Page 13 of Alpha's Forbidden Bond

Then—there was his brother, Andreas, who was the exact opposite. Rude, territorial, and completely uninterested in helping me at all. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve said that Mikeal’s brother was almost afraid of me or something. He treated me with such hostility, looking through the boxes just to make sure I wasn’t lying about being on a delivery. What was that all about? And then there was that whole thing about him marrying a woman he didn’t even know. It was all just so… strange. I couldn’t stop dwelling on it all.

Back at the bookshop, I tried to push thoughts of the morning out of my mind as I focused on reshelving books and tidying up the place before propping open the front door and waiting for any customers to come by. It was another quiet day, so I decided I needed to keep myself busy. The best way to do that was by checking things off a weeks-old to-do list that neither Georgie nor I had paid much attention to lately, so that’s what I did. When the owner herself showed up a little after lunchtime, she was quite impressed with my progress.

“This place looks so clean,” she admired. “Did you dust?”

“I did. And swept. And checked all the shelves to make sure things were actually in alphabetical order instead of just vaguely thrown together by last name.” I pretend to wipe some sweat from my brow. “Let me tell you, it’s been a very productive morning.”

“I can see that.” She grinned and dropped a bag of goodies from the bakery down the street onto the counter in front of me. “What has you in such a hardworking mood?”

“Aren’t I always hardworking?”

She laughed. “You’re harder working than me, that’s for sure, but this is overkill even for you. What’s up? Is everything alright?”

I shrugged. “Everything’s fine. Why do you ask?”

“Because the last time you ran around doing a bunch of extra chores nobody asked you to, it was because you’d gotten a call from one of your sisters and it totally threw you for a loop. Did someone else from your family call you?”

That was about a year ago, and I never did get ahold of my sister after that. She’d called once, but she didn’t leave a message and didn’t answer when I tried calling her back.

“No, nobody called. I just wasn’t in the mood to sit around, that’s all.”

Georgie eyed me suspiciously before grabbing a cookie out of the paper bag and leaning against the counter to take another look around the newly cleaned-up shop. “I can tell you’re hiding something, and I really want to know what it is… But then again, I don’t want to be that boss who complains when her employee goes above and beyond.”

“Then don’t.”

She groaned and turned back around to face me. “Oh, but I’m just too curious! I have to know, did something happen this morning? Did you get a call from that guy who bought all those books?” Her face lit up before I could even answer. “That’s it, isn’t it? He said he’s coming back into the shop today, and you wanted to impress him. Did I guess right?”

I laughed and shook my head. “No, Georgie, that’s not it. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the love story you made up for me and that guy is never going to happen, nor do I think he’s going to be coming back into the shop any time soon to buy more books. Like I said, he doesn't even seem like the type who’s going to read the ones he already bought. They were just for show.”

“Alright, fine, but then what is going on? Because I know it’s something.”

“You really want to know?” I looked out the window, hoping a customer might pop their head into the shop just then and force Georgie to drop all of this. The street was so empty, however, that, despite us being in Northern California, I wouldn’t have been surprised if a tumbleweed rolled on by.

“Obviously. Look at me. I’m on the edge of my seat.”

I sighed. “Okay, fine. This morning, when I was on my way to deliver the books to the senior home, I accidentally got lost and ended up driving onto the compound on the western side of town—the boonies, as you call it.”

Georgie gasped. “You told me you knew the way!”

“I thought I did,” I said. “But the roads all look the same up there, and everything is really poorly marked. Plus, I didn’t have cell service, so I couldn’t pull up my maps app.”

“But of all the roads you could’ve gone up by accident…” She looked like she was almost in pain. “Oh, Di, I don’t even want to think about what could’ve happened to you.”

I nodded. “To my credit, I realized that I had taken a wrong turn fairly quickly, but when I tried to flip around and go back to the main road, I drove over a broken piece of glass, and it popped my tire. Next thing I knew, I was stranded there in the dirt with only a rudimentary understanding of how to put my spare on.”

“No. Fucking. Way. Were you freaking out?”

“Well, I tried to stay calm. But yeah. On the inside, I was having a full-blown panic attack.”

“I would’ve probably had one too. Oh my god. How’d you get out?”

“Some guy came around and asked if I needed help,” I explained. “At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of him. He seemed nice enough, but you know even better than me what people in town say about the weirdos who live over there.”

“A man just walked on up to the car?”

“You’re making it sound more aggressive than it was. He was super friendly, actually. I was a little nervous about getting out of the car, but I really needed his help. I wasn’t going to be able to change the tire by myself, so eventually, I opened the door and accepted his offer.”

“And that’s it? He put the spare on, and you left?”

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