✷✷

"I can assure you we don't need Levi's help," I crossed my hands over my chest and impatiently tapped my foot, repeatedly, hoping the ticking noise would annoy Theo into compliance.

With the discovery of the mutilated doll still fresh on our minds, Theo promised we would not abandon our search for Ma. I did not know that entailed roping Levi Weller into the mix. I swallowed my distaste for the man the other day when I thought I would never have to lay eyes on him again, but Theo had other ideas.

Theo's wolf was on the brink of surfacing ever since the doll was discovered. As a result, his focus shifted towards finding out who planted the doll; his wolf would not allow him to focus on anything else. However, he knew the search for Ma was important to me, so he made a plan. He would bring Levi in to help with the search.

I could tell by the confusion drawn on his face, he was not expecting any resistance from me.

He looked puzzled when he said, "he's an expert."

I shifted my stance. "He claims to be. I don't buy it."

Theo's face morphed to display his unenthusiasm. Clearly, he did not like my skepticism. Yet, I knew deep down, if Theo really wanted me to meet with Levi, then he had the power and strength to make that happen.

Currently, we were back at the psychology building at Bridger University. We were only a few feet away from the lecture hall Levis taught in yesterday. While I was compliant on our trek here, a few feet away from the door, I had decided to raise my concerns. I did not want to enter the big lecture hall and discuss looking for Ma with a total stranger — someone I could not trust — especially someone who claimed to be an expert on the Borderlands.

It felt nauseating to think of the Borderlands as being something someone could be an expert of. There were real, breathing human beings behind the Border. While only a handful had left, it did not sit right with me that the Outside would have enough information to specialize in knowledge of the Borderlands.

"He has a master's degree," Theo arched his brows, a single ringlet falling into his face. My fingers ached to move the hair out from his line of sight, but I forced the urge down.

Again, Theo's words were foreign to me. I did not know what a master's degree was. Yes, we did have literature from the Outside in the Borderlands, but the literature was limited and often did not have details of the modern world as it appears now. "That means nothing to me."

"Sage," Theo's face lightened, his eyes shifting. I could tell he was growing impatient with me. His fingers pressed into the side of his leg as he tried to hide his elongating nails. His wolf wanted out.

I mimicked the same tone he said my own name in, "Theo."

He reasoned with me, "he could help us find your mom."

Smiling deviously, I said. "So could a witch."

His face dropped, his claws breaking through the fabric of his pants. "No."

"You're so infuriating," I grunted, flinging my head back.

"Something we have in common," Theo had calmed down enough to remove his hands from his side and instead copy my posture: crossing his hands over his chest.

Dully, I blinked at Theo. Soon, Theo's lips turned upwards as his eyes started to gloss over. He was mind-linking someone. But who? That's when it hit me.

"Theo, what are you doing?" My voice sounded rushed. "Theo."

I moved closer to try and grab his attention, but his smile only widened. I waved my hands in front of his face, but he did not blink. After a couple seconds of flailing my hands, Theo's eyes normalized, and he looked proud of himself.

"You'll see," his voice was too cheery for my liking.

On cue, only a couple moments later, the door to the lecture hall swung open. I glared at Theo as my body slowly swiveled to face Levi.

"Alpha Theo, Sage, happy to see you again so soon," he greeted, his attention directed towards Theo.

My lip twitched, wanting to scrunch up in distaste. Instead, I coughed, covering my mouth as I planted a fake smile on my face.

"Levi, I cannot thank you enough for agreeing to help us on such short notice," Theo straightened his posture, arms no longer crossed.

"It is my pleasure, Alpha," he nodded his head in a slight bow.

Theo looked at me and gave my hand a squeeze. "I'll be back later in the evening to pick you up."

Before I could get a word in, Theo turned on his heels and left the building. In his place, Max came walking in, sunglasses still covering his eyes. Rolling my eyes at Max, I followed Levi into the lecture hall. Our footsteps echoed in the empty room. In front of the whiteboard was a table. The last time I was in here no chairs were surrounding the table. Today, two wooden chairs were pulled up to the table along with a computer and countless boxes.

"So, have you started looking into the family?" Levi asked as we both took a seat.

"No," I breathed, my fingers pressing into the edge of the desk.

Not fully trusting Levi, I did not know if I should disclose information about Ma's family to him. I knew her name was Lianna Whitemore, but her maiden name was Rutledge. Would he be able to tell she was my Ma?

"Well," he did not look amused, his glasses falling down the bridge of his nose as he reached for his laptop. "That is where we will start. What was their name?"

Pausing, I took a deep breath in. "Lianna Whitemore."

"Was she married?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Maiden name?" his fingers started typing furiously at the keyboard. I leaned closer to try and see what was on his screen, but I was too far away from him to get a glimpse.

"Rutledge," I recalled, hoping my memory served me right.

Ma did not have a lot of family in the Borderlands. In fact, by the time I was born, they were all dead. She would tell me stories of her family on occasion to make up for their absence in our lives, but these stories came few and far between. I could not even remember my grandparents' names. I just remembered finding a dress stashed away in one of Ma's boxes with the name Lianna Rutledge written on the tag.

Levi's typing picked up, the clack of his fingers resounding. I cracked my knuckles as I waited for Levi to say something. I did not know why Theo brought me here. I knew he had good intentions; he wanted to help me find Ma, but I was of no use in such a search. I still could not operate a computer, and I most certainly did not know the limitations or lack of limitations technology on the Outside harbored. All I was good for was my knowledge, but a quick chat could have sufficed instead.

"Hm. It looks like a family by the last name Rutledge was one of the families who left eighty years ago to form the Borderlands. I will have to do some digging. In the meantime, look through the boxes and see if you can find any documentation of extraordinary events happening around the time this person left the Borderlands," he mused, not bothering to look away from the screen.

"Okay," I responded, the chair scraping against the tile flooring as I stood up.

There were several brown boxes stacked behind the table. I opened the first one, which was filled with what looked like police documents. I briefly wondered how Levi would be able to have this information, but I knew if he had the support of Theo, then no hurdle would be too big to jump over.

Taking a seat by the boxes, I started combing through the documents. A lot of the information was not relevant to our search. While most of the files were from the same year Ma disappeared, they provided no proof of an extraordinary event. I read through hundreds and hundreds of anonymous caller details, but each call that could have led somewhere had unreliable written by the detective.

As I moved on to the next box, my optimism started to leave my body. While it had not fully been there at the start, it felt like I was just tackling busy work — work that we knew would lead nowhere, but we had to check just in case. My eyes started skimming over the reports at a rapid rate, but nothing caught my eyes.

I could hear the intermittent typing on the keyboard, even as I was nearing the bottom of the last box. There was nothing. Ma — as I had suspected earlier — was a ghost. Exhaling, I leaned up against the wall after I shut the last box closed, coming up empty-handed.

While I was not successful in my search, Levi was yet to face the same fate. I could just barely see his computer screen from my position, and it looked like he still had information to go off of. My head started to lull back and forth now that I had nothing to preoccupy my thoughts. At the same time, reading hundreds of pieces of paper started to slowly chip at my mental abilities, leaving my brain partially fried for the day.

"Soooo," Levi dragged out the word as my head shot up.

"You found something?" I asked, blinking my eyes rapidly to ready myself.

"Not yet," he said casually before turning to face me. "I know what you are to him."

I squinted my eyes in a scowl. "What?"

A less than enthused smile appeared on his face. "What you are to Theo. I know."

I was taken aback. Had Theo told him, as well? Did he tell Levi the news of our bond to coincidentally get out to his pack? The thought had crossed my mind before. It would be so easy for him to accidentally slip up with his pack, forcing the beginnings of the mating process.

"How?"

"Your body language," he answered, lifting up his eyebrow. "I can see you put in a lot of restraint to resist the bond. He deserves better."

"Excuse me?" I glared at Levi.

"He deserves someone who will accept him. I can see the reluctance in your eyes," his face looked too smug for my liking like he thrived in telling me I was not worthy of Theo in his eyes.

His words did not hold great meaning to me. He did not know who I was. Sure, he had a fancy degree, but he could not possibly gather all this information from the two short interactions we have had so far.

"You don't know what you're talking about," I crossed my arms.

"He deserves a mate who wants him," he said. "Theo would never tell you that, of course."

"Then why are you telling me this?" I inquired, my eyes narrowing even further.

He sighed. "I'm just saying I can see through this act you put on. You might have Theo believing you accept the bond, but I can see your reluctance. And, if I can see it, it's only a matter of time before he sees it, too."

I scoffed, trying to scoot back further but there was no more room to scoot back. "That's none of your concern."

Raising his eyebrow, Levi turned around after shrugging at me. He went back to work at the computer. However, only a couple minutes elapsed before he said, "I've got something."

"What is it?" I asked slowly, cautious of what he would say.

"The Rutledge line died out twenty years ago. Not a single one is alive. Nothing comes up when I look for a connection between Whitmore and the Borderlands," he breathed out in defeat. "You find anything?"

"Nothing," I exhaled, looking up at the ceiling. "Nothing out of the ordinary happened twelve years ago. Nothing at all."

"Some people just aren't meant to be found, and I think Lianna Whitemore is one of them."