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She knew nothing about shifters in the city. Had this just been some coincidence, or was he here for her? Had he been sent to bring her back home to be sold off?
As he gained on her, she pushed a nearby shopping cart into his path, smiling in satisfaction as his cart crashed into the obstacle. She wasn’t happy that she’d done it, just momentarily relieved. The alpha looked on in frustration as Delilah got away before taking a second to sidestep his cart and pursue.
“Ma’am, you gotta pay for those!” a cashier called after her as Delilah ran out the door with her shopping cart.
She’d been so focused on escaping she’d lost all sense of everything else. She stopped abruptly and left the shopping cart, mouthing an apology and accepting she would have to pick up groceries later. Or maybe she’d order online and have them delivered. With an alpha shifter on the loose, that seemed like the best option.
Delilah rounded a corner, taking a moment to catch her breath. She had lost him. Whoever he was, she had shaken his pursuit. He was gorgeous, though. For an instant, she’d almost let her guard down. It was a pity she’d have to do whatever she could to avoid him if she wanted to live independently here.
It was good to be free.
Chapter 5
Jude
“Ishouldjustbuyeverything,” Jude muttered.
He sorted through piping extensions, not sure what he actually needed. There were elbows, tees, reducers, unions, couplings, crosses, caps, swage nipples, plugs, bushings… he had no idea what any of it meant. But he had been sent to the hardware store with the task of getting plumbing supplies.
He wasn’t even certain whether the PVC pipes they used were one and a half inches or two inches. It wasn’t as though they couldn’t afford all of it. He just hated buying something he’d never use.
Jude hated hardware stores. He hated the synthetic oil and metal smells. He hated all the barren concrete, paint, and linoleum tiles. Plus, all the silver-colored fittings and tools made him uncomfortable since—like most shifters—Jude was allergic to silver. Just the color was enough to make him nervous.
His phone rang, causing him to nearly drop the pipe connector he held. He fumbled, catching the plastic tube between his wrists. The plastic left a brief imprint on his palms. Setting it all in his cart, he picked up the call.
“Go for Jude,” he rumbled. His voice was warm and deep, reflecting his bulky physique.
“Can you just answer the phone normally?” Graham sighed.
“I’m tired of all the ‘hi’ and ‘hellos.’” Jude shrugged even if Graham couldn’t see the motion. “If you’re going to ring my phone twenty-four-seven, let me change it up.”
“Whatever.” Graham laughed. “What are you doing?”
Jude picked up a pipe cutter, wondering if he needed it too. It looked flimsy, but he supposed it probably worked. He was pretty sure they had extra PVC back home, so maybe they could use it for another plumbing project later.
“I’m at the hardware store,” he reminded Graham. “Like you asked.”
“How quickly can you get out of there?”
Jude looked at his cart, shoveling connectors and tools impulsively into it. It was so much more than he needed, but he wanted to cover all bases. “I’m on my way out now,” Jude assured him. “Why?” The phone went silent, and Jude questioned whether he’d lost connection. “Hello?”
“So…” Graham drawled. “You know how dangerous it is in the city right now for shifters. Right?”
“Yeah…” Jude wasn’t sure where Graham was going with this. He piled everything onto the scanner, using everything he’d learned from his years in retail to speed through the process. It was challenging with his phone pressed to his ear, but Jude was remarkably coordinated.
“Well, there’s this woman I’ve never seen before in my life. She’s a shifter, and she’s pretty freaked.”
“Wait what?” Jude exclaimed, startling a human woman at the self-checkout across from him.
Jude froze and then immediately realized he needed to be speeding up, not slowing down.
“I was just out grocery shopping, and she bumped into me with her cart,” Graham told him.
“Oh, you poor baby.” Jude wasn’t meaning to be condescending. They liked to joke with each other.
“Then she made a break for it. Pushed a bunch of carts into me to slow me down. It was like something from a movie.”
Jude wasn’t sure which movies Graham referred to. He’d never seen anything so mundane as a grocery store chase in the movies he’d watched. He loaded his bags into his cart and then left in a hurry, flashing his receipt to security on the way out.
