Armed with the information I pulled up on Todd Silverman, the shifter who shoved Mya, I park my rental car behind Todd’s truck. The bright yellow car is nowhere in sight. My guess is Todd’s playthings are gone. Doesn’t necessarily mean he’s alone. The background check listed him as mated.

Legally, a mate can be a soul-bonded female such as Riley is to Nic or a breeding partner like I once had. I’m going to take a wild guess and assume Todd’s mate is only a breeding partner. It’s damn hard to cheat when your mate is sharing your soul and knows exactly what you’re doing. Just another reason some males avoid forming soul-bonds.

Monogamy isn’t viewed as important among male shifters. Some packs even frown upon it, saying monogamy makes a male look weak. To me, sleeping around means you’re an asshole.

I never cheated on a girl, human or shifter. Never even looked at another female while my breeding partner lived. It’s about respect. Once you lose that, it all goes downhill. The sex is usually the first to suffer, as hurt feelings and resentment taint interactions. Considering I enjoy my lovers focused completely on pleasuring me, it’s not a risk I like to take. To each their own.

Todd’s sex life can’t justify my visit today. His criminal history does. It helps that Shifter Affairs is cracking down on shifters whose behaviors threaten to expose our existence to the general populace.

With my gun in plain sight and my official Shifter Affairs shirt on, I head to the house.

The front door opens before I get there. Wearing an unbuttoned pair of jeans, no shirt, Todd steps onto the small stoop. “You better have a good reason for being here.”

I hold out my badge. In my previous position with Shifter Affairs, I never flashed it. My unit worked on retrieval and undercover work. Now I’m a field agent, the equivalent of a human police officer. I’m supposed to show my ugly mug around this area, letting the locals know I’m going to be the one to bring their asses to justice if they cross the line. It’s the new directive of Shifter Affairs—more involvement, more action, less crime. Hopefully, anyway.

“I’m assuming Ethan Jager informed his pack of the new Shifter Affairs office located on the Kagan pack lands.”

Disgust slips over Todd’s face. “Yeah, he told us.”

Eyes widened in mock surprise, I study Todd. “Not a fan of Shifter Affairs? We do risk our lives to keep lay shifters and humans safe.”

“My personal opinions don’t matter. My alpha says we are to cooperate. That’s what I’m doing. If it was up to me, I would’ve attacked you the second you got out of your car for stepping foot on my property.”

I make a point of glancing around me.

“You own this place?” I know for a fact Todd’s uncle, Wyatt, paid for it. And Todd’s truck. Working part-time at the Jager lumber mills, Todd’s a paycheck-to-paycheck guy. No shame in that, but it means he won’t be able to afford any place on his own.

“Don’t you concern yourself with my business. I live here. You don’t. Tell me why you came out here, or I’m kicking your ass off my place.”

Apparently, Todd doesn’t like admitting he got a handout. Interesting. I can’t help but wonder why. Family takes care of each other. Or at least they should. “Technically, the owner of a house on pack lands is the shifter who paid for it or inherited it from his father upon his death.”

Todd crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the doorframe. His eyes narrow, and a calculating look settles over him. “By shifter law, that’s true. Is that why you’re out here? Did Wyatt send you? Say I didn’t pay my rent or something?”

Rent, huh? According to the records I pulled, this place was a mating gift. “Did you?”

Todd drops balled fists at his side. “I paid him everything I owed him this morning. If that fucker couldn’t wait a couple of extra damn hours, he needs to be given a lesson in patience.”

“By you?”

“Yeah, by me.” Todd steps off the stoop. “Now go back and tell him to bring his sorry ass out here.”

Todd’s relationship with his uncle wasn’t my reason for coming here, but my instincts have been triggered. “Why did you make him wait?”

“That’s none of your goddamn business.”

“Don’t you think it’s Wyatt’s?”

Todd takes another step toward me. My wolf, who’s been quietly assessing our prey, bares his teeth. A low growl escapes him. He’s prepared to fight, but he’s deflecting the decision to me. That’s a first. It’s got to be Mya’s presence in our lives. My wolf and I have a common goal now—this jerk who shoved Mya.

“I needed to burn off my aggression first.” Body vibrating, Todd moves closer to me and lowers his voice. “Wyatt doesn’t understand the shit I have to put up with.”

“What do you have to deal with that makes you so angry?”

Todd points to my car. “Get your ass out of here. Shifter Affairs doesn’t need to know my personal affairs.”

“I get that.” I nod, giving my best empathetic look. “If you don’t want to talk about Wyatt in front of your mate, we can—”

“She is my fucking problem! Wyatt knows that. Knows how much she pisses me the fuck off! Knows how much I hate her!”

Rage distorted Todd’s face when he pushed Mya. She also smells like Todd.

No! It can’t be. His scent on Mya isn’t strong enough to have resulted from licking and healing the bite required in order for a male to give a female a piece of his soul. The scent clinging to those bites are overpowering and meant to be that way. The strong claim is a deterrent to other males, and a constant reminder of whom she belongs to for the female. No words needed. Shifters instinctually understand and obey the boundaries and obligations of mating law.

If a male hates his chosen female, however, the best way to shame her is to allow her mating bite to heal naturally. She’d still be able to conceive his babies, but that’s it. She wouldn’t bear his visible claim or his scent. Or, if he was a sadist, he’d rub salt into the bite, searing it into her skin. I met one female who suffered that fate. She described the pain as being horrendous. She was also only a teenager.

The bastard who hurt her died at my hands. Then I walked away from my life as an agent. I was called before the Shifter Council and told I should’ve stayed out of it. The coward I killed was a prominent member of our society and more important than the female he mated.

If Todd hurt Mya the same way… I will my body to stay calm. Assuming is the worst thing an agent can do. I need more information before I jump to conclusions. “Why do you hate your mate?”

Todd rakes his fingers through his hair. He turns toward the house. “Tell Wyatt to go fuck himself. I’m done talking.”

“She’s in there, isn’t she? Your mate.” I jerk my chin toward the house. “That’s why you don’t want to talk.”

Todd looks toward the house and laughs. “She’s never been out here. Neither have our little brats. She can deal with their damn tantrums and shit. I never wanted her or them. Don’t want the babies she’s carrying now either.”

“Really?” Studying Todd, I look for some sign he’s lying. Every father I’ve met has been intensely protective of his children. It’s instinctual. Todd appears sincere in his insistence that he doesn’t want them, however. “Why have any children then?”

Fangs descended and face twisted with pure hatred, Todd glares at me. “Because Wyatt wants ’em. Our family needs strong boys to carry on our name. As the only breeding male left, I’m obligated to provide them. That’s it. I told Wyatt that’s all I’ll do too. That I wouldn’t care for them. Wouldn’t be a dad. His goddamn lectures about how I should make the best of the situation are a joke.”

Todd takes another step toward me. Modified nails extend from his hands. He flexes them, digging the tips into his palms. “Wyatt doesn’t have to touch that cold bitch. I’m the one who has to fuck Mya!”

Mya. He’s mated to Mya.

Pain spreads from my chest outward. Feels like someone stabbed me. I stare at this shifter—this ungrateful male who is mated to my true mate—and I don’t know what to say.

I’m too late.

“Your mate…Mya…” I choke on her name, but I clear my throat in the next instant. This isn’t about me. Will never be about me. “I’m assuming she doesn’t enjoy your touch.”

“What? Are you one of those liberal shifters who thinks our females should be fucking respected or some shit?” Todd laughs. “They don’t need to enjoy the sex. They just have to submit on the night of the full moon.”

Todd’s mocking voice adds to the ice spreading through my body. I can’t shake the sense of regret and failure. I let down my true mate. I should’ve saved her from this bastard.

“You are.” Shaking his head, Todd looks at me with pity in his eyes. “Males like you are pathetic. You know that, don’t you?”

I am pathetic for wallowing in my pain. Mya’s the one who matters, not me. “So are males who shove their pregnant breeding partners around.”

The muscles in Todd’s biceps twitch. He stalks closer, stopping just outside of arm’s reach. “Mya called the cops on me, didn’t she? Or was it one of those nosy humans she lives around?”

Nope. Not answering that question. Todd doesn’t need to know I was there. Or what I am to Mya. He could bring her out here, lock her in this house, and prevent me from ever seeing her again. “Why did you shove her?”

“It’s none of your business. Mating law gives me the right to do whatever I want to her.”

Curses whip through me. This bastard has hurt Mya before. I’d bet everything I own on it. Dammit, why did she mate this asshole? Unless… “Does it anger you that she never wanted to mate you?”

Todd invades my personal space. Fangs fill his mouth. The scent of cigarettes and coffee bathe my face. “She agreed to the sex. Unmated females know they take a risk every time they fuck someone. That they don’t get a say in mating. It’s a male’s right. It’s not my fault she was too young and naïve to understand that.”

The image of the teenager who once approached me, looking for someone to help her, returns. Fury replaces the cold regret in my body. I lean closer to Todd. Our noses touch. I allow a deep, low growl to escape my mouth. “How young was she?”

Todd shoves away from me and walks toward his cabin. I get in his path but don’t touch him. With the way I’m feeling, I might rip his throat out if I lay a hand on him. Just like I did to that coward four years ago. If I break the law again, I die. That was the warning I walked away with when I left the Shifter Council’s chambers.

“How young was she?” I force every ounce of my will into the demand.

“Get out of my way.”

“Answer. The. Question.”

Todd stares me down. I don’t flinch or break eye contact. He’s not more dominant than I am. We both know it. It’s instinctual. If anything, we’re probably equally matched. My motivation is a hell of a lot stronger than simply pride. I bet that’s what’s driving Todd.

Finally, Todd steps around me, conceding the dominance battle to me. “Do me a favor and remind my breeding partner that I have mating law on my side. I can take back her freedom as easily as I allow it. Make sure she never sees her little misfit pack ever again.”

“How exactly would you go about that?”

A phone’s shrill ring carries through the morning air. Todd glances at the house, then back to me. He smiles. “Mating law forbids me from killing her. Anything else is fair game. She knows that. So do you.”

With his threat delivered, he jogs to the front door of his house and disappears inside.

I stare at the closed door for a long moment. A different form of anger swells within me, making me feel helpless. I don’t like it. I also don’t know how to fight it. Todd’s right. He has mating law on his side.

I have nothing. Not even the chance to live and love again. I’m the walking dead.