Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,83

to him about it.

“I told you, you should have taken her when I said-”

“Shut up!”

The voices were whispered and seemed to come from nowhere. Lydia was coming back from the gardens and walking down the wide wooden verandah that stretched all the way around the lodge. She had the verandah and patios mostly to herself, as all the guests were out skiing or visiting town and it wasn’t nearly warm enough to be hanging around outside for long.

But she spied two figures around a corner up ahead, talking in hushed voices. The woman was blonde and wore a flashy red parka and sunglasses, her glossy blonde hair immaculately coiffed. The guy was tall and skinny and had long dark hair. He wore a thick leather jacket and a chagrined expression. Neither of them had seemed to notice her.

Lydia smirked. There was something a little comical about them, and being in a good mood and naturally curious, she found herself ducking back into the shadows and keeping her sensitive bear shifter’s ears open to listen to them.

“Now they’re together!” That was the guy, sounding very upset as the woman he was with grumbled and cursed under her breath. “That’s what it looked like! I saw them coming back down the mountain!”

“Well, then why didn’t you do something about it?” The woman demanded to know. She sounded very defensive, as if desperately searching for a way this was the man’s fault. Whatever it was.

“I-I didn’t know what to do!” The man sounded almost pleading. “I thought I should, ya know, report to you first! I was following your orders! You’re the witch! I figured you’d kill the girl yourself! Or him, if you want to seduce one of the brothers instead… Or both, I guess.”

Lydia's ears rang. At the mention of Eric’s name, she gasped and stood frozen to her spot as the apparently villainous duo continued to argue about what should be done to Eric...and her.

“You don’t understand anything,” the woman said. “Murder is messy. His brothers are strong shifters. Which means they’re excellent trackers. I can’t be impulsive this time. Even you are a decent tracker and you’re an idiot. Whether we killed Eric or the girl or both, if they ever found the bodies-”

Lydia didn’t hear anything after that. Because all at once she felt a fury that she’d never known overwhelm her. It was hot and it made her shake. She had never seen red in her life, but she had to think this was what it was. She shifted abruptly and barrelled around the corner, letting out a roar of rage in defense of her mate.

But she was hasty. Her roar was frightening, but it also alerted the man and woman to her presence, giving them just enough warning that she was about to attack. Lydia stood up on her hind legs just before lunging at the pair, but the woman was too fast.

Lydia had not been thinking. She had only felt from deep inside her, a primal urge to protect Eric.

If she had been thinking, she would not have attacked.

This was the nightmare she’d been having all along. And she’d just made it worse.

The woman shifted and the two of them clashed, claws digging into fur and flesh as Lydia tackled her to the ground. Lydia snapped her jaws and for a second, she had the woman pinned beneath her. She was right on the verge of sinking her teeth into that bared throat as the two of them wrestled on the wood floor of the verandah.

It took the woman’s male partner a second, but then he shifted too and it was all over.

Lydia had been in fights before. She’d won against bears bigger than her, even male ones who were bigger. If the fight for survival or defense was strong enough, she supposed anything was possible. But up against two bears, she had no chance.

The rest of the fight was a blur as the male bear ripped her away from the woman and pinned her beneath him, capturing her throat in his jaws.

The message was clear - submit or die.

I’m sorry, Eric, Lydia thought, before going limp.

28

Lydia

Lydia couldn’t open her eyes and that was confusing.

What had happened?

Her head was muddled and it ached terribly. She had been walking along on the verandah, she thought. She had been thinking of Eric and their future and then…

The man and woman, the two bears…

Her nightmares...

She could remember nothing beyond losing the fight with them. She might have won,