Dana bit her lip and looked up into Jessie's big blue eyes. She glanced around the garage at all his tools. Jessie had looked so yummy this morning when he had saved her on the side of the road. She hated that their time together was ruined by dumb Chuck Updike’s dead body. Now she would have to go to the law.

She’d just found her fated mate, and now the Bear Patrol would probably think she had killed Chuck. Her luck hadn’t changed, it was still getting worse and worse. Fate had given her Jessie just to snatch it all away again.

Jessie put his hands on her shoulders and gathered her up into another bear hug, pulling her tight against his hard and welcoming chest. She breathed in his scent, full of sunshine and rain and rested her head against his burly chest. The fox inside her purred with contentment. All she wanted was to be home like this with Jessie once and for all. She had to trust that this was all going to be okay.

"Are you going to call the police?" she asked.

"I'll call Rollo Morris. He and my brother are friends."

"I'm going to trust you," she said, clenching her teeth.

"Everything is going to be okay. You'll see.”

“I hope you’re right,” she said nervously.

Jessie smiled at her and pulled his cellphone out of his back pocket. He dialed the direct number for the chief of police. Dana examined Jessie’s face as he listened to the phone ring.

“This is Jessie Kincaid. I need to speak with Commander Morris.”

Jessie waited. Dana took a deep breath and let it out, trying to get her heart to stop slamming around her chest. She’d been a prisoner of the Updikes for so long that the thought of the authorities scared the hell out of her. Jessie nodded at her and smiled as he listened to the phone.

“Hi, Commander Morris. This is Buck Kincaid’s brother, Jessie,” he started. “We have a situation at the Timber Bear Ranch. You should come out here and take a look.”

Dana raised an eyebrow.

“It’s hard to say over the phone, sir. But we seem to have found a dead body in the back of a car.”

Dana could hear Commander Morris’s voice grow intense over the phone. “That’s right,” Jessie said. “You’ll be here in a few minutes then? Good. We’re in the machine shop.”

Jessie flicked off his phone and shoved it into his back pocket.

“What did he say,” Dana asked.

“He said he’d be out here in a few minutes to investigate. He’s bringing the rest of the Bear Patrol.”

“Oh,” Dana said weakly.

She wanted to run away as fast as her feet would take her. The urge to shift into fox form and take to the woods overwhelmed her. The voice of her fox inside her mind yipped and barked to run away. But she couldn’t. Jessie was her mate and this was her chance to have the life she’d always wanted.

Jessie, seeming to sense her concern, walked to her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into his warmth. She felt a tear threatening to roll out of the corner of her eye, and she sniffed it back.

“I know we just met, Dana. And you don’t have any reason to trust me. But I will do everything in my power to protect you and take care of you. Whatever I have, it’s for you.”

“How did you get so sweet?” she asked, looking up at him with a smile on her lips that belied the tears collecting in her eyes.

“Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, stepping back and breaking away from his embrace.

“Just that, among the Kincaid brothers, I don’t think I’d be considered the sweet one.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because, well, I’m generally the brother who everyone knows likes to have a good time.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” she said, wiping the stray tear from her cheek.

“I’ve had a lot of… dates,” he said.

“Oh, then we’re a perfect fit. I’ve had exactly zero.”

She burst into a nervous giggle, and he patted her shoulder.

“This is strange for both of us,” he said, looking her in the eye. “Honestly, I never wanted to find a mate. Until I met you. And that was kind of an accident. My family kept pestering me to join and I finally did it last night. That’s the only way we got matched.”

“Why didn’t you want a mate?” Dana asked.

“A lot of reasons,” he said with a sigh.

She could tell the subject distressed him. She didn’t want to press it too hard, but the curiosity was killing her. Jessie was her mate, and she wanted to know everything there was to know about him.

“What was the biggest one?” she asked carefully.

“Probably… what happened to my dad after my mother died. She had an accident when I was a kid, and my dad never got over it. Even twenty years later, his love for his mate ruined him. It almost ruined the family and lost us the ranch. I couldn’t imagine ever being that dependent on another person. I vowed to live my life on my own terms.”

“I see,” she said quietly. It was a very sad story, but she felt she understood where he was coming from. “It must have been hard for you, growing up without your mom.”

“It was. Especially considering how her death was my fault.”

Just when she was about to ask how his mother’s death could possibly be his fault, black SUVs marked with Fate Mountain Police Dept rolled into the parking area outside the machine shop. Dana’s heart leapt and she gulped hard, trying to force it back down into its proper place. Jessie took her hand as the police cars parked and the officers stepped out onto the gravel drive.

“Commander Morris,” Jessie said, holding out his hand as the handsome, uniformed chief stepped toward them. The commander shook Jessie’s hand and his eyes turned to Dana, scrutinizing her face.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever met,” Commander Morris said. “I’m Commander Rollo Morris. And you are?”

“I’m Dana Myers. I’m a fox shifter who’s been staying with the Updikes for the last two years,” she said meekly.

“Staying isn’t exactly the right word for it,” Jessie corrected.

“What is?” Rollo asked.

“She was a captive. Sold to the hyena pack to pay off a debt.”

“Like they tried to do with Cyrus’s mate Daisy,” Rollo said, pulling a notepad out of his breast pocket.

“Exactly.”

“Well, not really,” Dana corrected. “One of them was going to marry Daisy. They just wanted to use me as a servant.”

“All right. Now where is this dead body?” Rollo said, pushing his aviator sunglasses up the bridge of his nose.

The officer who’d come with him was pulling equipment out of the back seat of the SUV.

“This is our technician, Damien Fellows. He’ll gather the forensic evidence and snap some photos of the crime scene.”

“I found the body in the trunk of this car,” Jessie said, popping the trunk.

Damien clicked a photo as the trunk swung open. Dana buried her head in Jessie’s chest, squeezing her eyes shut at the sight of the dead body. The smell was overpowering, just like raw meat kept in a hot car.

“What time was that?” Rollo asked.

“Right before I called you.”

“Whose car is this?” Rollo asked.

“I borrowed it from the mansion. There are a lot of cars there. When I decided to leave. I just took one.”

“I see,” Rollo said, looking her up and down.

Dana gulped. She’d been scrutinized many times at the Updike mansion, but never by someone with legal authority. She felt sweaty and her heart thumped in her chest. Dana’s inner fox was about done for; the beast scratched and clawed for escape.

“Why did you leave last night?”

“Everyone was drunk.”

“So, you left without them knowing?” Rollo said.

“Yes. “

“What time was that?”

“About four in the morning.”

“We’ll have to examine the body,” Rollo said as the ambulance approached.

It pulled up to the machine shop and the back doors opened. Two EMTs hopped out of the back with a stretcher in tow. They pulled the stretcher to the car where Damien was taking samples of the crime scene. He placed a hair in a vial with tweezers.

“We have all we need here,” Damien said to the waiting EMTs before they began to remove the body from the back of the car.

“I’d like to have a few more words with you down at the station,” Commander Morris said, squinting at Dana as he removed his sunglasses.

“Really?” she squeaked.

“I have a lot of questions for you, Ms. Myers. We should conduct our interview in private.”

“She’s not going anywhere without me,” Jessie interjected.

“I’m getting the impression that you two are mates,” Rollo said.

“Just found out this morning,” Jessie affirmed.

“We met on the side of the road,” Dana added. “It was very romantic. He saved me.”

“Is that right?” Rollo said, writing in his notepad. “What time was that?”

“About five am. I got her text on Mate.com. I thought maybe she was making a joke about being broken down on the side of the road. But I went out with the tow truck anyway.”

Jessie laughed, his smile broad. It seemed to glint in the late morning sunlight that streamed through the open shop doors. The EMTs wheeled the body into the ambulance and drove away as Damien continued to snap pictures and take samples. Dana eyed the technician as he went about his job. She knew that with her luck this murder would somehow be pinned on her. Jessie kept saying everything would be fine, but she didn’t believe it.

“Why don’t you both come down to the station with me,” Rollo said. “You can help us get a clear impression of what happened here.”

“The biggest question is, who would want to kill Chuck Updike?” Jessie asked, scratching his chin.

After two years with the Updikes, Dana knew the answer to that question: A lot of people.