Hot SEALs: Her Special Alpha (Kindle Worlds) (X-OPS 3.5) by Paige Tyler Page B

and tossed him around like nothing he’d ever felt. Hopefully she didn’t leaving him lying on the ground afterward with a mouth full of dirt for his troubles.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
    “All you have is vanilla and chocolate?” Eden asked as she opened Emily’s freezer and perused the boring selection of ice cream inside. With all the flavors available now in the supermarkets, why would anyone bother to actually buy those two? Chocolate was what you gave to five-year-olds, and vanilla was like a give-up flavor. Actually, it wasn’t even a flavor…it was the absence of flavor.
    When Emily didn’t answer, Eden turned around. Her sister was sitting at her small kitchen table, poking at her bowl of chocolate ice cream with a spoon like she was trying to torture it.
    Okay, maybe this was more serious than Eden thought. When Emily called saying she wanted to call off the wedding, Eden had been sure it was some kind of crazy pre-wedding jitters. Eden didn’t have any personal experience with the subject since she’d never had to deal with a relationship longer than a few months much less one serious enough for marriage to become a topic of conversation, but she understood the concept. More importantly, she understood her sister.
    Sighing, she grabbed the vanilla ice cream and a bowl from the cabinet, scooped out enough to fill half of it, then stuck the container in the freezer and plunked down in the chair across from her sister.
    “Okay, what’s wrong?” Eden asked.
    When Emily still didn’t say anything, Eden started to think she might have to pry the information out of her sister with a crowbar.
    Emily was two years younger than Eden, but they’d always been close since they were kids. While a lot of Eden’s friends had hated their younger siblings hanging around, she’d never felt like that. Maybe it was because they’d moved around so much while their father was in the navy. Regardless, the two of them had always been friends as well as sisters. True, it was harder to stay in touch now that Eden worked for the DCO and Emily had a job working in the finance department at the Naval Operation Center in Norfolk, but Eden still liked to think they could talk to each other about anything. Well, not the whole shifter thing, of course, or what Eden did for a living, but anything outside of that. That’s why it worried her to see Emily so withdrawn now. It wasn’t like her.
    “Emily?” Eden prompted softly.
    Emily looked at Eden, her blue eyes glistening with tears. “What if I’ve made a mistake?”
    Eden pushed both bowls of ice cream aside, then reached out to take Emily’s hands in hers. “About marrying Brandon? Why would you think that?”
    Did her sister’s sudden doubts about her future husband have anything to do with what had happened outside the restaurant the other night? Had Emily learned something to make her think her fiancé was involved in something bad enough to get him targeted by the kind of people who’d been in that alley? Kendra had been so sure Brandon was clean and that the whole fight had been about Tim’s gambling debt. Hell, Eden had figured that was probably the deal, too. Maybe they were both wrong.
    “How do you know if the person you’re with is the right one?” Emily looked down at their clasped hands then back up at Eden again, and the look of panic in her sister’s eyes nearly tore out her heart. “How can I be sure Brandon is the person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with?”
    “Emily, why are you even asking something like that? Did he say or do something to make you doubt him?”
    Emily shook her head, the tears that had been gathering in her eyes running over and spilling down her cheeks. “No. Yes. I don’t know.”
    “Honey, what do you mean?” Eden asked.
    Emily was completely in love with Brandon since she’d met him. If something had changed that, it had to be serious. Eden didn’t know if this had anything to