded Colt how much the Cage had cost Maddox, and what was at stake. Colt knew his brother couldn’t stand to lose Evangeline again. Discovering she didn’t remember him was bad enough. If they couldn’t fix this and fast, who knows how long before Maddox self-destructed?
Colt cleared his throat. “Hey? You feeling better now? Ready to start working on your bond again? Or do you want to go another round, maybe let me knock some sense into you first?”
Colt decided not to take it too personally when Maddox chuckled. He never thought he would hear that sound again, even if it came at his expense. And then Maddox told him, “My dick’s so hard I could use it to hammer nails but, other than that, yeah. I think I’m okay now. Thanks, Colt. I needed that. And, hey, at least I know the mating instinct is still working for me.”
“Don't mention it,” Colt told him. “I know I’m trying to forget how much I know about your dick.”
“Whatever, pup. I still think you’re jealous.”
Colt groaned as he pressed his face against his carpet. In this position, with Maddox purposely weighing him down, he was stuck. He couldn’t do anything except wait for Maddox to get his ass off of his back. He was just grateful he’d been able to get his brother to put jeans on before their skirmish.
It was bad enough Colt had to deal with his own erection. Dealing with Maddox’s… that just added insult to injury.
Maddox took over Colt’s spare room again. It was either that or spend the night sleeping in the vacant alleyway near Evangeline’s apartment building. With the revelation that, for some terrible fucking reason, his mate didn’t recognize him, heading back into Grayson would cause more harm than good.
He couldn’t get to Evangeline. He couldn’t make any sense of what was happening. Being so close to her would be a tease his wolf didn’t deserve.
So Colt, nursing a fading black eye and wearing a scowl, reopened his home up to Maddox. Until they could figure out what was going on—until Maddox could find a way to fix it—it made sense for Maddox to stay over at the Bumptown.
It threw him back to almost four years ago, right after he first found Evangeline. It had been pure luck—and a big ol’ dose of fate—that led Maddox to his mate that first afternoon. He’d been out for a run, choosing to take the drive to Woodbridge because it was open land that didn’t belong to any pack in particular. No dominance issues, no territory lines, just a good, honest run.
The wooded area surrounded a park that was popular with Paras and humans alike. He tended to stick to the trees, taking to the rougher terrain to give his wolf a challenge. Evangeline, he discovered, was the reserved type. On her days off from work, she liked to lay out on a blanket in a more secluded part of the park, reading a book while keeping to herself.
When Maddox caught her rich vanilla scent on a breeze, it was like a punch straight to the chest. It tripped him right out of his shift, going from wolf to man in an instant. For twenty-six years he’d been searching for a mate. He found her in a gorgeous brunette who shrieked when she first laid eyes on him.
At least he was already doing better this time around. Evangeline might have dashed into her apartment before he could confront her, but she hadn’t screamed. That had to count for something, right?
Getting Evangeline to agree to be his mate had taken ages. When he wasn’t prowling around outside the back of her home in Woodbridge, taking to the trees that bordered her yard, he stayed in Colt’s home since the Bumptown was closer to Woodbridge than Maddox’s place in Wolf’s Creek was.
Just like how the Bumptown was closer to Grayson.
Without bothering to change from his borrowed jeans, Maddox sprawled out on the king-sized bed his brother kept around for when he came to stay. He stared up at the ceiling, his thoughts racing.
He made Evangeline fall in love with him once. She was still his mate. His bond might not be as strong as it was, but it wasn’t completely severed like he’d feared. There was no denying the presence of his mating instinct; his erection didn’t go down until after the fight with Colt, when Maddox had to accept that getting his mate back wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought when he was waiting to be let out of the Cage.
The tether between them was fragile, weak, but it was there. Why else would he have picked up on her presence in the coffee shop? She locked eyes with him, too. She saw him.
Did she sense him?
He really fucking hoped so.
She ran, though. Maddox couldn’t forget that. Her scent was so muted, he could barely pick up anything other than the sickly sweet smell that clung to her faintly, but he could’ve sworn there was a rush of… of something right as she bolted for the glass door.
At first, he thought it was fear. When he forced himself to back away from the crackling wards, he almost talked himself into believing it was a burst of excitement.
Not the way he wanted his mate to react when he finally found her again.
But, then, she wasn’t his mate, was she?
Filled with sudden fury, Maddox unleashed his claws, slashing at the royal blue sheets that covered Colt’s guest bed.
She used to be. She should be. Just like the bond should have snapped back into place.
Only it hadn’t. And, as much as he didn’t want to, he had to face the reality that, if he wanted Evangeline back with him as she should be, he was going to have to do something about it.
