Page 4 of The Alpha's Runaway Mate
Her eyes go wide in shock, realizing I’m giving her what she was asking for only minutes ago. “What?” She asks.
“Is that too late?”
She chews the side of her cheek before tossing out her caveat. “Cash only.”
“Cash only,” I tell her. Hell, I’ll tell her anything she needs to hear to make sure she comes back.
I watch her walk back to a beat-up old truck and drive off. My protective instincts are going crazy. If it were up to me she’d be in an armored vehicle covered in cotton and silk or whatever material needed to keep her unharmed. The farther away she gets from me the more I want to track her down and keep her with me for always. I can’t do that, not yet. I’ll have to wait. She’s human and I don’t know how much she knows about our kind.
Right about now, she’s beginning to feel the effects of the mating bond. By the time she comes back tonight, it’s going to be hard for her to stay away.
I pull out my phone and call my mom. She’s human or used to be, anyway. She should know what to do.
“Nolan, I don’t normally hear from you in the middle of the week. Everything okay, baby?”
“Baby? Who in the hell are you calling baby?” My dad growls in the background.
“Don’t you sass me, you big bear. If you wouldn’t have come in mid-sentence demanding who I’m talking to you would have figured out it’s my favorite oldest son. He’s called to talk to his momma, now hush.”
“Nolan, how is everything?” He booms across the line like he didn’t just piss off his mate.
I can’t help but smile. He’s just as jealous and protective over my mom as he was when my brothers and I were younger. They’ve been mates for over seventy years, but you’d think they were newlyweds by how they treat each other.
“I have news.”
“We know. We already heard from Kolt,” Dad says.
“You heard from Kolt? That asshole isn’t answering my calls or texts. What news do you have?”
“What news do you have?” Dad counters.
“Will you two quit it?” Mom grumbles. “Nolan, what is your news, baby?”
I want to know what’s going on with Kolt, but that will have to wait. I have more important things to talk to her about. “I met my mate today.”
My mom squeals from across the line. “You did? What is her name? What is she like? Can I talk to her?”
I clear my throat. “She’s not here right now.”
My parents are silent for a few seconds. “Why not?”
“That’s why I called. She’s a human and I don’t know how much she knows about shifters and mates. I don’t want to scare her off by coming on too strong.”
“Makes sense,” Dad muses. I imagine him scratching his thick beard like he used to do when we were kids.
“Just because she’s human doesn’t mean she isn’t feeling the mating bond. When your father and I met, I felt it instantly. It’s a little scary if you don’t know what’s going on, but on a deeper level, she’ll know that you're her mate. That you two belong together. The hard part is getting her human side to reconcile with the bond.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I grumble.
“How did you meet her?” Mom asks.
“She walked into Snarl about fifteen minutes ago.”
Dad laughs and Mom ‘aaawwwww’s. “So where is she now?”
“She came in looking for a job. I knew she was human as soon as she walked in, so I… uh… kind of told her to leave.”
“Nolan! You didn’t! Were you mean to my future daughter-in-law?”
