The Protector's Heart (Wilde Creek Three) Read Online Free Page A

she slipped from the seat and her
booted feet hit the pavement. For just a moment, she squeezed his
hand tighter and looked up at him, brown eyes searching his…for
what, he didn’t know. Just as quickly as they had connected, she
released his hand and stepped away, a blast of icy wind separating
them as easily as the distance she created herself.
    Shutting the door, he growled at himself. He
was supposed to be watching over Brynn, not ogling his sexy mate.
Which made him wonder what the hell he’d do when he did manage to
convince Nila to give him the time of day. How could he be Brynn’s
personal guard and also take care of Nila and Jack?
    Shit. He’d have to talk to Acksel. That was a
conversation for later, though, since Nila seemed bound and
determined to keep Malachi at arm’s length.
    He took Nila and Brynn’s coats and hung them
up on the hooks inside the front door of the restaurant, and then
followed them to Brynn’s private table. A small placard sat on top
of the small round table that read, ‘Reserved for the Alpha.’
Malachi took up his place against the nearest wall and scanned the
restaurant. Luna’s was run by Quentin and Paula Smythe, who were
pack members. Malachi considered it a safe place, but when Brynn
and Acksel first got together, she was pestered by some of the
female pack members who thought she wasn’t a good choice for alpha
female. Acksel had made changes to pack law to protect the female
mates of pack members if they were human, but Brynn had needed to
stand up for herself and prove that she could be a leader. Which
she’d done quite well.
    His phone buzzed. He pulled it from his
pocket and saw a text from his younger sister, Mia.
    “Dinner tonight? I’m making pot roast.”
    “Sure,” he typed back.
    “I also need you to help me move the
desk.”
    He snorted. “Of course you do.” She never
invited him over to dinner unless she had an ulterior motive, like
needing him to move furniture.
    “Don’t get snippy, I’m feeding you.”
    “See you at six,” he answered and slipped the
phone back into his pocket.
    He scanned the restaurant again, nodded at
Zander, a protector and the son of the owners, who was bussing a
table, and tried not to appear as if he were eavesdropping on Brynn
and Nila’s conversation.
    “I don’t know,” Nila said softly as she
pushed a French fry through ketchup. “If he shows up at the daycare
again and makes trouble, they’re not going to let Jack come back
and then I’ll be up the creek.”
    “Hopefully he won’t, though. The cops told
him to stay away, right?”
    Nila shook her head. “When the cops showed
up, one of his cronies took the blame and said he was the one who
beat up the teacher, not Damien. The teacher was so frazzled that
she couldn’t identify Damien from a lineup and they took his pal’s
confession. When the police went to arrest him, he’d
disappeared.”
    “Disappeared how?”
    “Who knows? Damien’s dad has a lot of
friends, he probably just sent him out of state to another pack, a
thank-you for taking the fall for Damien.”
    “I don’t understand why he won’t leave you
alone. You left him, you gave him divorce papers.”
    Nila looked so sad right then that it took
everything in his power not to go to her and comfort her. “I don’t
know why, either. Falling for his charms was one of the worst
things I ever did. I don’t regret Jack, but I regret ever meeting
him or his pack.”
    Malachi hated hearing how much she despised
wolves, even though she clearly had good reason for her
feelings.
    When lunch was over, he wasn’t any closer to
figuring out how to talk to Nila. By the time the work day done,
and Brynn was closing down the computer, Malachi felt as
tongue-tied as ever when it came to the pretty blonde. Nila,
wrapped up in a dark wool coat, a white fuzzy hat covering her
hair, looked out the glass door and frowned. “It’s really coming
down out there.”
    “Do you want to ride with us? We can