Jade Crew: Fallen Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 7) Read Online Free

her. “Indeed. I will give them this much: they do have a sense of humor, though you wouldn’t always know it,” he said dryly.
    “Well, when you go barging into Marcus’s office unannounced, I can understand why they wouldn’t be amused,” William said. The others echoed their agreement.
    “As I came to find out,” Evan told them. “Marcus proceeded to act interested, and invited me to discuss things with him more. He showed me to a door, which I found out led outside, when he sent me right through it.”
    The others laughed outright at this.
    “He gave me a solid beating,” Evan said, his voice growing serious as he recalled what had happened next. “Then he told me that if I ever wanted to amount to something, I needed to realize the potential within me.”
    He paused, thoughtful for a moment, before continuing. “It was the first time anyone had ever said that I could be more than a failure. That I had something in me that might amount to something.” Evan swallowed hard.
    “Too bad I didn’t listen,” he finished, slapping his hand angrily on the metal bars of his cell before turning his back to the outside world.
    I owe Marcus a lot. Including an apology. He had been given a chance, and at one turn after another, Evan had blown it. He was lucky that he hadn’t been ended. Truthfully, he was actually shocked when he was given a prison sentence instead of a quick march out behind the LMC headquarters for a meeting with Marcus and the end of his life.
    Evan had been given a long time to think about his decisions now.
    “Hey, someone’s coming,” Matthew said.
    Evan listened carefully, hearing the footsteps in the long hallway outside their cells a split second later. The echo of the bootsteps grew louder, until the owner strode out of the hallway and into view.
    It was Garrett, Alpha of the Jade Crew, Evan’s former crew. The man who had done his best to rescue Evan from his spiral of self-destruction, only to witness everything implode spectacularly.
    A moment later, another figure joined him. Garrett was big, at least six foot six and with a thick muscled frame to go with it. Evan had always known he would be hard-pressed to take Garrett in a fight, and the several times they had clashed, he had been proven correct. But the other man had never left a doubt in his mind about the outcome of any eventual combat.
    Gabriel, the leader of the Stone Bears, was a colossus among titans. He was easily within a hair of being seven feet tall, and his thick arms and tree trunk legs oozed power and the promise of a swift end. It wasn’t just the size that made him so intimidating, but the smooth, lethal grace with which he moved. The flow of his body from one place to the other belied the sheer size and weight he had behind him. It was a lethal combination, as many had found out over the years.
    The two of them stared back at him, as if evaluating each other. Gabriel had been by several times since Evan had been jailed, but Garrett hadn’t set foot there. It was an ominous sign that they had both come together.
    “I didn’t do anything,” Evan said, spreading his hands to plead innocence.
    Gabriel rolled his eyes, while Garrett’s ice-blue eyes continued to bore deep into Evan, evaluating him. The imprisoned shifter stared back. Things were different now, and Evan had nothing to fear from his former Alpha. In fact, the disgust he had felt at first was now replaced by something he doubted Garrett was ready to believe: respect.
    He saw the recognition on the Jade Crew Alpha’s face. His eyebrows rose as his forehead furrowed, his eyes opening wide, though he never glanced away.
    Probably trying to see if I’m putting up a front. Well, look away Garrett. I’m not the same man you put in here. I’m better than that, and you’re just going to have to accept that. We may never be best friends, but that doesn’t mean I can’t respect you for what you’ve done now that I’ve had time to contemplate