Free The PlayBear Billionaire: A Bear Shifter Romance by Maria Amor Page A

shifted, fur blossoming on his arms and legs, his clothes falling away in tatters. His shifted form was that of a black bear—impressive, not exactly small, but not as large or as heavy as the grizzly bear that Alex was.
    As they completed their transformations, Eric and Alex circled each other slowly, snarling and growling, letting out intermittent roars. Alex’s blood pounded in his veins, his night-adapted eyes picking out Eric’s sidling, circling form easily. He didn’t want to wait, but he knew he had to.
    Eric would have to make the first move. Once he could gauge what Eric thought he could do, he would be able to counter it. The wait was interminable. Alex fought back the urge to simply put the other bear on its back, to knock it down and find the tender spot in the throat and close his jaws around it.
    Eric took a fast swipe at him, and Alex danced away, snarling and snapping his teeth. He knocked aside the next swipe, and then charged at his rival as soon as he saw his opening, his legs powerful underneath him and his body low to the ground. He bowled Eric over and pinned him to the ground, growling and snarling, feeling the full force of his anger—his animal rage, the instinctive response to another bear trying to encroach on his territory.
    Eric scrambled out from under him, twisting and writhing to break his hold. Alex tightened and Eric somehow snaked his head around, sinking his teeth into Alex’s shoulder. Alex roared in pain, scratching at Eric’s face and head wildly, batting and pounding to get the bear’s head away, to knock his teeth. There was the feeling of his skin tearing—the sharp, hot pain in his shoulder, and Alex pulled back, ignoring the sensation; he would attend to it later.
    He knocked Eric clear as the blood began to flow into his fur, hot and stinging. Eric scrabbled at him with his blunt-clawed paws and Alex countered with mowing, swinging blows, growling and lifting himself up onto his hind legs exclusively.
    Finally, he’d had enough; he was in pain, the wrestling and boxing of their fight was exhausting him. There was a sound nearby—the breaking of branches, the rustle of leaves—and Alex identified the sound as that of a human. Snuffling the air, he would have gasped as the familiar, spicy-warm scent drifted to him. It was Daphne. She was in the woods with them, somehow.
    Alex let out a roar, arching up, throwing out his arms and throwing himself at Eric. He scrambled for a grip on the other bear and darted his head in, savagely biting wherever he could sink his teeth in, over and over again, in a blind rage of animal passion. He finally succeeded in getting purchase on the other bear and lifted him up, preternatural strength fueling his movements. He threw Eric, as far as he could, and watched with night-tuned eyes as the black bear tumbled through the air, rebounding off of the nearby trees and down into the underbrush, falling end over end.
    Alex panted, sinking down onto all fours, groaning and growling from the pain that burned at his shoulder. He could still smell Daphne nearby; what was she doing in the Forest Reserve? Who had sent her there? He let out another roar of pain and anger. It was Eric who had done it. Exhausted, pain working away on his mind, Alex felt the transformation starting up again. He was shifting back to a human—and Daphne was nearby.
    Had she seen him turning into a bear? Had she seen Eric? He thought that if she had there would have been a much more obvious indication of her presence in the woods—he couldn’t imagine that she would have remained quiet, as a human who had no idea of the existence of shifters. There would have been something.
    Alex realized he had lost more blood than he had thought as his consciousness began to swim with darkness. He was changing back to a human as his mind began to slip away, the whole world spinning.
    Daphne’s scent filled his nose and he struggled to pull himself out of the tangling, tidal morass that