The Snow Leopard's Mate: BBW Snow Leopard Shifter Paranormal Romance Read Free

women in bars just led to frustration that there was no real connection there.
    So he sat and listened to John talk about his toddlers instead.
    The bar slowly got rowdier as the night wore on. The voices got louder, the women slowly seemed to be wearing less clothing, and the occasional shoving match started up.
    Grey started glancing at his watch, trying to judge when he could leave without insulting John. Pretty soon, he reckoned. His beer was almost gone, and he wouldn’t be ordering another.
    As John wound up his story, Grey finished the last of his beer and pushed the glass away from himself. “Well, it’s been a good time…”
    He’d been afraid John would protest, try to convince him to stay for another round, but instead John just glanced around them and nodded.
    “Better get out of here while the getting’s good.” John stood up.
    Grey followed him away from the bar, relieved.
    There was a crush of people now, way more than there had been when the loggers had poured in at quitting time. It was a real Friday night crowd, looking to unwind after a long, hard week, and Grey couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than to escape into the crisp night air.
    He’d drive his truck back to his cabin and go for a run up into the mountains, he decided. An area that hadn’t been logged yet, the deep forest. That’d be a nice, solitary finish to what had actually been a pretty pleasant night so far.
    But as he was pushing through the crowd to the door, following John, Matt Finch appeared in his path.
    “Hey there, kitty cat,” he said, a grin spreading across his face. “You think you can drink in this bar? This is a bar for bears, not for little cats. You might get your tail stepped on.”
    Getting into a fight had not been part of his plan. “I can drink where I please,” Grey said mildly, “but since I was just leaving, you bears can have your clubhouse all to yourselves now.”
    He slipped smoothly past Matt and kept going toward the door.
    Behind him, he heard Matt say, “Hey, don’t you run away from me!” He braced himself. It looked like he might be getting a fight after all.
    Then a high female voice said, “Matt Finch, if you punch that guy, I am out of here .”
    Grey glanced back and saw Matt looking between him and a thin blonde, clearly undecided. There was a long moment where it wasn’t clear which way it would go, but finally Matt said, “All right, baby, fine. I’ll find him later.”
    Grey let out his breath and kept on his way. No fight tonight.
    It was coming, though, he could tell. Assholes like Matt Finch didn’t let up.
    As he got farther away, he started to relax, but just as he was nearing the door, someone darted forward and ran straight into him, hard enough to bounce off his chest and stumble back a few steps.
    “Hey,” Grey started to growl, intending to follow it up with, Watch where you’re going!
    But the person looked up and met his eyes, and Grey forgot what he was going to say.
    She had huge, startlingly blue eyes, framed by long, curling eyelashes and a round, beautiful face. Her skin was olive-toned, smooth, and soft-looking—and there was as much of it as any man could want to look at. Her curves strained the edges of her clothing, as though it was doing its best but couldn’t quite contain anything so magnificent as this woman’s body.
    This woman’s body that had just bounced off of his body. Grey immediately regretted not catching her while she’d been there, and just keeping her tucked up against him. Forever.
    Then he saw the man behind her, and the tear slipping down her cheek.
    The growl rose in his chest without any conscious thought.
     
    ***
     
    The evening wasn’t turning out how Ali had wanted.
    Her request to go somewhere quiet had been ignored. Mac wanted to go to the logger bar because there were apparently some guys there he wanted to play pool with. Ted wanted to go to the logger bar because he did everything his brother wanted. And