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“Come on in. We’ll call Zoey. You can wait here for her.” Nova offered.
“I…” He glanced down the hallway again and frowned.
“We’re not serial killers.” Nova smiled, “I promise.”
“Yeah, no. I mean…” He ran a hand through his short hair, looking confused and frustrated. “It’s just… maybe we should wait downstairs?”
Maya’s heart softened towards him even further when he looked so out of sorts. It wasn’t his fault. It was the magic, the bond, the pull of fate guiding him to where she wanted him to be even though he didn’t know why or how. Her softening heart caught on a word she didn’t like coming out of his mouth though and she frowned.
“We?”
“Uh, yeah.” He made a motion with his hand and a small figure stepped out of the shadows to his side. “This is Violet, Zoey’s niece.”
Maya’s breath caught at the sight of the little girl. She looked nervous and tired. She was pale too but her hair wasn’t red. Zoey’s niece. Her wolf growled even before her brain put together what the words meant. Zoey’s brother was on her doorstep with Zoey’s niece. He had a child. His child? And did that mean…
“I’m his niece too.” Violet rolled her eyes. “Uncle Zander is being weird. Sorry. My mom was their sister but she died. That’s why we’re looking for Zoey.”
Air rushed back into Maya’s lungs and it tasted far too much like relief for her liking. His niece too. Not his child. He wasn’t already spoken for, at least not like that.
“Oh…” She managed.
Nova’s voice was nearly laughing when she spoke again, “My sister is being weird too. Sorry about that. Come on in.”
Maya shot Nova a dirty look and then forced herself to move aside and allow the two strangers into the apartment. They stepped in hesitantly and Maya didn’t blame them. The little girl, Violet, had said her mother died. She had to be traumatized. And Zander, well he was being assaulted by magic he didn’t know about and couldn’t understand. Hesitancy was the least to be expected on their part.
“Let me just go and get my phone.” Maya tried for a smile as she darted to her bedroom where she’d left the phone on the charger by her nightstand. In the other room she could hear Nova being her normal happy, welcoming self. She told them to make themselves at home, offered them drinks and snacks. Zander’s husky voice rolled through Maya when he responded and she hurriedly found the phone number she was looking for and hit dial.
They were probably asleep. She knew that. They had children. They wouldn’t be awake at eleven pm and a phone call waking them would no doubt send panic flaring but she didn’t know what else to do. The phone rang four times before a male voice picked up, sounding completely awake, alert and worried.
“Maya? What’s wrong?”
She breathed out a rough breath, “Rafe, I’m sorry to call so late but…”
“What’s wrong?” He repeated and in the background she could hear Zoey stirring, asking him who it was and what was happening.
Maya grit her teeth and then said the only thing she could, “There’s a man here at the apartment looking for Zoey.”
“A man?” Rafe all but growled and Maya winced, realizing she had led with the wrong information and the overprotective Alpha Wolf would be riled at the idea of any man looking for his mate.
She hurried on, “He says he’s her brother and I know she doesn’t have a brother except… she’s adopted right? And, well, he looks like her. I mean, they have the same eyes.”
“A… brother?” Rafe sounded a little less angry and more confused so Maya continued.
“Yeah and he has a little girl with him that he said is Zoey’s niece. It’s his niece too. Not his kid.” She winced at her own silliness. Rafe didn’t care whose kid it was so long as it wasn’t Zoey’s with another man. “Anyway, can you two please…”
“We’re on our way.” Zoey’s voice rang out in the background, loud and clear now.
“Thank you.” Maya sagged with relief. “Thank you.”
The line had already gone dead and she breathed out deeply as she put the phone down. A floorboard creaked behind her and she spun to find Nova coming into the room. She looked nervous too, as if she wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she was going to get from Maya.
“Did you tell them?”
“Yeah, they’re on their way.”
“I meant about the other thing…” Nova lowered her voice to barely a whisper, “the mate thing.”
Maya winced, “No.”
