Page 18 of Deception

Summer left the meeting by one door, while Drew left by another, and it killed her to see him drive away. It hurt him, too — she could hear his bear’s anguished cry the same way she felt his inner pain.

Tonight.She shot the thought out after him.I’ll find you tonight.

She would have remained standing there for a good hour watching the plume of dust kicked up by his truck rise then slowly fall, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t afford to show any interest in the bear shifter who’d had the courage to enter this den of wolves.

What had brought Drew to Hope Springs? Was something wrong? She longed to voice the questions racing through her mind.

“Goddamn bear, coming up here like that,” Mett grumbled beside her.

She jolted in surprise. Whoops. She’d tuned out of the world for a minute, and that was dangerous. A good thing Mett interpreted her shiver of fear the wrong way.

“Don’t you worry, Summ.” He slithered an arm over her shoulders and drew her close. “I’ll keep you safe.”

It was all she could do not to dig an elbow into his ribs to keep him away. Far away.

Drew will keep me safe,she wanted to say. But shit, Drew was driving away, so the only one keeping her safe was herself. She couldn’t let Mett catch on to her. Not now.

She wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to create a gap between his body and hers. “Thanks.”

“Anything for you, darlin’.”

Claws itched under her fingernails as her wolf begged for release.

“Anything for my mate,” Mett added, and she froze.

“Mate?”

“Of course, Summ. Don’t you feel it, too?”

All she felt was a churning stomach and a yearning for Drew.

“Just think,” he said.

She tried really, really hard not to think of the horrors being mated to Mett might entail.

“We can make a new start, and we can continue my dad’s work. Carry on the crusade you fought so hard for.”

The only thing that made her more nauseous than the idea of being mated to Mett was the idea that she really had assisted the Blue Bloods’ sick crusade. She hadn’t meant to, yet she had.

A few weeks ago, she would have crumpled in shame at the thought. But she was stronger than that now. Wiser. More determined than ever to set a wrong right.

Tears and regrets wouldn’t change the past. All she could do was prevent the same from happening in the future by staying focused. Which meant keeping an eye on the goings-on in this pack and reporting to her friends at the Blue Moon Saloon. And it meant finding Drew to understand what had brought him to Utah. But how on earth was she going to sneak off unnoticed?

Mett tightened his grip on her arm, as if reading her mind.

“I’m just preoccupied about tonight,” she bluffed. “Who do you think will win?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Mett whispered with a sly smile. “I have a plan.”

All of a sudden, her whole body went on red alert.

“A plan?”

Mett nodded, looking supremely satisfied with himself. “A plan for both of us.”

His eyes shone with a hint of the madness she’d seen in his father at times, and her skin crawled. Still, she forced her body closer to his and ran a finger down his cheek. “What kind of plan?”

He groped her ass and yanked her close enough to feel his growing erection. “Can’t tell anyone, baby. But soon, I will.”

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