Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,2

the other girls. They’ll show you the ropes. And I want you to know, I won’t be too hard on you for taking off like you did. You’re a spitfire. That’s what I like about you. Moment I saw you, I wanted to take that fire. I wanted to take it for myself.”

Put it out, you mean, Alanna thought.

“You just sit tight,” Rawley went on. “Daddy’ll meet you two at the lodge. Just got some important business to take care of first and then you and I are getting hitched. God, you’re gonna be a gorgeous bride.”

“And Alex?” Alanna said.

“Yes, I’ll bring him. And once you and I are settled in with the other girls, he can go. I just want to make sure things are set in stone first. Need to get you used to things. Now gimme back to John, sweetheart.”

“Please don’t hurt Alex,” Alanna pleaded.

“I said give him the phone,” Rawley said and she didn’t miss the implicit threat.

Alanna handed the phone back to John and sat back in her seat, her appetite lost.

She folded her hands in her lap and stared down at the little remaining food on her plate. Every time she spoke to Rawley, she felt a little sick and everything seemed a little worse. The eggs on her plate seemed congealed now, the toast crusted with greasy butter. The pretty peach-colored clouds over the snowy mountains outside now looked like a hellscape. That was Rawley’s big power, she supposed. Making everything feel so much worse.

The moment she had first met Rawley, she had thought to herself: this is bad. Even when he had been trying to charm her, she had never been fooled by him, either by his money or his strength or his affable charisma that could turn to violence in the blink of an eye.

It had been a kind of party, sort of like a kegger that teenagers would go to. That’s what it felt like anyway. That’s what bear shifter parties always felt like. They were always big shindigs deep in the woods. This one had been in Park City, Utah. It was a huge event, a gathering of bear sleuths and lone bears too. The kind of party anyone would go to. It had taken up half a forest.

Alanna had only been passing through town with her brother. Since their parents had been killed by hunters when they were just kids, they’d drifted around together. They’d had no sleuth to take care of them, but that was the way with bear shifters. Some ran in groups and some went at it alone. It was somewhat easier to go at it alone when you were fairly assimilated into the human world.

So Alanna and Alex had soldiered on and made the best of it, traveling from town to town and state to state. It was lonely sometimes, but she loved her brother and she liked seeing so much of the country as they’d made their way around, settling for a bit here and there, working some, and exploring the woods as young bears on their own.

She’d never been to Utah until that party in Park City. They’d just come to town. It had been a fun day too, fishing and running and sniffing around other friendly bears. They’d shifted into human form to hit a few bars and sneak into the fancy lodges around the resort town just to make fun of the rich humans and steal continental breakfasts and champagne.

They’d been playing around in a creek not far from the ski slopes when they’d met another shifter who ended up following them back to town and buying them beer. It was that guy, Carl, who’d told them about the party. He’d also given them a warning that neither Alanna or Alex had heeded: watch out for Rawley.

“He runs everything in Utah,” Carl said, as he sipped his IPA. “I mean all over the state. In the bear world anyway. It’s like a protection racket. He preys on bears who are out on their own, who don’t have sleuths. He pillages sleuths and bear communities then makes them pay up for protections for other shifters and if you don’t pay, you’ll be sorry. He’s brutal. But he throws a good party. You probably won’t even meet him, there’ll be so many bears there. I’m just telling you...be careful if you do run into him.”

It had sounded like a joke to Alanna who was twenty-three and felt like she’d been around the