Free First Bear: BBW Shapeshifter BWWM Werebear Paranormal Romance (Wild Alpha Shifters Book 1) by Zola Bird

sound braver than she felt. This was a very bad day and it was getting worse by the minute. Croyston approached with his pistol.
    “Yeah. Maybe I will shoot you. But I’m going to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget first.”
    “I don’t know how a man like you thinks he can teach anyone anything.”
    “Then why don’t you get down on the ground and find out?”
    Jada didn’t know what she was going to do. Run from the gun? One thing she knew for sure was she wasn’t going to get on the ground. Not for this little coward. But what choice did she have? He limped toward her, bleeding from the shoulder. She had hurt him, but she hadn’t hurt him badly enough to stop him. At that moment, Jada wished she was anywhere else. She wished Brandon had spent the night. Then they would have gone to work together. She would have picked up her dry cleaning with him. She would never have been ambushed by this monster…
    Think, Jada, think. Running isn’t the right thing to do. Not right now . What she needed to do was calm down. Collect herself. She needed to figure a way out of this thing. Jada kept her voice level. “How can I help you, Mr. Croyston?” she said, just as if she was back at the service desk.
    “You can’t help me, bitch.”
    He was close now. Close enough that she could smell him. His sour skin. His body odor. She closed her eyes. No knight in shining armor was going to rescue her. Not out in the middle of nowhere. It was her wits against his. She could do this. After all, she still had a little something up her sleeve—the screwdriver from the toolkit. But she would have to wait for him to get close. Really close…
    “Why don’t you come over here, Ray?” Jada said, remembering her attacker’s first name. “Come over here and we’ll talk about it.”
    Jada gently grasped the handle of the screwdriver hidden up her sleeve. That’s it. Just a little closer, asshole.
    ROAR!
    Jada almost jumped out of her pants. What the hell? A giant brown grizzly bear was barreling down on both of them. Could this day get any worse?
    Jada screamed.
    Croyston turned.
    And the grizzly pounced.

    ************************

    Brandon’s bear saw Jada standing. He felt relief. That meant he wasn’t too late. Jada was alive. But now was not the time to rest. The man had a gun. He was a danger. He needed to be eliminated. The man fired directly at him, but Brandon’s bear continued on his path. He heard another pop, like the gun had gone off a second time, but he paid it no heed. He clawed the man down to the ground, holding him to the road with a single paw.
    “Nice bear,” Jada whispered.
    Brandon’s bear looked up. Jada held a screwdriver out at arm’s length. She looked scared, scratch that, she looked terrified. He couldn’t let her see what would happen next. But it had to happen. Brandon’s bear knew no other way. Brandon’s bear averted his gaze from Jada and dragged her attacker into the woods. The man screamed and yelled, but Brandon’s bear didn’t care. The man had threatened Jada. He expected that the man had meant to kill her. But Brandon’s bear wouldn’t allow that. Brandon’s bear knew no mercy. He knew only the law of the wild.
    When Brandon’s bear finished, he had blood on his snout, but it was done. He was surrounded by forest, the road a short distance away. He shifted back. Now he had to help Jada.
    “No way,” Jada said.
    Brandon turned. He was naked and sweating and cold. His feet were bare and his arm was bleeding slightly. The shot had grazed him, but of more immediate concern was Jada. She must have followed him into the woods. She stared at him wide-eyed.
    “Jada, are you all right?”
    “Whoa. You don’t get to ask that. Not until you tell me what just happened.”
    “Croyston attacked you. He was going to kill you.”
    “I got that part.”
    Brandon indicated his arm. “I got shot.”
    “I see that, too.”
    Brandon glanced down at his shivering, naked form.
    “I’m