An Alpha's Love

Chapter 8

Natalie was right. Noah and Garrett take forever to eat.

"Hurry up!" Natalie groans for probably the hundredth time.

The boys laugh, and continue to eat their pizzas. Slowly.

"I'm starting to think that you guys are taking so long to eat because you don't want to shop," I say, looking back and forth between the two.

Noah coughs awkwardly and Garrett doesn't make eye contact with me.

Natalie gasps. "Oh my god! You totally are! You guys may take a long time to eat, but never this long! You assholes!"

Garrett finally looks over and sends us an evil grin. Natalie punches him in the arm and then Noah snickers. Nat glares at him before punching him too.

I laugh at their exchange, taking a sip of my water. "Okay, so here's my idea. You two don't want to shop, and we do. So Nat and I go look around in the stores, and you guys can hang out here or out front. Then we meet up when we're done," I propose.

Garrett immediately shakes his head. "Nope. We have to watch you, and that means staying close to you."

Natalie leans forward. "No, that's a good idea. I mean, this place isn't too big, and you guys will know exactly where we are. We will call you if we see anything bad. Please?" Natalie bats her eyelashes at the boys.

It's silent for a minute and it almost seems like the three are communicating with each other silently. Finally, Garrett groans. "Fine. But, you have to stay in the shops and let us know if you see anything, and I mean anything, suspicious. And if we tell you that we need to leave, there will be no arguments. Okay?"

Nat grins widely. "Okay! C'mon, Brynn!"

Noah and Garrett stand to let us out of the booth and I notice the hard look Garrett gives Natalie.

We're about to leave when Noah grabs my arm. "And Brynn? Please don't tell the Alpha we let you out of our sight. He'll kill us if he finds out."

I giggle, but when Noah doesn't, I stop, looking at him with wide eyes. That was a joke, right? "I won't," I promise him, and his tense form seems to relax slightly.

"Okay, let's go!" Natalie says, pulling me out of the pizza shop.

~*~

After a few hours of shopping, Natalie and I are in line to check out at the last store. I've got tons of shirts, pants, bras, panties, dresses, and rompers that are all super cute.

Both of us purchased so much stuff that we've had to make several trips to the parking lot in between stores to put our bags in the car. Even though Braxton said that I could spend a lot of his money, I'm pretty sure he'll still be mad, considering I bought more than enough to fill a closet. But, hey, he's a kidnapper, so do I really care that much? Nope. And I won't need to go shopping again for quite some time, so that's a huge plus.

Finally, one of the cashiers motions us forward. Natalie and I continue to chat while the woman rings up our items. She bags our clothes and asks Nat for the credit card.

After swiping the card twice, the woman sighs, clearly irritated. "Sorry, Natalie, this machine has been really finicky the last few weeks. I'm going to have to restart it." It surprises me that she clearly knows Nat from somewhere.

"It's fine, Kristen," Natalie says with a smile. "Hey, Brynn, how about you take the stuff and meet up with Noah and Garrett so you can put it all in the car. Braxton wants you home soon, it's almost dinner time."