Layla Nash - A Valentine's Chase (City Shifters: the Pride) by Unknown Read Free Book Online

looked at him. His voice went all deep and husky, a soft secret between us. "And I happen to think the only bad decision you've made lately is not giving me your phone number. So that's easily remedied."
    I laughed. "Oh, really? Maybe that was the only good decision I've made in weeks."
    "How could that be a good decision?" He seemed pleased, or at least entertained, and smiled more.
    "Because you look like someone who's going to break my heart." I tried to school myself into a stern expression. "And I'm not about to put up with that."
    "Never." His face grew thoughtful, and I jumped when I felt his fingers rest against the back of my hand in a gentle caress. "Meadow, please know I would never, ever hurt you. Smith would murder me horribly if I even thought about being less than a perfect gentleman."
    "I might murder you first," I said, and regretted it. Who the hell threatened a guy when he was trying to ask her out? I wanted to slap my forehead and crawl under the table.
    "I remember," Rafe said, dark eyes searching my face, and heat ignited in my cheeks. He smiled enough that I saw the white edges of his teeth. "Air horn, mace, and taser. In that order, or do you like to mix it up?"
    "I can't tell you that, it'll ruin the surprise." I shook my head and reached for the soda, wishing someone would open the door so some of that winter air would drive the heat from my cheeks. Holy hell. "You're very confident."
    "Normally, yes. But you're knocking me back a step, Meadow." He gestured at one of the younger men milling around the pool tables, and almost immediately the kid retrieved two fresh beers from behind the bar. He grinned bashfully at me before he retreated back to the pool table, though Rafe didn't seem to have noticed that we'd drawn the attention of the entire damn bar. They must have been his friends, to watch him so closely. Maybe there was a bet.
    I pushed away the surge of uncertainty. Smith wouldn't bring me into a situation like that. I took the ale Rafe offered and sipped it. "Why do you say that?"
    "I didn't expect you," he said. "And usually my world is very orderly. You are a very nice surprise. But that means I'm not quite sure how to ask you out."
    The ale was a bad idea. My thoughts went all bubbly and fuzzy at the same time, and I saw us together in a sudden flash, comfortable and at home in a fancy apartment. My imagination took off with it, showing me wedding pictures and baby pictures for kids who would never exist, and a business and a perfect life. Perfection, dressed up like Rafe. I shook it off and tried to smile. "That's easy. You shouldn't."
    "Why not?"
    I hesitated, my gaze drifting to the pool table and the group of people still waiting expectantly, and took a deep breath. Just as I geared up to tell him my world wouldn't fit with his and I tended to misinterpret things and needed a low-stress life, the bell over the door rang, a convenient distraction. I looked up, blinking as the cold air swirled in a cloud of snow and with it came a wolf. A wolf?
    It couldn't be. I frowned and tried to wipe away the mirage, certain it was a hallucination or a product of the medication or my overactive imagination. Wolves didn't run around the city. Maybe it was a big dog.
    Puzzled, I watched as a giant fucking wolf leapt into the bar and launched straight up. At Rafe. At me. A scream died in my throat as the animal snarled and all I could see were its teeth.

Chapter 7
    R afe thought he was making progress with Meadow when the door opened and a rogue wolf leapt through the door. It bounded at Meadow and something broke in Rafe's head. He didn't mean to shift, didn't mean to reveal that side of himself, but there was no other way to save her. He met the intruder, teeth to teeth, and fought it back despite sudden spikes of pain in his shoulder where the bastard struck home. Rafe snarled and the pack rushed forward.
    Which was just as well, because the intruder wasn't alone. More wolves poured through the door,