Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,146

thought it worth trying to go up against two if it came down to it. They were bigger than him and they probably fought dirtier. But he also knew that he and Jessie had something that anyone from sleuth didn’t have in a fight, and that was the fierceness and strength that came from the love of cubs and of mates. Jessie was a mama bear and that was no small thing. Mama shifter bears could be terrifying if their cubs were threatened. He had to think that Jessie possessed a strength that even she might not know about, but it was like having a secret weapon in their collective back pocket. They would wield it when they needed to.

It was late one night when they heard new voices with the guards at the jail, and then Cody sniffed out Nathan and Eric, their scents unmistakable. He was sitting up in the corner with his arms around Jessie and she frowned when she saw his confident grin just as the guards started dragging in their new prisoners.

“What kinda accommodations you got for us?” Nathan sounded like he was being taken to an amusement park as their voices neared. Eric said something that Cody couldn’t make out and Nathan laughed just as the two of them and the three guards with them came into view. “You’re tellin’ me!” Nathan said to Eric.

Cody watched Nathan whip his head around. His wrists were shacked and so were Eric’s. Nathan caught Cody’s eye and winked and Cody tried not to give the game away.

The guards were fumbling for keys. They didn’t have a key to the other cell and then apparently they didn’t have the key to Cody and Jessie’s cell either.

Hmm...

“Cody,” Jessie whispered. “What’s going on?”

“Just sit tight,” Cody whispered back. They scooted apart and Cody tensed, ready for anything.

The three guards seemed pissed. Somebody had stolen their keys.

The only question on Cody’s mind and the one that made him fight a smile was: Where was Connor?

His question was answered with screams from the front of the jail. Whatever guards were out there keeping watch seemed to be having a terrible time of it. Cody looked to Eric who mouthed “Connor.” Cody heard the roars of one or two other bears who were just as quickly silenced and just as the guards were about to see what the fuss was, Connor’s massive bear who was as familiar to Cody as his own face came barrelling down the hall. Eric and Nathan jumped away and Connor moved so fast the guards were too startled to so much as shift but merely stood there, dazed, for the second it took for Connor to reach them.

Connor dispensed with the three guards quickly. One was just knocked out, another’s leg was so shredded he could only lie on the floor and bleed, and the third was likely dead. Cody grimaced at the sight of the corpse and there was likely another at the front of the jail. Connor didn’t like to kill, he never had. But he did it without hesitation if his loved ones were under threat.

It had only taken a couple minutes but all the guards were now dispensed with and Cody and Jessie gave each other knowing looks and staggered to their feet.

“Where are the keys then?” Cody said.

Connor was a giant dark brown bear with an amber star shape under his chin, a breed that in terms of normal non-shifter animals had never existed, as were all the Strausses. He ducked his great head, his jaws dripping blood, and in a flash he was Connor in human form. His nice white shirt was now covered in blood and he had a shallow gash along his throat and scratches along his back, but he was otherwise unharmed.

Connor wiped his bloody mouth on his arm and reached into his pants pocket with his other hand, taking out two keys, one of which he tossed at Cody. He searched the guards’ pockets and came up with the keys to Nathan and Eric’s shackles and soon enough, they were all free.

“Your brothers are amazing!” Jessie was actually smiling for maybe the second time since Cody had arrived at the jail and it warmed Cody’s heart.

He kissed her on the cheek. “Of course, they are. We are. And so are you. We’re Strausses.”

Everyone took a minute to look each other over and make sure nobody was too injured but Connor obviously had the worst of it and he