Emerald: Rare Gems Series - Billionaire Wolf Shapeshifter Romance Read Online Free Page B

shift and run. But there was no place for her to do that here in the city, and less now that her entire family was watching her.
    She supposed she could have gone home today and healed herself, but she’d been leery of going home now with Allen there watching her. He’d been keeping an especially close eye on her since that day at the house, going so far as to come to the school because of “just being in the neighborhood” and wanting to talk to her. He never had anything more to say to her than the garden was doing well.
    And Nolan wasn’t backing off, no matter what she did to keep him away. When she’d left this morning, being trapped by Nolan in the hall, it had taken everything she had to get away. Now she was hurting badly for not paying attention to her surroundings. She was careful now, however.
    Stripping down to her skin as soon as she moved into her apartment, she let her wolf take her as she moaned through the pain. Not the shift, never that, but the pain of the beating she’d taken that morning. And it had been one hell of a beating.
    Wandering around her two rooms, she stretched and let her wolf have her way. It was cramped, yes, but she was feeling better all the time. When she hopped up on her bed and laid out, she wanted to close her eyes and sleep for a month, but there were papers to grade as well as a few loads of laundry to do. But the longer she lay there, the less important those things became.
    You’ve been a fool, you know that right? Her wolf only hummed her agreement to her. Why is it that I pick the worst guys? And the ones with the biggest fists? Or worst yet, why is it that guys that are horrible just seem to latch right onto me? Tell me that? I’m not a bad person, so why do I attract the bad elements all the time?
    Still no answer, but Emerald knew that it was her fault. Not the beatings. She never dated a man more than once if he hit her. But she’d never dated Nolan Bruce…he just had never taken her no to heart. He just would not give up on trying to see her.
    I blame it on my family . She giggled at that. Not him coming around, but the need to have some sort of love in my life. I just wanted to have a nice night out, and he came barging into my life. But he’s not listening to me no matter how many times I tell him I do not want him near me .
    He wasn’t either. Every day since she’d kicked him out of her family’s house, he’d been emailing or calling her, even texting…and she had no idea how he’d gotten her information. She’d not even invited him to the house that day, but he’d shown up on his own and came in as if he owned the place. It had started even before that, when she’d been out with a friend and he’d decided that she was the one. One what, she’d never been able to figure out. He wasn’t her mate.
    Today wasn’t the first time she’d actually seen him since then. Nor was it the first, second, or even third time he’d hit her. She’d been taking beatings from him for about a month now. Anytime she wasn’t paying attention, he’d pop out of nowhere and beat the shit out of her because she wouldn’t sleep with him. Fucking bastard was going to get himself killed if she ever was in a place she could let her wolf tear his ass up.
    What is it with men and sex ? Her wolf growled low. I mean seriously, is it that good ? She’d never know, she thought to herself, because even if the right man did come along that she wanted to get laid by, Nolan would hurt them. He had before.
    That poor man . She’d only met the nice man at the bar to get a drink with him. Shaffer Carlee had met her at the bar in Tenth, a block from her house, when Nolan had confronted them both. The bar wasn’t a place that she went to often, but Shaffer was well known there because he delivered their orders weekly. Nolan had been tossed out almost as soon as he started screaming at her that they were married; which, of course, they were not. Things had gotten ugly fast when he