Page 1 of Hunted

1

AERIN

“Three different ice cream flavors would be greedy, wouldn’t it?” I eye the ice cream through the glass chiller refrigerator longingly.

I’ve already tossed a pint of chocolate in my shopping cart. The salted caramel followed, and now, the mint and chocolate chip is proving to be a temptation that I’m having serious difficulties passing up, even though it’s not even midday yet and I had a big breakfast with Mack this morning.

“There’s no such thing as too much ice cream, Aerin. Move out of the way.” Penny, my shopping companion this morning, gives me a gentle nudge.

I step aside, smiling faintly as she tosses two tubs of mint and chocolate chip into our shopping carts, eyes the chiller thoughtfully, then snags two of the pistachio as well.

She catches me looking and shrugs. “What? Pregnant women have urges.”

I bounce my gaze between my pregnant belly and her flat stomach. She’s wearing a pretty hot pink maxi dress that should clash with her long, copper red hair, but it works. “So, what’s your excuse?”

She grins at me. “Why not? We only live once, right?”

We’ve been in the store for thirty minutes, and even though I’m in a baggy white pair of linen drawstring pants, flat sandals and an oversized blue button up, which are some of the comfiest clothes I own, my lower back and my ankles are reminding me that it’s time I put my feet up.

Penny’s favorite place in the world is the baking aisle in the Winter Lake grocery store. The diner, across the street, has become my favorite place since my pregnancy cravings for anything sweet have kicked up a gear. So now we combine our loves.

I do some grocery shopping with Penny, and once we’re through, we pack up our cars and head across the street to indulge in burgers, fries, and chocolate shakes so thick that when you stick a straw in it, it stands up.

It’s our weekly indulgence.

“Can we swing by the fresh baked goods?” Penny asks.

I can guess why.

“They’ll be sold out, Pen.”

Penny, for all her easygoing cheerfulness and big smiles, loves to bake, but she’s incredibly insecure about not being good enough. A lot of that goes back to a former partner who liked to make himself big by making her feel small.

After she narrowly missed out on winning a baking competition because of nepotism by the judge, Colton, her mate, convinced her to speak to the grocery store manager about stocking some of her home-baked cakes.

Penny didn’t believe he would be interested, and if he was, then her cakes would sit on the shelves gathering dust because the grocery store manager was only stocking them to be nice. He didn’t actually believe anyone would buy one of her cakes.

We’ve all tasted Penny’s cakes. Anyone would bite her arm off to taste them.

She’s that good.

She makes her green eyes big. “But they might not. And I’d just like to check since we’re here.”

“How many did you bake?”

She shifts from foot to foot as she glances toward the end of the aisle. Her excitement is so palpable, I bite the inside of my cheek to hide my smile.

“Ten.”

I stick my hand out. “I will bet you one thick, chocolate milkshake that not only are all those cakes sold out, the grocery store manager will beg you to make more the second he realizes you’re in the store.”

Honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t yet.

“Do you think?” her expression is hopeful.

“I know so.” Before I met Mack and settled in Winter Lake, I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere. I was the Alpha’s daughter, so I knew no one would be cruel to me for fear of getting on my dad’s bad side, but I’m also an omega, and we don’t fit in the shifter hierarchy the way alphas, betas, deltas, and gammas do.

So I drifted around with no real close friendships or relationships.

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