The Calling Read Online Free Page A

What's stopping you? Are you that damn scared of commitment?"
    Garrett barely kept from growling. He felt his vocal cords vibrate and cleared his throat before turning to look at his friend. "I'm not scared of anything."
    "Then why? I don't get it. Explain it to me."
    "I don't have to explain it," Garrett said.
    "Explain it anyway."
    He clenched his jaw and stared down at the bar. "It would never work, Chad. A year from now, maybe two, we'd be over, and all the shit in-between would have been for nothing. There's no reason to prolong the inevitable."
    "So, you know it won't last for years so you just ended it?"
    Garrett picked up his beer and took a long swallow. "Something like that," he said, staring at his reflection in the mirror above the bar.
    Chad laughed. "That's the craziest shit I've ever heard, man. While most men hit it until it does go bad you drop her before it does. What planet are you from?"
    "The one where I don't use people I care about." He turned his head, searching the back of the bar for her. He spotted her moments later, near a darkened corner on the phone. She was smiling, her thick locks spilling over her shoulders and running down her back. His cock twitched just looking at her. The wolf still wanted her. He still wanted her. Wanted her to the point his bones ached and his teeth itched to sink into her flesh. To feel her blood coat his tongue as he swallowed her essence and marked her body and soul as his.
    She hung up the phone and tucked it into her back pocket before weaving her way through the crowded bar. Garrett didn't miss the looks she got as she passed by the men in her path. His chest rumbled as he watched them stare at her, saw them smile and whisper. Thankfully she was oblivious. As she neared him, he could tell she knew he was there. She was watching the floor as she walked, avoiding all eye contact with the bar. He ran an appreciative glance down her body, watching her hips sway as she walked before looking back up at her breasts. They swelled above the scooped neck of her blouse. He knew the weight of them, how they felt against his flesh, against his tongue, and he barely contained a growl of approval at the sight of her. When her scent hit him, he ground his teeth together, balling his hands into a fist to keep from reaching for her as she passed him.
    "Hey, Rayna! Join us for a drink."
    Garrett turned and looked at Chad when he yelled out to her and wanted to kill him where he sat. What the fuck was he doing? He saw Rayna out of the corner of his eye and took a deep breath before turning his head to her.
    She stopped, met his gaze once before turning her head and smiling at Chad. "Detective Burrows," she said. "I'm not sure hanging out with Bluff's Point's finest would be such a good idea. It might give all the other reporters in town the wrong idea."
    "Let them talk," Chad said, waving a hand to dismiss her comment. "What's the worst they can say?"
    "Oh, that's an easy one," Garrett said, turning in his seat to face her. "That she slept her way through the department just to get a front page headline. By the way, didn't I see your name there today?" He felt like the lowest shit in the world the moment the words were out of his mouth, especially when she turned those big blue eyes on him. For whatever reason, today was the day she let his usual barbed comments affect her. He saw it shining in her eyes moments before her bottom lip trembled. She glanced at the blonde sitting next to him before looking back at Chad.
    "Thanks for the invite, but I'll have to pass. Excuse me, gentlemen."
    And without even a glance in his direction, she turned and walked away. When the door closed behind her, Garrett waited a full five minutes before getting up and following her.
    To his surprise, she was still in the parking lot, just sitting in her car, staring out the windshield. As he neared her, he saw the tears falling down her cheeks.
    "Fuck." He sighed, his chest aching to the point of pain before