Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,24

older and wiser now.”

“Glad you noticed,” Nathan said, smirking.

“Yeah, yeah,” Connor said. “Yeah, of course I noticed. You think this girl needs help and you’ve befriended her. I trust you do the right thing. If you need anything from me, let me know.”

“Well…” Nathan stroked his chin. “I was kind of thinking that I’d like to look her up online. And her companion. See what I can find.”

Connor burst out laughing. “You? You can barely play Tetris. Better ask Eric.”

“Right,” Nathan said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll ask Eric. Thanks, Con.”

Eric was busy as hell when Nathan found him in the lobby. He looked stressed out and Nathan felt a little guilty for having to ask for help, though not guilty enough not to ask.

“Hey.” Nathan went around the desk and watched Eric, his trainee, and another clerk field phone calls and take requests from guests approaching them at their stations.

Eric was on hold while trying to explain something to a trainee and he frowned at Nathan. “What is it? I’m slammed here.”

“When you have a minute.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Eric said, sighing. “I’ll find you in the kitchen.”

“Why is it always the kitchen?” Nathan muttered, even as his stomach rumbled at the very thought of food.

It took another couple hours for their free time to coincide as Nathan was called away to fix a broken curtain rod and unclog a shower drain, but finally, they were side by side at the kitchen island, scarfing down pasta together, as Cody directed traffic around them.

“I need you to find some stuff out for me,” Nathan told him with a dark look.

Nathan explained the situation and that even Connor had given his blessing which helped since Eric was more stressed out than usual. When they finally both went back to work, he felt better about things. Maybe it was a little on the stalkery side but he figured if he found nothing that proved Alanna might be in actual danger, he would just drop it. C’est la vie. It wasn’t meant to be.

“Hey.” Eric sat down right beside him at the bar. He was wearing a dark expression as he ordered a beer for himself. Nathan narrowed his eyes.

“What is it?” Nathan said flatly. “What did you find?”

“I didn’t find anything on Alanna outside of a little social media and a couple of addresses,” Eric said. “But John brought up a Facebook page. He deleted it but I managed to find it. I was actually surprised. I mean, I guess that’s why they deleted it. It left a footprint.”

“What do you mean?”

“John works for Rawley.”

Nathan had to run. When Eric had said those simple words, humming had begun in Nathan’s head. He felt as if the walls around him were closing in. If he’d sat around trying to come up with the worst possible answer to the mystery of Alanna he could imagine, he wouldn’t have thought of anything better. Of course, it was Rawley. It seemed like less of a coincidence than confirmation that Rawley had done what he’d set out to do when Nathan had still run with him. He’d become a force to be reckoned with. He was also somehow everywhere and nowhere in particular, though Eric told him Rawley now based himself in Utah.

Nathan sat with that hum in his head and thought that he had helped make all this possible. It was at least a little bit his fault. He’d left Rawley when things had become too rough for him but he hadn’t stopped him and he’d helped him to become what he was.

“Are you alright, man?” Erica had asked him softly.

Nathan had only nodded, thanked Eric for his trouble, and headed out back through the lounge and dining hall, through the lobby and outside.

He had to run, had to get out of his skin, had to tear up something up with his claws…

Nathan shifted and bounded through the snow into the woods. He tried to let his primal bear nature take over and forget about Alanna and Rawley and how whatever was so upsetting to Alanna was somewhat his fault.

He didn’t know how long he ran but it wasn’t enough. He stayed out for hours before finally heading back to the lodge and making his way back to his residence on the east wing.

When Nathan got back to his own suite, he was breathless and sweaty. He stripped off his shirt and guzzled some water in his kitchen, leaning on the counter and unable to think about anything