Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,187

Her thoughts were racing a mile a minute. She checked her phone: no new messages. Hunting, Carlo had said. Yeah, hunting bears, she thought bitterly. Stupid, stupid- how could she not have seen this coming?

As they walked through the lodge’s foyer, Brooke caught sight of the youngest Strauss brother, Eric, standing behind the concierge desk. He looked up as they walked in, customer service smile fading quickly to alarm when he saw his brother. His left arm was held up by a sling and guilt was a sick weight in the pit of her stomach - another casualty of my pack.

Eric rounded the edge of the desk and started to make his way towards them. Brooke stared him down, letting her desperation show on her face, trying to convey how much she needed to fix this herself. Eric stopped short, looking between Brooke and Connor, assessing the situation. Then, he nodded and let them pass. Brooke let out a sigh of relief and walked Connor to the staircase towards his suite.

Connor moved as if on autopilot and Brooke could do nothing but follow behind him, her anxiety growing the longer they went in tense silence. Once he opened the door, he moved directly to the bed, sitting down heavily and burying his face in his hands. Brooke closed the door behind her softly and stood next to him, hands reaching out to lay on his shoulder but stopping just short when he let out a soft noise.

He was crying.

72

Connor

Connor’s head was reeling; he felt sick to his stomach - a cocktail of despair and rage curdling inside him. The repetitive thought kept running through his head: one of his sleuth was dead. Someone he was responsible for had been attacked and gutted less than four miles from his lodge.

He could faintly feel Brooke’s warmth next to him as he walked, trance-like, back towards the lodge, through the foyer and up the stairs. Connor let her guide him while he tried to get his feelings under control. He knew it wasn’t her fault.She’d said herself that the pack was angry and had been lashing out, but to murder one of his sleuth.

He was more than partially to blame for what had happened. He’d heard the guests complaining that they’d had to run wolves off of unclaimed land because they were getting ‘too close for comfort’, leaving the wolves with precious little in the way of hunting grounds. He should have done something, spoken to the alpha of the pack, Brooke or not, the second he knew something wasn’t right. But he hadn’t. And now one of his own was dead.

He didn’t remember arriving at his suite, but when he saw his bed he walked straight to it, sitting down heavily and burying his face in his hands. The door closed softly and Connor’s stomach lurched. He didn’t want to be alone. He’d never felt this fragile, this vulnerable. A pained whimper left his throat, muffled against his palms. They felt wet, and he realized with a start that he was crying. He couldn’t really remember the last time he’d cried.

A hand touched his shoulder.

“Connor?” He jerked his head up at the soft voice, startled to find Brooke kneeling on the floor in front of him, long red hair gathered over one shoulder and lip caught between her teeth as she stared worriedly up at him.

“You didn’t leave,” he whispered. Brooke looked broken hearted for a second, and then rose up onto her knees, hands cupping his face. Connor leaned into the touch.

“Oh, sweetheart, of course I didn’t.” She pulled him towards her, his cheek moving to rest over her heart. “How can I help? How can I make you feel better?”

“Just- just be here, with me. Don’t leave.”

“Never,” Brooke promised, arms tightening around him and fingers running through the hair at the back of Connor’s neck. “We’re in this together.”

He kissed her, moving his hands to circle her slim waist and pulling her impossibly closer. Brooke moaned softly into his mouth and he greedily kissed her lips, a desperation clawing at him. Brooke pushed him back slightly, rising from the floor to settle in his lap. Connor’s hands slid to cradle her hips as she devoured him, those silk-soft lips parting his easily. She was intoxicating. Connor trailed wet kisses down her neck, nuzzling into the soft skin there. He wanted to mark her, make her his. His tongue flicked out, tasting the spot he thought he’d do it, and she