Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,184

give a shit about that. Not unless they were hooking up - Vince skidded to a halt, a grin stretching across his face, because oh, what an interesting thought that was…

Brooke’s car was still missing when Vince finally stumbled into the parking lot. She could have come back on foot but, no, there’s no way she would have beaten him back.

There were a few cubs playing on the grass and they looked up when he arrived.

“Is Brooke back?” he asked innocently.

“Not yet,” one of the cubs responded, looking up at him with wide eyes. “What happened?”

Vince ignored him, looking around for Carlo. He noticed the other wolf was coming down the stone steps of the apartment block, Angela close behind him. Vince quickly shifted all of his weight onto his left leg, whimpering in pain. One by one, the rest of the pack emerged from behind their doors, crowding around him like vultures to a corpse. Too easy.

Noise behind them made them all turn. Lucas led the injured wolves into the parking lot, a trail of blood following in their wake.

“What happened?” Carlo’s voice was tight with worry. He walked right past Vince to sling an arm around Lucas. Rude.

Angela cast him a suspicious look and scooped up one of the younger injured wolves, carrying her into the nearest apartment without so much as a second glance.

“There was a fight,” Lucas whimpered, looking to Vince who nodded slightly. Little coward.

“There was an ambush,” Vince corrected, fixing each of the wolves with a glare, daring them to say otherwise. “We were out in the forest hunting and, out of nowhere, four bears attacked us.”

One of the crowd asked, “Four? Was it the Strauss brothers?”

“It must have been; they showed us no mercy,” he whined, limping forward, keeping up the little huffs of pain with each step. Every eye was glued to him; this might be the greatest performance of his life. Now for the kicker. He sighed sadly, groping at his ‘injured’ leg. “If only Brooke hadn’t left us, we might have stood a chance.”

A ripple of confusion passed through the pack. Carlo bristled. Oh yes, pretty boy, Vince thought, your precious alpha left her pack to suffer, what do you think of that?

“What do you mean, if Brooke hadn’t left?” Angela asked, reappearing with blood streaked on her clothes.

Vince turned to her, his smile a touch too wide to be completely believable, but he couldn’t help it. “She was there - came in half way through - but she took one look at the bears and ran.” Behind him the injured were being led away to be treated. No one asked him if his leg was okay. The rest of his supporters had the good sense to keep their mouths shut and play along. “We thought she’d run back here for back up but…” he turned back to Carlo, who didn’t look convinced in the slightest. Oh well, can’t win them all. “Obviously not.”

Angela tugged at Carlo’s sleeve before he could retort.

“I need help with Lola. She and the others need patching up ASAP.” She glanced at Vince with a scowl twisting her pretty features. He responded with a loud gasp of pain, propping himself up on the nearest car. She sneered and turned back to Carlo, voice softening with concern. “We should wait for Brooke to get back before we decide what to do.”

Carlo stared Vince down for a few more seconds, but his concern for the injured outweighed his anger and he turned to follow her.

“Okay, I’m coming now.” He hesitated, glancing back over his shoulder. “Vince, are you alright to fill the others in?”

“I’ll manage,” Vince assured him with a hollow smile. “Go on, they need you more than I do.”

Carlo and Angela disappeared into the apartment building to help the injured, a few other pack members joining them with worried mutters and glances at Vince over their shoulders. Good, that’s Brooke’s top supporters distracted.

Vince pushed off the car and rounded on those left in the parking lot. A few eyes went to his leg, supporting him just fine, but everyone stayed silent.

“If you’re still standing here, that means you don’t want to wait for our alpha to make a surprise appearance?” Still no one said anything. Vince beamed, clapping his hands together. “Excellent, then you agree that we’ll never be able to settle this until we can prove to these bastards that we are a force to be reckoned with! Do we really want more attacks