Alpha Bear Detective: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (14 page)

"I am not fine." Danny gritted his teeth, his eyes fixed on the road. "How much longer?"

"Ten minutes until I kill the siren and slow down. Another fifteen or so to reach the place, assuming I can see the turnoff in the dark."

"It was dark when they brought her here," Danny said. "It can't be totally invisible. We'll keep a careful eye out."

Levi nodded. "My eyes are a little better in the dark, anyway. It should be okay."

It had better be okay.

"Just don't kill us before we can find out, that's all I ask." Danny swallowed as Levi took a sharp curve.

"Oh, believe me," said Levi grimly, "we are going to be plenty alive when we get there. You can count on it."

*              *              *

Maria had been afraid that Sutherland was going to keep up the creepy threats, but it seemed like he was done with those for now.

Instead, he was
evangelizing.

She'd assumed, when she thought about it, that his little speeches over the phone to her about the shifter agenda had been staged. They hadn't needed to convince her that they were right. They'd only needed to give her a plausible reason to set up the meeting in the Starbucks so that they could swoop in and kidnap her without dealing with a (real) police presence.

But it looked like this was just Sutherland's standard conversational mode—he started rambling about shifter conspiracies and evil agendas and he just couldn't stop.

"They're animals," he assured Maria. "They have instincts that they can't resist. Powerful, violent instincts. And when they get out of control, anything can happen."

Maria was trying as hard as she could to ignore him and think about Levi. But when he said that...
anything can happen
...she couldn't help wondering what that would be
like.

Powerful...instincts.

It was a good distraction from being tied to a chair. She spent a little bit of time imagining Levi, overwhelmed by his instincts, back at the safehouse. Or at her apartment.

Had he really said,
I love you
?

It seemed impossible to believe, but she knew what she'd heard. He
loved
her. But how was it possible? Maria wasn't a shifter. The odds of a non-shifter woman being Levi's mate...she didn't even know, but it had to be incredibly low. She wasn't anybody's idea of a good mate, anyway. She worked too hard and she was argumentative and she liked to get her own way. She was irritatingly self-sufficient. Or at least so her former boyfriends had seemed to think.

I love you.

Maria hadn't let herself think at
all
about what she felt for Levi. Even after they'd had sex—hot, hot sex, her brain reminded her—she'd completely shut down any speculation about how she felt.

Because it was useless, she'd thought. There was no way it was going anywhere—sex on a kitchen chair with a cop who was protecting her and her boss from a hate group? That was not the basis for a relationship! When you added in the fact that he was a shifter, and so waiting for his one and only mate, it was clear that even if they could date for a little while, ultimately Maria would be dumped in favor of The One And Only.

But if he
loved
her...could shifters fall in love with someone other than their mate?

Or...could
Maria
be Levi's mate?

It would explain the way she felt.

Because she did feel. She felt something larger than she knew how to deal with, more powerful than anything she'd ever experienced with a man before. So intense that she could barely handle thinking about it.

So she hadn't thought about it. But she was thinking about it now.

Surely it was impossible. Surely she was just making up a fantasy. She remembered seeing that bear in the woods when she was a kid, how she'd wanted to run away into the woods with him, meet the other bears, learn their names and talk to them and see what they were like as people. Was she just projecting that fantasy onto her adult life, making up a destined prince who would sweep her away forever?

She didn't...she didn't think so.

She thought it was real.

And that thought drowned out everything Sutherland was saying to her.

*              *              *

Levi eased the car up onto the dirt turnoff and turned off the engine. "Walk from here," he said to Danny. "We don't want them hearing the car."

Danny nodded, and they both carefully opened their doors, shutting them with exaggerated caution to keep the noise from carrying.

Then they started up the drive, keeping their heads down, guns out and covering each other.

The house came into view after five minutes or so, looming as a dark shape in the night. Levi remembered Maria saying,
Mansion. Compound. Something
, and thought that she was right. There was no wall around it—probably too conspicuous, he thought—but he could see a dim glow coming from the window above the door that suggested a security system.

He motioned Danny in, and whispered, "Alarmed."

"What do you want to do?" Danny whispered back.

"Stay behind me.” Levi holstered his gun.

"What are you—oh my God. Oh. Okay."

Levi was shifting. He settled into his bear form, flexing his claws against the ground, and scented his mate. She'd been here, on this driveway.

And there were hints of blood in the air.

Levi could feel a roar rumbling in his chest. He kept it down by force of will.

His mate had been hurt. She'd been scared and hurt, and taken here against her will, and she was inside that building, he knew it for absolute certain.

Levi charged.

800 pounds of American brown bear hit the front door of George Lisle's house with a roar. The door made a faint splintering noise and gave in without a fight.

Inside the house, Levi could smell Maria's scent all around. Was she in that room right off the hall? No, she'd
been
there, and then she'd been taken down the hall...he could smell a gun.

That door. She was behind that door.

The door
crunched
as it opened, and he shouldered his way past the pieces to see Maria inside, bloody and tied to a chair, with Roger Sutherland behind her, holding a gun to her head.

He'd been in this position once already today. He was
not
letting this happen again.

"Stay back!" Sutherland's voice shook. "Or I'll shoot her!"

His hand was shaking too. That was dangerous. His finger could hit the trigger at any moment.

“That’s right,” said a voice behind him. Levi turned clumsily in the small space, splintering a little table in the process.

George Lisle stood in the doorway. “He can shoot her,” he continued. “And you can’t do anything about it. In fact, he’s going to shoot her, when I give the word. Unless you leave right now.”

Levi growled.

“Although,” Lisle continued, “it doesn’t matter.”

What?

“If you leave, then we will have succeeded. However, if you murder Mr. Sutherland, we will also win. You will have mutilated a member of my organization. I’m sure it will be child’s play to ensure that Ms. Hernandez appears to have been the victim of a bear attack as well. So please. Make your decision.”

Lisle disappeared from the doorway. Levi couldn’t chase him and leave Maria behind—as much as he deeply, furiously wanted to.

He turned back to Sutherland, who had at least stopped shaking. The gun was pressed to Maria’s temple.

Levi had to make a decision.

“
Freeze
! Police!”

Danny’s sudden appearance made Sutherland jerk the gun up to point at him.

Levi leapt.

The gun clattered out of Sutherland’s hand with one swipe of Levi’s paw. Sutherland went sprawling backwards, landing on the floor with the wind knocked out of him, and Levi went after him.

He pinned Sutherland down with a paw on each shoulder and watched real fear enter the man’s eyes, as he realized that he was going to be mauled by an 800-pound brown bear.

Then Levi shifted.

When he was fully human again, he said, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney…”

Sutherland’s face transformed as he was Mirandized, from primal fear to outrage. “You can’t do this!” he shouted. “You’re an animal!”

Levi smiled at him with real satisfaction. “I’m a detective with the Springfield Police Department, and that means that I
can
do this. What do you got, Danny?”

“Couple of them surrendered already, what with the giant bear breaking down the door and all,” Danny reported. “I’ve seen two more ducked behind corners, but I don’t think they’re really sure what’s going on. The bossman disappeared up some stairs.”

“Thanks,” Levi said, and handcuffed Sutherland.

Then,
finally
, he could go to Maria.

She was flushed and beautiful and hurt, and he cupped her face and kissed her once before he did anything else. “Are you all right?” he asked against her mouth.

She nodded. “Get me out of these ropes.”

He made short work of them and helped her to her feet. She wrapped her arms around him, and he buried his face in her hair for a long moment.

“I was sure you’d come,” she said into his chest. “I knew it. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“Forget me, how are
you
? You’re bleeding.” He could smell the coppery tang in the air, and it made his bear growl protectively.

“I’m okay. Mostly this arm.” She held it up, and he backed up enough to look. Her wrist was bloody and abraded, and the graze on her arm from the bullet had opened up again. Surrounding them were reddened bruises in the shape of handprints.

“You know,” said Levi conversationally, “I thought that handcuffing him and taking him in was the best solution, but I might be changing my mind. Do you want me to maul him?”

Maria quirked a smile, and shook her head. “No. He should go to prison for a long, long time.”

“So should some of these other guys, if you’ve got a minute,” Danny called from the doorway.

Levi looked helplessly at Maria. “I’m sorry, I—”

Maria stepped back. “I understand. Do your job.”

He leaned in and kissed her one more time, then went with Danny.

Arresting the couple of remaining guards was simple. When the bottom floor was clear, they returned to the room Maria’d been held in. She was cradling her wrist and looking thoughtfully down at Sutherland, who was glaring at the ceiling.

“This is extremely satisfying,” she told Levi when they came in.

“I’m so glad,” he murmured. “We’re going to check out the upstairs. It’ll be safest if you’re with us, just in case someone comes in from outside or there’s another way down from the second floor.”

Maria nodded and followed them.

They found Lisle barricaded in a bedroom upstairs. Levi made Danny and Maria stand back, shifted, broke the door down, and shifted back.

“George Lisle, you are under arrest for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder,” said Levi. “You have the right to remain silent…”

Lisle watched him with mystified eyes as he finished speaking.

“I don’t understand,” he said finally. “Why didn’t you kill him?”

“Because unlike
some
people, I have self-control,” Levi told him, and got out his spare handcuffs.

Once Lisle was handcuffed, he turned back to Maria. “Danny, can you watch this asshole for me?”

“Sure thing,” said Danny, his gun trained on Lisle. “He’s not going anywhere.”

Levi tugged Maria out into the hallway, which was quiet and deserted.

He couldn’t help asking her again, “Are you sure you’re okay?” She’d been in the hands of these bastards for hours, they could’ve done anything to her…

“I’m fine.” Her voice was strong and firm. “Much better now that Lisle and Sutherland are in handcuffs.”

“Good. Anyone else you want me to handcuff, while we’re here?” If anyone else had hurt her…

She shook her head. “Levi?” Her voice was a little smaller all of a sudden.

“Yes?” He stepped in close, cupped her cheek.

“What you said on the phone. Did you—did you really mean that?”

“
Yes
.” He bent his head to kiss her deeply. “I love you, Maria. And now that the investigation’s over, I can say it as much as I want.”

A hesitant smile was tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I love you, too. I think I started falling from the second I saw you—saving my life from Sutherland. But you’re a shifter—I thought—”

“Shifters can have human mates, remember?” He took her hand, brought it to his mouth, and kissed her ring finger. “You’re my mate, Maria. I love you and only you.”