Shifters, Inc. The Bear Who Loved Me (A BBW paranormal romance) by Georgette St. Clair Page A

“She is your Fated Mate. I can tell. Not all of us get to be with their Fated Mate. I never will. If you’re not an idiot, you’ll go grovel for her forgiveness and make things right, or you’ll be miserable and utterly useless to work with, for the rest of your life.”
                  Heath actually sheathed his claws, he was so shocked. The Beast? Not attacking? Giving someone romantic advice?
                  “You believe in the whole Fated Mate thing?” he demanded suspiciously. If the Beast was making fun of him, he’d fucking kill him. “You’re actually some simpering, hopeless romantic?”
                  The Beast responded with a wry smile. “Hopeless is the perfect way to describe it. And yes, I believe in it the same way I believe in gravity. It’s a fact.”
                  “Why do you say you’ll never be with your Fated Mate, then?”
                  The Beast’s face darkened and some long-ago memory made a quiet rage flash in his eyes. “Some things just are. I’m not getting into it.”
                  “She cheated on me with Reshef,” Heath blurted out. He couldn’t believe it. He was actually confiding in the Beast. Next they’d be braiding each other’s fur and having a manicure party to paint each other’s claws.
                  The Beast raised an eyebrow. “Her? No,” he said simply.
                  “Well, Reshef sent a note to our cabin with a dozen roses, thanking her for giving him a good time…” As he said it, Heath started to feel stupid. Really stupid. And like a major asshole.
                  Had he let Reshef manipulate him into ruining everything?
                  “Didn’t you tell me that Reshef asked for Tonya to be his companion?” The Beast’s tone was scornful. “A man like that doesn’t like to be told no. And sending a note like that was a good way to drive a wedge between you, and then he’d have a better chance at getting with Tonya. I mean, it was a good plan on his part if he figured you for a fucking moron. Obviously he was right.” And then the Beast punched him in the arm so hard he staggered back a step. Now there was the Beast he was used to.
                  “And that’s for thinking you could take me,” he growled, just as Jake and a couple of other operatives strolled down the hallway.
                  Heath and the Beast shifted, and all the other shifters followed suit, and then there was a pile of furious, snarling animals, snapping and biting and shredding their clothing,
                  Within a couple of minutes they’d gotten it out of their systems and they were all sitting in Jake’s room, stark naked and listening to Jake screaming one of his famous full-volume lectures at them, threatening to personally rip them all a new one, and also to fire them, kill them, and then fire them again, and then ship their dead body parts back to their families. After he spat on them. Then he might kill them some more after that.
                  Standard pissed-off Jake stuff.
                  Heath listened and nodded and apologized, because fighting like that did risk exposure and jeopardize their mission, and for that he genuinely was sorry.
                  In the back of the mind, one thought was running, repeating itself urgently, over and over: I’ve got to find Tonya. I’ve got to find Tonya. I’ve got to find Tonya.

Chapter Eleven
    That day, Tonya was so angry at Heath that she spent the day hiding out in Antonia’s room, and spent the night there as well. In the morning, Antonia and Tonya went to get some coffee and watched a helicopter lifting off, heading away with the waiter who’d tried to kill Benedetta.
    Word travelled quickly on the ship. One of the porters told them that the ship’s security had contacted the authorities in