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She felt more than a little guilty as she pulled out onto the road. It wasn’t fair for her to leave her sister behind with yet another mess to clean up. But she was at least reassured to know that as soon as Nova called Leo he would refuse to let her stay alone at the apartment tonight.
Her sister would be safe and that was at least one thing she didn’t have to worry about.
Maya had planned to hit the road in order to clear her mind but now she had an all new set of worries running through it. She had a human mate who was about to learn supernatural creatures not only existed but that he was related to them. She had the full moon coming closer and closer to sealing her fate. She had concerns about what sealing the bond would mean for her wolf and her pack as much as she did about how Zander would react to the idea of taking on a wolf bond. And now, to top it all off, she had those stupid, reckless, rogue bear shifters most likely lurking in her family’s territory, just waiting for a chance to make her pay for bruising their egos.
She gripped the wheel tight and prayed to a fate she had sworn she didn’t believe in that if it was really the bear shifters that they would follow her out of town and leave her family alone. This was her fight, not Nova’s or anyone else’s. And if there was one thing Maya was good at, it was fighting.
Chapter Eight
Zander found Zoey sitting on a bench on the back porch of the big house, watching the sun set. He paused where he stood just out of her line of sight. His stomach twisted instinctively at the picture in front of him because his brain chose that moment to remember his mother sitting on the stoop of their little trailer house.
Zoey looked like her, though not as much as Zenia had. Zoey had curves and their mother had only ever been skin and bone as far as Zander knew. Still, with her copper hair tumbling over her shoulders and the orange glow of the sunset, the resemblance was enough to shake him out of the comfortable ease he had found here over the last few days.
He had spent a lot of time with Zoey since he arrived in Noir three days ago. He’d learned about her past and filled her in on his own, but still, he had a feeling there was something she was keeping from him. During all of their discussions, he had noticed that she often seemed to catch herself mid-sentence, stop and then change whatever it was she’d been about to say.
He’d noticed because it was strange. He might not know Zoey well but he had learned enough about her to deduce that she wasn’t the kind of woman who edited herself for the benefit of others. She was funny and feisty and full of opinions on anything and everything. Yet she was holding something back and it was gnawing at his insides because he couldn’t help but worry about what it was.
Zoey had been so open and welcoming with him otherwise. She’d invited him into her home. She’d taken Violet under her wing as if she was one of her own daughters. They had shared deep and painful memories of their family being torn apart in the foster system. But there were parts of Zoey’s life that she hadn’t let him into, like when her brother-in-law, Michael Hudson, and his wife, Luna, had come to visit.
They’d talked in hushed whispers that he was certain had been about him. He’d felt a strange shift in the power dynamics of the house when Michael and Luna had arrived too. Despite it being Rafe and Zoey’s home, despite Rafe being the older brother, they seemed to defer to Michael more often than not and he hadn’t understood it. He still didn’t. Especially not after the couple had left and Zoey had explained that her relationship with Michael had been complicated before he married Luna.
There was something off about their interactions. Something that didn’t sit right with him. But he couldn’t put a finger on it and he didn’t want to push.
He knew that he had no right to push.
It had only been a couple of days. He and Zoey had been estranged nearly her entire life. He couldn’t expect her to tell him all of her darkest secrets because he hadn’t earned that kind of trust. That would take time, which was something he was thinking of more and more with every passing minute.
He hadn’t come here to forge a brotherly bond with Zoey. He’d only hoped to find someone to help him ease the responsibility of raising his dead sister’s child. He had wanted Zoey to have a good life only because it would make it easier for him to foist Violet on her. He had come looking for a long-lost sister but instead what he had found was family.
He hadn’t expected to feel a connection to these people and certainly not to this place, but he did. He wasn’t sure yet what it meant, or what he could let it mean. He didn’t have any idea how to be part of a family like the one Zoey had created for herself, but the longer he stayed the more he longed to belong with them.
Only he had never really belonged anywhere so he had no idea what to do with that feeling.
“Zander, come and sit with me.” Zoey spoke and startled him.
She hadn’t turned her head. She hadn’t even glanced in his direction. It was another of those strange habits of hers. He didn’t know how she did it but she seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. She always knew what the kids were up to without looking at them. Just a few hours ago he’d been in the living room with the girls while they put on a play for him that they’d come up with and before he could even react, the moment that Gabby’s foot landed on the coffee table, Zoey yelled from all the way upstairs that she better think twice before standing on the furniture. He had to assume there was some sort of nanny cam set up in the house but Rafe had only chuckled when he mentioned it to him and called it motherly instinct.
That didn’t explain how Zoey had known he was lurking in the doorway though rationally he assumed she must have felt his eyes on her since they were the only two people in the house right now.
Despite the fact Zander had gotten the impression his sister was keeping him sequestered at the lake house, he had agreed to stay behind when Rafe offered to take the girls into town for ice cream after dinner. In all the time he had spent with Zoey they’d rarely been alone, not like this. He had welcomed the break from the kids even though they had a way of brightening his day and he had secretly hoped that Zoey had wanted him to stay with her for more reasons than that she just simply didn’t want to be alone.
“I wasn't sure if you wanted company.” he said as he moved towards her. “You looked so peaceful out here, watching the sun set. I didn’t want to intrude.”
Zoey smiled and patted the seat next to her, “Can I be honest with you?”
“Of course.” Zander took the seat she offered.
“I asked Rafe to take the girls into town after dinner because I wanted to talk to you alone. There’s so much that I need to tell you.”
“You can tell me anything.” He looked at her, really looked at her, and felt his stomach drop.
Zoey looked serious, far more serious than he had seen her since that first night when she had walked into that apartment and met him for the first time. She also looked… wary. It was a look that took him a moment to decipher because of all the things he’d learned about Zoey over the last few days, her easy, confident, trusting nature had been the most obvious.
Whatever she wanted to talk about, she was worried and that made the big brother gene in him that he hadn’t even known existed want to soothe and comfort her.
“Hey. Whatever it is. It can’t be that bad. Just tell me.”
Zoey didn’t look at him. She stared back out towards where the sun had turned the horizon a blood orange. The woods seemed to glow, backlit as they were. The forest in this area was beautiful and vast, surrounding them on all sides. Zander was both a little bit mesmerized by it and strangely afraid of it as well.
