Page 47 of The Alpha’s Unclaimed Mate

“For now.”

“You aren’t allergic to lilies?” He’s already up.

I press my tongue to the inside of my cheek. “I am.”

Adrian crosses the room, scoops the flowers out of the vase, and drops them in the trash can by the door. “Are you out of your mind? Throw them.”

“All right fine.” I sigh. “I don’t need them anyway. I just wanted to check something.”

Guilt spears me at the pain Mia had been in. I hadn’t thought she would actually have a reaction to the flowers. Luckily I had the antidote on hand.

Adrian stops, turns, and looks at me longer than I’d like. “What’s going on with you?”

“Do you remember ten years back?” I keep my voice even.

“What are you talking about?”

I force the words out. “Do you think I could have slept with a woman and not remembered it happened?”

Adrian’s brows climb. “I don’t know. You’d want Voss for that. He was running your schedule back then.” He scratches his jaw. “I was in the pack, not on the road with you. What window are you looking at?”

“January maybe.”

“You were playing a run of matches around then. Away the whole stretch.” He frowns, dredging it up. “You weren’t even in the city.”

“Which city was I in?”

“Ashford.”

Everything in me goes quiet. Ashford is where Jessa and Mia lived before Hemlock Hollow. It’s the city she loves enough to grieve.

I was there a whole month, hotel rooms I can’t tell apart, nights that blur at the edges. Somewhere in that month, did I find her, or did she find me?

“Do you remember anything else from—” I stop myself. “Forget it. I’ll call Voss.”

“Marcus.” Adrian’s watching me close now. “What is this?”

I don’t answer that. “Have you met Mia?”

“I haven’t met her. I’ve seen her around the academy.” He tilts his head. “What about her?”

I let the silence stretch, and I watch him put it together. He goes very still.

“You don’t think she’s yours, do you?”

“No.” It comes out tipped up at the end, more question than answer, and we both hear it.

“Marcus, the girl’s human.”

“Hybrids don’t shift until their teens.” I turn from the window. “Bella’s a full-blooded wolf, and she won’t change until she’s older either. We don’t actually know what Mia is. Bella has no wolf-scent on her yet; only grown shifters do. A child gives you nothing.”

Adrian sets the folder down. “You never met Jessa before. Did you?”

“I don’t remember her.” I rub the back of my neck. “But she goes guarded around me, and it sharpens the second Mia’s in the room.”

“That’s suspicious.”

“I’m aware.”