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“Why not?” Nova frowned.
“I think they have enough to deal with tonight without me throwing in that Zoey’s long lost biological brother who is completely human and in the dark about all things paranormal triggered my wolf’s mating bond. Don’t you?”
Nova didn’t answer but she didn’t need to. Maya knew the situation was tenuous at best. It had been a strange couple of days and now it was a very weird night but at least now she knew what the impending sense of doom she’d been feeling was.
Her mate was here. She was bonded to a human man. And life as she knew it, was over.
Chapter Four
Zander didn’t understand. He had been certain Zoey was here. He had felt something inside of him pulling him to this place, to this door, from the moment he drove into town. He’d thought it must be some deeply buried family connection but Zoey wasn’t here and he was still feeling the magnetic sensation. The woman that had opened the door to him had walked into the other room and he had barely been able to keep himself from following her. It didn’t make any sense but he knew, innately, that she was the one who had drawn him here. She was the one he wanted to be close to. She was the one making his heart race and his blood heat despite the fact she was a complete stranger.
Maya DeLuca. He felt as if he knew the name, had heard it somewhere before, even though, rationally, he didn’t think there was any way that was possible. He had never been to Noir, Louisiana before so the odds he’d met her in the past were slim at best. The chances he’d met her before and didn’t remember her beautiful face? Impossible.
The moment she’d opened the door to him he’d felt a wave crash over him. Recognition. Attraction. Something more that he couldn’t put a name to. Seeing her had scrambled his brain and he was still trying to get his head on straight, to assure Violet that everything was okay and to politely accept the offer of drinks that the younger woman, the younger sister, had offered when the one named Maya came back into the room and sent him spiraling again.
She paused in the doorway and their gazes collided.
She was more than just beautiful. That word wasn’t enough, somehow. It didn’t capture all the little wonders he kept finding as he looked at her more closely.
Her eyes weren’t just brown. They were a shining and mysterious burnt umber. Her hair wasn’t just black. The long tresses that fell past her shoulders were the color of a raven’s feathers in a rainstorm and just as silky looking. Her skin was a luscious, tawny brown and there seemed to be miles of it on display since she was wearing only a tank top and pajama shorts.
She was tall and thin with nary a curve to her frame. Her muscles were taut and he immediately guessed her to be an athlete of some kind. She was slim but fit and nothing about her looked soft save for her ample lips which his eyes kept finding a way back to.
Maya DeLuca had the most kissable mouth he had ever seen but despite the sparks that were flaring between them he had enough good sense to know if he tried it, she was the kind of woman that would make him pay for it in pain.
And dammit, but why did that thought only make his heart rate faster?
“Zoey and Rafe are on their way.” She spoke and since his gaze was glued to her mouth he had to blink a few times to make his brain process the actual words.
“Rafe?” He frowned.
Maya exchanged a look with her sister. Neither of them spoke but he would have sworn they were arguing about something. Finally it was Nova that rolled her eyes and broke the tense silence.
“He’s going to uncover the truth as soon as they arrive. We should at least warn him.”
“He’s Zoey’s family. Not ours.” Maya’s shoulders tensed visibly when Nova quirked an eyebrow. “We should let her be the one to tell him about that family.”
“You’re being ridiculous right now and you don’t even realize it.” Nova scoffed, moving back into the small living room of the apartment and perching on the edge of a chair. She met Zander’s gaze and smiled in a way that he thought was probably supposed to be reassuring. “Rafe is Zoey’s… husband.”
Zander got the distinct impression that husband hadn’t been the word on the tip of her tongue but he couldn’t think of what else she might have said. Boyfriend? Partner? He scrubbed a hand over his jaw, trying to ignore the feeling that he was missing something important.
“She’s married?” He glanced between the two sisters and Maya was the one to nod.
“Yeah. She’s married.”
“That’s…” Zander looked at where Violet was curled up on the couch beside him, a glass of juice between her palms and her eyes wide as if she wanted to soak up as much information as she could. He reached out and squeezed her knee and she smiled softly. “That’s really good.”
He didn’t know if Violet had put together that his plan to find Zoey was about more than just locating his only living sister or not but she was a smart kid from what he’d gotten the opportunity to see in the past two months. If Zoey was married, happily married, then that was definitely a checkmark in the pro column of having her life together enough to take on the care of their deceased sister’s child. God knew he had never managed more than a third date with the same woman and that thought only managed to pull his eyes back to where Maya DeLuca still stood halfway in the room, looking for all the world as if she would rather be anywhere but here.
Zander forced his brain to slow down and focus, “Wait, thatisa good thing, right? Zoey’s happy? He’s a good guy? Why did you say you needed to warn me before he got here?”
Nova winced a little but tried to hide it behind a smile, “It’s a good thing. I promise. Rafe is a good man and he loves Zoey more than life itself. He and Zoey are kind of perfect together.”
“But…” Zander prompted, narrowing his eyes. “There’s always a but after a rave review like that.”
Maya snorted, a small smile cracking her lips, though she shook her head, “But… Rafe is also very possessive. Like, overprotective to the max. Nova wasn’t kidding. He’d lay his life down to protect Zoey and he won’t let anyone close to her that he thinks might hurt her.”
Zander frowned at the description of the man who was apparently his brother-in-law.
