Page 37 of Twisted Mates

She steps out with three dresses in hand. “Did none of that work out? I thought the second one was cute.”

If I weren’t so freaked out by the Peeping Tom standing outside my door, I would have laughed in her face. That second dress was horrendous. I swear to the goddess, sometimes Carrington just does not understand what it means to be a curvy woman.

“No, and I’m ready to leave, like now. So can you hurry up, please?” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Uh, okay, chill out, Your Royal Highness. You aren’t queen yet.”

Well, that was kind of a low blow, but all right, if that’s how we’re going to be.

“I’m going to be at the front of the store, okay?” I say, and before she can say another word, I head for the door and wait at the exit.

I can’t shake the creepy feeling. My eyes dart around, looking for any sign of the hooded figure. I have a couple of false alarms. It turns out teenage boys have a thing for black hoodies. Every second that ticks by sets me on edge, and I swear Carrington is chatting it up with the cashier like she doesn’t have a care in the world. And honestly, aside from Kai being gone, does she really?

Every bizarre thing that is happening ismyproblem. It feels like my bad luck began the minute I felt that tug toward Kai. If I knew it would lead to all of this, I would have never reacted. At this point, I wish I had never found my mate.

“Are you ready to go?”

My body jerks with fright and I clench my hand over my heart. I push past the sinking feeling and force a smile. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

“What happened in there?” Carrington says as we walk through the open-air mall. “You were yelling something in the fitting room then all of a sudden you were ready to go.”

When we step out from under the awning and into the parking lot, the sunlight washes over me, and I immediately feel a little better. Still, the sensation doesn’t go away completely.

“There was someone watching me. In the dressing room,” I say, my voice low as if anyone around us could hear over the purring engines and talking mall goers.

“What?” she screeches, nearly tripping over her feet.

“Shh,” I say, placing my finger over her lips. “Not so loud.”

“Sorry. Someone waswatching you?” she hisses. “What do you mean?”

“There’s like, the tiniest crack in those doors in the fitting room and I guess if you stand just right you can see in. And this guy was looking in at me. And I was practicallynaked,” I say, my face burning red.

“For fuck’s sake, Alexia! Why didn’t you tell someone?”

“I tried! No one saw anything and by the time I got out there, he was gone. I don’t know?—”

But I stop talking and freeze mid-step when I see the vehicle parked just a few spots away from us.

A jacked up red Jeep. One that looks way too familiar.

“Fuck,” I whisper, my voice choked.

“What?” When I don’t answer, Carrington tugs on my arm. “Alexia, please. You’re scaring me. What is it?”

I grab her hand and pull her back toward the shops, but in such a way that I’ll be able to see exactly what I'm looking for. The telltale sign if this is the same Jeep from yesterday.

We reach the spot where I can see the back of the Jeep and sure enough, one of the rear tail lights is busted.

As if it has been shot.

“Carrington. We have to go. Now,” I say, and she must take me seriously because we are back to her car in fifteen seconds flat and speeding back toward home before the owner of the Jeep can even realize we’re gone. I don’t speak for the entire ride, no matter how many concerned glances Carrington throws my way.

“Alexia, please tell me what’s going on,” she says when we’re almost to our driveway and my breathing has finally evened out.

I take a deep breath and tell her everything that happened yesterday, including Xander shooting at the Jeep when I spun into our driveway and his trepidation about us leaving the house today.

“I blew him off like it wasn’t a big deal, but...” I blow a breath out that rattles my lips. “He was right. Someone doesn’t want me as our future queen.”

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