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

Denise was apparently thinking with her panties tonight.
    So now they were at the place that was sure to get the most action from the wildest people in the whole town.
    The bar had already been loud and rowdy when they got there. Then Ted bought her a beer without asking her if she wanted one, and got mad when she’d set it down without drinking it.
    “I paid good money for that, Ali!” Then Ted said, “Maybe you want something else, huh?”
    Before she could react, he tried to slide his hand up her shirt.
    “ No ,” she told him. “I don’t want to do that.”
    “Oh, come on, Ali. It’s only second base.” His hand slipped higher.
    She jerked his hand away. “I said no . We’re done.”
    Ali stalked off. He followed her at first, but then his brother had found him and dragged him off to meet some local street-racing legend or something. That left her feeling a little shaky, although she kept her chin high and her expression fierce.
    Then she spotted Matt Finch across the bar, laughing with some skinny blonde.
    She turned around immediately, her cheeks burning. He hadn’t seen her, but it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t care if he had. She was the only one who’d ever cared. And he was the last person she’d wanted to see tonight.
    So now she was on the opposite end of the bar, looking for Denise. If it were up to her, they’d abandon the Eltons here and drive back to town right now. She’d rather be at home listening to Paul and Molly argue than here.
    She was still fuming about the fact that Ted hadn’t listened her to tell him no . Alethia Parker would tell any man no she wanted to, and if he took issue with that, she had pepper spray in her purse and she wasn’t afraid to use it.
    So that was the mindset she was in when some guy in a scraggly beard and a stained T-shirt noticed her and leered. “Hey, honey, you lose your boyfriend?”
    “I don’t know,” she snapped. “He’s probably with your mom.”
    In retrospect, that had been a dumb thing to say.
    Scraggly got mad and grabbed her arm.
    “I think you should learn some respect.” His breath was hot in her face. It did not smell minty-fresh.
    “Let go of me.” She made sure to enunciate each word very carefully.
    “No.” His grip tightened.
    Ali looked down, hoping to God he wasn’t wearing steel-toed boots. Nope, she was in luck: dirty white sneakers.
    She drove her four-inch stiletto heel down into his foot. He howled and let her go, and she darted off into the crowd as fast as she could go.
    That was it, she was finding Denise and they were leaving right now!
    She ran smack into someone, rebounding off his chest like he was made of stone.
    She looked up—and up—to meet the cool, grey eyes of a man who had to be at least 6’3’’. He was lean and muscular and looked like he could take anybody at this bar without breaking a sweat.
    Great, Ali thought. Now this guy would want a piece of her, and she was going to have to try and pepper spray him, except his face might be too high for her to reach.
    But he wasn’t making a move. He was just looking at her, intently, and when she looked back, she saw that his eyes weren’t cool after all. They were warm, a warm silvery color that held her attention like nothing else ever had.
    “Gotcha!” Scraggly had come up behind her without her noticing and grabbed her arm again.
    Gotcha?
    She tried to find it funny—it was funny, after all, like she was a mouse in a cartoon—but all of a sudden, the whole night seemed to crash down on her. Molly, Denise, Ted, Matt, Scraggly. She wanted to burst into tears.
    She couldn’t cry in a bar in front of everyone. But somehow, a single hot streak escaped her eye makeup and made it down her cheek.
    Then a big hand closed around Scraggly’s wrist and twisted.
    “ Hey !” Scraggly yelled, instantly letting her go. “What’s wrong with you? I saw her first.”
    “I’m thinking she doesn’t want to see you ,” said the grey-eyed man in a rumbling