Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,178

pack without giving everything away.

Wolves and bears had always been enemies, it's just what happened when two sets of predators collided. Brooke had been brought up to believe that bears were pompous and selfish, and Connor Strauss had fit the bill perfectly: cocky, with more money than he knew what to do with, but so very alluring. It was like she couldn’t help rising to the bait every time he opened his stupid, gorgeous mouth.

It felt wrong to hide her true self from him, especially now that they were finally starting to get closer. Brooke felt like she was finally starting to understand him. She would just have to convince the pack that the Strauss’ weren’t a threat to them; surely if she could get them all together and just talk to each other they’d be able to come up with something? Yeah right, her pack was the most stubborn group of people she’d ever met. Most of them would sooner fight a whole sleuth together than sit and talk things out for five fucking minutes.

She paused, hand on her vehicle door. The winds had picked up and Brooke could smell wolves. Usually she would just ignore it - it wasn’t just her working at the lodge after all, but she was on high alert after the way Vince had called out to her the other day: “Your time is coming to an end Brooke! You’d be wise to watch your back.”

It had to be Vince. But there were others with her now and - Brooke’s blood ran cold as the heavy, sweet stench of blood filled her nostrils. Someone was attacking her pack.

She took off running, shifting as she hit the tree line. She trusted her wolf more than her human brain right now. The wolf was all about strategy, about protecting what was hers. She just hoped she’d arrive in time.

They were closer than she’d realized; she’d only been running for ten or so minutes when she started hearing growls and snarls from between the trees. Her claws ripped up the dirt as she sprinted the last few yards and skidded to a stop in a large clearing.

The first thing she saw was a bear. It wasn’t Connor, she realised with a surge of relief. This bear was smaller with lighter colored fur - more likely one of Connor’s brothers. The bear was advancing on Lucas, whose tiny frame was spitting like a firecracker as he tried to ward the much larger animal away. Brooke saw red. She cleared the space between them in a single bound, sliding under the bear’s outstretched paw to put herself between him and the barking wolf.

The bear looked startled, but only for a second, changing the angle of its paw to crash down onto Brooke’s back like a sledgehammer. She went down but struggled to her feet immediately as the bear turned back to Lucas.

Get out of here, she snarled furiously. Lucas looked at her, contemplating what to do and she growled, Now!

Lucas cast a glance to the other side of the clearing before turning and fleeing back between the trees. Brooke huffed, rolling her shoulder as best she could - the wound that was already there stung but didn’t reopen, and nothing else was broken as far as she could tell. She looked around her, trying to make sense of the carnage. She could spot eight of her wolves, three of which were injured, and four bears. Her heart sank as she spotted Connor towards the middle of the clearing, but she couldn’t focus on that now, not when her pack was in danger. The youngest of the bears, judging by his size, was holding one of his paws as red blood matted dark fur. Good, Brooke thought grimly.

Vince was crouching low in the branches of a nearby tree - not a scratch on him. He looked like he was just watching the fight unfold, waiting to see who would win. Hatred, hot and bitter, flared in her chest at the sight. Coward, she thought viciously.

Connor batted away a she-wolf, Maria, and turned, their eyes meeting. Brooke felt a lump form in her throat. He and his sleuth had injured three of her wolves, it was her job as alpha to take them down, take him down. He didn’t know who she was and she wished she had the same luxury - this would be so easy if he was just another bear.

But he wasn’t.

Connor charged at her and Brooke stood