Free Red Snow Bride (Wolf Brides Book 2) by T. S. Joyce

keepin’ tabs on her stops right here. Tonight. If you come within ten feet of her, I’ll know—and then you’ll regret it,” I promised, swallowing a billowing growl that threatened to rip from me.
    “Ah, the threats of a country man. I’m afraid you wouldn’t be able to touch me, though. I’m well known around these parts.”
    “Great for you. Around my parts, we feed stronger men than you to the pigs. Take the hint, sir, and leave before I forget my manners.” I stepped forward and the idiot held his ground. Did he have no instincts whatsoever when he was pushing a wild animal too far? City slickers.
    All conversation had stopped inside and if I was right, which I often was on occasions such as these, my brother and Da were just on the other side of that door waiting for any hint of trouble. And they’d tear him to pieces just the same as me.
    “Are you sure you know what you’re getting into with this one?” the man asked. “There’s a reason I divorced her. It’s quite well known around here, but you being a foreigner to Boston, maybe you aren’t up on current events. Has she admitted why she’s been shamed?”
    “Daniel, stop,” she breathed, and the smell of her fear became more potent on the chilly breeze.
    “I know she’s divorced and it don’t bother me none. You’re a damned fool for throwing her away.”
    “Lorelei’s in the position she’s in now because she is, mmm, how should I say? Lacking in bed? You’ll never get your cock sucked with this one.”
    Red hot fury blasted through my veins and I closed my eyes against the push of the wolf. Every inch of skin on my person tingled with the want to burst into an animal and rip his throat out so he couldn’t ever utter her name from his vile lips again. I needed an out. I needed something, anything, to soothe the urge to kill or I’d reveal myself as a monster right here in the middle of the city.
    Unable to think over the pounding in my ears, I pulled Lorelei to me. Grasping the back of her hair, I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers. She squeaked and stood rigid for a moment before her lips turned soft and inviting. When I pulled her hips flush against mine, a tiny accidental sound came from her throat that made me want to claim her right here on the porch. I’d give everything I owned to draw that little noise of pleasure from her again. I kissed her once more, softly, then turned my head to her gawking abuser and growled, “She’s been nothing but warm to me. It’s pretty obvious you weren’t doin’ it right.”
    Lorelei was leaning on my arm heavily, her breathing ragged. “Get on inside,” I told her.
    “Okay,” she said in an odd tone. Her boot prints were unsteady across the wooden floorboards and when the door clicked shut behind her, I leapt from the porch and wrapped my hands around his throat.
    “It’s all become really clear to me now what’s happened,” I said as I pulled his choking form around the shadowed side of the house. “You’ve slandered her to get your divorce, am I right? And now you’ve moved on but you want to keep her impoverished. You get some sick kick out of that, don’t you?” Desperate fingers grappled at my hand and his face turned the shade of a saloon girl’s made up lips. His body thudded against the side of the house as I slammed him into it. “If you come near my wife again, I’ll kill you. I don’t care what kind of high falutin’ blood you’re convinced is runnin’ through your veins, trust me when I say a pedigreed man dies just the same as a pauper.” I released my grip and he dropped flailing to the ground. “Have a nice life,” I said, turning with a bow of my head. “I know I will.”
    Lorelei sat in Da’s favorite chair with a glass of water in her shaking hand. “Is he gone?” she asked.
    “You don’t have to worry about that man botherin’ you again. Are you okay?”
    She nodded slowly. “What he said about me—”
    “You don’t have to say