Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58962 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
I waited my whole life to find my mate, then she ran straight into my arms with danger chasing.
I put down the threat and kept her safe.
Now she's seen what I can do—and she's terrified. Of them. Of me. Of the body count I left behind to protect what’s mine.
She doesn't trust her own instincts, doesn't know if I'm her salvation or her next mistake.
She's not wrong to wonder. I'm a wolf who can't survive inside four walls without losing his mind. Claiming her as my fated mate means making a life with her away from the mountains, which might just break me.
But she's mine. My wolf knew it from the first second I caught her scent.
I'll burn the city down to make her mine.
Even if the city ends up burning me first.This steamy cowboy shifter romance features an Asian-American city-girl and the rough, possessive alpha wolf who decides she's his. Fated mates, forced proximity, and a hero who'd bury anyone who looked at her wrong. HEA guaranteed. No cheating or cliffhangers
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
BROOKE
* * *
I had the worst instincts.
Swear to God, red flags could be waving in front of my eyes, and I always missed them until it was too late.
Which was how I ended up at the Denver Four Seasons in a business meeting that felt sketchier by the minute.
It was with an important client for our accounting firm. My boss had called me from the hospital, sounding nearly frantic–not because a delivery van had taken him out in a crosswalk and shattered his leg but because he couldn’t make this meeting. He said he needed me to take his place.
Happy for the opportunity to step up the corporate ladder–even for a few hours–and show what a team player I was, I rushed to pick up my boss’s laptop and paperwork from his office, then I drove downtown for the meeting.
But now, I was in a penthouse suite with my company’s client, the twitchy, sweating Mr. Burke, the owner of Burke’s Bowling, a small chain of bowling alleys in Denver, and another guy in a thousand-dollar suit. Since suit guy was flanked by two “associates” who looked like they knocked out teeth for a living, I had a gnawing suspicion something was off.
Like, if this was a movie, he’d be the mafia boss.
“You’re new,” Expensive Suit said, watching me too closely.
What were the odds my boss got hit today of all days?
I never usually took part in client meetings. It wasn’t my job to come out of my cubicle to do more than go to the copier, supply closet, or mailroom. Even though I had a degree in accounting, I’d recently taken the exam to become a certified public accountant and was waiting for my results. Until I passed, I couldn’t legally review and approve tax paperwork or get my license. If I passed because that exam was hard. My job, the one I’d only had for a few months, was contingent on becoming a CPA. If I failed, I got fired.
No pressure, right?
But my boss had said this was a sensitive client meeting that involved the closing of an important business deal. Now, I had a feeling he’d thrown me to the wolves.
The hotel suite was huge. The main room alone was larger than my entire house. I was sitting in an armchair, trying to get the laptop hooked up to the hotel wifi.
“H-here’s the wire transfer information.” Mr. Burke leaned over and handed me a piece of paper. I didn’t miss the way it trembled in his fingers.
I looked down at it then met his eyes.
I read fear in them. He was scared. Why did it seem like he was transferring funds to his business partner under duress?
I looked at the wire transfer information. Cayman Islands. Account Name - Tigerfish. That…was weird. I quickly glanced through the paperwork I’d picked up from my boss’s desk. Three bowling alleys brought in five million dollars in revenue last month? That seemed hard to believe, especially when they only earned just over a million for all of last year. I knew because I worked on their bookkeeping.
Also, these numbers were way too round. The deposits were too frequent and even. Which meant…
I stilled. Dear God. This wasn’t accounting. This was laundering!
I thought going the extra mile for my boss meant the opportunity toward bigger clients that I could manage directly once I got my license, but instead, it looked like I could end up in a prison cell.
I shuffled the papers needlessly. “Um…okay.” I tried to swallow around the tight band squeezing my throat.
The red flags that should’ve been waving the moment I heard I needed to meet a client in a downtown penthouse at six in the evening were now going up left and right as I continued to leaf through the paperwork.
“So, um, I just need to see your IDs and get signatures on transfer authorization,” I said, finally producing the correct form.
“Eugene doesn’t ask for ID,” Expensive Suit snapped in a voice that sent chills down my spine. He meant my boss. The one currently in the hospital. Had this guy put him there? “Just transfer the money.”
My heart pounded against my chest. I glanced up at his two super-sized assistants who flanked him on the other side of the sofa. Did they have guns?
Don’t look! I shouldn’t look. But, did they? God, did they?
If I fucked this up, I’d probably get fired… or worse. But if I’d learned anything in my accounting studies, it was how important a paper trail was.
If I got tangled up in anything untoward, I could lose the opportunity to practice as an accountant, which I’d studied and busted my butt working two jobs to pay for. I could lose everything I worked so hard to accomplish.
Worse, I could go to prison. Or harmed by looming thugs.