Free Alpha's Captive 03 - Flight by V. M. Black

eyes tracked down for a second before snapping back up to her face.
    Straight, then. All right. She was in business.
    “Hi,” he said.
    She ran her free hand through her hair, tousling it slightly. Behind him, out of his range of vision, she could see Levi creeping up on the periphery of the parking lot. “This is really embarrassing, but my friends kind of ditched me. We got into a stupid fight, and well—where are you going?”
    “Harrisburg,” he said.
    Levi was getting closer—and shaking his head as forcefully as the wolf could shake it. He was not happy about her choice of car, no doubt.
    Harper ignored him.
    “I’m Christina, by the way,” she said.
    “Brett.” He looked slightly dazed, as if he wasn’t quite sure how a busty redhead had ended up beaming up at him.
    “Nice to meet you, Brett. Well, that’s really lucky, because I’m headed to Harrisburg, too. Do you think you can give me a lift?” She held his gaze steadily, her smile never wavering.
    “Um,” he said. He looked her in the eyes, then not very subtly at her cleavage, and then at her eyes again.
    Harper cocked her head to the side and tried to look hopeful.
    “I love Mini Coopers,” she lied. “They’re so cute. I’ve never been in one before.”
    With another look at her chest, he seemed to make a decision. “Whereabouts in Harrisburg are you going?”
    The wolf was coming up behind the Mini Cooper now, close enough that the couple in the sedan saw him and scrambled back into it before their fuel had finished pumping. The woman pointed frantically as the man hit the lock button on the door, over and over again.
    Levi was still shaking his head, looking like a dog with water in his ear s, and Harper’s eyes watered from the effort of not looking at him.
    She just kept smiling. “Oh, you can drop me off anywhere, Brett. I can call my sister, get her to pick me up, if you can just get me that far. There’s no way that she’d drive all the way out here for me, though.”
    “ Sure, then,” he said, smiling back at her finally.
    Just in time, because Levi was about three inches behind him.
    “Oh, thanks so much! You’re a life saver! Do you like dogs?” She sprang the question on him without pausing for breath.
    “Uh…yes?” he said tentatively.
    “Great!” she said, and she reached over and jerked the driver’s side door open just as Levi wormed under the gas hose between Brett and the pump and slid into the back seat, which he entirely filled with his massive body.
    “Holy shit!” Brett yelped. “That’s a dog? That’s your dog? Look, miss, I didn’t say—”
    “Oh, don’t worry,” Harper said brightly. “He’s perfectly friendly as long as I’m not upset.”
    The man opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again….
    And nothing came out.
    Harper circled around to the passenger side of the car and sat down, swinging the small plastic bag with the tablet and the reader into the back, along with her purse. She dropped the Subway bags at her feet.
    “The nine mil’s in there,” she said under her breath, still smiling at Brett. “I’m not going to be the one to hold up this poor SOB.”
    Brett hung up the gas nozzle and looked into the car for a long moment. “Do you think he likes me?”
    “He loves you,” Harper said firmly. “You can tell because he’s not growling or anything. Don’t worry. He always growls before he bites.”
    Levi made a tiny sound in his throat just in Harper’s ear, too soft for Brett to hear, like the smallest hint of a growl. Under the guise of petting his massive head, she pinched one of his ears, hard. You behave.
    “If you’re sure….” He still looked more than a little uneasy.
    “Absolutely positive,” Harper said, patting the driver’s seat in invitation.
    After another moment’s hesitation, Brett got in.
    “See? He likes you!” Harper chirped.
    “Yeah,” he said, trying to look at the pavement in front of him and keep the enormous wolf in view at the