A Bride For The Bear (Bear Brides #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

purchase the land, instead of shedding their blood for it.
Cole respected Haluddin for his magnanimity and wisdom.
Unfortunately, with the Blood Shadow clan in his Beta's stewardship,
the clan had gradually degenerated into a lawless, pillaging gang of
hooligans.
    Cole smashed into Graig and
knocked him off the struggling human woman. Graig's two soldiers
threw the woman to the ground and shifted into bear at the same time
as Graig.
    The three black bears roared
and came at him together, but Cole was prepared. If he had relied on
brute strength alone, he wouldn't have survived all these years.
He'd had to ensure the survival of his younger brother, cousins and
his clan. Cole learned very early on how to read a situation at a
glance, and how to suss out his opponents' strengths and weaknesses.
He knew how to play one against the other, and change tactics before
his enemies could anticipate his moves. As a result of his shrewd
leadership, the Nightfire clan was a small but respected clan. Their
power lay not in their numbers but in their leader and their unity.
    Cole crouched and let the
three Blood Shadow bears barrel headlong towards him. At the last
instant, he rolled out of the way and shoved one of Graig's soldiers
forcefully, using their momentum to trip them up. The three black
bears collided into one another, reeling and roaring. Cole skidded
behind them and plucked the frightened woman up from the ground as
gently as he could with his forepaw.
    He flung her onto his back,
and he felt her fingers dig into his dense, brown fur as she held on
for dear life. Her muttering and whimpers were incoherent but he
managed to make out a few rather creative curses. She pressed her
body down against his back and the feel of her soft, generous breasts
rubbing against his body almost made his knees buckle.
    Cole shook his head hard. He
couldn't lose focus now. Those black bears weren't smart enough to
kill him, but they could certainly hurt her. He had to get her out
of here.
    The town center was neutral
territory, so the Blood Shadow bears could swagger around town and
wreak all kinds of havoc and destruction. But once he got the woman
back to his territory, Graig would have to halt his pursuit. If
Graig set foot in Nightfire territory without invitation or
permission, he would risk an all-out war between their clans. And
that would seriously piss Haluddin off.
    Cole swiped his claws across
Graig's face as the Blood Shadow Beta lunged at him. He sidestepped
Graig's blow and turned to fight Graig's two soldiers. The woman
wrapped her arms around him and flattened herself against his back.
She was doing her best to hold on, but it didn't help him one bit to
have her hot, soft body pressing so intimately against his.
    That sweet, pretty human was
trouble.
    She had been surrounded by
trouble when he first saw her, and he just knew that she was going to
be trouble for his heart.
    He had never felt so
protective and possessive towards any female before. The exquisite
scent of her had drawn him to her and the smell of her blood and pain
had sent his bear into a maddened frenzy. The realization that she
was hurt had ripped his beast out of his skin and made him tear down
the street with fear in his heart and murder on his mind. He had
feared that he would be too late.
    But she was alive. Hurt and
terrified, but alive.
    Cole swore that she would
never, ever experience pain and fear again. As yet, he didn't even
know her name, but he had the sense that he had seen her before.
    Cole growled a warning to
her over his shoulder. She seemed to understand, and she immediately
tightened her grip around him.
    Batting Graig and his
soldiers out of his way, Cole picked up speed and ran. Cars
screeched and bins toppled as he bulldozed his way across busy roads
and junctions, not stopping even when a cab rammed into his side.
The driver jumped out and shook his fist at Cole, then glanced back
and ducked in a hurry as three ferocious black bears