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

Chapter 7 (Allison)

What luck, I thought, that we just so happened to stop in front of a Wal-Mart. Lady luck often didn’t side with me. I often got into trouble, somehow start a fight or stumble upon those who wished to start a fight. I often had to worry about the obstacles surrounding those I cared about, and now I was stuck with a man that could ultimately end up getting killed because he chose to stand behind me. So it was a rare blessing to see one thing, as trivial as it might be, worked in my favor.

“Are you going to be ok?”

I turned to give Aaron a pointed stare before I resumed pushing past the few people that were scattered about the store, my eyes searching for things that I’d need to survive…Not only survive, I reminded myself as I chewed at my lip, but to live.

I needed to keep myself occupied, to distract myself from hellish storm that was trying to claim my mind. Anywhere else, around anyone else, I would have already resigned myself to a crumpled pile of emotions that curled itself tightly in the corner it couldn’t get out of. I’d be eyeing the bottle of Jack that I passed three aisles back, and praying that I ignored the pharmacy.

Just focus on the task at hand, I reminded myself, You can do this easily.

“Allie.”

I jumped as Aaron suddenly appeared in front of me, pulling my hands up just in time to brace myself against the solid wall I nearly walked into head first.

“Christ, just back off, ok?” I hissed as I attempted to step around him.

I did the math in my head, it would have only taken three steps to move around his athletic frame, but I barely made the first one before I slipped. My hands flew into the air as Aaron’s arm flew around my waist and cool air drifted across my stomach when Aaron’s coat pulled open. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he pulled me from the ground to his chest in seconds, the three other people around us would have caught a glimpse of my white laced bra.

“Ignore me all you want Allison, but at least watch where you’re going.” He gestured to the wet floor sign that stood a few feet behind him.

“Quit following me like a puppy dog and I might not have to.” I countered as I pulled the coat closed again and stormed away.

“If I thought that you could pull yourself out of this mood on your own, then I would.”

I rolled my eyes and snatched a pair of jeans off a shelf in passing, “What mood?”

“You know exactly what mood.”

I ignored him as I moved towards a stack of white t-shirts and moved on to the dressing rooms from there.

Aaron kept following close behind me, raising the hairs on my neck and making my stomach flip every time that I felt the fabric of his shirt brush against the jacket. It was the softest of touches, undetectable by humans, but I could feel it as if he had placed a hand on my waist. There was an air about his presence that screamed protectiveness, but we were standing in the middle of one of the least threatening places on earth, surrounded by t-shirts and women’s underpants. There was nothing to protect me from.

Except yourself. My wolf whispered.

That’s exactly what mood I was in. The kind of mood that made me prone to nightmares, that made a little girl cry for her parents, and that made a woman regret every breath that she took. Suddenly the bottle of Jack I passed aisles back seemed ten times more appealing.

I could feel my back form against his chest as I came to a sudden halt. My face was already heating up from both anger and embarrassment as I looked back at him. What Shifter would hide the fact that his mate had suicidal tendencies, or the fact that he knew exactly when to worry about her.