Resisting Velocity Read Online Free PDF Page A

know why Benji pulled at her heart strings, but she couldn’t ignore her wolf’s twinge of pleasure at seeing him.
    Normally, Charlie wasn’t prone to excessive displays of…well, anything, but yesterday had been a special occasion and it seemed that today was headed in that direction as well.
    Benji stared at her and flushed from the top of his collarbone all the way to the tip of his forehead. It was something that she knew the other wolf hated; he had worked hard to grow a shell thick enough to disguise his naturally bashful nature, but sometimes it showed through.
    Looking him up and down, Charlie gave a low whistle and took a step back to allow him to enter her trailer. “Make yourself at home. It’s a good thing I have the coffee going, because you look worse than leftovers.”
    “Nrrmph.” He climbed the stairs, shuffling like the undead.
    A raised eyebrow at his grunt was Charlie’s only given sign of intrigue. She turned to get two mugs from the cupboard and filled them to the brim. If it had been any of the other guys in her personal quarters, she would’ve been annoyed at their assumption that she’d play waitress just because one of them deigned to come calling. But it was Benji and they had spent a great deal of time with each other, both as pack and as friends.
    Glancing over, two steaming cups of coffee gripped tightly in her hands, she couldn’t help but give a thorough and motherly once-over to the man, who had flopped down on her couch with an arm thrown over his forehead.
    He looked like hell. Torn up black jeans and a tank top covered his lean frame and she noted that he could use a bit of a trim. His normally bright green eyes were only slightly open and dark circles beneath them showed the wear and tear of late-night partying. Benji was going to need a lecture about taking it easy on the women and the booze.
    Charlie set one mug of coffee in front of Benji and held the other one to her chest, enjoying the wafting scent of caffeine. She curled up in her peacock throne chair and they sat in silence for a few moments. She waited, watching as he unwound himself from the fetal position on her couch and picked up his own cup and drank, gulp after gulp. Once the last scalding swallow had been taken, Charlie didn’t bother to hide her astonishment as his behavior as she stared at him.
    “What?” A blush began to creep up Benji’s neck.
    “You’re…either insane or no longer have any idea of hot and cold.”
    “Nah, I burnt my mouth the other day. Now it’s numb from that crap.”
    “I’m going to call bullshit on that, Benj. You look like a zombie and the fact that you showed up at my place before noon is proof enough that something’s on your mind.”
    An irritated toss of his overly shaggy black hair, a bit of squirming in his seat, averted eye contact, and silence was her answer. Charlie just sat and sipped tenderly at her coffee, vowing to not say another word until he’d broken down and told her what she wanted to know.
    “Where was Zane last night?” The loaded question was followed by an accusatory stare and Charlie had to fight not to jump and get defensive. She clenched her teeth to hold it in. He had a right to know, as a friend, where his other friend had been last night and obviously he wasn’t going to question Zane—his alpha to-be—about his whereabouts.
    “With me… We had a discussion about tendering my resignation. And then we…ran together.”
    The silence that followed let Charlie know she was in trouble. In the past, she had always run alone, choosing to rebel against the traditions of the loosely-knit pack. Sure, she’d had gone running with Benji a few times before over the past few years, but only when the mood struck her, when the loneliness for wolven company became too much to bear. Fleeting memories of worrying about his reaction had been banished last night amidst the gaiety of their run and now they’d come back with collateral.
    After a moment,