Free Jared (River Pack Wolves 3) - New Adult Paranormal Romance by Alisa Woods Page A

should stay here.”
    She shook her head. “No, I’ll be there.”
    He frowned and raked a harsh look over Jared. “Make sure you bring the muscle.” Then he stalked out of the room.
    Kylie rolled her eyes. “Ignore him,” she said to Grace. Then she grinned and crossed the room to offer her hand to Jared. He jumped a little, then slowly extended his to shake.
    “My name’s Kylie. You just let me know if you need anything. Anything at all.” She gave him one of her patented please bed me smiles, then turned and sauntered from the room.
    Grace closed the door behind her.
    “Your boyfriend?” Jared asked coolly.
    “Ex-boyfriend. He’s a nice guy.”
    “He’s not a nice guy, Grace. He’s a bigot. And if he knew what you were, he’d fear and hate you just like all the rest. That’s what we’re up against.”
    Grace leaned back against the door. “I know.” She pressed the heels of her hands to her forehead and closed her eyes. “I need coffee. And time to sort this out.” Then she opened her eyes. “Are you really going to hang out in the office here with me all day?”
    He gave her a very small smile—it wouldn’t have been a big deal on anyone else, except that she’d never seen a real smile on his face. It looked like it hurt him. “I’m your bodyguard.”
    She snorted a laugh. “All right, Mr. Jared, the bodyguard with no last name. Make yourself useful and get me some coffee, will you?”
    He gave her a small scowl, but it wasn’t too harsh. “You’re trying to get rid of me.”
    She sighed. “Only for a minute. You can bring your badass self back here if you’ve got coffee.”
    That small smile made an appearance again, then he strode toward the door. She stepped aside to let him pass, but when she closed the door again, she banged her head softly against it.
    One week. Six days now, actually.
    She had to pull herself together enough to fix this mess.

Jared should have known—the rally at 2 o’clock was an anti-shifter one.
    He stood to Grace’s right, while the ex-boyfriend speechwriter stood to her left, and the coordinator girl—he thought her name was Kylie—flitted around the stage and fussed with the Senator’s microphone.
    Every muscle in Jared’s body clenched.
    The restless crowd that had gathered in the rented hall quietly murmured amongst themselves, waiting to hear the main speaker—two others had already spouted more hate speech than Jared wanted to hear in a lifetime. They were ordinary folk, just as he always suspected—that neighbor down the street, the guy you buy your groceries from, the mid-level manager coming down from her office for a little bigotry with her lunch. Their hatred was a pheromone that floated in the air—the scent of their anger twisted his stomach. Evil was a common enough thing in the world, but he thought he’d left most of it overseas. To see so much of it on display in Seattle chilled him deep in his bones.
    He kept quiet, not blowing his cover in front of the speechwriter, but that asshole sure was flapping in his mouth.
    “Would you look at the size of this crowd?” Nolan held up both hands as if embracing the lot of them.
    Grace bent her head to listen, and with her hair pulled back, Jared could see the tight press of her lips. He would give anything to know what she was thinking, but that would have to wait until later. Assuming this poison didn’t seep into her system and scare her off.
    Nolan kept talking. “The poll numbers are off the charts. People don’t want to say it out loud, but they’re starting to. Look at this…” He gestured to the crowd again. “This is on a Tuesday afternoon. Think about what it’ll look like when we have an evening rally, or a weekend one.”
    Grace just shook her head and didn’t answer.
    The Senator tapped the microphone, and the crowd quieted down. He started in on his speech, which Jared had absolutely no interest in. He watched Grace instead. Her eyes were glued to her father’s tall,