The Protector's Heart (Wilde Creek Three) (2 page)

Brynn tried to say goodbye to him, but Acksel
swung her up into his arms swiftly and kissed her. She waved at
Mal, and he shook his head with a chuckle and headed home.

The place he called home had at one time
belonged to his parents, and then Brynn had rented it for a few
years. The three-bedroom house was in a development in Wilde Creek,
on a cul-de-sac, surrounded by homes owned by wolves in the pack as
well as a few humans. Brynn hadn’t done any interior redecorating
when she’d lived in the house, but she had planted some shrubs
outside that smelled like cinnamon. He was glad when she asked
Jeremiah, one of the pack omegas, to transplant the shrubs to her
new home with Acksel.

Parking in the driveway, he got out of the
SUV, walked up the sidewalk to the front porch and unlocked the red
front door. He hung his keys up on the hook just inside the door
and shut and locked it, toeing off his shoes before walking through
the family room to the kitchen. He made a sandwich and stood at the
counter. He had dishes, he just didn’t use them. He looked at the
kitchen table he’d purchased last week. The oval, glass-topped
table had looked perfect when he’d seen it in the furniture store.
Too big for one person, but just the right size for a family.

A pang of loneliness and longing hit him hard
as he looked at the table and chairs that he’d bought with Nila and
Jack in mind. He was really getting ahead of himself by buying
things for her when she wouldn’t even give him the time of day, but
he didn’t care. One day she’d be sitting at the table with Jack
while he made them dinner, and she’d know that he’d cared about her
from the moment they’d met. It was more than a physical attraction
— he wanted to take care of her, protect her, and love her, and he
wanted her to feel safe.

Someday he’d get beyond the walls she’d
erected to protect herself and her son and he’d prove to her that
he was the right male for her and would never betray or mistreat
her in anyway.

Someday.

Chapter 2

Nila hated being late. Dr. Kimmi was very
understanding about Nila’s situation, but her good nature could
only be stretched so thin before Nila would be finding a new place
to work. She shoved her purse into her locker and raced to Dr.
Kimmi’s office. Knocking on the open door, she said, “I’m
sorry.”

Dr. Kimmi looked up from the computer and
smiled. “It’s okay, hon.”

“No, it’s not.” Nila shook her head. She felt
like crying. Hell, she’d felt like crying just about every day as
she’d battled against her ex, Damien, and his desire to make her
life a living hell.

Dr. Kimmi pushed her chair away from the desk
and stood, coming to Nila and giving her a hug. “I’ve been where
you are. You have my support and Frank’s. Would it help to change
your hours so you can come in less often?”

Panic tightened Nila’s chest. “I need the
money. Damien isn’t giving me a cent in support and the daycare is
expensive. I’m sorry I was late this morning and that I’ve been
late a few times recently. Ever since Damien made that scene at the
daycare, Jack has been terrified to be left there. It breaks my
heart every day.”

“I wish I could do more for you. Would it
help to change daycares?”

“I can’t find anyone nearby that will take
him, and I’m afraid that if Damien causes another scene Little Tots
is going to let us go, anyway.”

Nila closed her eyes and tried not to let the
weight of her problems settle heavily on her. She didn’t need to
break down right now, even though she would probably feel a little
better if she had a good cry. The problems would still be there
after she was done crying, though. They always were.

“I’ll be more careful of my time in the
future. Thanks for understanding.”

“Of course.”

Nila brushed at a stray tear that had slipped
through her defenses and walked out of Dr. Kimmi’s office. She
stared down the hallway to where the reception desk lay. The desk
had a tall counter on the side facing her, and she could see Brynn,
the receptionist, checking in a patient. Even though she didn’t
want to look at him, her eyes couldn’t help but see Malachi
Slattery, Brynn’s personal security guard, who was sitting behind
her at the reception desk. Ever since Brynn had joined up with her
mate, Acksel, Malachi had been coming to the office every day. He
never said anything to Nila outside of “good morning,” but she was
very
aware that he wanted to say more to her.

It had only been a few weeks since the day
that he opened the door to the supply room and found her crying
after Damien had beaten up one of the teachers at the daycare.
She’d been so startled by him that she nearly fell off the stack of
paper boxes she was sitting on. His strong arms had caught her and
he’d pulled her close, the dark, spicy scent of him making her
stomach flip and her mouth water.

She mentally shook her inner slut and pushed
the unwanted thoughts of the sexy wolf into a dark corner of her
mind.
Wolf
was exactly why she didn’t want anything to do
with Malachi. He was a wolf shifter, and wolf shifters were bad
news. Just ask Damien, his father the alpha, or any of the other
males in his pack who hadn’t lifted a hand to help her. It didn’t
matter if Malachi had the most amazing blue eyes, or that he’d felt
rock hard when he’d pulled her against him in the closet. There was
nothing but trouble where that sexy wolf was concerned. For
everyone’s sake, she needed to remember what being with a wolf had
been like. Shivering internally, she ignored Malachi entirely and
put her hands on the top of the counter.

Brynn smiled. “Hi, Nila. How’s your sweet
little boy?”

“Great, thanks. How was your weekend?”

As Brynn talked, Nila could feel Malachi’s
eyes on her, and she managed to not look at him but only by sheer
force of will. All day long it would be the same. She’d come up to
get the next patient and Malachi would watch her like a hawk.

Realizing she’d missed most of what Brynn
said while she was trying
not
to think about Malachi, she
froze when Brynn stopped talking and smiled at her expectantly.
Nila felt put on the spot and she blinked and tried vainly to
figure out what Brynn had just asked.

Brynn’s eyes darted toward Malachi and she
said, “I asked if you’d like to go to lunch with me this week.”

Oh damn. Malachi drove Brynn everywhere.

“Sure,” she said, not wanting to disappoint
her friend.

Don’t look at him
.

“Cool, how about tomorrow?”

Brynn pushed the first patient’s folder
across the counter and Nila said, “Sounds good.”

Counting it as a victory that she didn’t look
at Malachi even once as she opened the door to the waiting room and
called the first patient’s name, she smiled at herself, greeted the
little girl and her mother, and led them to the exam room.

They were fairly busy that morning, and she’d
had to wait to take her lunch until later. By the time she made it
to the breakroom, she was starving. Malachi was sitting at one of
the tables, a tablet in one hand and a sandwich in the other. She
almost turned around and left, and then she felt like she was being
an idiot. Going to the fridge, she opened it and reached for her
insulated lunch sack. She gripped it and turned, looking at the
only table in the breakroom, which currently held a very large
wolf.

She stared at him. He was so sexy, she had to
force herself to remember that he was a wolf shifter and that meant
he was off-limits. Her self-imposed sanction on wolf shifters was
for her own good. It wasn’t just about finding a good guy to go out
with, she had to think of Jack and find a father for him who’d
treat him well. None of the wolves in Damien’s pack seemed to have
a paternal bone in their body. The females were treated like toys
and breeding machines.

Malachi stood up, his chair scraping loudly
against the linoleum with the motion. He walked near her to throw
away the paper plate his sandwich had been on, and then he stopped
and looked at her.

“What?”

He lifted his gaze and she realized he was
looking at her lunch sack. “My sister, Mia, loves
Star Wars
.
I was just wondering where you got that lunch bag, because it would
make a great Christmas gift.”

Nila’s hand had involuntarily gripped the bag
when he’d turned and focused on her. She wasn’t afraid of him, not
really. She just didn’t trust him, and she didn’t trust herself
around him.

“A friend gave it to me for Jack, but he
doesn’t need a packed lunch at daycare so I decided to take it. I
think she got it from a catalog.”

“So you’re not a
Star Wars
fan?” He
smiled and it felt like her whole body twitched in response. Damn
him and his sexy smile.

“I am.”

“Let me guess, you had a crush on Luke
Skywalker.”

“No way,” she said, grinning. “I was all
about Han Solo, are you kidding?”

His smile turned into a full-on grin, and she
realized that she was letting her guard down around him. This was
how mistakes happened, how things had started with Damien. One
minute he was charming and funny, and then his true colors came out
and he was an asshole of the highest order. Malachi might be kind
to Brynn because his alpha said so, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t
an awful person behind closed doors.

She frowned and looked down at her lunch bag.
Her voice came out more cold than she’d planned, but it was
effective. “I need to eat lunch now, if you don’t mind.”

His smile died instantly as confusion lit his
features. “Nila,” he said, and she put up her hand.

“If you don’t mind.”

His teeth clicked together audibly as he
closed his mouth and turned, stalking out of the lunchroom. She
sagged against the counter, a sigh of relief parting her lips. That
male was dangerous to her sanity, and to her and Jack’s safety. He
made her forget he was a wolf, because something inside her
responded to him no matter what her brain tried to tell her body to
do. She’d taken a chance on a wolf once before, and it had gotten
her nothing but heartache.

* * * * *

Promptly at five, Nila said goodbye to Dr.
Kimmi and her husband, Dr. Frank, and grabbed her purse and coat
from the locker. The wool coat had seen better days, but it had
been a gift from her favorite aunt, who’d passed away two years
earlier, and she didn’t want to replace it. She said goodbye to
Brynn, unable to keep herself from glancing at Malachi, who had his
back turned away from her. She almost said his name, but clenched
her teeth together and gave herself a mental slap. Pushing open the
doors, she walked out into the bitter cold, burrowing into her coat
to keep her cheeks from freezing off.

She walked swiftly to her car, cursing the
thought of spending a few minutes outside scraping off the snow,
when she stopped in front of her vehicle and stared at the clean
windshield. Someone had been out here and cleaned off all her
windows, scraping the ice and snow away. She looked around the
parking lot and saw that her car was the only one that had been
cleaned. Turning her gaze to the front door of the office, she
didn’t see anyone watching her, but she was almost positive that
Malachi was the one who had cleaned her windows. Her treacherous
heart thought that was fantastic, but her brain reminded her that
it was just a trick. He was a wolf; they were tricky bastards, and
she wasn’t going to fall for it.

Tossing her bag onto the seat, she slammed
the door shut and turned on the car. It took a few minutes for the
heat to kick in, and she watched Malachi come out of the building,
get into his big SUV, and turn it on. Then he got out, extracted a
long-handled ice scraper from the back, and scraped the windows.
After putting the scraper back, he walked to the office and
escorted Brynn out, helping her into the vehicle.

It made Nila’s heart hurt. She’d never had
anyone treat her like that, ever. She pushed away the jealous ache
and put the car into gear. She’d wasted enough time waiting for the
car to warm up; she didn’t need to spend more time sitting around
wishing for things that would never be. She wouldn’t get involved
with a wolf again, no matter how sexy he was or how much of a
knight in shining armor he appeared to be.

The drive to Little Tots took only a few
minutes. As she waited to be buzzed in through the front door of
the daycare, she looked over her shoulder. Ever since Damien had
beaten up the teacher, Nila hadn’t felt safe. She was afraid she
couldn’t keep Jack safe, either, and that one day Damien would take
him like he swore he would. He seemed to leave her alone for a
while, and then he would randomly show up demanding she return to
his home with his son.

The daycare director buzzed Nila in and
greeted her. “He had a good day once he settled down,” Dana
said.

Nila was glad to hear that. She stopped in
the open door of the room where he spent most of his day. Jack was
playing with foam blocks. He seemed to instinctively know that she
was watching him, and he looked up and then smiled broadly.

“Mama!” he squealed happily as he pushed
himself to his feet and toddled over to her.

She lifted him over the gate and he squeezed
his arms and legs around her, giving her a loud kiss. “Hi,
Jack!”

He babbled at her, fisting a lock of her hair
with his chubby hand and pressing his nose against hers.

With one hand, Nila signed Jack out, accepted
the diaper bag from the teacher, and waved goodbye. She paused at
the front door, looking out into the winter darkness that lay
beyond the lights of the parking lot. Steeling her spine, she
fisted her keys and opened the door. Jack ducked his head into her
neck, his fuzzy cap brushing her cheek, and she stepped out and let
the door shut behind her.