Stone Bear: Guardian (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Stone Bears Book 3)

by Amelia Jade

  “My apologies,” he said, sitting up straight in his chair and tugging the seatbelt across his waist.

  Not that the flimsy material would do much to stop someone of his size in the event of a crash, but he knew it would make them feel better anyway. Besides, the seatbelt light was on, and Raphael preferred to obey the rules if there was no overwhelming reason not to. It wasn’t for his own benefit, but it made the lives of those tasked to enforce the rules that much easier, and he liked to help out others where he could. That’s just the sort of person he was.

  The plane jumped sharply as it hit some turbulence, and the flight attendant lost her balance. Or would have, if Raphael hadn’t steadied her with his own near-immovable arm, providing an easy place for her to grab on to.

  She looked down at his arm as her fingers felt the muscle. Her face blushed as she realized Raphael had caught her feeling him up, and she made good her escape, careful to keep two hands on the seats in case they hit more turbulence.

  A smile played across his lips. The poor lady. He hadn’t meant to embarrass her like that, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take a small source of amusement from it. It had been a long time since any sort of mild humor had been present in his life, and it was a refreshing change.

  That thought continued to echo through his head as the plane landed, the tires screeching loudly before taxiing to the terminal. As a first-class passenger, he was among the first to depart. It wasn’t because he liked the creature comforts, but more simply that his massive frame did not fit in the smaller seats. It was only polite to the others that he fork over the extra cash for first class. His employer paid well enough for him to afford it, so he hadn’t wasted too much thought on it.

  Baggage claim went equally quickly, and in a few short moments he was standing at the car rental desk.

  “Hi there, how may I help you today?” Another forced happy customer service smile.

  “I need a rental please,” he said, being extra polite. “A pickup if you have one, or a larger SUV if you don’t.”

  The girl at the counter looked up at that. He saw her initial gaze hit his chest, and then continue to travel up to his face as she realized just how large he was. The smile turned from fake to genuine.

  Oh dear.

  It had been a long time since Raphael had left Genesis Valley. There he was surrounded by other shifters and humans. The populace of Origin, the only town in the Valley, was well used to the presence of shifters and their naturally good looks. He had forgotten how unused to him the rest of the human population would be.

  “Of course sir,” the woman said, her voice practically a purr as her fingers flew across the keyboard.

  Sternly Raphael reminded himself that he was not there to flirt, even if she was kind of cute. Next to Karlie though, she appeared as dull as the end of a blunt pencil.

  No. Stop it. You cannot go around comparing every woman to her. That’s just not fair! It’s like this poor rental agent comparing you to that guy over there.

  “That guy” in particular was a middle-aged man sitting at a table, his terrible toupee almost falling off as he shakily spooned another mouthful of food into his mouth, his lips moving so fast they almost seemed to chew the food at the same time they slurped it off his spoon.

  Raphael shuddered. Okay, so maybe there were better comparisons. It was a poignant reminder, however, that he would need to be aware of the fact that he was less than conspicuous. In Genesis Valley many of the citizens knew him by sight, and wouldn’t think twice of him doing something like snooping around a property. Yet out here, in the real world, he had to be prepared for that. His hulking frame drew attention regardless of his actions. Even now, in the reflective glass behind the counter he could see people looking at him, eyebrows raised, simply at his size.

  Stealth may not be my best ability. He chuckled softly to himself at the thought.

  “What was that sir?” The bright, helpful eyes of the woman at the desk looked up at him.

  “Nothing,” he said, trying not to flash her a full-on smile.

  “Okay, well, I just need you to sign and you can be on your way,” she replied, pushing a form across the counter at him, along with a set of keys.

  He signed and initialed the form and received directions as to where the car could be found.

  Stepping out of the airport terminal, he inhaled a deep breath of the fresh air. It wasn’t a national airport, and it was on the outskirts of the city. The fake glow of ambient light from the city was on the far side of him as well. For now, he had an unobstructed view of the mountains in the distance.

  He wished Karlie could be there to see the view with him.

  Stop it. She doesn’t even know you exist, and yet here you are picturing your life with her? His inner voice rolled its eyes at him sarcastically. Focus on finding her first you oaf! If you can’t do that, then all of your daydreaming is for naught.

  As he slid into the front seat of the SUV, Raphael wondered if it was normal to see someone he had an instant attraction to and then had begun imagining a life together. He couldn’t be that messed up.

  Could he?

  “You are carrying on a conversation with yourself,” he muttered, putting the vehicle into drive and following the signs for the highway. He needed to head north for several hours, according to Ferro’s directions. Once he had found his way, his mind began to wander back to the original topic.

  Karlie.

  “She’s a dragon shifter. She’s literally going to live for thousands of years—unless your dumb ass fails to save her. Why would she ever fall for you?” He asked the question aloud, as if voicing it gave him more power over defeating his feelings.

  He knew that it would be a terrible idea to pursue anything with her, even if by some insane coincidence she was interested in him. First and foremost because of the whole age thing, but secondly, because she was Ferro’s granddaughter. The elder dragon had all but flat out told Raphael that he had better not try anything with her either.

  Could he have read my mind? There was no evidence, or even rumor, that Ferro—or any shifter—could do that. Then again, he was old enough that perhaps he could read people well enough to not need such an ability. Why else would he say what he had said?

  “Don’t do anything stupid.” It seemed unlikely Ferro could have been any clearer on what he meant there. Don’t fall for a woman for whom your entire lifespan is a blink of an eye. It wouldn’t work. It couldn’t work.

  And yet he knew it was already too late…

  ***

  The driveway was gated, and from what he could see, so was the property.

  “Shit,” he muttered. There was no guardhouse, just a keypad to be used for access. His slow drive-by had shown him at least one camera focused on the driveway, but he hadn’t noticed any along the fence.

  There was an intersecting road half a mile farther up. From what Raphael had been able to see, there was only one more property between that road and the one he had come to investigate. Parking his SUV on the side of the road, he jogged as silently as he could back toward the boundary between the two properties. The second one wasn’t gated.

  He cut across the grounds, shaking his head at the sheer size of them. The driveway that was visible to him was a good third of a mile long, and it disappeared into a forest with no sign of a building that he could see, meaning it was much deeper in. It had been the same thing with Luthor’s estate. The road was higher than most of the property, and the driveway sloped downward by a good two hundred feet before it leveled off again and then disappeared with a slight curve into the forested portion of the property.

  Instead of trying to enter that way, Raphael made his way down the property line between the two estates, hoping to find what he figured had to be there.

  “A-ha,” he crowed, making a beeline for it.

  The area was old growth, and that meant many of the trees were quite large. Many of them, like the one he quickly scaled, had large branches that would
overhang between properties. It was a simple chore to go up one tree, walk along a thick branch until he found a nearby tree, and then descend that one.

  His makeshift bridge journey complete, he crouched low and opened his ears, listening for any signs that he had been noticed. As the sounds of the night came in, he began filtering them out. The crickets, the rustling of wind against dry foliage, and the raucous cry of some night animal deep into the forest. Those he ignored, listening instead for footsteps, shouts of alarm, or anything else that shouldn’t be there.

  After several minutes he determined there was nothing.

  That was odd. He would have expected much more security from a place housing a dragon shifter. Then it hit him. They weren’t concerned about someone breaking in, they were concerned with ensuring something couldn’t escape. All of their attention was focused inward.

  Sloppy. Very sloppy.

  Creeping forward, he located the driveway. Then, sticking with the cover of the forest, he began to move parallel to it, following it toward the house.

  The muted glow of lights gave him plenty of notice that he was getting close. He slowed his pace, listening again for any signs of a patrol, a vehicle, anything. There was still silence, which was hard to understand. By now he should have encountered something.

  The house itself didn’t seem anything special. The driveway widened slightly, and it ended not long after, with a garage on the left and the house itself on the right. The garage had three doors, and he couldn’t see any sort of enclosed path between it and the house. Either they were not joined, or it was buried underground.

  The house itself was a simple two-story affair. There was a mixture of wood and other materials used to face it. The second story looked like it had a balcony that surrounded the entire level. The upper half was composed mostly of glass, giving Raphael a look into what appeared to be a computer room of some sort that occupied most of the entire level.

  Security room, perhaps?

  He waited for half an hour, but there was no movement. For all he could tell, nobody was home.

  “Screw this,” he said angrily, deciding to move forward with his plan. He stood up.

  And just as quickly dropped back down out of sight as a set of headlights appeared down the road. A moment later a black mid-sized SUV pulled to a halt in front of one of the garage doors. It waited for the door to roll open, and then drove inside. A moment later two large men, shifters if he was any judge, emerged from a side door and went into the house.

  As they did, lights began to appear on the lower floor, and several minutes later one of them appeared upstairs. It looked like he was checking computer screens, and Raphael waited for him to react in alarm when he was spotted. But the tall gray-haired man shrugged and turned away, heading deeper into the house.

  “Only two men to hold a shifter?” Raphael had a feeling something was amiss.

  Moving around the side of the house, he looked in every window, but every indication was that there were only two of them present.

  Cursing silently, he moved back around to the front door. Taking a deep breath, he opened it. There was a beeping sound, like that of a home alarm when the door is opened. It was loud for a second, then stopped.

  They left it unlocked?

  He panicked, wondering if it was all an elaborate trap to catch him. But nothing happened except for a voice floating down the stairs he saw off to the right.

  “About fucking time you got back. What the hell took you so long Darryl?”

  Thinking fast, Raphael just grunted.

  “Fuck you too,” the voice came back. “Did you get it at least?”

  Grunt.

  He eased his way silently toward the stairs, risking a quick look up them. The voice was coming from somewhere up there, so he ascended them as quietly as he could, hoping to get the drop on the pair.

  Unfortunately, as soon as he got three-quarters of the way up he realized the entire room was open-concept, and that the other shifter was at the far end of the room. They locked gazes and the eyes of the guard went wide in disbelief as it dawned on him that whoever it was that had entered the house wasn’t Darryl.

  “Who the fuck are you?” he asked warily, rising from his seat.

  “New guy,” Raphael said gruffly. “Raph,” he introduced himself, extending his hand.

  “Nobody new gets assigned here,” the unknown guy said. “Rob, get in here. We have us an intruder.”

  Raphael sighed and dropped his shoulders in disappointment. “Why did you have to go and do that?” He had wanted to do things the easy way. Now he was likely going to have to do it the hard way.

  By then he had closed the distance with the other shifter.

  Heavy footsteps came from behind him, and he whirled to see the other shifter charging at him.

  Okay, the hard way then.

  The other shifter slowed as he got closer, taking a more wary approach to his attack.

  Definitely the hard way.

  The newcomer, now much closer to him than his original target, danced back and forth, showing some rudimentary knowledge of close combat skills. Unfortunately for him, Raphael was considered an elite combat shifter.

  He swayed in time with the other shifter’s adjustment of his weight from foot to foot, learning the rhythm. Once he had it, he stopped his own movement for a split second. Then, without further warning he launched himself forward, attacking while his opponent was off-balance. The sudden movement seemed to have worked, and he watched as the other shifter stumbled, attempting to move to block the attack that was no longer there.

  Even as he pulled one punch, Raphael launched an elbow where he predicted his enemy’s head would be. It was painful to watch as the other man reacted like Raphael was pulling his marionette strings. His head moved exactly where he wanted it to, and the hard part of his forearm near the elbow connected solidly into the chin.

  Bone crunched as he followed through with his weight. Raphael wasn’t done. His right arm rebounded from the blow, but he simply rolled with the momentum and turned it into a left hook that buried his fist into a kidney. The other shifter cried out, spewing blood everywhere from his destroyed face as he doubled over.

  Raphael used a double-hammer fist against the back of his neck to drop him like a sack of potatoes. He cast a look at the second shifter, as if beckoning him to give it a try. The entire sequence of moves had taken perhaps three seconds.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Fear was evident in the way panicked eyes darted around the room, looking for escape.

  “Where is she?” Raphael snapped, crouching down to wipe blood from his arm onto the unconscious shifter’s shirt. The dull red stained the white and gray plaid material almost immediately.

  “Where is who?”

  Raphael swore. If the man was pretending to be confused, he deserved an award because it was the best acting he’d seen in a long time.

  “Luthor’s daughter,” he said firmly, stepping over the unmoving body as he approached the other man. It wouldn’t be long before the first shifter regained consciousness, and he wanted to be on his way by then.

  “I don’t know who you’re talking about!”

  “You’re lying,” Raphael said, recognizing the change in tone.

  “She’s not here.” The other man’s shoulders slumped in defeat and he refused to meet Raphael’s glare. “I don’t know where she is.”

  Raphael closed the distance. “You do work for Luthor though, don’t you?”

  He got a shaky nod.

  “What do you do here?”

  “We just guard the property,” the shifter was getting scared, his words coming out in a slurred rush.

  Raphael’s eyes narrowed. “What is all this then?” he asked, waving an arm at the room filled with computer equipment.

  He was less than a foot away now. The guard was shaking, his back against the wall.

  “All his data gets backed up here,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “We don’t do anythi
ng with it, just ensure that it’s backing up.”

  “Show me,” Raphael snapped, grabbing the man’s collar and throwing him at a nearby chair.

  The man punched some buttons, entered a few passwords, and then the console seemed to unlock itself, revealing folder after folder of information. He recognized several as being names of buildings or addresses. Luthor’s property network was far more expansive than he had expected.

  “You should never have worked for Luthor,” he said softly, his hands settling around the other shifter’s neck. He flexed his arms quickly, wrenching them to the side with his entire inhuman strength. Something snapped, and then the man fell limp in his arms.

  Raphael grimaced as he pushed the body from the chair. He hated killing, despite recognizing that it was often useful, especially in the shifter world. So much death, he thought, shaking his head.

  Across the room, the other shifter stirred. With a sigh, Raphael got up and proceeded to dispatch the already-injured guard.

  “I’m sorry you chose this path,” he said just before finishing the deed.

  He shuddered at the sound his actions produced, quickly moving back to the computer. There were so many folders. What the hell had Luthor been backing up? Something clicked in his mind at the mention of the deceased evil dragon shifter.

  “They didn’t know Luthor is dead.” Interesting. Raphael suspected that knowledge would have filtered out by now. He hadn’t mentioned that to Ferro, because they both knew that once Karlie’s captors found out, they would have no motivation to keep her alive. Raphael half-expected to find out that she was already dead by the time he arrived.

  Now, perhaps, there was a chance he would be able to get there in time. His vigor for the mission renewed, he began to look at the files once more. Clicking one at random, he opened one of the files it contained. It was video footage from what appeared to be a surveillance camera.