Free Stone Bear: Sentinel (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Stone Bears Book 1) by Amelia Jade

Corridor 1-C Raph, lead us in,” Gabriel said as they dismounted, their trucks parked facing back the way they came, ready for a quick departure.
    The directions meant that they were to take the first offshoot from the main trunk of the shaft, and then the third branch from there, and follow it to the end. The embedded rail system and strings of LED lights ensured high visibility, but the three Bears carried and used their high-powered flashlights regardless. If the power failed, it wouldn’t be the first time in the history of the shafts that it had been used as a precursor for an attack.
    Raphael led the way, followed by Uriel, with Gabriel watching their rear. They descended without issue, and Gabriel strode to the front when Raphael announced contact over their radio.
    He almost didn’t see it in time. The shifter came lunging out of the shadows to his right, swinging his pickaxe for Gabriel’s head. The sharp metal edge glinted in the dim light seconds before it impacted with his head. Gabriel wasn’t a Stone Bear in name only, however, and his head was already moving with the direction of the weapon, blunting the attack. As his weight took him off balance, Gabriel launched himself forward into a roll and came up running, ignoring the searing pain that erupted in his head as the weapon’s tip gouged a huge furrow in his forehead. Hot sticky liquid erupted across his face, and Gabriel could taste the metallic tang of his blood as his wound wept furiously.
    The angry roar of a bear sounded behind him, paws crunching as it came closer. The shifter must have abandoned his initial idea and shifted as he came after Gabriel. He turned, and through his working eye he could see his team shifting to come to his aid.
    “No!” he yelled at them, a snarl appearing on his face as he stared down the rushing bear. The speed of Gabriel’s movement must have stunned the attacker, because there was still fifteen feet between the two of them.
    Plenty of time.
    Gabriel flexed his legs and launched himself at the animal. He changed on the move, his bear ripping from his skin while he was still mid-air. The massive beasts collided together with bone-snapping force. Gabriel felt something give in his chest, but he simply grunted and brushed aside the new source of pain, focusing on the loud snap he had heard from one of his opponent’s front legs.
    The crazed bear didn’t even make a noise. It simply continued its wild, frenzied attack. Great tears opened in Gabriel’s skin as the massive paws continued to move underneath him. Rolling off his opponent, Gabriel waited for him to try and stand. As the other shifter rolled toward him, he swung a huge paw straight at the oncoming head of his attacker. Bone crunched. His claws dug into the side of its head and crushed its eye, blinding it from one side. Warmth flowed down Gabriel’s paw as he was coated in blood from the horrific wound he had just inflicted.
    It was a cheap shot that he wouldn’t have taken in a normal brawl, but this was different, and he had no compunctions about doing what it took to win. A sliver of his brain spoke to him, saying something about taking him alive, but it was too late by then. Gabriel was in full battle-rage, his bear roaring its anger at being blindsided as his paws descended on the hapless shifter’s head again and again, until it finally let out a squeal and shivered before lying still.
    Gabriel hauled back on his bear, pulling it back from the edge and containing its rage using his sheer mental strength to overwhelm it. Then he put it away, shifting back into his human form, his lungs heaving for breath as he grabbed the dead or unconscious shifter by the neck and hauled it after him, using his free hand to wipe away the blood running into his eye. Head wounds were the worst, and it would be another quarter hour or so before the blood fully stopped flowing, though it had already slowed substantially.
    “What the fuck is this?” he yelled,