Uncaging Wolves (Shifter Country Wolves Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

Why should I trust you with a drink?
    Then she looked around for a moment, her arms crossed over her chest, and took a deep breath. People were milling around again, the bar half-full, the band playing on.
    It’s a bar, not jail , she thought. You have to learn how to be on the outside if you’re going to stay on the outside.
    “Sure,” she told the guy.
    He nodded and turned away. Scarlet finally exhaled, turning her eyes back to the band. The guitarist looked at her again, though this time he didn’t wink.
    Scarlet’s rage subsided a little, even though her hands still shook with   adrenaline. As she looked around the crowd, she realized that most of the people avoided her gaze, turning their heads away.
    You can’t pull this kind of shit , she realized, her stomach sinking. This isn’t how people in society behave.
    She clenched and unclenched her fists at her sides, trying to make herself calm down.

Chapter Three

    Gavin

    As he walked toward the bar, Gavin could tell people were looking at him funny, avoiding eye contact. People whose names he knew. After all, Chase played here every Wednesday night with his band, so they were regulars.
    People who knew that Gavin was probably the last guy in Cascadia who’d get into a bar fight. Hell, he’d thought he was the last person in Cascadia who’d get into a bar fight. Every job he’d had in his adult life had been about de-escalation, first as a prison guard and then as a parole officer.  
    But the brunette with the gray eyes, the nearly-black hair and the snarl had triggered something deep inside him.
    “Another one?” Gus asked as he wiped his hands on a bar towel.
    “Yeah, and can I also get a Jack on the rocks?” asked Gavin.
    The bartender nodded once. Thirty seconds later he slid a whiskey and a beer across the bar.
    “You know her?” Gus asked, trying to sound casual.
    “Not yet,” said Gavin, holding up both drinks.
    “Careful,” said Gus, in the same affectedly-casual way. “She’s new, and she seems touchy.”
    I can handle her , Gavin thought.  
    He almost wished that she’d actually fought him, or at least tried. He did have years of practice handling people far bigger and stronger than her, but deep down, he liked the thought of her touching him again, getting to hold her arms back, let her wriggle against him.
    His skin still tingled where she’d shoved him, after all.
    “Thanks,” he told Gus, then walked from the bar back to the girl. This time he stood about a foot to her left and waited for her to see him. When she did, there was a flash of anger in her gray eyes, and Gavin felt a bolt of warmth go through him.
    He fought back a smile.
    Fight me again , he thought, as he handed her the drink.
    “You fight a lot of men in bars?” he asked, as he took a sip of his beer.
    “Only the ones who don’t understand personal space,” she said.
    “I bet that’s not true,” he said. “You seem like you’d get into a fight for lots of reasons.”
    She leveled a glare at him, looking left through her bangs.
    “They’re all good ones,” she said, her voice flat with anger.
    “All right!” shouted the band’s singer from the stage, cutting off Gavin’s response. “This is our last song. We’re the Leather Chain, thanks for having us!”
    The song took off, and for a moment, Gavin got lost in watching Chase play. The cover band was just something he did for fun, but he was good . His fingers danced over the frets, his hips rocked in time with the beat, and he tossed his hair out of his face every so often with a cocksure swagger that Gavin knew drove people wild.
    Hell, it still drove him wild, and he’d been watching Chase for years.
    Then Chase looked over at Gavin, then at the girl, then at Gavin, his eyebrows raising just slightly. Gavin held up his beer, and Chase smiled.
    “You a friend of his?” the girl demanded.
    “Yup,” said Gavin, lifting his beer to his mouth.
    We’re a little more than friends , he thought.