Impending Mate, The Moltiare Collection: Bk2 (Sample)(Available on Amazon/SW)

Chapter 3 (Allison)

I tried going for the main entrance, but there had been too many people crowded around the doors. Even with every one of them turning their heads and moving towards the commotion there were too many people that would notice. There were too many people in the hall that would stop me to question why I would abandon my sister at a time like this, why I would turn away from a mate now?

Turning down a short hall, I tried moving as casually as I could past the people that were now rushing towards Jess. She was the focus now, Ethan would make sure of it, and even Aaron, who had been watching me all night, wouldn’t notice that I was gone until it was too late.

A door opened next to me and I stepped aside as a small girl moved past me. Inside the room were two bathroom stalls, both taken up and another person stood patiently by the sinks, waiting for her turn to go. I gave a small smile as the woman looked up and moved to lean against one of the walls, tapping my foot in an I-have-to-go dance that one would see if someone needed to use the restroom that badly.

I didn’t like it. I didn’t like just how much time that this was taking, all to get out of here and run for it, but I supposed, as I always did, that I’d just have to deal, lie, and pretend until the perfect opportunity presented itself. The fact that it came so naturally to me wasn’t a good indication of my life on the run.

I watched as the woman in line went before me, and listened quietly from the stall as she washed and dried her hands. I vaguely remember someone pushing open the bathroom door and speaking frantically, saying that the Alpha’s mate was in labor and he was calling for all of the midwives to be available if need be, and for the perimeter around the land to tightened until the night was over. Leave it Ethan to be thorough, I cursed.

My teeth pulled at my lip as I waited for the women to leave, listening for the footsteps to fade before I came out of the stall that I was in and moved to lock the door. Behind me, a small window had been propped open for air, but it was too high up on the wall for someone of my height to reach. When all I found was an unsteady trash can to prop me up, the internal grumbling began.

Even then, getting myself through the window had been more of a pain that I could have imagined. I scraped my knee on the way up, barely fit, and tore the sash on my gown before I could get my body halfway through the tiny space, not to mention trying to land on the steep ground beneath me, while keeping my balance in the pair of heals that Marie had forced me into that morning.

Still, I managed, and once I scanned the area around me to be sure that I was alone, I tore off the heels and tossed them to the side. I wouldn’t need shoes anyway. I did most of my running in wolf form and when I did need them, it was always easy to find the pair that nobody would miss if I just happened to slip them onto my feet and walk off.

I’d need a new plan. The howls given off in the night told me that both the Cats and Wolves were joining together to be sure that no Shifter made it onto…or off, the land without them knowing. I couldn’t leave by foot, and there were too many people in this town that recognized my face by now. If only I hadn’t spent so much time here, or so much time out in the open.

But Jessie had insisted that I go to school. I could have told her that I already knew enough, but she didn’t want to hear it, and it made her so happy to see me taking part in something that I didn’t want to let her down.

A rush of wind blew past me as I ran parallel to the road and I looked up into the tail lights of a small station wagon as it turned down another road ahead. I slowed as I came to the crossroads myself, my wolf taking a cautious breath as she turned her head from side to side. It wasn’t until I padded across the asphalt that I realized where I was.

My wolf had turned us back in the direction of the house, the inside of her nose prickling with a familiar scent that had me clawing and pulling her back into my mind. I hadn’t realized that I had let her have so much control, or that she would have gone seeking the comfort in Aaron’s scent.