Free An Alpha's Thunder (Water Bear Shifters 3) by Sloane Meyers

about him.”
    Caroline shrugged, and the older man tightened his grip on her. Caroline silently prayed that Lance would show up soon and be able to fight these guys off and get her out of this mess. He was going to be pissed at her for ignoring his instructions to leave, but she would deal with that later.
    “Well, now, this is pretty interesting. Your recent call log shows you made a call just over an hour ago. But if my memory serves me correctly, you’ve been here much longer than that. Did you make that call when you snuck off to the bathroom?” the younger man asked, his eyes darkening. Caroline was feeling more foolish by the second. Why had she actually thought these men hadn’t been noticing what she was doing?
    “Let’s just see who you called,” the younger man said, pushing some buttons on Caroline’s phone and holding it up to his ear. She assumed he was redialing the last number she called, which spelled trouble for her. As soon as he realized she had called the Coast Guard air station, she was definitely going to be in trouble. As the younger man waited for someone to pick up on the other line, the older man tightened his grip on Caroline so much that she could hardly breathe. He also kept nuzzling her neck with his nose, sending chills up and down Caroline’s back—and not the good kind.
    “Well, that’s just splendid,” the younger man said, hurling Caroline’s phone at the table. She winced as she saw the screen crack in several places. So much for her brand new Smartphone.
    “Who’d she call,” the older man asked, his voice laced with scorn.
    “The Coast Guard air station in San Diego,” the younger man said, crossing his arms. “Something you want to tell us, sweetheart? How do you know Lance, and did you talk to him?”
    “I don’t know him well at all,” Caroline said. It was the truth. She had inadvertently painted him, and she knew he wanted to date her, but that was about it. The men clearly didn’t believe her, though. The older man’s arm tightened around her chest even more, causing her to gasp and cough to try to catch a breath of air. He used his other hand to grip her forearm tightly, digging his fingernails into her skin until she was sure that he must be drawing blood.
    “Is everything alright over there, Miss?” the bartender’s booming voice called out. Caroline noticed that he didn’t use her name, even though he knew it. Maybe he didn’t want to take a chance on giving these lowlifes any more information on her than they already had.
    “Everything’s fine,” the older gentleman said flatly.
    “I was asking the lady,” the bartender retorted.
    “And I’m telling you she’s fine,” the older man said, nuzzling Caroline’s neck again with his nose. “Isn’t that right, baby? Tell the nice bartender that you’re doing just fine.”
    “I’m okay,” Caroline said weakly, trying her best to smile at the bartender. It was obvious she wasn’t fine, but she was worried about dragging the bartender into this now. She had no idea what these men were capable of, but she had already underestimated them once today. She wasn’t going to do it again. She closed her eyes for a moment, and willed Lance to show up.
    As if her thoughts actually did have power, the door suddenly flew open, and Lance stepped into the room. Caroline had never been so happy to see anyone in her life, and even in the middle of this high stress situation, she couldn’t help but notice how strong and muscular Lance appeared. His presence was commanding, filling the room.
    And he wasn’t alone. Right behind him, three other men stepped into the bar. Caroline recognized them as the same men from the pictures that the two men in the bar had been looking at. Lance’s entire rescue crew had shown up to play.
    The man holding Caroline quickly realized he was outnumbered, and stood to his feet, dragging Caroline with him and placing her in front of him like a human shield. Within moments,