Page 43 of Unforeseen Mate

“No. She left with her mate, but under the belief her brother was essentially a gangster. It is only recently that he has begun to reveal the man he truly is.”

“Maybe she’ll come back.”

“I hope so. I know what it is to be estranged from a beloved sister. Although Caye and I aren’t completely estranged, until now it was difficult for us to find our way back to one another. Selfishly I welcome what’s coming, as I believe it will help us to rebuild that bridge.”

Fallon took his hand. “Thank you for trusting me with that. I think you and Colby might be more alike than either of you would admit.”

Hayden thought for a moment and then smiled. “I fear you might be right, but I shall always be able to lord over him that I claimed my fated mate first.”

“Men,” scoffed Fallon. “But speaking of Colby’s fated mate, who is she? How do you know?”

“Aubry Hawthorne, and my sister confirmed my suspicions.”

“Aubry Hawthorne. I’ve heard that name before.”

“Alpha and leader of the Shadow Sisters.”

“Isn’t that some kind of conflict of interest?”

“Legally? No, but I don’t imagine he’ll be able to bring her to heel too easily. Do you play?” he asked, nodding toward a table set up with a chess set.

“Not for years and not at all well. I fear my strategic skills are not as good as I might like. I imagine you are an exceptional player.”

“I was, a long, long time ago. Shall we play?” He pulled out the chair for Fallon to take a seat before taking his seat opposite her. “Black or white?”

“Black, I think.”

“Interesting,” he said with a smile.

“I always had trouble making an opening move. I prefer to study and react.”

They spent the next few minutes playing and talking about innocuous things. The game provided them with a distraction and some common ground. Given the exchange of pawns in the center of the board, Hayden found himself in an interesting position. Fallon was well-positioned and had isolated one of his rooks. She moved her own rook into a fairly conventional position and waited.

Hayden realized she’d all but trapped him. His queen was protected, but if he moved her, he put her in danger. He could sacrifice his rook, but that would leave his queen unprotected. He made the decision to sacrifice the rook, expecting Fallon to make a more aggressive move toward his queen.

Instead, she smiled and moved her own queen to take his knight, leaving her own queen vulnerable and putting him in a much more comfortable position. He studied the chessboard. Thus far, Fallon had played a fairly straightforward game. Her last move had been unexpected, and he began to smile as he realized she was baiting him.

Pondering all the moves and countermoves he might make, Hayden laughed as he realized his mate had just kicked his ass. There was no way for him to win.

“Shall we call it a draw?” she asked.

“No,” he said, knocking over his king. “You won fair and square. Well played. I think you lied to me when you said you weren’t a good strategic player.”

“First rule of chess: never let your opponent know just how good you are. Confession: I enjoy playing chess online. It relaxes me, but it has been years since I played against a real live person. We are alive, right? We’re not like the living dead?”

“No. That’s zombies.”

“There aren’t really zombies, are there?”

“Not that I know of. And no mummies that rise from the grave and walk again.”

“Good to know. You’ll have to forgive me for asking, I’m new to all this paranormal stuff. I mean I have a good grasp of legends and myths, but I’ve always been able to back them up by finding evidence or not, thus knowing which is true or which is unproven. It occurs to me that you might know a lot of this stuff.”

“You may ask me anything. If I know or I can find the answers, I will share that knowledge with you.”

“So are Tanner and Caye your only family?” she asked.

Hayden nodded. “They are. Try not to judge Tanner too harshly. I keep hoping he’ll grow out of his arrogance.”

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