Running With The Pack: Big Easy Shifters: Book Four by Knox, Abby (best book club books TXT) 📗

it. At the reception, he’d had his chance to ask Pen to dance to her favorite song, and he hadn’t. When the band had struck up “No Woman, No Cry,” Bobby had looked up from his glass of straight-up aged Kentucky bourbon and thought he saw Pen glance briefly in his direction.

He should have taken that as a signal right there.

Instead, he had sat and brooded. And then had allowed old man DuChamp to sideline him.

Wasting time. It was what he was good at. Bobby was the ring leader, chief party thrower, but it was all a diversion. He had been in love with Pen LeFleur since middle school, and now literally everyone else in the pack was paired off with somebody except them.

As he and Pen ran, led by the stray yellow Lab up Bourbon Street, he knew precisely what was holding him back. But he had no time for the therapy he needed to heal from the shame of the past. He was too busy spending his life making sure everyone’s drinks were full, and the music was turned up.

It seemed neither Pen nor Bobby had remembered to care about all the gasps and screams and stares from humans watching the two wolves barreling through the streets of New Orleans. As far as Bobby was concerned, it was kind of a relief to have a mission to focus on other than kicking himself over romance.

Just when he thought maybe that filthy stray Lab had lost the scent, it turned down an alleyway and stopped.

Bobby looked up and realized they were in the alley behind Gavin’s shop, Howlin’ G’s tattoo parlor.

He recalled Gavin mentioning he was leaving his employee, Manny, in charge of the shop for a few days while the wedding activities were ramping up.

From the alley, Bobby heard muffled whines. His fur stood on end, this time in a terrible way.

He went to the door, but it was shut. Without opposable thumbs, there was no way he could open the door. But if he shifted back into human form, he would risk being too sapped of energy to shift back, and if there was real danger in there, then he would need to be at full strength. As a wolf, he was more powerful than three ’roid-raging body-builders.

He looked at Pen, and she understood. She checked the entry points to the alley; there was nobody around but the two of them and the Lab. She shifted back into human form and opened the back door, slowly and silently. Stark naked, of course.

Yep. There was the object of his lust, his best friend, the love of his life, the person he thought about when he woke up and last thing before he slept, standing right there, naked. By the nature of their species and the fact that they hunted together, he’d definitely accidentally seen her naked before. With a lifetime of shifting back and forth in each other’s presence, that was unavoidable. But now, the sight of her felt different. Now that he was so close to taking what was his, seeing her bare naked and vulnerable kicked his protectiveness and lust and self-debasement into overdrive. Bobby being Bobby, he had to kick himself to stay focused. The indentations in her skin were still there from the corset contraption that she’d worn under that ridiculous dress all day and well into the night. The sight of those tender red lines begged Bobby to shift, scoop Pen up in his arms, and softly, slowly run his tongue over her aches, tracing kisses down her rib cage, across her sweet belly, and reminding her she never needed a corset.

“No mate of mine needs to wear a torture device to squeeze her perfect body ever again,” he would say, just before diving into her folds with his tongue while stroking her long, soft thighs. The sight of her bare curves and valleys made his pulse pound and his skin crackle with life, even as they had a crisis to attend to.

Bobby grudgingly led Pen and the stray Lab into the back room of the tattoo parlor.

There was an open box of promotional tee-shirts in the small storage room, and Pen helped herself to an oversized one that fell to her thighs. Relief washed over him that she was covered; he didn’t want to see her vulnerable around anyone unless they were alone and in private.

Soon enough, he’d have her naked again. And hopefully, their sordid history wouldn’t crop up to ruin the moment.

Looking around the nooks and crannies of the storage room, Bobby and Pen found something extremely strange. There was an altar to some unfamiliar idol, with flowers and candles. There was a jar of moonshine. There was a weird, dusty old book laid open next to the altar. Its pages had strange diagrams and pictures that Bobby did not recognize. Not that he was much of a book person. Pen whispered, “Nobody leaves a grimoire lying open unless they’re in the process of spell-casting.”

If Bobby were in his human form, he would have asked what the hell she was talking about.

As Pen was perusing the contents of the open pages, Bobby heard another noise. It sounded like people talking. He froze. Then, if he was not mistaken, some muffled cries and growls. Whimpers.

The sounds came from the shop's main room and included the distinct kind of growl that belonged to their pack mate Gavin.

Bobby felt the fur on his neck stand up. He looked up at Pen, who locked eyes with him. She had heard it, too. Something was very profoundly wrong here. The beast inside told him to remain perfectly quiet. Move in for a closer look, but to not make a goddamn sound. With his eyes, he told her to stay still. Pen moved over to put her hand on the neck of the stray Lab and nodded. All they needed was for an overexcited dog to ruin the element of surprise.

Bobby peeked around the corner, and