Black Market Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Genesis Valley Book 2) by Amelia Jade Read Free Book Online

him, I’ll be as quick as I can,” he promised.
    Arianna still looked unhappy, but he knew she understood and accepted it, even if she didn’t like it.
    Without thinking, he leaned in and gave her a hug, wrapping both his arms around her. “Be right back,” he whispered into her ear, and practically took off before he could stick around to see the fallout from what he had just done.
    What had he just done? Hugging her? Now is not the time for this. I need to focus.
    The two shifters saw him coming from a mile away. He was the biggest person in the club, even bigger than they were, and the crowd parted for him. They were standing on either side of some steps to an upper level. A VIP area, he decided. As he got closer, he noticed a set of stairs cleverly hidden in the corner. That must be the way upstairs.
    “Gentleman,” he said politely as he approached.
    “Sir,” the far one replied.
    Ajax focused his attention him. Training and experience had taught him, in a situation like this, the one who spoke up was also the one in charge.
    “Are you on the list?” the second shifter asked after a moment of silence.
    “No,” Ajax replied, “I don’t believe I am.”
    “Only those on the list get inside,” the first shifter said, speaking for the first time.
    Insecure in his authority. Interesting. He wondered if the man was just new, or was intimidated by Ajax. Straightening his spine, he loomed over the other man.
    “I don’t recall saying I wanted to go inside. Do you?” he asked, making it very clear that he felt the other party should keep quiet.
    The shifter fell silent, and Ajax turned his attention back to the first man.
    “Now, I actually came over here to talk to you two,” he explained. “I had a question about someone you might know.” His tone of voice told them he was referring to other shifters. Both spines straightened immediately. They weren’t idiots; they knew what he was referring to.
    “I’m looking for a Benjamin Martin.”
    “Benji? He hasn’t been here in a week,” the first shifter said, earning himself a glare from his friend.
    “So you know him?” Ajax asked, looking back and forth between the two.
    “Maybe we do, maybe we don’t,” the one in charge replied. “Who wants to know?”
    Ajax looked around. “I do,” he said simply. “A mutual friend of ours is concerned, and thinks something might have happened to him.”
    The second shifter stepped forward. “And you? What do you think?” he asked, not backing down from Ajax’s larger size.
    Tossing his shoulders to keep them loose, Ajax shuffled slightly to keep an equal distance between himself and both of the others. He wasn’t sure why asking after Benjamin had triggered this sort of response, but he wasn’t about to let the same thing happen to him that had happened to the other shifters. No two-bit security guards in a nightclub were going to get the better of him. He would never live down that reputation.
    In the background behind the shifters, he noticed a man sitting in a darkened section who was leaning forward intently, focused on the drama between him and the guards.
    “What about him?” he asked with a nod in the man’s direction. “Does he know what’s going on?”
    As if aware that he was suddenly the focus of the conversation, the shadow man stood up and walked away, disappearing into the back through an unmarked door. Ajax hadn’t been able to pick up any detail about him besides the fact that, like the guards, he was another shifter.
    “Hey, hold on a minute!” Ajax shouted, stepping forward to stop him. If he had been so interested in Ajax, he clearly knew something.
    The pair of shifters closed ranks in front of him, cutting him off from accessing the VIP area. He snarled in anger, scaring off a server who had been walking by with a plate of Jell-O shots in her hand.
    “Listen, fellas,” he said with fake camaraderie, “I just want to talk to him. See what he knows. I just want to find