Luke (Bear Shifter) (New World Shifters) Read Free Page A

in his hand, and Everly, the last of the Wolf pack that remained.
    Everly was what my mother called a bad apple. He was a monster of a man, redheaded and freckled, a mean bastard if ever there was one. I don't know what he had done before he came up to Alaska, but my instinct said he’d been a trucker. He wore a trucker hat at least, and his beady little eyes beneath the brim of it glared out despite how inebriated he was. I could picture him behind the wheel of a big rig, high as a fucking kite on uppers, trying not to fall asleep as he cruised through the night on his way to parts unknown.
    I may not be certain about what he used to do, but I sure knew what he did now. Now , he hurt people. That was his full-time job. He was an enforcer for the Wolf pack. I'd been at the pawnshop, hocking a watch that I couldn't afford to keep a couple of weeks ago when he’d come in. I looked away and tried to mind my own business, but he wasn't there for me. He was there for the owner, an Indian guy named Sanjay that was about as out of place as you can imagine up here.
    I found out later there’d been a dispute about protection pay, but I didn't know that then. At the time all I saw was Everly reach out across the counter, grab both of Sanjay's hands in his and, in a show of brute force that scared the shit out of me, ram both his hands and Sanjay’s through the glass counter that displayed the pawned jewelry.
    There was blood everywhere, a crimson mix of both men's. Sanjay howled in agony but Everly just took the pain and swallowed it down. He didn't so much as flinch, and the only thing he said was, “Now you owe us double.” With that, he turned on his heel and walked out, dripping blood, moving as casually as if he were on a summer stroll.
    Even from my place behind the bar I could still see the cuts on Everly's hands, and here and there the stitches had started to come away. I watched in quiet revulsion as he scratched at them absently.
    I sent a little mental wish that the cuts would get infected, that his hands would rot off and his arms would go black and wither away to nothing, too. I'd heard too many stories about the things he'd done to people to have any sort of compassion or thoughts of mercy. He was a callous, vile, dangerous man, and the only reason he hadn't hurt me yet was because I'd always done exactly what he said.
    “I'm done,” Everly announced, in the tone a king would tell his court once a meal was finished.
    Carla looked at me with a frown, and then piped up, “I hope everything was to your satisfaction, Everly.”
    “If it weren’t, you’d know,” he said. “The beer tastes like piss and the servers could have bigger tits if you ask me, but you can’t change that enough.”
    “You have a good night now,” Carla said, forcing as much enthusiasm and brightness into her voice as she could.
    Even though it was probably the nicest thing she could think to say, Everly didn't like it one little bit. “What's supposed to be so good about it”? He demanded drunkenly, getting to his feet too fast and almost toppling over.
    Carla shrugged and bit her lip, and I felt terrible for her. The only reason she was talking to him at all was to take a bullet for me, and now it was my turn to return the favor.
    “I think she just means that the night is full of possibilities…” I said, kicking myself. What the hell was that supposed to mean?” You know,” I continued like an idiot, since I'd never known when to stop. “Like you can go to sleep, and when you wake up things can be however you want them to be.”
    “Is that so?” he asked, staring daggers at me.
    I shrugged. “I don’t really know.”
    He watched me for several long seconds until I got scared and looked away. If he demanded I go somewhere with him, I was going to have to make up an excuse that wouldn’t sound like an out and out rejection. I got ready with a prepared speech about how I had things to do in the morning and couldn't spend