Black Market Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Genesis Valley Book 2) by Amelia Jade Page B

from the room, still wincing and grunting in pain. The men moved him to the door to the right of his cell. As he waited for them to key it open, he looked around, noting the other two cells on either side of his, exactly the same. The rest of the room was the same drab, utilitarian gray steel that he was rapidly becoming used to.
    The door hissed and clanked open, and two guards preceded him inside, while the other two followed, wands crackling as they neared his skin. They walked down the corridor at a slightly less-than-brisk pace, enough that it forced Ajax to move faster than he wanted to after taking those hits.
    “I didn’t realize the government was so hot for the color gray,” he remarked as they passed another gray steel door. “You’d think they could afford to splurge on a splash of color here or there.”
    “The government? What does the government have to do with this? They didn’t splurge on anything,” Number Four said arrogantly.
    Ah, a private outfit then. Excellent.
    They arrived at another door. It wasn’t far; they had only passed two side doors as they went. The door hissed open, and Ajax was assaulted by the brightness of the room ahead of them. The lights in the corridor and his cell had been white, not yellow, and rather bright, but they were nothing compared to the blinding brilliance of the spotlights in the room beyond. It stunned him and he didn’t move right away, prompting Number Three to jab his baton into Ajax’s back again.
    He cried out and fell to one knee as the electricity raced through his muscles.
    “Ajax?”
    His head snapped up at the sound, eyes focusing on the room ahead of him.
    “Arianna?” he rumbled, eyes searching the room.
    “Ajax!”
    It was her. He couldn’t see her—she was out of sight—but he’d recognize that voice anywhere. She sounded distressed.
    “Shut up!” Number Three snarled as he appeared in front of Ajax, wand poised over him.
    Ajax growled and rose to his feet.
    Number Three stabbed him with the baton. Ajax couldn’t see his face, but he knew the man likely had a grin in place, expecting the big shifter to fall to the floor. Instead, Ajax’s lips pulled back as he bared his teeth in a snarl.
    His hand shot out, wrapping around Number Three’s hand and baton all at once. When the guard tried to pull back, Ajax casually forced him to stay still. Then he pulled it closer, jabbing the baton into himself harder.
    “What? That?” he asked, looking down at the stun stick. “Come on, you didn’t really fall for that little cry of pain routine, did you?”
    He squeezed his hand as hard as he could, shattering the stick and the guard’s hand as he applied the full pressure of his shifter-enhanced grip.
    “Idiot,” he snapped.
    Then he attacked.
    The stun batons weren’t pleasant, but to an enraged Ajax—who knew the woman he had gotten into this, the woman he was coming to care for—was in trouble, they were just a tickle. He had faked the earlier pain to lure them into a false sense of security.
    It had worked. The others still tried to hit him with their sticks as he whirled, smashing bones with every blow. Number One got too close and Ajax reached out and casually slapped him, the force of his blow twisting the guard’s head until bone snapped. He dropped limply to the floor.
    “Oh no you don’t,” the shifter growled loudly, his blood up, full battle-rage descending over him.
    One of the guards was fleeing down the hallway. Ajax grabbed a fallen baton, took aim, and launched it down the hallway after him. He thought it was going to miss, but at the last second, it slammed electric end first into the guard’s tailbone. The scream that echoed up the hallway was deafening.
    “Your turn,” Ajax said as he spun to see Number Three still on his feet, holding the mangled remains of his hand in front of him as he shook.
    A flat palm lashed out, breaking the man’s nose with ease and sending bone fragments straight back into his brain.