Alpha Bear Detective: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Read Online Free Page B

on the senator and on identifying the shooter.
    She was clearly the sort of person who concentrated on taking care of business, not on being taken care of. He hoped that tonight she’d be able to go home and relax. Maybe she had someone who would wrap her up in his arms—
    His bear growled.
    What? he thought. She should have someone to go home to after a night like tonight.
    Come home to us, his bear suggested.
    His bear side didn’t always like human customs, Levi had learned as he was growing up. Customs like dating, and courtesy, and professionalism.
    And, apparently, like not being a creepy stalker . Although normal police work sometimes prompted his bear to go alpha on other humans, Levi had never gotten fixated on a woman on the job like this. Usually it was asshole men who tripped his instincts.
    And fine, he wasn’t happy with the idea that she might have a boyfriend. But bear or no bear, he did sincerely hope that she wasn’t going to have to deal with being shot all by herself.
    He’d see her at the station, at least. “Danny, we all wrapped up here?” he asked.
    Danny nodded. “Time to set up a perimeter in case he comes back, then it’s all over but the crime scene techs.”
    “Great. Let’s get to the station to interview the witnesses.” And give Maria her purse.
    Which had a lingering scent around it—maybe she kept her perfume bottle in it, or maybe she just carried it so much that it had caught the scent from her skin. Whichever it was, he knew he wasn’t going to forget the vanilla-and-spices scent that was Maria very quickly.
    Not that he’d be mentioning that when he took her statement.
    *              *              *
    Maria eventually realized that she wasn’t going to get any sleep tonight.
    After being antiseptic-ed and bandaged, she’d been taken to the police station. Laura had needed stitches in her leg, so she was at the hospital while Maria was waiting alone for someone to come take her statement.
    It was now almost four in the morning, and the adrenaline had definitely worn off. She was having to work hard to keep from falling asleep in her chair in the little interview room—interrogation room? It had the one-way mirror along one side, but maybe what they called it depended on why you were in there. She hadn’t seen another living soul in the last hour, or she’d have begged for a cup of coffee.
    While she’d been waiting, she’d gone over and over the night in her head—she wished she had her purse so she could’ve taken notes, but Detective Hale surely had more important things to be doing than running over to the station with it.
    The shooter had definitely been waiting for them—he’d fired the moment they came out onto the steps and were clearly visible from the grounds. He’d been firing at both of them, not just Laura—he’d kept firing after Laura shifted and flew away. He’d had some kind of rifle, but Maria didn’t know anything about guns so she couldn’t say anything more specific than that.
    And it had definitely, one-hundred-percent been Roger Sutherland.
    Remembering names and faces was a big part of Maria’s job, and she was very good at it. She’d seen Sutherland a couple of times at the small protests the anti-shifters sometimes held at political events, and she’d carefully studied his picture along with other members of his organization. There was absolutely no question in her mind that it had been his face she’d seen illuminated under the lamp.
    Now all she had to do was wait for someone to show up so that she could tell them all of this.
    Finally, at four-thirty AM, the door opened. It was a police detective she didn’t recognize.
    Maria tried to hide her disappointment that it wasn’t Detective Gorgeous. All that was important was giving someone her statement, she reminded herself.
    “Ms. Hernandez. I’m Lieutenant Moyer, and I’ll be taking your statement.”
    She did venture a tentative, “I was