Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,182

beautiful. She was lost in the sight of him for a second, and then he quirked his eyebrow, inviting her to keep talking. She blushed at being caught staring.

“When I became alpha, he was the only one to oppose me,” Brooke explained, giving into the urge to play with Connor’s hair. The curls were just as soft as she’d hoped they would be. “I’m almost certain the fight today was his doing.”

Vince had always been a bastard, but she hadn’t thought he’d go this far. Provoking an outright war with one of the country's most powerful sleuths? He was a bigger idiot than Brooke had given him credit for. She sighed before continuing.

“There’s so few of us now. We’re losing more every time we move. Most of our members that are left are younger than me and members that are being added tend to be younger or cubs. I’m worried.” She’d known most of her pack since they were pups, watched them grow from awkward young kids into slightly less awkward young adults. “Keeping them safe is… it's tough.” Her words were slow and clunky. Feelings never were her strong suit. Connor squeezed her arm, drawing her further into his embrace and Brooke nuzzled into his chest.

“Is that what you meant when you said I didn’t know what it was like to look after people?” he asked quietly. Guilt stabbed in her chest.

“You didn’t deserve that,” she whispered. “I was angry and frustrated and you’re so easy to argue with-”

“Why thank you.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do, sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry. He was grinning, and when he tugged her to sit in his lap she went willingly. “Do continue,” he said solicitously. She pinched his arm, enjoying the way he squirmed.

“It’s… I’m jealous of you, I guess. I know enough about the Strauss’ to know that you’ve never had to struggle the way I have. You have money and security and that’s all I’ve ever wanted for my pack. They’re my family. I don’t want to let them down.”

She’d tried. For years she’d done nothing but try to help her pack get by. She’d lost count of the jobs she’d taken on, the dates she’d turned down, but something always meant they had to move on. Looking at his immaculate clothes and roaring business, she doubted Connor had ever experienced such problems.

“When he was young, I’m talking just this side of being a cub, Nathan fell in with a bad crowd.” Connor’s voice was still soft and he started drawing circles into Brooke’s hips with strong calloused fingers. “Rawley was a bad guy - I’m talking sow trafficking, blackmail, battery- really terrible shit. I remember watching Nathan slip away from me and not having a goddamn clue what to do about it.”

Brooke had seen Nathan a few times, he always flirted with Elsie whenever she called him about faulty wiring in the shop. He’d always seemed sweet, more like an overgrown puppy than a bear.

“What happened?” She asked. Connor huffed out a laugh.

“He realized what an idiot he was doing and left before he could do something stupid. I didn’t let him leave my sight for months. I only made him the handyman to keep him out of trouble, but he ended up being really good at it and enjoying himself to boot.”

She considered his words, turning them over in her mind like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. She remembered when Lucas had been a teenager - running off to join a gang in LA. She’d nearly tanned his hide when she’d found out. They were fond memories now, but Brooke remembered how stressed she’d been that summer. She looked up at Connor’s serene face and felt like she understood him just a little more. She pressed a kiss to his jaw.

“Tell me more about them?” she asked. He looked at her, surprised.

“About my brothers?” he checked. She nodded. She liked this side of him, the exasperated older brother looking out for his younger siblings, it made him seem softer. She trailed more kisses up the side of his face until she reached his temple and then he turned to capture her lips. It was sweet, almost chaste, and Brooke sighed contentedly.

“I was always pulling Cody out of fights, still am, but he knows how to pick his battles a little better these days. I can’t remember how many times I’d come home from work and find him icing a black eye or bruised knuckles.”

“What did you do?”

“Poked his