me, and I know I’ve just stepped through some kind of magical barrier. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a flash of tawny hair and stumble. Collin?
I quickly right myself as my heart trips. But just as quickly as hope fills me, it disappears. It’s not Collin but a man who looks suspiciously like him. It has to be Collin’s father. He looks just like my mate only thirty years his senior.
At his side is a woman, also a werewolf given her strong build, and next to her are two men who I can only assume are Collin’s brothers.
My breath catches. As if sensing my distraction, my grandparents stop.
“Oh, it’s the Wards,” my grandma says. I can feel her watching me. “Would you like to say hello to them?”
“I…” I’d hoped to meet Collin’s family one day but this isn’t how I envisioned it. Still … I’m his mate, and I’m not leaving him, and since any chance of Collin introducing me to his family disappeared upon his arrest, I know it will be up to me to make the first move. “Yes. I do actually.”
“Bill and I know them,” my grandma says. “We’ll introduce you.”
Nerves eat at my stomach as we approach, but I hold my head high and fight my trepidation.
“Jared and Andrea?” My grandmother touches Andrea’s arm.
Andrea turns, her eyes widening. “Carol! I didn’t know you were here.” She pulls my grandmother into a hug, and I wonder if all werewolves know each other. After she pulls back, she dabs at her eyes and says, “Isn’t it awful what they’re saying? There’s no way my boy could have done those things. Lies, all of it! He would never—”
“Andrea,” my grandma says gently. “There’s someone you need to meet. This is my granddaughter, Brianna.”
Andrea wipes under her eyes again before extending her hand. “Nice to meet you. Are you a friend of—” She gasps before she grabs her husband’s arm. “Jared! This is Brianna!”
Collin’s father levels icy blue eyes on me. He looks so much like his son that all I can do is stare. Unlike his wife, he doesn’t extend his hand. He merely cocks his head. “Aren’t you the woman they found with Collin?”
I nod. “I’m his fated mate.” There. I said it. Now they know.
Both of them raise their eyebrows.
“His fated mate?” his mother finally says.
I nod quickly. “I would have been another victim if his wolf hadn’t recognized me for who I am. It’s why he didn’t kill me.”
Andrea pales, and Jared clears his throat before saying, “Brianna, you have to understand that we don’t believe anything they’re claiming Collin did. Our son may have acted a bit overbearing at times, but he’s not a bad person. He never would have killed those people.”
I shift my weight to my other foot. They don’t believe Collin’s a rogue? “Um, actually, his beast did commit those murders. Collin told me he did, but those horrible things he did were when his beast was insane—when Collin was still a rogue—but he’s not anymore.”
A small noise comes from his mother. “Are you actually implying that my son’s wolf killed those people?” Hysteria laces her tone.
“I’m not implying,” I say cautiously. “I’m telling you. Collin’s beast was a murderer. I experienced his wolf’s psychotic behavior firsthand.” I bring a hand to my neck, remembering the feel of his beast’s jaws closing over my throat. I’d thought I was going to die.
Andrea’s breath sucks in just as Jared takes her hand. “Andrea, let’s be on our way. Carol and Bill, you’ll have to excuse us.”
A horrible sinking feeling forms in my gut when they hastily depart. Fuck. I totally blew that. It’s only as his parents are walking away that I catch glimpses of Collin’s brothers following them. Both have dark-blond hair and chiseled expressions. While they don’t look identical to my mate, the resemblance is obvious.
One of them gives me a sympathetic look, and in it, I see that he knows what Collin turned into. He’s accepted that his brother went rogue even if his parents are refusing to.
“Shit,” I whisper when the courthouse doors close behind them. I want to hang my head, but I refuse to give into the dejected feeling. Instead, I whirl around to face my grandparents. “Why are they in denial?”
My grandma shakes her head sadly. “I’m sorry, Bri. That didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.”
“But how can they say that Collin’s wolf didn’t do those things? Of course he