[Bears of Grizzly Ridge 01.0] His to Protect Page 15

  “I’m good. Let’s go shopping.” She pushed past Harper into the little boutique store and immediately busied herself digging through the racks before Harper could question her further.

  The store was small, but it turned out to be full of super cute things. The racks were stuffed with unique tops, skirts, and sweaters. Despite the fact that Chloe usually avoided shopping altogether, she found herself grabbing item after item until she was loaded down with a pile of things to try on.

  “This store is unreal,” she said to Harper, who was collecting her own large pile of clothes.

  “It’s great, right? Bree designs them all herself and since she’s a curvy girl like us...”

  Chloe’s eyes drifted over to Bree, who besides greeting them when they walked in, had left them largely on their own to shop in peace. She was at a desk in the corner, madly sketching in a notepad. At the mention of her name, she put her pencil down and joined them.

  “These are all so beautiful.” Chloe held up her arm and the stack of clothes she’d gathered.

  “Thank you.” Bree blushed and took the clothes from Chloe. “I’ll put them in a room for you to try on. I hope you find something that fits.”

  “I’m sure I will,” Chloe said. “They all look like they’re going to fit perfectly. I think my problem will be choosing which ones to buy. It’s so rare to find such nice things in my size.”

  “Right?” Harper nodded her agreement. “Bree’s store has been a total blessing.”

  “I don’t understand, though.” Chloe looked around the little store, whose name, the Bree Hive, made a lot more sense now that she’d met Bree. “I don’t mean this to sound rude,” she continued, “but how can you have a business like this in such a small town? I mean, it doesn’t seem like there are really enough people in Boulder Creek to support it.”

  Bree laughed. “There’s not. But it also makes retail space super cheap. And to be honest, the retail portion of my business is really quite minor. I sell mostly online.”

  “Online? That’s fantastic.” Chloe had moved into the change room that was made up of thick curtains breaking off some private areas. She was already accumulating a pile of items she had to have. “So I can order when I get home, too? I hate shopping, but your clothes fit me perfectly.” She turned and admired her reflection in the mirror. The royal-blue tunic she had on slid over her curves in a way that enhanced all the right places while at the same time minimizing the ones she wanted minimized.

  “What do you mean when you go home?” Harper was in the next curtain, but a moment later, her face popped around the thick fabric. “You’re not really going to go home, are you?”

  Chloe bit her tongue against a comment regarding boundaries, because something told her it would be ignored anyway. “I don’t understand,” she said. “Of course I’m going home. Why wouldn’t I?”

  Even as she answered Harper, she knew what the other woman was going to say, and she didn’t want to hear it.

  “Chloe.” Harper walked right into Chloe’s changing area. “You can’t leave,” she said slowly. “You’re Luke’s mate.”

  All the air was sucked from her lungs, and her legs buckled beneath her. Yes, she knew on some level there was an attraction between them. On some, very obvious level. But mate? No. Chloe didn’t do mates. Not even when every cell in her body yearned to be with Luke. To be in his arms. In his bed. In his—

  “I don’t mate.”

  “You don’t mate?”

  “No.”

  “You mean you haven’t mated.”

  “No,” Chloe said slowly. “I mean, I don’t mate. I won’t.”

  “Because you hadn’t found him until now.”

  “No.”

  Chloe needed the conversation to be over. She gathered up a stack of clothes, including the ones she’d worn into the store, and hauled them out of the changing room and to the front desk. Harper was right behind her.

  “You do know that Luke is your—”

  “Client.” She said the word firmly and pointed with her eyes to Bree, who rang up her purchases and tried not to laugh. From what Chloe understood, Harper was only half bear and still fairly new to the whole idea of it. But surely she must know the rules. They couldn’t talk about mates or shifting or anything else in front of humans. It wasn’t done.

  “Oh, Bree knows.” Harper waved her unspoken concerns away. “After all, she grew up here.”

  Bree nodded. “It’s true.”

  “I’m still not talking about it.” Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. “Besides, there’s nothing to talk about.”

  “Like hell.” Harper touched her arm and something inside Chloe snapped.

  “No!” She jerked away and grabbed up her bag of purchases that Bree handed her. “There’s nothing to talk about, Harper, because there’s nothing going on between me and Luke. Whatever you think about mating, or me, you’re wrong. You don’t know me. So back off.”

  Without waiting for a response, Chloe stormed out of the store and let the glass door with the tinkly bells slam shut behind her.

  Luke shook his brother’s hand off him and turned away to pull himself together. He’d done a good job hiding his feelings for Chloe from everyone. Or at least he thought he had. The last thing he needed was his brother’s opinions interfering in the middle of whatever the hell was going on with him.

  “Don’t bother trying to deny it.” Luke could hear the laughter in Axel’s voice behind him. It sparked a fury deep in his gut. “I’ve been there, remember. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

  “That’s bullshit.” He shook his head. He’d spent the last few days trying to figure out a way to have Chloe while at the very same time trying to figure out how to get her out of his head. More than that, he needed to figure out how to get her out of his entire system.

  “It’s not bullshit,” Axel said, no longer trying to hide his laughter. “It’s fate.”

  “Fuck off.”

  Luke turned, and both he and Axel stared at Kade, who looked as though he was barely containing his anger. If Luke didn’t know better, he would think Kade was about to let his bear loose right there in the kitchen. The fact that he wasn’t was both impressive and more than a little frightening. Kade shook his head hard. “You think you found your mate, too?” He spat the question at Luke.

  He couldn’t answer the question. There was no doubt that Chloe was his mate, but it was more complicated than simply feeling something. Besides, he knew exactly what Kade was thinking. It wasn’t long ago, when Axel found his mate in Harper, that Luke felt very similar things. “It doesn’t change anything here,” Luke said.

  “To hell it doesn’t.” Kade spun on his heel and slammed his way through the kitchen and out the back door, picking up a coffee mug and throwing it at the wall on his way.

  Luke waited a beat after he left before he exhaled.

  “He’ll get over it.” Axel moved silently through the kitchen, the laughter gone, and cleaned up the broken pieces of mug. “He’s still sensitive about…well…”

  “Mates?”

  Axel nodded.

  Not only did Kade blame the idea of fated mates on losing his twin sister, but also for the loss of their parents. The twins had been too young to remember their parents when the brothers were returned to their grandfather and the Jackson clan. They’d given up their father’s name, as well as their parents. Their grandfather never spoke of it and now that they’d been cast out of their clan as well, there as a good chance they’d never know. Not that it mattered much to the older brothers. Only Kade seemed to hold onto the past that couldn’t be changed. He blamed all of his life’s problems on mates. Ironically, it was Kade who’d benefit the most from finding a female of his own, to calm his bear that was clearly on the verge of getting out of control.

  “We need to do something about him,” Luke said. “He’s getting worse.”

  Axel nodded and shrugged in the same move. “He’s grown. We can’t force him to le
t go of the past. We can’t force him to do anything. Besides, we’re not talking about Kade right now.”

  “Yes we are.” Luke stalked over to the now unattended stove. Screw it. He was hungry. He took the lid off the pot of stew and grabbed a ladle.

  “It’s pretty crazy, isn’t it?”

  Luke didn’t pretend not to know what Axel was talking about. “I’m not talking about it.”

  “But it is, right?”

  Luke finished doling out his stew and returned to the counter. Instead of answering his brother, he shoved a spoonful in his mouth.

  “Look, Luke. I’m not trying to be an asshole, but—”

  “Then don’t be.”

  He didn’t turn, but he could hear Axel sigh next to him. “A mate is a good thing, Luke.”

  “She’s not my mate.” He dropped his spoon into the bowl with a clatter. “She won’t even talk to me. She’s been avoiding me for days. So even if she is my mate, I wouldn’t even know.” Except he did. “Isn’t it supposed to go both ways?”

  Axel reclined against the wall and crossed his arms. “There aren’t any rules.”

  Luke glared at him.

  “There aren’t,” Axel said again. “And if there are, I don’t know them.”

  “Then what is there?”

  Axel laughed.

  “What?”

  “It’s instinct.”

  Instinct?

  The stew tasted like cardboard in his mouth. He couldn’t eat. He couldn’t sit. He couldn’t think. He pushed away from the counter and like his little brother had before him, Luke stormed out of the kitchen. Only, unlike his little brother, Luke was going to do something about the animal inside him that was practically ripping and clawing to be let out. If he didn’t do something about it soon, his bear would destroy him.

  Will Luke realize that the idea of a mate just might save him. More importantly…will he be able to convince Chloe? Read the rest of His to Seduce today!

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  Copyright © 2016 by Elena Aitken

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  This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living persons. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

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  ISBN: 978-1-927968-42-0