Page 18 of Accidentally Wedded to a Werewolf (Claw Haven #1)

“I don’t want everyone thinking I’m a cheater!”

“Well, you’re making it sound like your fiancé has a thing for you sleeping with werewolves,” Oliver hissed, hoping that anyone with hearing as good as his was busy chatting with someone or sifting through some loud wind chimes.

Luna groaned, shoving the cart forward. “Fine! I’ll say it differently next time! There’s going to be a next time, right? Everybody here is so nosy.”

“Right?” Oliver said, his annoyance with Luna overpowered by the annoyance from all his months in town. “What happened to everyone minding their own business? I feel like every time I turn a corner, somebody is asking me how I’m doing.”

Luna nodded vigorously, forcing the heavy cart around the corner. “If you all just ignored each other like normal people— Oh!”

She cut off with a yelp as a familiar hedgehog woman appeared in front of them. Oliver grabbed the cart just before it could slam into her.

“Oh, gosh.” Beth curled into herself, her spikes puffing out like a puffer fish’s.

Luna let out a noise so high-pitched that Oliver winced. “Beeeeth! Hiiii! We were just going to drop by your cute little shop to buy your adorable chocolates!”

“I’m not there,” Beth said, uncurling. “I— Obviously, because I’m here. My employee works there a couple of days a week.”

Luna leaned over the cart and tweaked one of Beth’s shoulder prickles. “Love that for you. Have you ever thought about getting on socials? Doing some promo?”

Oliver shot her a look. Luna ignored him, twirling a strand of hair around her finger in a way that was definitely meant to annoy him. Here she was, getting annoyed at people for getting in her business, and now she was butting into Beth’s.

“Um,” Beth said. “I—I don’t know. I feel a little weird about shoving it in people’s faces.”

“Gotta let people know it exists,” Luna argued. “Look, I took a photo of one of your wolf chocolates yesterday. Isn’t it cute?”

She got out her phone. Oliver leaned over and saw a picture of Luna posing with the wolf chocolate, winking at the camera.

“I also took a photo of your store,” Luna continued. “Look, I’ll post about you on Insta. Just bought the cutest monster-themed chocolates from the most adorable store in Alaska… Copy-paste your deets… Do you do online orders?”

Beth brightened. “Yes! We ship anywhere in the USA and Canada.”

“Perfect,” Luna sing-songed. “And…posted.”

The loading sign stayed on the screen.

“When my data allows it,” Luna continued, teeth gritted. She shot another smile at Beth. “Anyway, it was so great to see you! Bye-bye!”

Oliver waited until Beth walked off, almost colliding with a 50% OFF sign on the way because she refused to stop waving until Luna did.

Luna looked back at her phone with a triumphant noise. “Posted! Finally. This place needs a better connection. The mountains aren’t surrounding you, so what gives?”

Oliver used the distraction to take the cart off her, pushing it easily the rest of the way around the corner.

She caught up with him fast, her irritated glare sliding off when she noticed how he was looking at her. “What?”

“Why’d you do that?”

She looked down at her phone, where the notifications were already pouring in. How many followers did this woman have, anyway?

“I’m bored?” She shrugged. “There isn’t a lot to do in this town. Excuse me for finding a pet project, Ollie.”

He squirmed at the nickname, twisting the cart handle. Nobody called him that outside of his family. People tried, but he always politely rebuffed them. At least, he did up until a year ago. These days, he usually just glared.

“What, they didn’t give you anything to do while you’re stuck here?”

“I don’t actually—” She stopped, biting her lip.

She twisted to look around the empty aisle.

“I just consult. For the marketing team. And that’s only because I gave them all fruit baskets and got them tickets to baseball games so they’d give me a chance.

If my dad knew how often they emailed me to fix a problem… ”

He frowned as he pulled the cart to a stop in front of several stacks of wooden slats. “He doesn’t want them to?”

She laughed again, running a hand through her hair. She looked genuinely nervous—no distraction-through-cuteness this time.

“He wants me to stay out of the way. He thinks the only thing I’m good for is posing for pamphlet photos.” She held up her manicured hands. “These lil’ paws aren’t made for work, you know? They’re made for leisure. And I’m very good at it.”

She said it with a grin. But there was a bitterness underneath, like she wasn’t fully on board with her cruisy lifestyle.

He sounds like an asshole. Oliver bit his tongue, reaching up to grab a wooden plank from behind her head. He’d assumed she wouldn’t know what work was if it ran up and bit her. However, she’d actually gone behind her dad’s back to find work—admittedly, at his own company, but still.

“Weird,” Oliver said instead. “I guessed he was smart. Since he runs a company and all.”

She blinked. For a second, he thought he’d overstepped—just because she was ragging on her dad didn’t mean he got to. But then she grinned at him, nothing coy about it.

“Are you being nice to me?”

“No,” he replied, heaving the plank into the cart. “I’m insulting your dad. Problem?”

She shook her head. Her stare was so hypnotic that Oliver found it difficult to tear his gaze away and reach up for the planks again. The bond fluttered in his chest, growing hot tendrils.

He pulled another plank out, distracted. He didn’t notice the other wooden planks sliding forward until it was too late.

“Shit,” he barked. There were too many to catch at once. He grabbed Luna, bending over her just in time. The planks slammed into his back, making him wince. That was going to bruise. For about ten minutes, but still.

Luna yelped, jumping closer as they rolled off him and onto the floor.

“Oh my god,” she yelled.

“It’s fine,” he said, strained. He pulled back. “You alright?”

She nodded. “Are you alright?”

“Sure.” He grimaced, rolling his shoulders. “Takes more than that to hurt me.”

A minotaur stomped into the end of the aisle, dressed in a staff uniform.

“I got it,” Oliver called. “Don’t worry about it.”

He looked down. Luna was clinging to his shirt. She looked down as if she hadn’t noticed. Her arms dropped back to her sides, and she took a large step back.

“Very, uh…” She coughed. “Very alpha of you. Why doesn’t your grandmother want you to be alpha, anyway? That seemed like a whole…thing. You were going to be alpha, right?”

“I still am,” Oliver said shortly.

Luna gave him a dubious look. “Sooo…what happened?”

Oliver clenched his jaw. He might like her a little better this morning, but he wasn’t about to spill his guts about the fire. Some things were private.

He bent down and scooped the wooden planks into his arms, tiptoeing to slide them back into place above their heads. “A good alpha relies on others,” he recited flatly. “A good alpha isn’t an island. A good alpha lets everyone stick their nose into his business.”

“Well,” she said. “You’re…very protective. So that’s one alpha thing to cross off the checklist.”

He looked down to see if she was making fun of him. But there was no trace of irony in her face, just an uncharacteristic shyness.

The warmth in his chest rolled, trying to expand into his rib cage. He squashed it back into place. The snow was thawing. She’d be out of his life soon enough.