Page 36 of Fake It ’Til You Mate It

And he came here? “Did you find out what happened? Roxy said it might be poison, but… any clues or scents or⁠—”

“Peppermint,” he says flatly. “I brought my best noses. None of us could catch anything but peppermint.”

Peppermint and blue lips. Unless we have a copycat, it’s the same person who killed Declan.

“I just stopped by to make sure you’re keeping out of it like I told you. But you… you were already calling me.” A muscle ticks in his cheek. “What’s wrong?”

He wants me to keep out of it. If my suspicions are correct, that might not be as easy as the sheriff telling me what to do.

“Hang on. I want to give you something.”

“Honey—”

“Two seconds,” I tell Max, holding up a pair of fingers. “Gus, watch the bakery. I’ll be right back.”

Taking his job as my guard opossum seriously, Gus clambers out of his basket and hops onto the top of the pastry display. He rears up on his hind legs, staring at Max. If he could, he’d be putting his little claws on his flank, warning the predator to watch it.

Hey. I’d much rather Gus try to intimidate Max than the wolf shifter growling softly and making Gus keel over, playing dead. The more Max tolerates my sidekick, the more I find myself softening toward him, and since that’s a bad idea right now… I flash him a grin.

“Two minutes,” I echo, then hurry through the swinging doors leading to the kitchen.

I don’t stay in the kitchen long. I head for the stairs, scampering up them, an opossum in her skin, until I’m rushing to search for my purse. Once I have the tiny pink sachet in hand, I race downstairs, returning to the bakery in time to catch Max rubbing Gus’s pointed snout, my supposed ‘guard’ humming softly at the touch.

I clear my throat. Max is an Alpha. No way he couldn’t sense me coming back, scent-dampener spell or not. He wanted me to see, and that’s something to think about at a different time.

Leaning over the counter, I hold out the sachet.

Max frowns.

“Go on. Take it. But be careful. Use the strings.”

He does. “Why are you giving me this?”

“Because Abigail gave it to me,” I tell Max. “And because I think it might be poisoned.”

CHAPTER 11

PROTECTIVE CUSTODY

Too many wolves around. They make my tail swish

and my nose itch.

I should probably plan escape tunnels for Mother and Gus.

— gus

Idon’t know how Max’s chemist buddy is able to analyze the tea so quickly, but just as I’m closing up the bakery for the night, I see flashing lights reflecting blue and red in my store window. My heart stops. I reach for my phone, just in case, hand on my chest when Max parks his cruiser on the side of the street. He leaps out, jogging to the door.

I’m already scurrying around the side of the counter, racing to the door to unlock it before he can even form the first to bang on the glass.

I yank it open. “Max?”

“You’re coming with me.”

What? “Why?”

“Because your instincts were spot-on, Honey. The tea you gave me was poisoned. It had silver in it. Wolfsbane. Chamomile and nightroot powder.”