An Alpha's Storm (Water Bear Shifters 1) Read Online Free Page A

first evening in years as a single man.
    “So?” Aubrey was asking, “Was I right? Were you dragged here by a friend?”
    Brett laughed. “No, actually. To tell you the honest truth, I just caught my girlfriend cheating on me, and came here to get drunk and find a pretty little tourist to have a fling with. But once I got inside the front door I chickened out and decided to have a few beers to boost my confidence first.”
    Aubrey raised an eyebrow at him while looking him up and down. “You chickened out? Why? You could easily get pretty much any girl in this room. From the size of your biceps, I’d be willing to guess that you work out on occasion.”
    Brett chuckled at Aubrey’s joke. “Yeah, I have a pretty physical job. Working out comes with the gig. But I’ve never been the type to sleep with a woman once and then forget about it. Even as angry as I am about what just happened with my girlfriend, I’m not sure I have it in me.”
    Aubrey furrowed her brow. “I don’t know if I could do it either. I could probably do the whole friends with benefits things, but not a total stranger.”
    Brett laughed. “But then you run the chance of ruining your friendship. You know those things never end well. One person always ends up falling for the other one, and feelings get hurt.”
    Aubrey shrugged as the bartender set down two beers in front of them. “I’ve never tried it, but it seems like it would fit my situation better than an actual relationship. My work schedule is crazy, and it’s hard to find a guy that’s okay with that. My last three boyfriends have ended things because they were jealous of my job.”
    Brett snorted. “That sounds familiar. The girl I just broke up with was always complaining to me that I was never around because of my job. Funny enough, she decided that the best way to deal with it was find a replacement guy without telling me. I went to her apartment tonight to surprise her with flowers only to find her in bed with another man.”
    Aubrey winced. “Ouch. Sorry to hear that.”
    “Yeah, I was too. We’d been together for a while and I was even starting to contemplate rings. I guess I’m glad I found out her true colors before doing something stupid like marrying her, though.”
    “I guess that’s a silver lining in the situation. Still, it sucks,” Aubrey said.
    “Yeah. You’re telling me,” Brett said, staring moodily into his beer. He could feel the anger bubbling up below the surface again, and he decided to change the subject. He’d come here to get away from thoughts of Michelle, not to dwell on them. “So what do you do, that your schedule is so crazy?” Brett asked, turning his attention back to Aubrey.
    “I’m a marine biologist. I do research for a university, which requires some travel and a lot of multi-day trips out onto the ocean. Sometimes the ocean excursions are with all male crews, and that seemed to really bother my exes. I couldn’t handle all their jealousy. I was out there to work, not get cozy with my colleagues. I got tired of being in relationships with guys who couldn’t respect me and trust that I was being loyal to them. It’s been a while since I’ve even tried to date.”
    Brett wanted to joke with Aubrey that he didn’t blame the guys for being worried about her. She was sexy as hell, and if she was his girl, he might be a little nervous about her being alone on a boat with other guys for days. But he couldn’t argue with Aubrey’s point that a guy needed to respect and trust his girl. Michelle’s constant suspicion of him had worn on him, so he understood what Aubrey was talking about.
    “What about you?” Aubrey asked. “What do you do?”
    “I work for the Coast Guard,” Brett said. He never liked to give too many details about his job to people he didn’t know well. At first, it had been fun to shock people with the revelation that he worked as a rescue swimmer, facing the ocean at its angriest in order to save people’s