RICHIE: New Orleans Wolf Shifters with plus sized BBW for mates (Le Beau Series Book 6) Read Free

belch out his bag. Nothing. Any minute now, an annoying alarm would blare and the blue light above would flash, signaling his luggage would barrel from the metal shoot before him and onto the belt.
    As he waited, his thoughts turned to Theresa. He imagined she was a bundle of nerves. In his mind, he could see her pacing across a room and wringing her hands while Helen tried to calm her. He smiled; he could already hear her jabbering a mile a minute with excitement. Richie was a mixture of joyous thoughts and envy. He couldn’t be happier for his friend, but at the same time, he envied the deep love she shared with her fiancé. He wanted that same happiness she bubbled over with every time she’d come into the bar. First Anna had found Cade, and now Theresa was marrying Bob. He wanted his mate.
    Richie was beginning to doubt he would ever find his mate. For every shifter, there was only one destined mate. Only one woman who held the other half of his soul. The odds of winning the lottery were about a thousand times better than finding your mate amongst the world’s exploding population. What if his mate had married a human? Anna had before she met Cade. He shook the unpleasant speculation off. Then for the hundredth time he thought I need to start a dating service for shifters. I could call it Mates-R-Us . Richie let out a derisive snort at his ridiculous notions as the light finally flashed and the siren blasted his sensitive hearing. Time to get the party started.
    He squared his shoulders and dispelled his covetous feelings. This wasn’t the place or the time. His friend was getting married in twenty-one hours. He would display nothing but joy and happiness while he was in St. Louis for her wedding.
    Bag in hand, Richie went in search of his rental car. A quick check on the time, and he walked a bit faster. He only had twenty-five minutes to get his rear end to the dinner. If he hustled and broke a speed limit or two he would make it.
    Thirty minutes later, he cursed and slammed the car into park, then ran for the reception hall, which was doing double duty as the rehearsal dinner location. He skidded to a halt outside the reserved space, straightened his tie and plastered a smile on his face.
    As quietly as possible he slipped in and searched for an open seat. A hasty scan of the room showed only one vacant chair. Great, obviously he was the last person to arrive. Without causing to much disturbance, he walked to the front of the room and took his seat between Billie and Karen.
    Piper’s gaze had swung to the double doors the instant it cracked open. She scrutinized the man slipping in. A relieved breath escaped the instant she got a good look at him, and verified it wasn’t Qball crashing the dinner. But for some reason, the stranger raised a flock of birds in her stomach. She never reacted to strangers so strongly.
    She didn’t dare look too closely. The last thing she needed was this guy catching her gawking at him. Her aunt always said she started flirting the instant she left the womb. Flirting, my ass, she thought, shaking her head to herself. Her aunt never could tell the difference between profiling and flirting. She’d been profiling people her entire life. That was one of the reasons she’d gone into her chosen profession.
    Experience taught her the best way to guard her heart was to thoroughly study the enemy and be prepared. And that was what she intended to do.
    Too many of the opposite sex came armed with charm and playful banter. The problem was, most of the time the guy was faking it to get into the girl’s pants. But this guy looked like no one she’d ever seen. For some reason he didn’t fit her normal profile.
    She glanced his way out of the corner of her eye, as he took the empty chair at her table. His manicured five o’clock shadowed jaw was well defined and he had perfectly sculpted lips. But it was his eyes that captured her attention, a warm brown color with flecks of gold. To complete