Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33919 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 170(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33919 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 170(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
He wasn’t interested in drama. He wasn’t interested in stringing along a woman who didn’t deserve it.
Then there was Lisa.
Sweet, sexy, fucking beautiful Lisa Bennett, alone in No Wolves Road after her parents had passed. Some distant relative, which is how they came to know about wolves, or something like that. Either way, she had caught his attention.
He didn’t even like coffee. Lisa didn’t know that the first time he’d seen her was not actually inside the coffee shop, it had been when she was walking toward the place. The scent of her had literally stopped him in his path. She smelled like chocolate and vanilla, which happened to be his favorite combination of sweet food. He was a sucker for a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting, or even chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. He loved both. It didn’t even have to be cake. He was all for doughnuts, candy, anything with chocolate and vanilla.
And Lisa smelled like it. His favorite craving come to life.
He’d been unable to look away.
She’d called to him. He’d watched her go into the coffee shop, and that was when he first entered.
Shadow didn’t like coffee. The scent of it was a little too bitter for his taste. He carried his black coffee out of the shop, and like so many times before, he fed it to the small potted plant by the side of the road.
He’d expected her to have gotten over him. Not once had he promised her forever, and yet she was behaving like he had. They never talked about the future. He never told her his plans with the pack, how he needed to have a child, an heir to pass down the pack line.
His father and grandfather before they passed had told him it was important to do that. They had not pressured him about it, though. They had known how important it was to him to find the right woman to have a child, to mate and spend his life with. He couldn’t help but wonder what his father and grandfather would think of him dating Lisa.
This was not going the way he wanted it to go.
Shadow glanced back at the coffee shop and was tempted to go back inside and drag her out, forcing her to talk to him. Their last conversation didn’t go well. He’d not known that she’d snuck into the bar and heard him talking with some of the other wolf guys. Everything had messed up.
He shouldn’t have gone to the bar, but he’d been waiting for Lisa to finish her shift. Time had gotten away from him, and now he didn’t know what the fuck to do.
Glancing across the street, he saw several men from different packs. Some of them mere members, others were Alphas like him. This town allowed them to be within close proximity without fighting. Those were the rules—no fighting, no starting shit. This town was completely neutral territory.
“You okay?”
He turned to see Pam taking a seat beside him.
Pam was a young female from his pack. There was a time his father had thought Pam would be a good pack mate, but she was too young and quiet, and he had no feelings about her whatsoever. Also, Pam hadn’t been interested in him.
Against all odds, they’d struck up a friendship, one that confused their pack.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said.
She chuckled. “You don’t seem okay. What’s bothering you?”
“Nothing.”
“You know, this friendship thing goes both ways. You tell me what is wrong, I fix it. I tell you what is bothering me, and you fix it.” Pam took a seat beside him.
Shadow didn’t want to start talking about his problems.
“Or maybe you don’t want to admit you fucked up big time, and you don’t know how to fix it. Lisa’s not exactly falling for your crap, is she?”
He turned toward Pam. “How the fuck do you know that?”
Pam shrugged. “Gossip.”
“I should have known the people of No Wolves—”
“It was wolves that were gossiping. Believe it or not, most of the locals at No Wolves Road don’t gossip. I think it is years of having to keep the wolf secret. They talk but don’t gossip with each other.”
“Are you even on my side?” he asked.
She chuckled. “Yes, I’m on your side, but I also happen to like that they don’t gossip. Now, wolves on the other hand, are a whole different ball game. They do not know how to keep anything private.”
“So, what you’re saying is I should worry about what you’re going to go and gossip about?” he asked.
She laughed. “Nope, I’m a different kind of beast. I’m a friend who is only interested in trying to help you fix your mess.”
He snorted. “There is nothing to fix.”
“There’s not?”
“Lisa doesn’t want anything to do with me. Fine.”
Pam smiled. “Ah, so we’re at ‘fine’ phase right now, where you are in complete denial.”