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3. Mia

He has to be high. Or drunk. Or just out of his damn mind.

There is no way that I want to pretend to date anyone, and there is no way in hell that I want to pretend to be Zander’s girlfriend. For one, I hate him.

Actually, that’s it.

I also don’t hate him. I just really don’t like him.

Part of me is never going to forget him looking me straight in the eye and telling me that we didn’t belong here. I don’t remember if those were his exact words, but the sentiment was clear. That we were draining the pack’s resources.

I squeeze my eyes shut. Then, when I open them, I take in Zander Black for the first time.

I don’t know that I’ve ever really allowed myself to look at him. There’s always been so much other… stuff in the way. Emotions. Feelings. Thoughts.

I’ve really just never stepped back to see what he’s like.

Tall. Really tall. The type of tall that blocks out the sun. His hair is a riot of dark tendrils, twisting this way and that. In the morning sun, I swear I can see blue highlights in them, like a blackbird’s wing.

That, however, could just be the fact that his steel blue eyes are glowering at me from his craggy face.

Not glowering, actually. What I had thought was a lot of brooding and general anger is probably just the fact that he has dark eyebrows and doesn’t smile much. He’s actually got a very handsome face, in the sense that the side of a mountain is handsome. Imposing, I guess, is the word that comes to mind.

“So?” he says in that rumbling voice of his. “Do I pass?”

“Pass what?”

“Your inspection,” he murmurs. The corner of his mouth curls in the barest hint of a smile.

I roll my eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m just trying to decide what I want to do.”

“You don’t have a choice.”

My temper snaps. “Oh, you’re going to force me to date you? Let me guess, for my own good?”

The fire in my voice is clear. Zander takes a step back. “I didn’t mean…”

“You didn’t mean anything. Because you didn’t think about it before you said it,” I bark.

“Mia!” I hear a shrill voice from inside the house. “AJ is eating crayons!”

I shut my eyes. “Shit. I have to go.”

“Give me your phone.”

“Why?”

“So you can text me your decision.”

A wail starts inside the house. “I don’t have a phone,” I snap at him. My hand is on the door, and I turn to look back. “Come back later.”

“When?”

“I don’t know, Zander. Just later.” I open the door, and it slams shut behind me.

I take one deep breath before zooming over to where the babies are, in fact, chomping on crayons.

It takes me ten seconds to sort it out and put everyone back to where they need to be. Then, I deal with another crisis, which is one of the older foxes coming to ask me if I can help them set up a library card.

Before I know it, the sun is turning gold, the late afternoon glow approaching, and it’s time to get the older kids from school. One of the older foxes takes over the task of caring for the kids. I go to open the front door, but a giant body is blocking my way.

I blink. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Zander shrugs. “You said to come back later.”

My jaw drops. “Zander. That was—” I check my watch. “Five hours ago.”

“I know. But it was easier to wait. You have a hornet problem on the porch. I’ll take care of it while you get the kids from school,” he says casually.

I stare at the very broad back descending my front porch.

I haven’t even agreed to this yet. But, apparently, I’m in a fake relationship.

With Zander freaking Black.

It turns out,I didn’t need to scramble to get the kids. I forgot that today is the day they go to soccer after school, and there’s another hour I need to kill.

Apparently, since Zander Black and I are fake dating, we are going to fill that time together. By getting something that will kill hornets.

“You know,” I say as we wander the aisles of the only hardware store in town. “I feel like if I really had a boyfriend, he would just grab the hornets.”

I stop short of running into Zander’s broad back. Barely.

He’s looking down at me. “What?”

“You know,” I say with a little smirk. “Like if I had a boyfriend, he’d just grab it. Bare hands.”

Zander blinks. “You’d prefer to date an idiot over someone who understands proper pest removal?”

Good lord. “It was a joke, Zander.”

“It was a terrible one. Keep looking, we need hornet killer.”

Sheesh. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“I didn’t laugh.”

“No, you didn’t,” I grumble as we round the corner to another aisle. “But…”

I do run into him this time. It’s like smacking face-first into a brick wall. I step back, shaking my head. “Ouch. What the hell, Zander? You can’t give a girl some warning? You…”

I stop. He’s staring at the woman in the aisle.

“Terra,” he says softly.

I know in a heartbeat that when Zander said he had someone he wanted to be his mate, it’s this woman.

I can see why. She’s gorgeous. Wolves always look like they’re Olympic swimmers, and she’s no different. She’s tall, with sculpted arms that are on display in her tank top. Even in leggings and an athletic top, she looks beautiful. Her curly auburn hair is truly beautiful, and even in the fluorescent lights of the hardware store, I can see how luminous it is.

Her skin is smooth and olive toned. Really smooth. Does she not have pores? I wonder what her skincare routine is like…

She blinks. “Zander.”

“What are you doing here?” he rumbles.

She holds up a pair of gloves. “I found a paper wasp nest under my mom’s chicken coop. I wanted to get it for her.”

“Good choice. Proper hand coverings are important for removing insects,” Zander grunts.

I blink. Hand coverings? What the hell? Terra looks just as confused, so I decide to swoop in and help him out a little. “He means gloves,” I blurt.

Zander stares at me like I just grew a second head, but I ignore him. I had to step in. The secondhand embarrassment was just too bad.

Hand coverings. Who calls them that?

Terra seems to notice me for the first time. Her green eyes, a much deeper shade of emerald than mine, blink. “I know what he means.”

Oh. Okay then.

“Sorry. It was just kind of weird. But speaking of weird, what type of moisturizer do you use?”

Oh, no. Now I’m the weird one.

Both Zander and Terra are staring at me.

Shit.

“Because ever since we moved up here, my skin has just been really dry,” I say in a blob of words. I can’t stop them, and I keep going. “And I just really think your skin looks good. Nice. It looks like you airbrush your face. Not that I’m assuming what type of makeup you wear. But if you did wear makeup… what kind is it?”

I feel my cheeks burn and assume that I’m blushing like crazy. Given the fact that I very much do have a very dry face right now, I’m sure that I look terrible, especially compared to the smooth and luminous Terra.

She looks at Zander, then at me. “I’m so sorry,” she says in a musical voice. “Who are you?”

My heart kicks. Is Zander going to introduce me as his girlfriend?

“This is Mia,” Zander says after way too much hesitation. “She’s… we’re dating.”

“Dating?”

He nods.

Terra smiles. It’s beautiful, of course, but I realize something else as she does it.

She’s relieved.

My stomach sinks.

“That’s so good. I’m so happy for you, Zan,” she says with genuine happiness. “Sorry, Mia, Zander isn’t the best with social stuff sometimes.”

I laugh. “Yeah, that’s the truth.”

“And I’d be happy to show you some of my skincare. I actually make my own. Mom and I do. You should come by sometime, we sell it at a little stand outside of her house.”

“That would be great,” I beam.

Zander grunts. “Good to see you, Terra.”

“You too, Zander.” She drifts away, and we watch her go. When I turn to look back at Zander, he’s staring at her.

My heart thumps.

Seeing Zander like this is putting him in a whole new light. He’s not Zander the badass pack enforcer who is being forced to fake date a fox. He’s Zander, average wolf shifter. Staring after a woman who doesn’t want him. There’s no way that I’m going to be able to make her jealous, though, because she’s not interested in Zander. There is no part of her that wants to be with him.

If he doesn’t realize that…

No. It’s not my job to babysit him. He needs to figure that one out on his own.

“She’s nice,” I say cautiously.

Zander gives me a tiny nod. “Let’s check the next aisle. Hornet remover,” he reminds me.

He meanders away, and I watch him go.

Zander Black has a heart after all. And, weirdly, I think it might be a little more broken than I thought.

Even more weirdly… I think I kind of care.

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