Jade Crew: Captive Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 4) Read Free

discovered to be dealing drugs, and punishment had been meted out to those who deserved it. As Garrett had said, the remainder were now in a jail back at the Lionshead Mining Consortium main offices.
    “Who is going to lead them?” Darren asked.
    “That is a very good question,” Garrett replied. “I’m sure the Kedyns have someone in mind.”
    The Kedyns were twin brothers and gryphon-shifter owners of LMC. They oversaw everything that went on in Genesis Valley.
    “Well, I hope they find someone like you to do it,” Darren said, tilting his beer glass in Garrett’s direction.
    “Trust me,” Emma said dryly, “We don’t need anyone else like him. One is enough.”
    Darren laughed, glad for the humorous reprieve and the ability to change the subject.
    “One thing all this shit lately has led to,” Garrett said into the silence that followed, “is a nice lessening of tensions with the Emeralds.”
    “Speaking of which,” Emma said. “Hi Anna!”
    “Emma! I just heard the news. That’s so great. We need to talk!” Anna said as she approached, holding a small baby in her arms.
    “Oh dear,” Garrett said, looking away.
    “Get used to it Garrett. Soon enough she’s going to have a bouncing baby boy—or girl!—on her hip you know.”
    “Trust me, I know,” Garrett said with a laugh, shooing his mate away.
    “Come on Trestin,” Emma said, grabbing the somewhat more visibly-pregnant woman out of Cole’s arms. “If I’m having the talk, you may as well have it too.”
    The men all chuckled at the look of distress on not only Trestin’s face, but on Cole and Garrett’s as well.
    “I see what you mean,” Darren said as the women left, giving Garrett a knowing wink.
    “If these chairs weren’t so comfortable, I’d lean over there and throttle you,” Garrett growled. The assembled shifters all laughed.
    It felt good, Darren thought. The crew was all here, minus the troublemaker Evan, and things were just going smoothly for once. No drama, no attempts to hide tension between folks. There was just good, clean fun. The sort that he had seen the Emeralds having for some time, the type that he had desperately wanted to achieve with the Jade Crew.
    “Glad to see you’re all having fun.”
    Darren groaned inwardly as the mood suddenly died at the sound of the new voice. Suppressing the urge to snarl, he looked up at the figure who had come to stand behind Garrett’s chair.
    “What do you want, Nash?” Garrett said, not standing or turning around. Everyone heard the unspoken threat in his words. It had better be good, otherwise go the fuck away.
    “Just checking in on my favorite crew,” the senior liaison for the LMC said in a cheery voice full of nasty sarcasm.
    He had heard Garrett’s warning. He didn’t give a damn. The liaison was a human assigned to the mining crews for the express purpose of ensuring that they obeyed the rules and didn’t do anything that might harm the humans of Genesis Valley. Doing so would find a shifter instantly sentenced to be ended. Most of the liaisons were good people, like Emma, who was the Jade Crew’s liaison. Then there were the ones like Nash.
    “We’re all here. Now scram,” Garrett said, speaking for his crew.
    “You are? Funny, I only count six of you. I thought there were seven of you.”
    Darren bristled at the subtle insult to Garrett’s command ability, as well as the tone of voice, which made it clear that Nash wouldn’t be upset if there were one less Jade shifter to go around. He sat back in his chair at the small wave of Garrett’s hand. Nash knew perfectly well where Evan was; he was just taunting them because he could.
    “Can I see your invitation please?” Gwen had returned from showing someone else around the bar to confront Nash.
    “My what?” The liaison seemed genuinely confused.
    “This event is invite-only sir,” Gwen said, maintaining a perfect professionalism about her. “If you don’t have one, I’m going to have to