Another deep blush spread across her cheeks. “Umm, I don’t have a lot. This is more or less everything I own.”
Wyatt nodded and got to his feet, going to great effort to hide how upset that made him. He hated that his mate had been living this way. Although dragons lived a very simple life in the clan, with few material possessions to speak of beyond their personal hoard, that was there—in one of the most unforgiving places on the planet. Out in the real world, she needed more to live a comfortable life. She deserved only the very best of everything and Wyatt wanted to give it to her. If only things had been different. He would have treated her like a princess. She would have wanted for nothing.
“Okay, let’s get out of here,” he said. “You sure there’s nothing else you need?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Your hoard?” He arched a brow, and she just flushed red and patted the bag.
They headed back out to his truck, and Wyatt narrowed his eyes when he saw a couple of young men circling it. He opened his mouth to tell them to take a hike, but Amelia beat him to it.
“Hey!” she shouted. “Get the hell away from that!”
“Yeah? Who’s asking?” one of the men shot back. He pulled out a pocketknife and flicked it open, holding it out in front of him menacingly.
“No-one’s asking,” she said. “I’m telling you.”
She walked right up to the guy, and as Wyatt opened his mouth to shout at her to get back, she curled her hand into a fist then slammed it into the man’s face, knocking him down and out. She glanced at the man’s friend who simply raised both hands in front of himself in a placating gesture then turned and ran away, leaving his friend unconscious on the ground. Wyatt tried to stifle a groan. He couldn’t believe how much the display of aggression turned him on. If Amelia hadn’t been looking his way, he would have reached down to adjust himself because there was suddenly a lot less room in his pants.
“You ready?” she asked, as if nothing had happened.
Wyatt grinned. “Remind me never to get on your bad side. You’d kick my ass seven ways to Sunday.”
She grinned back at him. “You’d better believe it.”
When the man at their feet groaned, Wyatt bleeped open his truck. “Come on, let’s get out of here, before this idiot wakes up properly and tries my patience.”
On the way home, Wyatt pulled into the parking lot of a grocery store then turned to her. “I need to pick up a few items. Do you want to come in with me? We can grab something for dinner tonight.”
“Great,” Amelia said. “I do need a couple of things.”
At the front of the store, he got a large shopping cart and she eyed it with an amused smirk. “A couple of things, huh?”
Wyatt grinned back at her. “I hope you weren’t in a rush to get back.”
“No, not at all.”
He ate a lot of food and didn’t have much left in his cupboards at home. Besides, he wanted to make sure his mate was properly fed. Even if there was no future for them, he would make sure she was taken care of when she was staying with him. It was, he told himself, what any decent human being would do.
“Just throw in anything you need,” he said as they started down the first aisle.
“Okay, sure, but I’ll be paying for my own groceries.”
“If you insist,” he lied.
She threw him a relieved smile. “Thank you.”
While she was staying in his house, she was a guest and any guest of his he would personally take care of. What kind of host got their guest to pay for their own food and toiletries?
As they walked through the store, Wyatt tossed item after item into the cart, picking up anything he thought his mate might need or enjoy. And as they neared the checkout, he caught her eyeing the nearly overflowing cart with a frown.
“Are you throwing a party?” she asked at last.
“No, why?”
“Because you bought enough to feed a small army.”
“I usually eat at work,” he explained. “I needed extra because I’ll be home for a few days.”
She raised an amused eyebrow at him, but said nothing more, however when the cashier starting ringing through the items, Amelia loaded everything Wyatt had thrown in first then held back her small selection of items. He rolled his eyes then grabbed them and put them through with everything else.
“We can sort it out later,” he said, holding up his hands under the ferocity of the look she sent in his direction.
“Wyatt, I can pay for my own things,” she said, frowning up at him.
“Later,” he said with a nod.
She sighed and put away her wallet, but the determined look on her face warned him that he hadn’t heard the last of the topic. If she brought it up again, he’d just have to find some way to distract her.
Wyatt wasn’t stupid. She had no papers, and no form of ID, which meant she had no bank account. He was willing to bet that every cent she owned was in that wallet of hers. He could tell that his mate was a proud woman. She wanted to pay her own way and not rely on him, but he’d watch her spend the last of her savings to pay for things she’d be using while she was in his house over his cold, dead body. He couldn’t do much for her, but he could at least do that.
