Page 9 of The Wolf's Kidnapped Mate

And not one bit of that sound sliced through my heart. Nope. Because I was a steel fortress. And women like them wouldn’t ever get to me.

Never.

Faye skipped forward a few feet and flipped around, jogging backward to keep her pace with Kylie. “I’m not saying that. I’m just saying maybe it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Virginia got him a place here. He must be important to her.”

“Thensheshould mate with him.”

Kylie shook her head. “Virginia already has a mate, remember? Slater.” She sighed. “Fred doesn’t seem bad. He just seems grumpy.”

Wow, what a vote of confidence. While I didn’t shit rainbows or vomit sunshine, I didn’t think I was that dark. I retained a realistic view of the world—every bit of its horrifying glory.

“Yeah, he seems kind of…” Faye trailed off while pointing to her right temple. “You know, maybe there’s some screws loose up there.”

I growled as I shuffled behind a tree and paused for a second.Loose screws? Seriously?

Kylie stopped and flipped around. “Faye, did you hear something?”

I kept perfectly still behind the trunk, hoping to hell and back I hadn’t blown my cover. Because this lookedbad. To anyone else, I was being a huge creep, not keeping an eye on my best friend’s sister to make sure she didn’t meet a worse fate than an IED out in the middle of the road.

I was pushing the limits here. But I knew better than to move. So much as a twitch would set her off and I’d be caught red-handed.

And then I would hear even more statements from Faye about my unworthiness as a mate.

Goes to show what she knows, I thought angrily.I’d make a great mate. If I wanted to be one, I could.

Kylie pursed her lips thoughtfully and then turned back to her friend with a shrug. “Must have been a squirrel or something.”

“You have some sharp senses.”

“Faye, I’m a wolf.”

Faye giggled. “Uh,duh. We’re both wolves. But I don’t have nearly as much sensitivity as you do. It’s like you were a spy in another life.”

Close enough.

Kylie chuckled. “I think it’s just from watching my cousins growing up.”

That wasn’t particularly true. Kylie had been at Liam’s side for years after their parents got killed. When Liam said jump, Kylie did jumping jacks. She did everything with her brother short of going to the bathroom and taking showers. She didn’t have cousins growing up—none of us did.

She was probably talking about the black ops.

“Did you have a big family?” Faye asked.

Kylie nodded. “Yeah, roots everywhere.”

Considering we’d been stationed in many places, that had a hint of truth. Our missions were relatively small, but we could end up camping with up to fifteen additional soldiers at a time.

That was back when I was doing it, anyway. I wasn’t sure about the four years following my forced retirement. While that irritating meeting with my previous boss haunted my mind, I kept a close eye on the woman who had been announced as my mate.

I truly hoped it was just a ruse put up by the alpha, because Kylie and me together was just plain bad news.

“My brother is around, north,” Kylie continued. “I don’t hear from him much.”

Unfortunately, that remained mostly factual. Liam didn’t like putting those he loved in danger, so he kept correspondence to a minimum. Usually, something coded came through the mailon a postcard, or there would be an encrypted email that needed an entire team of cryptologists to decipher.

And it always turned out to say something like,Hey, what’s up. Miss you. Alright, take care.

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