Page 59 of His Rejected Fated Mate

“You on a stack out?” she asked as she climbed in.

I stammered for words, not sure what to say when she held up a sandwich. “I figured you’d probably be hungry.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“I called Ivan when you didn’t answer my call. He said you guys were busy and wouldn’t tell me. So I threatened to key his car.”

My jaw dropped. “You’re joking.”

She snorted. “I would never actually do it, but I got what I wanted. So, you’re stalking my uncle?”

I swallowed. “I might be, but you don’t have to be here. I know that…”

She shook her head. “I don’t need you to protect me, Troy. I need to know the truth about everything.” She sighed. “I want to help with this. Actually, I need to help with this. So, let me.”

I nodded. “Only if you want to. I’m not forcing you.”

She gave me a soft smile. “I want to. And besides, my uncle will give me more information. He doesn’t know that I know everything. Why don’t we use that to our advantage?”

“That actually might help.”

Over the next couple of days, Elize and I worked together. We monitored Martin from a distance. She went out to lunch with him one day, hoping to get information, but got nothing. I looked through anything of his that I could get my hands on, but found nothing.

Elize even tried to talk with the other council members, hoping maybe someone would accidentally slip up, but she got nothing.

We were sitting across from City Hall at a picnic. Elize was lying on her back, staring at the sky, while I could see straight into City Hall. I could see that Martin was on a phone call, nodding his head along. Elize managed to plant a bug on Martin’s cell phone, but we hadn’t received anything important back.

“You think this is obvious, what we are doing?” Elize asked as she turned her head toward me. She was wearing a sun hat and a summer dress. She had a soft smile on her face. I didn’t even care that this was a cover. I got to spend time with her.

“No, it looks like we are having a romantic time.”

She chuckled as she turned her gaze back up. I watched as Martin got up and started to pace back and forth, still talking on his office phone.

“You think we should have bugged his office?”

She snorted at this. “We could, but they do have cameras inside.”

I grunted and grabbed a pretzel, tossing it into my mouth. “I just need to stop thinking about him for a moment, and maybe another idea will come to me.”

She turned and rested her head on her hand. “I forgive you.”

My head snapped toward her, and she gave me a gentle smile. “I know that you didn’t mean to hurt me. I think a part of me always knew that.”

I swallowed, watching the way she fiddled with the strings on her dress. “But this is going to take time to adjust. I’ve put up a wall, and I’ve never been able to trust people the same way. And hearing that Martin… someone that was always there for me was doing things like this… it just…” She frowned. “It shook me. And I need you to understand that this is hard.”

I reached across the space and took her hand. “I know. I know this is going to take time.”

“You’re not disappointed?”

“I’m not disappointed. Does this mean I can kiss you at least?” I asked, glancing down at her lips.

I watched a blush cover her face, and a small smile pulled at her lips. “We’re supposed to be stalking.”

“Just one kiss and we can go back to stalking.”

She laughed, but before I could lean in, a scream erupted in the air. We both jumped and turned. Just then, I found a woman being shoved hard onto the ground across the street. The man pinning her down as his body started to shift into his wolf form. All the hair on my body went up as I realized what was happening.

“Shit!”