Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“So why are you really here? Not just to check up on me. Long way to come just to fuck with your brother.”
I ask him the question as we’re driving, hoping that he’s got an answer that doesn’t have anything to do with Callie.
“Pack business. New York has been getting out of control lately. New Orleans is concerned. Local packs are getting slack about keeping things quiet. And they’re getting rough about the fixes.”
I relax a little. This is well within his purview. It’s not about Calista. It’s about cracking heads locally and throwing his weight around. The New York packs have a reputation for wildness. There are multiples of them, unlike the Louisiana pack, which is united under Orion. There are different strata of packs here. Economically well-off wolves have their own pack. The rural wolves are another group. Then there’s three separate city packs, each of which have their own identity and can be considered gangs.
It’s the city packs Karl is here to deal with, I’d bet. I haven’t had much to do with any of them because my job has been managing Calista Hart. I stay out of the way, I don’t tread on any toes. I work with humans, and I move on. Usually.
We get to a bar that must be run by one of the local packs, because I know Karl wouldn’t drink anywhere else. There are a few signs and hints that it’s a shifter bar. It’s called The Dog’s Paw, which is quite funny because there’s nothing more insulting to most wolf shifters than being called dogs. Someone has an edgy or self-deprecating sense of humor.
The clientele are a mixture of shifters and humans. Everyone here has the same edge, a kind of energy that transcends man and shifter alike. It’s rough, and it’s largely, but not entirely, male.
There are three female shifters behind the bar. Two of them smile at Karl like he’s the second coming. My brother is very attractive to shifter women. He takes after my father that way. The third bartender is visibly pregnant and quite obviously over every single male in the place, shifter or not.
I hope someone here catches his attention. He flirts with the shifter who serves us for a bit. She’s got dark hair in a high ponytail and a pretty face. She’s impressed by him, and has that tenderness women seem to automatically have for broken, scarred men.
For a few minutes, she holds his attention, then he looks at me. I know there’s blood in the water. He’s here to sniff out weakness and exploit it.
“So who are you fucking?”
“Nobody you know. Nobody that matters.”
He smirks at me. “Same old Gray. You look like such a nice guy, but you’re a ruthless fucking animal underneath it all, aren’t you.”
I take a long drink of my beer to keep from saying I am as ruthless as our family made me, that I never had a choice to be any other way.
“It’s time you found a she-wolf and settled down,” he says.
“You’re older than me and don’t have a mate,” I point out.
“I’m not the mating kind,” he says. “Never will be. Imagine me with kids.”
“I don’t want to do that.”
“Exactly. But you’re the sort of swell guy who’d make a great dad,” he says, smirking at me like it’s a personality trait he thinks is hilarious. Imagine being a nice guy. Imagine being someone women want to breed with. Imagine walking into a room and not having everybody who knows you or ever heard of you looking either scared, disgusted, or both.
Another waitress comes by to see if we want something else. She’s a cute girl with red hair in a ponytail and keen green eyes. She’s smart, I can tell immediately. All Karl sees is a pair of luscious tits. I know that, because he says so, not even under his breath.
Her expression shifts to one of disappointment and disgust. For a second, she thought he was handsome. He never stays sexy for long. Too vile a personality.
I slip her a twenty and apologize.
She gives me a tight smile and disappears down the far end of the bar. A male bartender who must have just started his shift takes over for us.
“Tight ass on that boy,” Karl says. He doesn’t discriminate when it comes to harassment. He’s an equal opportunity asshole.
“I can’t take you fucking anywhere, will you shut the hell up.”
Karl checks his watch. “So do you think you’ve had me out here long enough for the girl you’re fucking to slip out of that apartment?”
I go cold. He knew. Of course he fucking knew. And that means…
Callie
I wait ten minutes and I slip out of the wardrobe. I have never seen Gray look that scared before. Not even when he found me sitting in his place with a gun on him. Not even when he realized I was actually going to shoot him.