Rhett looked at the phone in his hand. It had only been two days. He shouldn't call her. If she wanted to get in contact with him, she would have done it already.

"Just call her." Tuck dropped into the chair across from him.

"Call whom?" Rhett put his phone away.

Tuck rolled his eyes. "Really, dude? We all know. Your mate. The one you let go home without telling her the whole truth."

"I told her the truth," Rhett said. "She still left. But that's neither here nor there. You're here to talk about Murry."

"Yup. Murry." Tuck kicked his feet up. "Have you looked at the files yet?"

Rhett picked them up off his desk and flipped through them quickly. "Basically."

Tuck laughed. "Man, you're really messed up over this woman. I'm telling you, just call her."

"I've been saying that all day," Beau yelled across the office. "You're wasting your breath. He wants to be sad about this."

"Typical Rhett."

Rhett shot the young dragon a caustic look. "I don't want to talk about her unless it's in this file."

"Fine, fine. Anyway, Murry is feeling better. He didn't do any drugs. He used to party when he was younger, but he doesn't anymore. We don't think this is related to the problem you had here in the nineties."

"Are you sure?" Rhett had done all the research, and it looked like the same problem. He couldn't believe this was all unrelated.

"The Council Members are sure. They told the three of them to knock it off, so it looks like this is all done."

"That's it? I don't believe this. What about Murry? What happened with him?"

Tuck shrugged. "Went rogue but not feral? Was having a bad night? Crazier things have happened, and he's been without a mate for his whole life. He lives with a girl but she isn't his mate. Shoot, maybe he's even a virgin, man. At his age, that would be enough to make me go crazy."

Beau came over. "That's a thing? I've never heard of that happening before."

Tuck stood up and patted him on the shoulder. "You're not a virgin, man. Don't worry about it."

"But have you found any instances of that happening?" Beau asked. "Did you at least Google it to check?"

"I'm curious about this, too," Rhett said. "How did you guys decide to close the case?"

"I don't know." Tuck took off his hat, fixed his hair, and put it on backward. "I'm not the research guy. I'm the face of my Keep. I don't know all this stuff you want. Check out the file. They gave you everything we have."

"Can I see that?" Beau asked Rhett. "I'd like to do some research of my own, if that's okay."

Rhett handed it to him. "Knock yourself out. If the dragons are satisfied, I guess I'm fine with it, too. I don't want to go around solving their cases and stepping on toes."

"Good," Tuck said. "They're ready to put this all behind them. Knox and Hayes feel pretty bad about scaring your mate. They aren't going to apologize or anything, but they would if they were... You know. Different."

"Nice," Beau said. "The word you're looking for is nice. Or decent. Or honest. They aren't good."

"They have their good moments," Tuck said. "You don't know them."

"And I don't want to," Beau laughed.

"Thanks for coming down, Tucker." Rhett stood up. "As long as they're going to leave Joseline alone, I'm fine with this whole thing, and I can't wait to put it behind me."

Beau and Tuck looked at each other and laughed. Rhett's ears burned as he growled and left the building with Tuck and Beau calling after him to come back. They were just kidding, but he'd had enough for today. It was close to the time he usually went home, anyway. He didn't want to spend any more time in the office with those two and their jokes.

He knew he was being stubborn and possibly stupid, but he was doing what he had to do. Joseline was better off without him. If she hadn't thought so, she would have stayed. At least he would get to see her again soon. Thanks to Brownie, there was no chance they would lose touch for at least a year.

That dog was the bright spot in Rhett's new life. With no mate and no joy, he was glad to have a reason to get up each morning. He loved his job, but it was getting harder every day. He'd been so close to happiness, and it had been snatched away from him. He didn't know what the rest of his life was going to look like, but he was going to do his best to make it count for something.

***

Today was the day. She was going to visit Lake Magnolia. The moment Rhett had left her apartment, she'd sat down and planned a visiting schedule for the rest of the year.

She didn't want to seem too desperate, but she hated not being able to see her two boys every day. That was how she still thought of them. Her two guys. She was such an idiot. Even though she was back in her old apartment, surrounded by her old things, Joseline was finding it difficult to fall back into her old life.

Nothing felt right anymore. She didn't know if anything would ever feel right again. The longer this went on, the more she felt like she had made a mistake. Maybe she should have stayed with Rhett, or at least told him what was on her mind. His confession had scared her, but it hadn't turned her off him completely.

The fact that he would never approach her was the kicker. That was the part she couldn't quite get over. Even their first kiss had kind of been her. She had been the one who had leaned in first. He had brushed her hair and touched her face, but it was she who had actually moved.

She didn't like that one bit. It made her doubt that he was into her. Combined with what he used to do for the dragons—what he had considered doing to her—made her feel like she couldn't trust him anymore. Maybe he was pulling a trick on her. Tucker couldn't get her to spend the night, so they'd sent in their closer. Or maybe that had been the plan all along: have Rhett swoop in and save her so she would be grateful and trust him.

Joseline had Googled the different kinds of shifter magic, then had called one of her friends to ask about it. If a regular mind-wipe didn't work, sometimes, when the target was in a heightened emotional state, it did work. After sex would be the perfect time to test out whether it would work on her. He'd done it before; that was what he had alluded to. It had to be. That was why he'd told her and had been so worried about her finding out. If she had known, there was no chance she would have stayed with him.

She was in her own bed, all by herself, and she was still thinking about him. Still wondering if anything he'd said were true. In a bed that didn't even smell of him, she was still kept awake by the memory of him.

It had all felt real. He'd done a good job convincing her that he cared. In the back of her mind, she was holding out hope that it hadn't all been an act, that what he'd told her was true. People could change, and not all shifters were jerks who thought humans were trash. She'd heard terrible things about dragons. but Tucker had been nice.

Rhett had worked for them, and now he didn't. He'd moved to a nearby town, but from the way he interacted with those teenagers, she was sure he didn't go to Abbott much.

Joseline sat up in her bed. She wasn't going to get any more sleep. This was useless. She put on sweats, grabbed her coat, and left her apartment. She was going to visit him and Brownie the next morning, anyway. She could drive out now and relax at the diner until it was a more appropriate time to show up on someone's doorstep. He'd told her to come over first thing in the morning, but she wanted to wait until at least ten. Anything earlier would seem desperate.

She didn't want him to know how much she missed him. Not yet. But when she saw him, she was going to talk to him. She needed to know. Was she his mate? If he were looking her in the eye, she didn't think he could lie to her, not about this. It wasn't making the first move. This was only gathering more information. If he told her yes, she would give him another chance. If he said no, she would leave him alone. As much as it hurt her, she couldn't pine after a man who had never wanted her.

Being as unlucky as she was, this wasn't the worst that could happen. The worst-case scenario wasn't him telling her no. The worst case would be if he were still working with the dragons and she would leave his house with her mind all scrambled.