Jade Crew: Forgotten Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

met Gwen, he knew he wanted to spend some more time with her. It would be awkward to do it the way he wanted with everything going on, but he was determined to ask her out on a date.
    After today’s unpleasantness was concluded though. He had a feeling she wasn’t going to react so well to what was going to come next.
    “Hey Emma,” he said, approaching the two women after giving them a moment. He noted the way her left arm hung awkwardly, and the swelling around one eye.
    “Hi,” she said, giving him a slight nod. She winced even at that movement, and Russell felt his temper flare again.
    “Whiplash?” he asked.
    “Yeah,” she told him this time, beginning to nod along but catching herself this time before she moved too much. “Pulled something in my shoulder too, but it doesn’t feel too bad. Definitely not dislocated, thankfully.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Garrett checked it out already,” she said with a smile.
    Russell nodded, and moved up closer to Gwen.
    “You should go back inside,” he told her softly.
    “Why? It’s a mess in there. At least out here the air’s fresh,” she said, not understanding.
    “Gwen,” Emma said, “life here isn’t like the outside. It’s rougher, grimmer, and it doesn’t operate by the same rules. You haven’t been here long enough to truly understand that.”
    “What is it the two of you are trying to protect me from?” Gwen said, backing away a step as she looked back and forth between the two of them.
    Russell sighed. “These bears disobeyed so many rules I’m not even sure I could begin to list them. I’m sure Emma can, and will, but that’s not the point. It’s the punishment for what they did. They wrecked civilian property, and they injured a human using their shifter strength. The first one is bad enough, but the second?” He hesitated.
    “It’s punishable by ending,” Emma said for him, her voice like steel, uncompromising. She was no longer Emma Labelle, mate to a bear shifter, but Ms. Labelle, Lionshead Mining Consortium liaison. The change was abrupt, but he knew it was coming.
    “You don’t need to see this,” Russell pleaded, trying gently to push her back toward the remains of the bar.
    Gwen was shaking her head. “Wait, are you saying that they’re going on death row for this? Is that what you mean by ‘ending’?”
    “No,” he said with a grimace. “They will be summarily tried and ended right now.”
    “Oh my God,” she said in horror. “Is that even legal?”
    “Not only is it legal, but it’s the law,” Emma told her friend in that same unyielding tone.
    Gwen spun to face the scene laid out in front of them. The five captured bears, four of them back in human form, were lying on the ground. In front of three of them stood Ajax, Garrett, and Gabriel.
    “No,” he heard Gwen breathe, as Ferro walked slowly down from his bar to stand in front of one of the remaining two bears.
    “This is our way of life, Gwen. We aren’t humans, we don’t operate under human rules.”
    “But out there,” she protested, pointing wildly and meaning outside of the valley, “this isn’t how it’s done there. Why here?”
    “That was why Emma made the phone call before the fight started,” he explained. “If they weren’t a legitimate hired crew, then you’re correct, things would be different. But they are. Or were,” he corrected. “That means they are here on a last-chance opportunity, because out there,” he pointed the same way she had, “had already rejected them. This is the result of them using up that second chance.”
    He had to give Gwen credit. She was close to panicking, but she managed to think it through, to stay calm and use logic. In any other situation, he would have found her completely intoxicating. But right now, he just wanted her to go somewhere where she wouldn’t see what was about to happen. Especially because—
    “Whose responsibility is the fifth bear?” Gwen said slowly, turning to face