Alpha Champion (Wolf Fighters Book 1) Read Free

meet you as well. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”
    Her father tightened his grip. “You aren’t leaving already?” he asked politely, but she heard the threat underlying the words.
    She yanked free and smiled apologetically at Bruce. “I’m sorry, but I need to freshen up a bit before the main introductions are started. I forgot to powder my nose.” She winced at the lie. She didn’t use powder, but her father wouldn’t know that, and he’d be seen as rude if he didn’t let her go, so he released her and she made her way to a back hallway, needing some air.
    All the way, she could feel Bruce’s eyes on her, raking her from head to toe. Was this what she had to look forward to for the next week? She felt anger well up inside her but pushed it down, taking deep breaths. She raised a hand up to her hair to make sure the unruly curls were still in place and then looked down at her gown, which was still showing far too much of her ample cleavage but was at least staying put.
    She felt a different gaze on her. One that made her tingle from her toes to the top of her head. She couldn’t put a finger on it as her eyes quietly scanned the ballroom. But she knew someone was there. Someone from the past. Maybe even someone with emerald-green eyes.
    But that was probably just wishful thinking , she thought as she finished scanning the ballroom with no sight of whoever had been watching her.
    “Am I interrupting you?” a deep voice asked, yanking her from her thoughts.
    She looked up to see Bruce had followed her back here. She looked around to see they were alone. Not good. Not that she had any reason not to trust him, but she didn’t like the way he’d looked at her. “Oh, yes, actually…”
    He ignored her and pulled her close, smelling her hair. “You’re perfect. When I win you—”
    She tried to push away. “Excuse me. When you win me? It’s not—”
    He wrapped his hands around her waist, preventing her exit. “Trust me. I’m winning.” He pulled a curl free and twirled it gently. She hated the heated look in his eyes. “And maybe I just want to make sure it’s worth it. Maybe you should give me a taste—”
    She pushed hard against him, not wanting to make a scene, but not willing to let him make a fool of her here in a hallway. If her father saw, would he even rescue her, or would he simply be glad the wolf with the best connections was going to claim her?
    But somehow, she felt being claimed by this wolf was the last thing she would want. He was tall and muscled, though not in the lean, disciplined way Lucas had been. But she didn’t like the feeling she got from him. Like something was wrong. His blandly handsome face seemed to hold a certain cruelty in it, and it turned her off.
    “Let me go before I…” She didn’t really have a threat she could make, so she was relieved when she heard a deep voice cut in from behind them.
    “I suggest you unhand the lady, before I kick your ass,” a low, sardonic voice intoned.
    Lily stretched on her toes to see around her attacker, but couldn’t. Then Bruce gave her an angry look that said they would continue this later and stepped aside, leaving her face to face with the most beautiful pair of green eyes she’d ever seen.
    It wasn’t possible.

2
    T he man before her was taller than the one she’d known, broader through the shoulders with handsome features that had sharpened into a rugged male beauty, square-jawed and lean. His hair still fell in broad, rakish waves and was raven black. But his eyes, though they were the same color as before, were totally different. Hard and cold and angry. But at her or her attacker?
    “Who are you?” Bruce asked harshly as the man across from him continued to ignore him and stared at Lily as if he were trying to devour her with his eyes or maybe memorize every part of her.
    If it really was Lucas, they hadn’t seen one another in what, seven years? She swallowed. The man who might be Lucas turned to the other