Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,43

well.

Four against twenty was some shitty math and it was going to get them all killed.

She thought of Alex’s soft voice in her ear.

Do you remember Crockett River?

She thought of the pact they’d shared. They could force each other to save themselves and they would always have to agree to it no matter what…

She took a deep breath and treated herself to one last look at Nathan. She didn’t regret coming back down the mountain with him even though it meant her doom. It had given her a few more minutes with the best man she’d ever met.

Goodbye, my mate.

As the men continued to talk, Alanna slipped away down the corridor and out to the dining hall. He could doubtless smell her already. It did no good to hide.

She could hear them laughing and she smelled Rawley’s cigar smoke. He was always smoking cigars, especially when he was trying to intimidate people. He liked to blow the smoke in their faces.

Alanna’s stomach dropped at the very sight of him.

Rawley was an unnaturally big man, but he looked especially large sitting in the small wooden dining chair by one of the big windows that looked out on the town below, his big belly shaking as he laughed at something one of his men said. They were all sitting around a big table with tumblers of whiskey and plates of half-eaten food. All the guests had left and Alanna wasn’t surprised. Rawley very deliberately gave off vibes that said nothing but “danger.” They’d probably all scattered off to their rooms or gone into town. Rawley had taken over the place. He was holding the entire lodge hostage and it made Alanna feel guilty. None of the Strauss’s deserved this in their place.

Alanna forced herself to keep walking, clenching her fists at her side. Rawley couldn’t see her yet but she watched one of his men tap him on the shoulder and he turned his head, leering when he saw her, his cigar puffing white smoke that spiraled into the air.

“There she is!” Rawley’s voice boomed and Alanna walked around the table to face him; the sum of all her fears. “My bride! My new bride, I should say.” His men all guffawed at that. She counted eight of them at the table and a few others just milled around the dining hall, picking at the food left by fleeing guests, standing guard, or sitting at other tables with their drinks.

“I’m here,” Alanna said. Her voice sounded stronger to her than she felt and she stood up straight. “You told me to be here and I’m here.”

Rawley was not only big now, and he was mostly bald. What hair he did have was a mousie shade of brown and it had thinned into a triangle atop his liver-spotted, bulbous head. He was round, with a big belly, but that hid a lot of muscle. She had seen him take down stronger looking men. He had challenged bears at the party she’d attended, pinning younger bears to the floor and spitting in their faces, showing them how powerful he was before he finally let them go...or didn’t.

“And where the hell is John?”

“I don’t know,” Alanna said.

Rawley stared at her with an utterly blank expression on his face and Alanna shivered. The guys were going to come running out any second and she had to get Rawley to leave before that happened. Her heart wouldn’t stop pounding.

“I think you do know,” Rawley said, getting to his feet. It was all much worse with him, looming over here. He was nearly two feet taller than her and never wanted her to forget it. “I want my man back. I don’t know what you’ve been doing fooling around with these Strauss boys but I’ll rip all their throats out just for fun if I like.”

“Where’s Alex?” Alanna said. She didn’t know where she got the courage to even ask. “I want to see Alex alive and then I’ll tell you where John is.”

“Or I could kill you right now,” Rawley whispered.

The hand that wrapped around her throat moved quicker than it should have, considering how heavy it felt. It was as immovable as a vice and Alanna tried to scream, but she couldn’t so much as breathe as Rawley lifted her right off the ground. She gasped, desperate for air, but Rawley only squeezed his fingers and tears slid down her cheeks, dampening his thick skin as she hung there helplessly.

She could smell Nathan suddenly. His scent