Fighting for Wolves (Shifter Country Wolves Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

your shirt and show me you’re not wearing a wire,” he said, leering at her.
    Grey felt her face turn bright red, and she backed up a step, toward Tobias and the staircase.
    “No,” she said.
    Shovel advanced a step, then another one, his leer growing vicious.
    “I think you better,” he said.
    “Hey!” shouted the wavy-haired guy from the back, and everyone turned toward him. Shovel glared.
    “She says she’s not wearing a wire, she’s not wearing a wire,” the guy said, advancing across the room. “How about you leave her alone?”
    Grey swallowed, her mouth falling slightly open. The guy with the wavy hair was hot, with slate-blue eyes, wide cheekbones, a day or two of stubble, and a nose that was just a little crooked. He had the look of someone who really knew his way around a bareknuckle fight.
    Shovel snorted. “And you’re gonna make me, pretty boy?” he asked. “You looking to get that nose broken again?”
    Grey took another step back, hoping that maybe she could escape before something serious happened. The guy with the wavy hair was big and tall, six feet at least, and he had the body of a fighter, of someone accustomed to using his muscles. It was great that he was coming to her defense against Shovel, but if he turned on her, there wouldn’t be much she could do.
    “You need to leave,” the fighter told Shovel. His voice was very, very quiet, and for a moment, Grey could see Shovel’s eyes widen. “If you threaten her again, if you look at her or if you touch her, I’ll show you how much it hurts to get your nose broken.”
    Shovel snorted.
    “The fuck do you think you are?” he said, his jaw flexing and working. “You come back to the ring and think that gives you the right to tell us all what our business is?”
    “If your business is harassing innocent women, then yeah, it does,” the fighter said. “Now, are you leaving, or what?”
    Grey took another step back toward Tobias and the exit. She could feel her hands shaking, watching the two men argue.
    Sure, he came to my rescue, she thought. But he wins, and then what? He turns on me next?
    Uncertainty flickered in Shovel’s eyes. The other guy towered over him, and Shovel was older, fatter, and drunker.
    At last, Shovel snorted, and jabbed a finger into the other guy’s chest.
    “Fuck you, Isaac,” he said. “This isn’t over.”
    Then he tossed back the rest of his whiskey, grabbed his few chips from the table, and stormed off through the basement’s back door. For a moment, a cool breeze swept in as Shovel left through the locked exit that led to the alleyway. The door swung shut behind him, re-locking itself.
    The basement was quiet again, and everyone turned to look at the guy who’d threatened Shovel.
    Everyone except Grey. In a flash, she grabbed her jacket and purse from the lockers behind Tobias, and ran up the stairs, back to the well-lit liquor store. She didn’t have a plan — after all, Shovel had just left and could still be outside — but she wanted to be anywhere but the basement.
    As she neared the door at the top of the steps, she heard his voice.
    “Hey!” he shouted. “Wait!”
    Grey didn’t wait. She pushed the door open, letting the ugly fluorescent lights wash over her. They felt like relief, and she sought out the security cameras at the corners of the store. She hoped they were recording.
    The clerk looked up from the movie he was watching on his phone.
    “Everything cool?” he asked, sounding bored.
    Grey just nodded, then swallowed.
    “Yup,” she said, a little breathless. “Totally cool.”
    He nodded and went back to his movie.
    Grey stepped into an aisle full of flavored vodkas, trying to collect herself. She slid her jacket on, finally breathing a little easier, then put her purse on her shoulder.
    Standing in front of a shelf full of clear bottles, she took a moment to collect herself.
    You’re fine , she thought. This is for the best. If you’re afraid to go back to the game,