Nic Read Online Free PDF

back to filling orders. The two pups who’d been flashing money glared at him. Nic raised his pint glass in salute, then took a deep swig. The cold, crisp flavor of hops and barley exploded on his tongue. He leaned his back against the edge of the bar and scanned the crowd.
    Several groupies had already snagged a table near the front, close to the band. The location put them in the position to be seen by everyone, which Nic supposed was the point.
    The band was still setting up their equipment. He couldn’t tell if they were human or not. He spotted a few wolf paw stamps in the crowd, but not many. Nic made a mental note to avoid them and went back to enjoying his beer.
    A few minutes later there was a knock on the bar. Nic turned to find Lucien smiling at him.
    “You look miserable as ever,” Nic said.
    His friend had a perpetual smile on his face and took delight in the little things, especially if those things came in the form of aggravating a friend. But there was more to Lucien than that. Every once in a while the mask would slip and Nic would glimpse the darkness he kept hidden from the world.
    Nic had never asked what caused the shadows. He figured if Lucien wanted to let him know, he would. Until then, he’d be there whenever his friend needed him and would continue to keep up pretenses.
    “You’re the one lurking at the end of the bar, my friend. How do you expect to meet anyone with that sour expression on your face?” Lucien asked.
    “I don’t,” Nic said. “I’m just here for the beer and your stellar company.”
    Lucien laughed. “Then you’re in luck, because tonight I am in rare form.”
    “I can see that.” Nic indicated to the pups jockeying for position.
    Lucien followed his gaze, and his green eyes glittered with deadly intent. “The problems they present can be easily solved with a quick trip around back.”
    “Is that what you plan to do later?” Nic asked, eyeing his friend.
    “Ah, mon ami , I’m a lover, not a fighter. You know that.” Lucien winked.
    Nic snorted. Lucien was definitely a lover. He loved women. Nic had seen him with an endless string of ladies. One look from the dark-haired, green-eyed Frenchman and women fell to their knees. None of them stayed long, and that suited Lucien just fine. In that respect, they were polar opposites. Nic wanted nothing more than to have a mate to go home to at the end of the day.
    As for not being a fighter, there was no way in hell his friend could ever convince him that was the case. The darkness in his green gaze was no illusion. He hadn’t come by it from anything other than pain.
    “What do you have to do to get a drink around here?” someone shouted.
    The muscles in Lucien’s arms flexed and his hands tightened on the bar. Lucien’s nails lengthened, burrowing into the grainy fibers. Nic heard the wood groan under the pressure.
    “You’d better get going, Lover Boy, before the crowd turns on you,” Nic said.
    Lucien glanced at him. “It wouldn’t be the first time.” His smile returned, but with a touch of melancholy. “ Au revoir, mon ami .”
     
    * * * * *
     
    Mindy stared at the lights in the distance and debated whether to turn her car around. Coming here had seemed like a good idea.
    She’d told Celina that she knew how to have fun. It still irked her that Izzy had made Celina promise never to bring her here. Despite her irritation with the women, it had still taken Mindy two weeks to work up the courage to come.
    Not that it mattered anymore. Izzy was gone and Celina no longer cared what Mindy did. She was too preoccupied with her new boyfriend, Slade. They’d been dating for a little over a week, which was positively long term for Celina. Every time Mindy saw them together, which wasn’t often, they appeared to be joined at the tongue.
    She was genuinely happy that Celina had finally found a steady guy, who liked her for who she was, but it also drove home the fact that Mindy went home to an empty house every