An Alpha's Storm (Water Bear Shifters 1) by Sloane Meyers Page A

meeting.”
    Brett looked around at the faces in the room, meeting each alpha’s eyes with his own. He may have screwed up, but he would not cower down in fear. He would not apologize for pursuing a woman he cared about deeply. Things had not turned out the way he wanted them to, and he should have been more wary of shifting out on an open beach. But, so far, no damage had been done. He could see that everyone in the room was angry with him, but Brett would not spend his whole life hiding in the shadows.
    Ben was the first to speak, and his voice was nearly a yell. “What the hell were you thinking, man? Shifting in front of a woman who’s angry at you? How can you be so confident that she’s not going to say anything to anyone? As soon as she figures out that she could get you in some deep shit by telling the right people who you are, she’s going to be blasting your secret all over town. The scientists are going to figure out where we are, and it’s all downhill from there. We’ll either have to fight them, or find an entirely new place to hide. You’ve put all of us at risk with your foolhardiness.”
    “Look, I made a mistake. And I’m sorry for that. But Aubrey isn’t the kind of person who is going to use this information to spite me.”
    “You don’t know for sure,” Ace hissed out, getting right in Brett’s face. “We could all be looking at the end of life as we know it thanks to your idiocy. I told you that you can’t trust human women!”
    Lance butted into the conversation, his tone upset but much calmer than Ace’s. “Did she have anything to say about why she was with that other guy? I’m concerned that if she’s interested in another man, that she might go running to him and tell him the whole story.”
    “I don’t know who the guy was,” Brett said. “She tried to tell me that there was nothing going on between them, but the guy had his arm on her when I walked into the bar. There’s no denying that there was something happening between them.”
    Brett frowned as he considered Lance’s words. Lance had a valid concern. If Aubrey was interested in that other guy, this whole situation might serve to drive her straight into that guy’s arms. Just the thought of her with someone else made his chest tighten, but he had to calm down and think rationally. He racked his brain, trying to remember whether Aubrey had ever talked about another guy friend. Suddenly, he remembered her mentioning once or twice some guy in the math department who wouldn’t leave her alone. She’d said the guy kept bugging her for a date and didn’t seem to get the hint that she wasn’t interested. Had that been him in the bar? And, if so, had Aubrey changed her mind and agreed to go out with him? Or had he been pushing for more than friendship against Aubrey’s will?
    Brett felt his cheeks heat up as he remembered Aubrey’s words when he found her at Pete’s bar. “ I told him I would have a drink with him as long as he knew it was only as friends. But he overstepped his boundaries. I didn’t want him to hold my hand, and I certainly didn’t invite it. ”
    “Oh, shit,” Brett said, as understanding flooded him. Aubrey had been trying to tell him the same thing she’d been saying about this guy all along—that the guy was overly persistent and didn’t listen when she told him to back off. No wonder she had been so angry with him. He hadn’t even listened to her. He hadn’t given her the benefit of the doubt, or even the simple courtesy of a moment to tell him what was really going on.
    Brett had royally screwed up. And not just by accidentally shifting while someone was watching. He had flown into a fit of rage at the woman he loved instead of trusting her. He deserved her anger. And he deserved the anger of the other alphas in the room. He could only hope that it wasn’t too late to fix it. Brett ran his fingers through his hair and started pacing the room.
    “I need to apologize to her,” Brett