“That’s it. That’s your advice? Talk to her,” he didn’t think that could be all there was to it.
“That’s it, cousin,” she winked and scooted out of the truck.
Tonic waved and watched her go into her home, scratching his head and giving it a good shake before reversing out of the driveway.
Surely, Roxanne was holding out on him. There must be some sort of formula that worked, some potion or compound that would get him his mate.
He just had to find out what it was.
Grrr.
One
Maya looked through the paperwork she’d gotten earlier that day from Bowie Atiqtalaaq, one of the Enforcers for the Barvale Clan. They bore the heading of the First National Bank of Barvale, but she was still having a hard time understanding it all.
“Oh no, this can’t be,” she despaired once more at what she’d read and reread a second, third, and now a fourth time.
But no matter how many times she read it, the result was the same. That was Jill’s signature on the documents taking out a million dollar loan, but it couldn’t be.
She knew her stepmother would have never taken money out against the shop without telling her. No way. It was obvious that he was responsible, the dirty rat Peter Crawford who had tried a similar tactic on Maya’s BFF Nita.
Of course, she had a mate who had helped her catch the bastard and made things right, but that was before they learned how deep his crooked endeavors went. Oh hell, Maya was just one of his latest victims.
Her association with the Barvale Clan was the only reason Bowie had reached out to her. Though she was not technically a member, Maya knew all about Shifters. After all, her dad was one.
A million dollars? Might as well be a gazillion, she thought and wanted to cry. Even more upsetting than the actual documentation which was forged as far as she was concerned, was the fact that the money had been transferred from the business account to a separate offshore checking account that was virtually untraceable.
Some bank in the Caymans or some island, which according to the latest reports, was where Crawford and his father had fled to immediately after they were sent home to await charges. The Barvale Clan had sent a group to retrieve them, secretly of course, but from what she could tell, they were still in the wind.
“The bastards,” she growled and put her head in her hands before rethinking that and tucking them back in her pockets.
The temperature had dropped drastically after the holidays, and the little apartment she lived in over the flower shop was freezing. But what choice did she have?
With Jill away celebrating her new marriage to Tim Jacobs, Maya had nowhere to turn. She couldn’t bother the woman who had raised her after her father had died when she’d finally found happiness after all these years.
Her accounts had been frozen for over three days and she hadn’t known why until now. Not that it gave her any comfort. She’d thought it was just a holiday glitch. Now, that she’d been told it was a much more serious issue, Maya had no idea how she was going to live.
After some quick math, Maya figured she could keep the store running and have enough money to eat, even if it was just instant ramen noodles, but heat was a luxury she simply could not afford. Besides, the gas company turned it off earlier that day.
Maya trembled and thanked the heavens, she'd paid the electric bill before they could turn it off too. She pulled on a second pair of thick wool socks over the ones she was already wearing in hopes of reviving her numb toes.
She already had on a pair of thick thermal pajamas with sweatpants and a flannel shirt on top of them, but it was dropping to the teens overnight and she knew it wouldn’t be enough. With a fleece-lined blanket wrapped securely around her body, Maya laughed near to hysterics.
“This completes my new homeless-chic ensemble,” she said to herself with laugh that reeked of despair.
Concentrate, she told herself and sat up straight on the sagging, brown couch while she went through the bank documents one more time hoping to find something, anything to help her case.
“What time is it?” she muttered to herself and picked up her older model cell phone. Piece of crap was dead again, she thought with a huff.
It had been glitching all week. That’s what happened whenever a newer model was released, or so it seemed. The older ones’ batteries died faster and the supposed software “upgrades” seemed to make the older phones altogether useless.
She hated technology for that reason, but nowadays no one could survive without their smart phones. Maya had so been hoping to upgrade after the holidays, but not now.
Obviously. She rolled her eyes and dropped the thing back on the scarred wood coffee table. She simply had too much on her plate. With Jill’s date book, Maya had been able to confirm that there was no way the woman could have been available on the days the loan papers were signed as she had been onsite with various clients on those dates and times.
What hurt the most was the fact that Peter Crawford had not only gone after the business, but he had drained the small trust that was left to her after her father had died. Maya was virtually penniless.
Tomorrow, she reminded herself as a vicious chill swept through her body. Damn this cold! But she could get through another few days without heat. She was determined to.
Maya would have to go to the Alpha with the rest of the evidence she’d compiled. Marcus Devlin was an amazing man and had told her he would help even though technically she was not part of the Barvale Clan. Her little problem with being able to Shift kept her from having that honor.
Yes, it was true many Shifter families were mixed nowadays, but typically a human relative, if not claimed as a mate, would have to be inducted into the Clan for protection. Maya’s father had died before he knew his daughter was not able to Shift.
They’d had some early indications she was, well, different, but he couldn’t foresee the future any more than she. Thank goodness for her stepmother otherwise Maya would have been a true orphan and that thought was unbearable. She and Jill were as close as any two women could be.
That was why she’d refused to call her while she was on her honeymoon. Jillian and Timothy Jacobs deserved a little happiness and she was not going to intrude on them no matter what. Hopefully, things with Mr. Devlin would work out and she could get her heat turned back on by tomorrow night.
Shifters had their own brand of justice and their own laws, as well as prejudice and bigotry. She rubbed her head nervously. Maya was tolerated by Clan members only because her whispering abilities proved useful now and then.
Otherwise, she knew exactly where she stood with most of them. When one of their own couldn’t change into his or her animal, that person was considered damaged goods. A broken thing to be left alone. Always on the outside looking in.
Outcast. Broken. Loser. All the childhood taunts came tumbling back, but Maya buried the hurt as she always had. They simply didn’t know any better. People, even Shifters, were always afraid of those who were different. Her stepmother always told her that whenever she’d had a particularly bad day at school.
Paul Osborn, her father, had been wonderful to her despite the hard time she’d had growing up, but he couldn’t predict what would happen to his small family. He couldn’t know he would have such a short time with them.
Maya had been so young when she started to hear the whispers of the Bears around her. Her father thought that meant she was going to be a special type of Shifter. If only that were true.