A Mate's Wish (Ouachita Mountain Shifters 0.5) by P. Jameson Page B

Damn. Just… damn.
    “Perhaps if you weren’t so careless,” his mate huffed.
    Wait, what? Careless?
    He turned back to her. “Excuse me?”
    She bent to retrieve her purse where it had fallen on the ground, and came up brushing dark strands of hair from her face. “Careless. Reckless. I don’t know who you think you are, but you almost caused an accident right before your… accident. You should be more careful. Karma can be a bitch.”
    Trager narrowed his eyes. “Are you really suggesting that I could have prevented a steel beam from falling on my bike if I’d been a tad more careful?”
    She raised a dark eyebrow. “Yeah, pretty much.”
    He crossed his arms. “Oh, I’d love to hear this. Please, enlighten me.”
    “Sure,” she snapped. “If you had been watching where you were going, you wouldn’t have almost hit the van. They wouldn’t have slammed on their brakes, causing traffic to slow. You could have carefully pulled into the lane, and the beam would have missed you altogether. By seconds, of course, but yes, this could have been avoided. But you’re just like all bikers, utterly careless of anyone but yourself.”
    Whoa, whoa, whoa. So, his mate had an axe to grind.
    Trager cocked his head to the side, searching her face. There was fire in her eyes, but also something else. She’d been hurt. Vitriol like that could only be born from pain. Something inside him stirred. A feeling of protectiveness. He wished he’d found her sooner. Maybe he could’ve prevented whatever had hurt her.
    Whether she was right about the accident or not, he wanted to help her feel better. To reassure her. “You know what, you’re right. I should be more careful.”
    Her eyebrows went up in surprise, before a mask of indifference covered up her reaction.
    “In the future, I will be. Lesson learned.”
    She nodded. “Right. Okay, then. Looks like they need you over there.”
    Trager glanced over his shoulder to see a policeman talking to several workers in hardhats, but his wolf wanted answers. Who had hurt her? He’d kill them. What was her name? He was drooling for his mate’s name. Where did she live? No, that one was better left unknown. If he knew where she lived, he’d be too tempted to go to her. Bad enough, he knew where she worked.
    “What’s your name?” he asked, just as she turned to walk away.
    Her gaze was calculating, but finally she answered. “Sam.”
    “Sam, who?”
    “Sam Adams.” Sam. Short for Samantha? Pretty name.
    He smiled. “I’m Trager. Trager Rowland.” For some reason telling her his name felt so… intimate. He hoped he wasn’t blushing.
    “Great. Nice to meet you, Trager.” She smiled tightly. “I should be going now.”
    Yes, he needed her to go. His wolf was rumbling at her nearness. But he didn’t want her to. He didn’t want any distance between them. Not even the few feet difference from where he was to where she stood.
    “Excuse me, sir.” The officer had come to take his statement. Trager glared at him, and when he turned back to tell Samantha bye, she was already out of earshot. It was only then, when she vanished around a corner, that he realized she’d given him the name of a beer.
    A Mate’s Denial, available now from Amazon

A Mate’s Sacrifice (Ozark Mountain Shifters, Book 2)
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A Mate’s Revenge (Ozark Mountain Shifters, Book 3)
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