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Bless her heart, her mouth drops, then it turns into a snarl that instantly gets Jonah’s attention.
He’s prowling toward us when I say, “And he kidnapped me last night to try to sever our bond magically.”
“The fuck?”
Yeah. My sentiments exactly.
18
After shooing Jonah away and explaining to him she was fine, like, three different times, Nathan, Kinsey, and I are sitting down in a couple of Adirondack chairs that circle a firepit.
“Your mate kidnapped you?”
“Drugged me,” I tell her. “We were at a party. I was drunk but not—”
“Oh, you were drunk,” Nathan interrupts.
“Okay, fine. I was drunk. I had too much, but not enough to make me black out. He drugged my last drink. The next thing I knew, we were in the middle of a field, and there was this weirdly dressed woman there chanting with her own set of drums. He told me she was going to remove our mate bond.”
Kinsey gasps. “What happened?”
“They didn’t get that far. Nathan found me,” I say, peeking over at him. He seems more amenable to me spilling my guts to Kinsey, but I don’t think he’d like it if I told her we were together. Plus, I don’t want to pull her into too much of my drama. Plausible deniability. If anyone finds out about Nathan and me, the only people who are going down are the two of us.
“Shit,” Kinsey says, worrying her lip. “So, he probably wants to break the bond so he can be with your mate,” she guesses, turning her attention toward Nathan.
He huffs. “That’s still the working theory, but we haven’t been able to gather any evidence.”
“That’s how I lost my phone,” I inform her. “I actually was recording it, but now I have no idea where it is. Probably left in the field somewhere.”
“Listen,” Nathan says, barreling ahead. “It’s not just about a missing phone. She needs a way to communicate with me. Us,” he clarifies. “Sean called, and he’s taking her to her parents’ tonight for dinner. She has to go, or it will look suspicious, but he already tried something with her once.”
Kinsey lifts her shoulders and lets out a long breath. On the exhale, she calls Jonah over. “You know how I can tell you anything and you won’t ask questions?”
“I actually don’t think I ever—”
She holds her hand up to stop him, and Jonah smirks. She gives him a placating smile in return. “Babe, I need you to get Mia a phone, and I also need to accompany her to dinner tonight.”
“Fucking genius,” I mutter.
Jonah eyes all of us. “You’re going to dinner with Mia tonight?”
“Yes. Mia and her mate.”
“I doubt they want you on their date.”
“Oh, it’s not a date,” she says. “Trust me.”
“Kinsey, I don’t—”
“—want to leave me alone? Perfect. You’re coming, too.” She turns toward me. “Your parents won’t mind two extra bodies at the table, will they? I’m sure they’d like to see that happy endings do come out of Greystone.”
My lips peel apart into a healthy smile. I knew I liked this girl. “I’m sure they’ll be more than happy.”
Nathan seems a little appeased. He even smirks when Kinsey reminds Jonah that he has to get me a phone. Jonah calls someone, whom he addresses as trainee, and tells them to bring one.
“Thank you,” I tell Kinsey. “I don’t know what to do. As usual, academy students are looked at like second-class citizens, so I can’t even tell anyone because they wouldn’t believe me. They’ll take Sean’s word for it since he’s the one who did the rejecting.”
Kinsey shakes her head. “The whole system is screwed up. And Lydia gave you a timeline?” Her words turn to ice.