Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,30

and so hard, she thought he was about to rip her shoulder from its socket and she yelled for him to stop. But he only yanked her toward her room before shoving her inside so hard she fell to the floor. “I dunno what you’ve been up to, but I’m going to let Rawley know and then we’ll see how happy little Alex is about your so-called sunrise morning coffee.”

“No!” Alanna cried out, but John was already shutting the door.

She supposed she was lucky that John hadn’t guessed she was coming back and not going out, but she was full of fear for her brother’s safety as she curled up on the floor and tears slid down her cheeks. Her shoulder still hurt badly from how he’d manhandled her and she was going to have a bruise on her wrist.

She closed her eyes and thought of Nathan instead, his soft warm hands touching her so carefully as if she was the most precious thing in the world.

John decided she wasn’t allowed to leave their suite again until he felt like letting her out. He didn’t seem to want to go anywhere either. So she stuck with him and even though he mostly ignored her, it was infuriating.

John ordered their breakfast via room service hours later and the food was as good as ever, the two of them eating at the table by the window. Alanna poked at her food, angry and sulking, and John paid her no mind as he wasted his time doing whatever it was he did with his phone.

She was tempted to deliberately break something that could be fixed in the room. Then Nathan would be sent up and she could at least see him. How the very sight of him made her feel as if maybe everything would be alright, she had no idea. But she’d tasted that from him now and she wanted more of it. The fact that he was so willing to give it made that feeling even more desperate.

When the phone rang, Alanna jumped. It was only ever Rawley and her stomach turned. She forced herself to scarf down some frittata as John answered and started chatting about some business investment.

She was on her way to the bathroom when John said, “Hey. Get back here. Your brother wants to talk to you.”

Alanna swallowed and padded over to John, obediently taking the phone. “Hello?”

Alanna heard only the faint hiss of the phone line for so long that for a moment she thought that was the point. Alex was dead and this was the cruel way Rawley had of letting her know. But finally, a soft voice said, “Hey...Al...Alanna?”

He sounded like he could hardly breathe and Alanna leaned heavily on the wall, shutting her eyes. They’d hurt him badly in some way. So badly he could hardly speak. She was still wearing her tiny pajamas and her robe and she clutched the belt of her bathrobe tightly as she spoke into the phone. “Alex? Are you alright?”

“You remember,” he whispered, “the river, the…Crockett River.”

Despite her concern, she was impatient. Why did he keep bringing up Crockett River?

“Yeah.”

“We said...we’d always save each other from drowning.” He sounded as if he had a brick wall on his chest, as if every breath was a struggle. She wanted to know what they’d done to him. It was probably just a brutal beat-down. But what if it was something much worse? She’d heard too much about Rawley by now to put much cruelty past him. “The flowers by the river,” Alex whispered. “Sis.”

When she realized what he was trying to say without saying it in a way that anyone listening would understand, Alanna managed not to outwardly react. That would wreck what he was trying to do, which was itself unthinkable.

“I miss Crockett River too,” she said flatly. “That was fun. When we went there.”

The point was that they’d been willing to sacrifice themselves for each other and ended up both surviving. That was what he was trying to get her to do. He wanted her to forget about him and save herself. It wasn’t surprising. She’d always trusted Alex with her life.

“I have to go,” Alex whispered. “I miss you.”

“Me too,” Alanna said. “I love you.” She handed the phone back to John and gave nothing away.

Alex had played his trump card.

I’m doing this, she thought.

The thing was, she’d already had this argument with Alex multiple times. But they’d managed to come to an understanding: if one