Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,195

back of her skull. She heard a laugh directly in front of her and turned her head towards the noise.

“What’s the matter? You can’t be surprised by this, can you, Brooke? I mean, not really.” Vince paused, as if waiting for her to respond and Brooke kept quiet; she recognized his voice immediately. She could imagine the smug look on his face as he knelt before her, greasy hair hanging down like rats tails inches from her face. “It took a long time you know,” Vince continued, trailing a finger down Brooke’s cheek. If she wasn’t gagged, she vowed she would have bitten it off. “It’s a loyal pack you got yourself, I won’t lie. Didn’t want to turn on you at first. Which made it all the better when you willingly turned yourself into a sweet little bitch for Connor Strauss to fuck. Oh, how they flocked to me after I told them that.”

That stung, and though Brooke tried her best to hide it, not wanting to give him the satisfaction, she couldn’t help twitching. He laughed, and then one of his thick fingers was tugging at her gag. She snarled.

“These weren’t strictly necessary,” he said gleefully. Brooke rolled her eyes. God does he ever stop talking? There was a sharp tug at the base of her skull as Vince hauled her up unsteadily to her feet by the knot of the gag. “But I just had to take advantage of the situation. Seeing you helpless and bound? Brings me a satisfaction like no other. Better than sex, I think. You always did need to be brought down a peg or two.” He kept her there, balanced on the heels of her feet, despite still being bound to the chair, and entirely at his mercy. Her wolf growled, metaphorical hackles raised at being in such a vulnerable state, while Vince continued,“This won’t be nearly as much fun if you can’t see anything though…”

He threw her down. She grunted as pain spiked through her hands and knees as she hit the floor. Deft hands went to the back of her head and the blindfold was yanked from her face.

It was dark, but even so, Brooke had to blink a few times to get her bearings. The first thing she saw, over Vince’s shoulder in the corner of the room, was a witch. Brooke didn’t know her. Despite doing business with a witch to get her scent potion, Brooke didn’t make a habit of hanging out with witches and wizards. She recognized the witch’s robe and the patterns painted - in what looked suspiciously like blood - on her skin.

Bringing a witch into pack business wasn’t a common practice; power transitions were tricky spells, fraught with side-effects and notoriously hard to pull off. Brooke remembered learning about alpha succession when she was a pup: two candidates interested in the position would have a straight fight to decide who was the stronger between them. The winner becomes alpha and the loser steps down graciously.

The day she fought Vince for the alpha position, Vince had been cocky, too light on his feet and distracted by trying to show off to the rest of the pack, who were watching with bated breath for the result. It had been easy to pin him and Brooke had become the alpha, as the rules of succession dictated.

However, power transitions were very rare and would only take place when a tyrant alpha refused to step down. The ritual took the victim’s shifting away, leaving them less than human as well, and barely conscious. Brooke stared at the witch with barely concealed dread.

She’d be little more than a vegetable when they were done with her.

“So you do remember some of our pack dynamics,” Vince purred, swiftly untying the gag and pulling the fabric from her mouth. “That’s good.”

Brooke spat on the ground, trying to drive the rank taste from her mouth, and glared up at Vince with fire in her eyes.

“Fuck you,” she seethed. Then she paused, eyes travelling over the rest of the room. At least half of the adult pack members were gathered in the tiny space, all glaring at her with varying levels of hatred. This used to be her family, they were all she’d ever known. Some of these people had held her while she mourned her parents. And now they wanted her dead.

“Please,” she rasped, voice still hoarse from disuse. “Whatever he’s told you, Connor wants to help us. He’s willing to make things