A Wolf's Duty by Jennifer T. Alli Read Free Book Online

we've
got a long day ahead of us.”
    “A day of doing what
exactly?”
    “Not sure
exactly.” His eyes wandered over her frame, his brows creasing in
dissatisfaction. But there will definitely
be an element of shopping in there somewhere.

Chapter
Five
     
    “Xandria, this is getting
ridiculous,” Tobias groaned running his hands through his thick
hair. “We’ve been at this all day and I’ve bought you nothing,” he
sighed as she continued walking down the street, dismissing yet
another store.
    “I think you’ll find that
was part of the plan. I told you this morning, you can’t just throw
money at people and expect them to do whatever it is you
want.”
    Gripping her shoulders, he
forced her to stop and turn to face him. “That isn’t what I’ve been
trying to do. I just want you to have nice things, is that so
wrong?”
    There’s
nothing wrong with that, but I won’t be able to keep anything he
buys me. Fred will destroy them just to spite me and then I’d have
to explain to him that I’d lied to him this morning and that would
just earn me a beating. She shivered as she
remembered the look of anger on Tobias’ face when he had seen the
bruises on her wrists when they had first met. If he doesn’t know about that then I’m not going to tell him.
I have a feeling he’d do something stupid, like try and give Fred a
beating. Examining the muscles of his arms
and the tight fit of his shirt she had no concerns for his safety,
but didn’t want Fred to try and involve the authorities.
    “It’s a nice sentiment but
I really don’t want anything, okay? Can’t we just leave it at
that?” she sighed, extricating herself from his firm grip and
walking on ahead.
    Her voice told him to let
it go and simply enjoy being around her but the wolf in him
demanded that he provide for her and he struggled to decide which
one to listen to, before deciding to let Alexandria win.
    Look , he told the wolf inside him,
trying to exert his dominance so it didn't try to take over and
resolve the situation in its own way. We’ll let her have this for now, but once we claim her we can
buy her anything we want and she’ll just have to get used to
it. His wolf growled but otherwise remained
silent and Tobias decided to take it as a sign of agreement. “Fine,
I’ll stop trying to persuade you to pick something for me to buy
you. Ok?” His statement was met by silence, walking up to her he
found that she was statue still and immediately became concerned.
“Alexandria? Is something wrong?” She still failed to respond, but
his sensitive ears told him that her heart had sped up and his brow
furrowed in confusion before he simply placed his hand on the
exposed skin of her forearm.
    She’s excited
and happy? His frown deepened. What’s there to be so happy about? Crouching slightly so that he was about as tall as
she, he turned his face in the direction she was staring at,
noticing only a small store called Petal Power, with what appeared
to be a small jungle growing in the display window.
    “My mum used to grow
flowers.”
    The sound of her voice
drew his gaze away from the shop and he stood to his full height
once again towering over her. She continued to speak, though he was
no longer sure if she was even aware of his presence, but he
decided to listen rather than interrupt.
    “We had the most beautiful
garden you could ever imagine, there was nothing that she couldn’t
grow if she put her mind to it. I remember the garden in the
spring; it had the most amazing smell. This might sound strange but
I always thought it smelled of life. And mum, mum was always there,
it was our special place. I practically lived in that garden when I
was growing up. But when she died, the garden died with her,” she
choked, blinking and coming out of her daze.
    “Xandria? I know you don’t
want me to buy you things, but one plant can’t hurt. Come with me.”
He smiled, taking her hand and pulling her across the street and
into the