Emerald: Rare Gems Series - Billionaire Wolf Shapeshifter Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

punched her in the mouth for “back talking” him, as he’d told her.
    Then Nolan had nearly beaten Shaffer to death when they’d left the bar. He’d told Shaffer to stay away from her, but Shaffer had told him that he needed help and to stay away from them both. The fight was bad and only got worse as Nolan brought out a bat and began beating Shaffer, then her with it. She might have killed him herself had it not been for the crowd of people that had come out to watch them get the shit beaten out of them.
    I’m a first-class loser . Her wolf stretched out, and Emerald pulled her into her, shifting back to herself in a matter of seconds. She lay on her bed naked, wondering what the hell was wrong with her. “I can’t date anyone for fear of Nolan, and I don’t dare tell my family, even though I’m pretty sure they are aware now that he’s hit me and that I’m afraid for my life. It would be funny if it wasn’t so fucking scary. What am I supposed to do now?”
    Of course her wolf had no answer. Closing her eyes, she thought of all the crap she had to do and how much she had no desire to get up and do it. But she had to. There were no grandma’s living here to help her out.
    Emerald got up and pulled out something soft and comfortable to put on. Then she went to get her laundry basket. Maybe if she washed enough to get her to the weekend she could finish it up when she had more time. Instead of listening to her reasoning, she knew that she’d end up doing it all tonight and grade all the papers too. Life on your own, she thought, sure was busy.
    “I suck.” She grinned to herself as she pulled out the phone. “At least I can have pizza anyway I want it, and no one cares if I have onion breath.”
    Emerald was pulling on her sweats as she ordered her extra-large triple meat pizza. And for dessert she remembered her grandmother had sent her some of her lemon cookies in a big tin. She got that down now and started munching on them. She was smiling to herself when she realized her grandmother would have a fit if she could see her now.
    “No eating sweets before dinner.” She laughed at her voice as she imitated her grandmother. “And you’ll tie your hair up so that that pizza man doesn’t think you’re a homeless person.”
    She had pointed out that homeless people didn’t have pizzas delivered to their homes with an address, and she huffed at her. Grandmother was making a point then and it still made her laugh.
    The pizza came about ten minutes later than she had expected it. She was afraid that Nolan had waylaid her dinner, but the elevator wasn’t working again and the guy had had to climb the five flights of stairs to get it to her. Emerald gave him an extra ten bucks for his trouble, and had to nearly close the door in his face to get him to leave. He was nearly drooling on her pie.
    “You’d think he’d get sick of pizza working there.” Emerald sat down with her beer and took her first bite. “Man this is good. No wonder he wanted to stay and help me eat it.”
    Emerald was talking to herself again. She’d not done it in a very long time, not since her parents had both been killed. But lately she’d been having entire conversations with herself, going as far as to answer her questions too. There was no reason for it. If she needed someone to talk to, she could have simply reached for some family member, but that wasn’t as easy lately as it once had been.
    “They have their own families and stuff going on in their lives.” Emerald looked down at her nearly finished dinner. “They don’t need a fifth wheel mucking things up for them. Besides, I’m pretty sure they’re glad I’m not bothering them all the time. Sheesh, I’m boring.”
    Laughing, she finished off the last piece and put the empty box in the trash. She was hesitant about taking it out as it was dark now, but she did gather it up to take out in the morning. As she was setting the last of the other trash near her door to