Alpha Bear Detective: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant Read Free Book Online

very least, she seemed a little out of it. He’d be sure to stay until he knew she’d gotten in bed, just in case. He didn’t want her to faint and hit her head.
    *              *              *
    Maria was more exhausted than she’d ever been, but at the same time, she was so wired she didn’t think she’d be sleeping until Christmas. She could feel her pulse over her whole body, centered around the throbbing ache in her temples. Her eyes felt hot and gritty, but she couldn’t even imagine lying down and closing them with the tension still thrumming in her chest.
    Detective Hale let her into the house, and she followed him inside and looked cautiously around. It was small and simply furnished, but clean and neat, and it seemed like it would be a fine place to stay for a few days.
    “The bedrooms are through here.” Detective Hale led her down a short hall and showed her two rooms.
    Maria picked the smaller room, leaving Laura the master, so that she could have her own bathroom. The smaller room also had a desk in the corner, so she could work here if she had to.
    If she had to—“Will we be able to go back to the Capitol building?” she asked suddenly. “At least by Monday? We can’t just abandon Laura’s work.”
    “We’ll have to see how the case develops.” Detective Hale sounded cautious. “I’m sure we can figure something out.”
    That didn’t sound super-promising, but Maria let it go for now. “I’d appreciate it if I could at least get my laptop from my office,” she said instead. “Or if someone could bring it here.” There was only so much she could do with her cell phone.
    “We can make that happen,” the detective assured her. “For now, though, I’m sure you want to get some sleep.”
    Maria looked around the empty room, and back over her shoulder at the empty house. “I don’t think I can just yet.” She forced a laugh. “I’m definitely going to be extra-paranoid for the next few days. I might just wait until Laura gets home before I try to sleep.”
    Detective Hale frowned. “If you don’t want to be alone, I can stick around until then.”
    Please.
    But she couldn’t keep a police detective hanging around because she was scared of an empty house.
    So she made herself smile. “Oh, no—I don’t want to get in the way of your job! I’ll just start a game on my phone or something and I’ll probably be asleep in five minutes.”
    He checked his watch. “I’m off-shift in twenty minutes. It wouldn’t make any sense for me to drive all the way back to the station just to leave again, so I might as well stay here. And ensuring the safety of an important witness is part of my job.” His mouth quirked.
    “Well—” She hesitated. “All right.” She hadn’t been looking forward to the empty rooms around her after he left.
    Except now she was standing alone with him in a bedroom, and that was putting altogether the wrong idea into her mind about what they could do as a distraction…the bed suddenly seemed enormous, looming in her vision.
    “How about we go sit on the couch?” she offered weakly.
    “Of course,” he said, somehow making it not-awkward, and gestured: after you .
    They settled themselves on the living room couch, and Maria resigned herself to awkwardness again. “I don’t think I’ve said thank you yet, Detective,” she started. “You arrived just in time for Laura and me.”
    “I would’ve preferred a few minutes earlier, myself.” He shook his head ruefully. “And we’re not at the station anymore—you can call me Levi if you want.”
    “Levi,” she repeated. She wasn’t sure she should give up the artificial formality of Detective —it was a good way to remind herself that this man was doing his job and was not for hitting on.
    But who was she kidding—she wasn’t going to keep calling him by his title now. Who knew, maybe after this insane Humans Against Shifters thing was over, she and Levi could—
    No.