The Playboy Bear's Baby: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance by Marlie Monroe Page B

took score of the
situation. Mara sat at the table, her face swollen and discolored. A strange
man stood behind her with a knife to her throat.
    “Just stay right where you are,” the man said. “I’d
hate to have to slit her throat.”
    Gray didn’t respond. He couldn’t. The change rolled
over him like a righteous ball of fury. Bones snapped and tendons stretched,
transforming him from an average man to a massive grizzly bear hell bent on
protecting his mate. He lifted up on his hind legs, his broad head only inches
from the eight foot ceiling, and roared with all his might.
    The stranger threatening Mara turned whiter than
the paint. He dropped the knife and turned and ran. Even if Gray was willing to
let the bastard escape in favor of helping Mara, the bear wasn’t having it. No
one harmed the bear’s mate and lived to tell about it.
    The bear chased after the intruder, rampaging
through the house, knocking over furniture and smashing holes in the drywall.
The human raced out the front door and the bear followed, gaining ground. He
didn’t stop for the door. Without opposable thumbs, he wouldn’t have been able
to open it anyway. He quickened his pace, busted through the screen door, and
kept going. Once outside, he gained ground fast. He swiped at the male, his
razor-sharp claws slicing through cloth and soft flesh, and overtook the puny
human with ease, tackling him to the ground. The human rolled into a tight ball
and whimpered.
    The bear lowered his large head and roared his
victory over the still form beneath him. The acidic stench of urine filled the
air.
    Seeing the human posed no more threat than a cub, Gray
shifted back into his human skin. He loomed over the bastard who’d dared to
hurt Mara and spit on him. “If you ever think of coming near my family again, I
will tear you limb from limb, and feed your remains to the worms.”
    Gray strode toward his SUV with purpose,
unconcerned about his nudity, and got two bungee cords from the rear. He
returned to the human, hogtied him tight, and left him lying helpless on the
lawn while he hurried into the house to take care of his mate.
    He ran through the house and skidded to his knees
in front of Mara. Tears flowed down her face like rain. He wiped her face and
kissed her softly before moving behind her and forcing a partial shift of his
claws so he could saw through the cotton bundled around her hands. “I’m so sorry
I left you, baby. So damn sorry. But I’m here now and nothing’s ever going to
hurt you again.”
    “Gray…” Mara said his name like a benediction and
reached for him.
    He pulled her off the chair and into his arms, holding
her tight. “I love you. I love you so much. Thank fuck I got here when I did.
If anything had happened to you…” He shook from the thought of losing her.
Without her, nothing mattered.
    “I love you too.” She clung to his neck, trembling
against him. “I’m okay. I knew you would come.”
    “Always. I will always come for you. You can count
on that.” He kissed her hair and the side of her face and then pulled back to
really look at her. Her right eye and cheek were red and already beginning to
swell and change color. Fury built in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to go
back outside and rip that bastard a new asshole for what he’d done to Mara. She
was going to have one hell of shiner. “Your poor, beautiful face. I should have
killed that asshole.”
    Mara’s bloodshot eyes widened. “Where is he? Did he
get away?”
    “You don’t have to worry about him. He isn’t going
anywhere. I hogtied him and left him on the front lawn. Who is he anyway? Do
you know him?”
    “No. I don’t know. He kept saying Nancy owed him
money for a package she lost. It didn’t make a lot of sense.”
    Gray nodded. Learning what they had about her
mother’s drug withdrawal the night before, it sounded she may have been
involved in a drug deal gone bad. Her mother could have been a dealer or a
mule. He didn’t