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

hostage. A rush of energy hit them, and the older man lost his grip on Caroline. She went flying sideways into the table next to them, and fell over several chairs as she tried to get her balance. She couldn’t get her footing, though, and she fell with a loud thud on the smooth cement floor of the bar, hitting her head on the table on the way down. One of the guns the men had been holding had been knocked loose from his hand in the chaos, and Caroline quickly grabbed it up and scurried behind a large jukebox. She didn’t know how to use a gun, but if one of those guys came at her, she would sure as hell figure it out. She flattened herself against the wall and peeked out into the room with the gun pointing at where her captors had been moments before. That’s when she saw it, and her mouth dropped open. She nearly dropped the gun she was holding as well.
    There, in the middle of her favorite dive bar, stood four giant pandas. And they didn’t look like the cute, cuddly pandas that Caroline had seen at the San Diego Zoo. They were fierce, with angry eyes and teeth bared. They let out low growls as they surrounded the men who had been so cocky about killing them just moments before.
    Caroline rubbed her eyes in disbelief and looked around for Lance and his crew, but they were nowhere to be found. She had known they wouldn’t be—it was obvious that the furious pandas standing in front of her had been men just moments before. Caroline started counting up how many beers she had ordered, trying to see if the alcohol might be affecting her perception. She desperately needed to find some reasonable explanation for why it looked to her like these men had just turned into bears. But deep within her, she knew that she had really just witnessed the impossible. Shreds of clothing were everywhere, the casualties of the men shifting out of the confines of their human bodies. The men hadn’t been crazy when they talked about bear shifters, after all. Such creatures really did exist.
    One of the pandas, whose eyes looked exactly like Lance’s eyes, sniffed the air and swung his head side to side, searching. A moment later the panda turned to look by the jukebox, and Caroline realized that he had been searching for her. He strode quickly over to her hiding place, his paws making loud thuds on the floor as he walked. When he reached her, he sniffed around for a moment, nuzzling her chin with his leathery black nose to make sure she was okay. Up close, no one who had ever met Lance could deny that this bear was him. Even the fur on his face somehow resembled the way that Lance’s human hair stood on his head.
    Caroline was absolutely in awe. For a long moment, she even forgot about the fact that there were two men on the other side of the room bent on killing her and Lance. She tentatively reached out her hand and, ever so gently, touched the fur on the head of the panda in front of her. The panda, or Lance—Caroline wasn’t quite sure what to call him at this moment—nuzzled her again. Growing bolder from this gentle encouragement, Caroline continued to let her hand run over the bear’s thick, wiry fur. She scratched behind his velvety black ears, and he grunted in appreciation. She let her hand run down his neck and onto his back, marveling at the size and thickness of the bear’s muscles. His eyes met hers, and he said so much with just his expression. He seemed to be telling Caroline that everything was going to be okay, and that he would protect her. Her heart melted at the care and concern that she saw in his eyes.
    Then another one of the bears grunted impatiently from behind them, and Lance’s bear turned around quickly to head back to where the other pandas were surrounding the two men on the floor. Caroline’s whole encounter with Lance’s bear had lasted less than twenty seconds, but somehow in those twenty seconds, Lance had managed to touch a deep, special part of Caroline’s soul. She felt a growing affection for