Bear Arms (Alpha Werebear Shapeshifter Romance) (Mating Call Dating Agency Book 4) by Lynn Red Page A

anything, I just want you to know I’m not gonna let Morales get hurt.”
    Lexie swallowed hard, nodding that she understood. “He’s fast,” she said without much inflection of any sort, but the hollow drone in her voice spoke volumes. “Don’t get hurt.”
    “I won’t,” Blake said. His voice was soft, but strong. For the first time, Lexie noticed exactly how dangerous Blake sounded. If there was anything this lion-suitor was going to try, it wasn’t getting anywhere, she thought. Then again, Blake seemed almost worried, almost tense, at the thought of having to have some kind of encounter.
    At the same time, she had a morbid sort of curiosity about seeing this bad ass soldier bear throw down, but at the same time, violence wasn’t her idea of a good date experience.
    Well, not this kind of violence anyway.
    Rake approached the door, and the two flirting friends inside were still oblivious to his presence. He grasped the handle, seemed to pull at it once, and then when he found it to be locked tight, he tightened up and yanked the damn deadbolt out with one smooth, completely cool, completely nonplussed movement.
    Morales, whose huge back was to the door, froze at the sound of metal ripping. Eve peered around the arm that braced the big bear against the table. Lexie saw her eyes widen, and she mouthed something to Morales. The bear’s trapezius muscles flexed up almost to his ears, and when he turned to face the approaching beast, Morales flared his nostrils, and balled his fists.
    “Wait,” Eve mouthed. “Talk first.”
    Lexie’s focus heightened, as it always did when she sensed some kind of impending danger. Rabbits, after all, tend to the flight part of the fight or flight continuum, and for damn good reason. “Please?” Eve added to her earlier plea. “Why are you... why are you here, Rake?”
    For a moment, the lion in the black leather jacket and 501s only breathed. His shoulders rose and fell with each lungful he took. Lexie squeezed Blake’s hand hard in hers. “I’m scared,” she said. He didn’t respond with words, but gripped her hand back.
    “I’m,” Rake took a breath through his nose, letting it out through his mouth. He was very obviously trying to keep himself calm, which garnered at least a little bit of respect from Lexie, who sort of expected him to just jump in and start going nuts. “I’m here for her.”
    “So am I,” Morales said, turning around and standing taller, and somehow wider, between Eve and the newcomer. “Who the hell are you?”
    “Ask her,” Rake said. His voice had gone slightly softer, but the way he spoke had the effect of making the ragged edges of his personality all the clearer. “She knows.”
    “Eve?” Morales asked, not turning around.
    “He’s... well we have a past,” Eve said. “I didn’t expect him to reappear quite like this, but, I also didn’t not expect it, if you know what I mean.”
    Morales didn’t respond, he only stepped closer to Rake.
    The two were almost of an equal height, but what Morales lacked in verticality, he made up for with width. Lexie watched the two of them stare at each other, and couldn’t help but bite her lip harder and grip Blake’s hand. “I really don’t want either of them to kill the other,” she said weakly.
    “Not happening,” Blake said. “Trust me.”
    “This isn’t your place,” Rake hissed. There was a scar running down the side of his face that was turned toward where Lexie and Blake watched. It was long, jagged, and seemed like it would have taken out an eye if it were an inch to the right. “I got no fight with you, bear,” he finished. “But if you want one, I’ll give it to you.”
    Morales narrowed his vision. Lexie had heard plenty of times, in plenty of movies, about thousand-yard stares, but she’d never actually seen one in person until just then. Morales’s eyes relaxed just slightly, and for a moment he seemed to be channeling Clint Eastwood in Fistful of Dollars .