Chapter 206

I laughed as I clutched her hand as a lifeline. My mind kept dragging me back to that day. I had spent so much of my time focused on my next move that I had pushed my last life to the back of my mind—or I tried to.

But whenever I was asleep, my mind would bring me back to that day, to my son’s softly staggered breathing and his face pressed against my skin. I wake up with his scent in the air, and I have to search my bed to remember that he is gone.

Never even existed in this life.

“Before I tell you, I need to explain this. In my last life, I knew nothing I do now. I didn’t even know about my second wolf. It had always just been Nix and me.”

“Nix?”

“My black wolf. My secret Lycan.” I snorted. “She is my alpha. Megan, my grey wolf, is a gamma—still Luna rank, just not as strong.” I heard a snort in my mind. I sent back love, and she sent a wave back.

“Your power?” Toya asked, but I shook my head slowly.

“Because of who I am, I needed to balance my power and be able to control it before I could shift. In my last life, I was still as strong as I am now, but I had never shifted, and because of that, Shannon had a way of tormenting me. She convinced my pack that I was less of a wolf because I never shifted.” I rolled my eyes. “But that is a whole other thing. Anyway, because I never knew of Megan, I assumed my mate was Nix’s, but I was wrong. My mate was Megan’s. I never met Nix’s mate before I died.”

“So you have a second mate out there somewhere, who, let’s fucking pray, is better than the last.” I nodded. “Now, who was your mate?”

I rolled my head on my shoulders. “Megan’s mate is Brandon… Vince’s son.”

Toya coughed. “Are you serious?”

“I really wish I wasn’t.”

“Is her mate…” Toya trailed off and then grabbed me by my shoulders. “Is he! You haven’t rejected him? How does he not realize that you’re his mate?”

“When I died… I woke up on my eighteenth birthday. I asked my mom if I could reject him, and she could hear something was wrong. She knew my father could help save me.”

Toya flapped her arms. “Your dad has powers too.”

I cackled. “Yeah. When I went to his pack, I learned about it all, met my second wolf, learned how to change my scent.”

“But won’t that stop you from finding your Lycan mate?” I nodded. “Then why don’t you reject him and then move the fuck on?”

“I wish it was that simple.”

“Then tell me. I will help you. Whatever it is, I’ll help.”

“My father and Rowan think Vince is involved. I need to get close to him if I reject him.”

“How is getting close to him going to work?”

“I need to be able to figure out a way to get into their records, their systems, to see if they are involved.” I lifted a shoulder. “I’ll need to get into the pack house to do it.”

Toya shook her head. “I don’t like it.” I leaned against her as she wrapped her arm over my shoulder. “I don’t like that you have to get so close to him after he hurt you.” I just stayed silent because there wasn’t much to say. “I don’t know why or how, but I feel so protective of you. I can feel it in my bones that we were meant to meet.”

I nodded. “I feel the same way, but I’m not sure why or how. Normally, we feel this protective of our inner circle—our betas and gammas.”

She agreed. “But I’m an alpha.”

I pulled away. “Exactly.” I stood and pulled her with me. “Come on. I’m starving, and we aren’t going to solve the mystery tonight.”

She groaned. “I am so stiff.”

“I can honestly say I am excited to have a soaking bath before bed. These workouts and moving these couches in killed me, but I need food.”

Toya stretched, and I heard a pop in her back. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Did you want to try out the restaurant in the caff building? I haven’t eaten there yet,” I offered as we slipped our shoes back on.

“Goddess, yes. Let me call the others. We can make a night of it.” I pointed to her, and she pulled out her phone.

“I’m just going to check out my phone and grab a jacket. Then we can swing downstairs and grab them.”

“Living here is so much easier.”

“I know.” I ran to grab my coat, and then we headed out.