Free Jade Crew: Forgotten Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 3) by Amelia Jade Page A

“But going back to the original point, yes, I am the boss. Ferro put me in charge of redecorating once you slackers have finished building it back up.”
    “Slackers? Who? Us?” Russell asked innocently, looking around. The others were still outside, leaving him the only shifter in the room. Even Ferro had disappeared into the back.
    “Actually, just looks like you.”
    “I’m the only one working !” he protested half-heartedly.
    “Now there’s a story if I ever heard one,” she said dismissively, raising a hand to stop his further protests.
    Russell laughed, throwing up his hands in defeat. “So you get to redesign the place do you?” he asked somewhat more seriously.
    “Yeah, I told him it could use a touch of updating, and he just said ‘Okay, make it happen,’ and that was that,” she told him.
    “Cool. It’ll be nice to have some new stuff in here, I can’t lie.”
    “I wasn’t here for all that long, so I’m going to be soliciting some advice on what should change, starting with you,” she told him.
    “Okay, sure. Couple of easy things. Bigger and sturdier chairs. Those rickety wooden things he had were notorious for falling apart without warning.”
    “New chairs, designed to support you unnaturally large folk. Got it,” she said, jotting her notes down on an imaginary clipboard.
    “Rude,” he said, sticking out his tongue. “Anyway, a bit brighter lighting as well. I always felt like his lights were some of the first ones ever invented, they were so dim. I’m not talking super-brilliant, but bringing it up a level or two.”
    “Yeah, I do recall that. I was also going to make his windows larger and slightly more see-through, to allow more daylight in. Speaking of which, I need to talk to whoever’s going to handle the design of the walls to change the window layout too,” she said, her brain starting to click into gear as she talked about her new responsibilities.
    “That would be Ajax, from what I understand,” Russell told her. “And I would support that as another change.”
    “Good to know.” She smiled up at him. His cheeks dimpled slightly as he returned the smile, but as soon as he heard Garrett’s voice coming back inside it disappeared, back under the façade he seemed to construct around his Alpha.
    He had shaved this morning, which added a bit more strength to his jaw, but it also allowed her to more clearly see his jaw muscles clench.
    “I need to get back to work Gwen,” he said more formally.
    “Okay. I should probably go look around town, see what I can find for furniture. But,” she told him, “don’t think you’re going to get away with this for much longer.”
    “Get away with what?” he asked, picking up his bin.
    “This whole not wanting to be seen with me around others. You owe me an explanation.”
    He stopped his movement and looked at her intently. “Very well,” he said stiffly. “The next time I see you, I will tell you.”
    Shit. He thinks I’m pissed at him. She wasn’t. Not yet at least, because she figured there was some sort of reason behind his slightly strange behavior. He wasn’t outright rude to her around others, nor did he ignore her even. But he just wasn’t his normal flirtatious self. It was like she was seeing the business side of him, and the real him. She wouldn’t have been that concerned if that was just the way things were around his crew, but she had seen Emma and Garrett flirting and being silly around the others. It seemed unfair if that was a privilege only the Alpha could enjoy, though Gwen would be the first to admit she didn’t know nearly enough about their society to understand if that was just normal to them.
    “Good,” she said. “Now, go do some work…slacker.”
    The tension on his face evaporated for a moment as he realized that she wasn’t mad at him yet, and was going to give him a chance to explain. He smiled and gave her a wink before heading over to the rest of his crew as they got back to