FavoriteObsession Read Online Free PDF Page A

Josh. You know I hate
that.”
    Yeah, he knew, but he couldn’t let anyone find the knife
that had nearly gutted him. People would start asking questions. “Please, Ella,
just hear me out. I called him. He’s home and was minutes from passing out.
He’s not going anywhere. Give me tonight to talk to him. We had a disagreement.
I want to clear it up.”
    “What kind of disagreement?”
    The black muscle car pulling into the lot stopped his answer.
Josh stepped around his cousin and strode toward Kade’s ’Cuda. Mira jumped out
before it came to a complete stop and ran straight to him. Josh opened his arms
and enveloped her in his embrace. The scent of spring rain chased away the
lingering clover and cinnamon in his nose. He buried his face in her hair and
inhaled more of her comforting fragrance.
    “Are you okay?”
    The concern in her voice slowed the churning in his gut.
Another deep breath and the itch lessened. “I am now.”
    “Sara said you were bleeding and unconscious.” Mira pulled
back and ran her hands over his bare sides. She fingered the tape holding the
large bandage. “Gods, what happened?”
    “I got in a fight. The guy nicked me but it was a long cut.
Needed a big Band-Aid.” He grinned, hoping to ease some of the worry in her
eyes. “You can kiss it later and make it better.”
    As soon as the words were out of his mouth he tensed,
expecting Devin or Kade to say something. They didn’t. Both shifters stood with
their backs to them, talking to Ella’s deputy.
    He jerked his chin in their direction. “Have your bodyguards
decided to stop giving us a hard time?”
    She gently skimmed her fingertips around the white dressing.
“Not in this lifetime but they want to know who hurt you so we can return the
favor.”
    “No.” He focused on her and let her see his determination.
“I don’t want them or you involved.”
    Jesus, that’d be a disaster. After what had happened
tonight, he had to corner Zeb and convince him he hadn’t nearly gutted him. Zeb
might be slow in a lot of things, but Josh couldn’t take the chance he’d put
two and two together and start looking too closely into the affairs of his new
friends.
    Josh might only be an honorary member of the pride, but it
didn’t mean he wouldn’t protect them at all costs the same way the full-blooded
shifters would.
    “You’re a member of our family. We protect our own.”
    Damn if he didn’t love the fire in her eyes. He brushed his
knuckles over her cheek. “I know but this isn’t something that needs their
interference or yours. It was a little fight. That’s it. I’ll handle it.” She
opened her mouth. He pressed a finger to her plump lips to stop her argument.
“I won’t allow anyone to fight my battles and this one simply got out of hand.
Okay?”
    She held his gaze for a long moment. Finally, she breathed a
sigh and his tension eased. “Yes, okay, but if this person ,” she choked
on the word, “hurts you again, all bets are off.”
    “This person was human,” he whispered, conscious of the
people around them. “He’s also not accepting of anything different. Leave him
be.”
    She pressed her forehead to his chest and he rubbed her back
in long soothing strokes along the length of her spine. She’d talked to him one
night about her fears for the future. He shared them too, which was why he
couldn’t let Zeb get any crazy ideas in his head.
    Shifters were known by nearly every government in the world.
In most modernized countries, they were accepted as citizens with special
provisions taken to hide their age and others to legalize certain instinctual
customs, including their devotion to their beloved humans.
    Those who were entrusted with the knowledge of shifters’
existence understood the danger to the world if the general populace learned
about the nonhumans living among them. It didn’t take much to picture the
scenarios of what would happen, none of them good. As much as he loved his
fellow neighbor, he