Free Fated Mates: Book 1 of the True Mates Series by Alicia Montgomery Page A

back. Ms. Gray will have an outfit sent to the spa for you,” Nick explained.
    “Wow, must be a swanky place, then eh?” she said, with an exaggerate wiggle or her eyebrow, her poor man’s Groucho Marx impression. He merely nodded. Geez, she thought. Does no one around here have a sense of humor?  
    “Ooookay then…so I’ll see ya around, Nicky boy,” she teased. She’d only seen him crack once and made it her personal mission to see him do it again. “Let’s go get me all pretty then,” she walked towards the elevators with Alex following behind her.  

    ***
    “Excuse me, Miss,” Alex said as he opened the door for Alynna.
    Her delicate brows knotted. “Will you stop with the ‘Miss’, business? It’s making me nervous.”
    He shook his head. “I can’t do that,” he said. “It’s protocol.”
    “Protocol for what?” She turned to face him.
    “You’re the Alpha’s sister,” he stated matter-of-factly.
    “Yes I am. We’ve had this same conversation before as I recall,” she put her hand on her hips. “So what does that matter?”
    “It does.”
    “How?”
    “It just does, alright?” Alex ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “Look, there are things that maybe you don’t understand…yet. But you will.”
    “Then tell me what’s wrong!” Alynna was getting frustrated and when she got too frustrated, she got angry. “One minute you’re hot, the next you’re cold! That’s not fair Alex. Don’t make me believe one thing and then the opposite the next day!”
    “And what is it that I’m making you believe?” he asked matter-of-factly.
    Alynna opened her mouth but closed. Her head was spinning with all the words she wanted to say. Ask him. Remind him about the night at the diner. And about key lime pie.
    She balled her hands into fists. “I don’t give a shit about this protocol business,” she growled. “Ok, when it’s just you and me, will you just call me Alynna, please?” she looked up, her eyes pleading at him.
    “Alright…Alynna,” he relented. “Anyway, Cady wanted me to pick up a dress from Bergdorf for you since we don’t have time to bring you back to your place and we don’t have keys to get something for you.”
    “Uhm…does it matter? Why don’t you pick one?” she said flippantly as she was ushered through the spa’s building.
    Alynna had never been to a spa, not even a beauty salon to get her nails done, as money had always been tight growing up and by the time she was on her own, there was simply no time for such luxuries. To say she was overwhelmed at all the attention and pampering was an understatement.
    The moment she stepped through the door, she had been treated like a VIP. A pleasant-looking Lycan named Grace (who smelled like honeysuckle) ushered her into the private section of the building where she was offered tea and biscuits, then gave her a menu book of treatments. Not quite sure which treatments to take, she shoved the book back to the eager young Lycan and just asked for whichever she thought was best. Looking back, she probably shouldn’t have said “best” because she soon found herself bathing in a tub of goat’s milk and then brought to a luxurious private massage room where a large Swedish woman named Agneta pounded and kneaded away all the knots in her body. After this, she was then directed to a dressing room where a hair and makeup artist did her face and hair before another team of people came to dress her up. At this point, Alynna had had quite enough and grabbed the shoes and dress bag and then (politely) shoved the people out of the dressing room so she could dress in peace.
    To her chagrin, the bag contained one of the cocktail dresses she picked but had to send back to adjustments. Except she remembered she had picked a blue dress. The bag instead contained the same dress but in pink. She gave a wry smile, wondering if she should mention something to Alex as she slipped it on.
    When she stepped out of the