Dirty Looks (Dirt Track Dogs: The Second Lap Book 1) by P. Jameson

of those let off steam things. Because if it was, she was putting a stop to it. She didn’t have time for this. They were cutting into her first impression with their tantrum.
    Or were they working through a problem? She couldn’t tell and Beast wasn’t volunteering the info.
    Drake shoved Aaron into a stack of car parts and they crashed into a heap on the floor, rolling and kicking, fists flying and connecting.
    Lexington sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. There’d be no breaking this up until they were finished.
    Another wolf shifter slid up beside her. This one less threatening than the two males she’d already met.
    “Boys,” the female sighed, shaking her head and looking on.
    Lexington shared a look of commiseration, and the two of them settled in to ride the spat out. There’d be time for introductions after.
    ***
    The alpha wolf had a right hook that felt like being walloped by a cinder block. But it didn’t matter, Aaron deserved what he was getting. If the tables were turned and Drake had been a danger to his family and home, kept it a secret from him, and then took off without an explanation… Aaron would beat his ass a good one too.
    It dawned on him that he was epically good at one thing: running away. From his sister, from his friends, from the pack. That ended now. Had to if he ever wanted to look at himself in the mirror and like what he saw.
    Yeah, he deserved it, and wasn’t taking anything lying down. For one, he’d been trained better than that. Take it like a chump, and your respect level will be zero.
    And damn, he needed the pack to respect him if he was going to make it here in Cedar Valley, but that wasn’t what was driving him.
    It was that sexy little fox shifter and her sassy mouth, and the fact that on the way over here, he’d learned way too much about her.
    Aaron had good instincts about people. It’s what had made him a good hunter. And he’d read Lexington like a book. Well, maybe not a book, but a scrawled story written on a diner napkin. He’d gotten the cliffnotes.
    She needed something from the wolves, and it wasn’t racing advice or a place to stow her crew’s equipment. She was throwing off nervous vibes like all hell. Ballsy as she’d been at Red Cap, she was all yes sir here with the wolves. Whatever she was after, it felt life-or-death important, and Aaron was going to figure out what it was.
    And maybe even help her get it. Anything to see that smile she’d tossed out in his truck on the way over. Damn, the woman had a face that could make a grown man weep and sing hallelujah.
    Drake caught him again under the chin, and Aaron mustered a smile. He tasted blood. That was a good one.
    “You still with them ?” the alpha growled as Aaron landed another blow to his gut.
    “If I was…” Gut punch returned, and with extra postage. Aaron coughed to make his diaphragm work again. “If I was, you think I’d be here?”
    “Expect me to believe they just let you go? Let you quit hunting down shifters?”
    “They didn’t make me do it,” he wheezed. “My choice.”
    “Even worse,” Drake snarled, his fist connecting once again. “How many innocent shifters did you hurt?”
    That one he felt all the way to his back, drawing Aaron up.
    “Shit,” he hissed through a gurgle of blood. “ None, okay ? There were no innocents.” Somehow, he shoved Drake off and stumbled to his feet, but the wolf was right there with him. “You were the first innocents I ever encountered, and that’s the goddamn truth,” Aaron rushed out. “Shook everything I knew, finding changers that weren’t eating through the human population like a bunch of piranhas. That’s why I left the hunters. Why I’m back here. I’m not one of them anymore. I’m… I’m… me.”
    Drake spit blood on the concrete and his broken up hands went to his hips. “Wait a minute. They were eating them?”
    Aaron swiped at the blood running from his nose, and caught the shop rag Beast tossed to