Page 5 of Bullied Pretend Mate (Silverville Firefighter Wolves #3)

This was a mistake.

Obviously, coming to this party was a mistake, but it’s like a little baby mistake, a small Russian nesting doll inside the much larger one, which was coming back to Silverville in the first place.

What the hell was I thinking? Did I really delude myself into believing my grandmother might have actually left me something—strings-free—in her will?

For part of the drive over here, I had the ridiculous thought that she might have left me a heartfelt note, or even a video of some sort. Apologizing for everything.

Somehow, someway, I deluded myself into thinking coming back here might be some sort of resolution for me. A way to close the Silverville chapter of my life for good.

Or, at the very least, that my grandmother would have left me some money out of guilt for the way she treated me. And that I could use that money to finally get my business up and off the ground.

Instead, I’m dressed like an idiot, all puffed up for a party that nobody wants to see me at.

I could tell the moment I got here that it was a mistake.

When I couldn’t find Phina—or anyone else who was friendly, for that matter—I came up to the balcony and sat down in a chair for twenty minutes, sipping on my drink, resigning myself to finish the champagne, then make the embarrassing walk back to my rental.

I’ve put it off long enough, and when the elevator dings to take me downstairs—I have no clue where the stairs are, and no desire to try and walk down them in these shoes—I step inside, sucking in a deep breath and getting ready to brave the walk through the party.

But the elevator door doesn’t shut.

Instead, a hand smoothly slides between the two doors, and I can’t stop myself from gasping—it looks like the doors won’t stop, and their hand is going to be sliced clean off.

But then, it’s not. The doors open, and he slides inside, grinning broadly at me.

“Felix,” I breathe, unable to stop myself. I’d known there was a chance that I would see him. I knew, coming back here, that I could easily run into him on the street or at the store.

But I couldn’t have anticipated what it was going to feel like to actually be standing across from him in a space like this, his scent all around me, my heart racing at just the sight of his crooked smile.

He opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.

I should be telling him to go fuck himself, to get lost. I should be treating him to any number of the comments he made to me during our time in high school. I should be showing him what it feels like to smile like that, and to have someone wipe it off your face in a second.

If only there were a single thing about him that I could pick on.

For him, there was always my weight, my awkwardness, the too-big, draping clothes I’d wear to cover the body I hated.

But Felix is perfect, even if his hair is shaved a little too close to his head now, just a little forest of stubble. My hands itch to reach out and touch it, skim over it, see if it’s soft or rough.

I will not—I should have learned my lesson about my urges over Felix Rana.

But when I speak, I don’t tell him to fuck off. In fact, I don’t say anything that I should say to him. Instead, I fall back into our roles from childhood.

“You could have lost your hand,” I say, throwing my hand out toward the door, eyes wide. “What in the hells were you thinking?”

“I thought it was you,” he says breathlessly, as though he didn’t hear what I just said to him. “I didn’t know you were back.”

I bite my tongue, cross my arms, and turn to face the front of the elevator before realizing I never hit the button to go down. Reaching forward, I jam my finger into it, relieved when we actually start lowering, growing closer to my escape.

It has always been like this between us. Felix is doing something stupid, me trying to mitigate the damage. Him, jumping from the top of a tree to see if he can shift before he hits the ground. Him, daring me to get closer to the edge of the ridge.

Him, leaning in close, his fingers trailing up my arm, his eyes dropping to my face, my body.

“I’m not,” I say, and I can feel his gaze on the side of my face like a physical touch.

“You’re not,” he repeats, clearing his throat. “So, you came for the fundraiser?”

I snort out a laugh. It’s not like I’m doing poorly for myself—I’m one of the lucky people who made it to Los Angeles and actually managed to do something with myself rather than petering out on my dreams. I think part of that was the drive, the knowledge that there would be nobody there to catch me if I fell.

So I’m fine financially, even if I don’t have quite enough for the next steps in my journey. But even if I were dripping with money and pearls, there’s no way in any hell that I would put a single penny of that toward a fund for rebuilding Silverville.

This place has done nothing but hurt me.

And the people are judgmental and exclusionary.

Even if they weren’t explicitly fatphobic, there would still be the issue of my magic, which I’ve been able to exercise in Los Angeles.

I’ve even been able to meet up with a couple of other magic users there and practice little spells together.

Like what the five of us used to do. Before everything went wrong.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Felix says, and he must realize we’re getting closer because he starts to talk faster. “Listen, Maeve, I wanted to—”

The elevator dings, and I step forward, my mind a chorus of no, no, no —I can’t stand the thought of whatever he’s going to say next. Has Felix Rana mated? Met the woman who would finally soften and civilize him enough that he could apologize to me?

This is about to be worse than secondhand embarrassment. It’s about to make me wish I could melt into a puddle on the floor.

But before he can get the next words out, there’s a jolting shudder, and the lights inside the elevator flicker before turning off completely, plunging the two of us into darkness.

“Oh, shit,” Felix says, whatever he was going to say before mercifully forgotten. “That is not good.”

***

Felix only lasts ten minutes of sitting quietly in the dark before he starts to talk again. We’re on the floor in the elevator, our feet outstretched, my heels still glittering in the faint emergency light, his leather shoes shining dully.

Honestly, I should have known better than to expect anything less of him.

“Don’t worry,” he says, reaching out and knocking his shoe against mine gently. “This place is full of firefighters. We’ll be out of here in no time.”

“If a firefighter’s proximity to us was going to solve the problem,” I mutter, “don’t you think we’d already be out of here?”

His brow wrinkles for a second, taking me back to a million times in middle school and junior high when the two of us sat at a table together, me helping him through a problem.

Maybe if I’d charged for any of those tutoring sessions, I would have the money I need now.

“I’m glad you still talk like that,” he says, and when I raise an eyebrow at him, he clarifies, “Smart.”

It’s stupid, and his compliments shouldn’t bring a blush to my face. I’m glad for the darkness of the elevator.

I truly am cursed—of course, the first time I risk coming back to Silverville, I run into Phina Winward on the street and get stuck with Felix Rana on the elevator. It’s like a fun, all-you-can-suffer tour of the people who made my life a living hell.

To be fair, Phina didn’t. She was just a part of the group that led to the worst day of my life.

Felix, however, did. And no matter how handsome he is right now, and no matter our shared history, I will never forget the things he said to me in high school. When he was so hellbent on making sure everyone knew he hated me just as much as he was supposed to.

“So, how long are you staying?” Felix finally asks, and when he shifts his weight, I feel the elevator shifting along with us. For some reason, that reminds me of a bed, which makes me flush harder.

“I’m not,” I return, trying to harden myself once more. “I’m leaving tonight.”

“Tonight?” he asks, sounding, for all the world, like that news is disappointing to him. I don’t buy into it, stay on the defensive, just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Yes,” I say, crossing my arms, and despite all my reservations, I can hear the words coming out of my mouth. “My grandmother died, and she put me in her will. That’s the reason I came home.”

“Oh,” he says, and I hear rather than see him nod. “I heard about Calantha. Should I say I’m sorry for your loss?”

That makes me snort. Felix knew my grandmother—or he did, until the Ranas stopped associating with the Villareals after the fire. Which means he knows just how little I cared for her, and how much less she cared for me.

“No,” I say, and maybe it’s because I’m exhausted, or that this situation is honestly too funny to even feel real, but I go on, “You shouldn’t because she’s still fucking with me, even in the afterlife.”

“What do you mean?” I can’t see him that well, but I know he’s tilting his head like he always does when he doesn’t understand something. I would say like a dog , but we all have our wolves, and he’s the only one who does it.

“She left everything to me in her will.”

“Oh, that’s sick—”

“But only if I play along with her stupid games.”

He’s silent for a moment. “Games?”

“I have to…”

I pause and swallow hard, not sure why this part suddenly makes my entire body feel like it’s on fire. It doesn’t matter. I’m leaving tonight. We’ll never see each other again. I’m going to run away like a green Cinderella the moment this fucking elevator opens.

“I have to mate with an alpha. And that is not happening.”

“Oh,” Felix says, something a little rough in his voice. When he moves, he knocks his shoe against mine again.

I go on, “And it has to be acknowledged by the supreme, which I heard is Xeran now?”

“Yeah,” Felix moves again, knocking his foot against mine again, and this time, it sends a shiver up the full length of my spine.

“Yeah, he took over as the supreme when Declan died. It was rough for a little while, and people weren’t too happy about Phina, but I think she’s doing such a good job that—”

“Wait,” I say. “What do you mean, people weren’t happy about Phina?”

Felix pauses. “You didn’t know? She’s the pack luna, Maeve.”

My whole world tilts for a second, and I wonder if I drove off the side of the mountain on the way here and am really in hell. Or some version of the afterlife we never learned about in school, where everything you thought was impossible finally happens.

How in the world does a girl from our group go on to be with the alpha supreme? Especially when Xeran rejected her so publicly back then. How could she come back from that?

The questions flood my mind, and as though he can hear them, Felix answers, “They actually…Well, I guess Phina was pregnant back then. People are pretty understanding of them being together with Nora around.”

The teenager I saw walking with her.

“And especially with the new baby. And like I said, she’s been doing a great job. It’s like most people were willing to look past what happened. Also, not sure you know this, but it’s scary as fuck to be on Xeran’s bad side.”

I snort. I don’t know about Xeran, but I remember his father admonishing Phina and me in front of what felt like the entire pack. And that was enough Sorel punishment for me for an entire lifetime.

“I can imagine,” I mutter, looking up at the blinking red light at the top of the door, wishing I could say something like, So what do you have planned this summer or How are things going with you , but to say those things would feel wrong. Like an insult to the way Felix and I know one another.

“How is your mom doing?” I settled on it instead, because last I knew, Felix’s mother was having surgery.

“Great,” Felix says, nodding. “We found a really good shifter surgeon who was able to get her paw back into shape. Like it never happened. She’s right back to normal.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“I almost wish she wasn’t, then she wouldn’t be on my ass about—”

He pauses, his eyes going wide, and he stares at me a little too intensely for my liking.

“What?” I ask, uncrossing and recrossing my feet at the ankles, trying to ignore the urge to knock my foot against his again. “About what? And why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s perfect!” he exclaims, a grin spreading across his face. When he leans forward, looking eager, I’m reminded of a million times in our childhood that he had a perfect idea. Usually, that led right into me cleaning up the mess afterward.

“What’s perfect?” I ask cautiously, already ignoring the voice in my head telling me to run, to get out of here before Felix Rana pulls me into something stupid.

With the way he’s leaning forward, he’s able to touch his hand to my ankle, which sends a chorus of chills running the full length of my body.

“ I can be your mate.”