Releasing the Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Callaghan Clan Book 2) by Meredith Clarke, Ashlee Sinn

sedative. The kind used on large animals. I knew that from my days of working on my uncle’s ranch during the summer many years ago. God damn it. They drugged her! They drugged her and took her away from me. My mate. My other half.
    A roar escaped my lips as the gravity of the situation sunk in. With trembling muscles and my bear on the verge of appearing, I stomped out of the hotel, much to the displeased looks of the workers. When the fresh night air hit me, it helped clear my head—a tiny bit. My hands shook. My jaw hurt from grinding my teeth together so hard. I heard my phone crack under the pressure of my hand.
    My phone. Should I call someone. Change. Find her . My bear demanded. But just like a grizzly in the hotel wouldn’t go over well, a grizzly walking through the city wouldn’t get me very far either. The thoughts raced, no one idea outshining the rest and before I even knew it, I’d dialed Brandt.
    “Hello?” He’d answered on the first ring but I could tell from his gravelly voice that I’d woken him up.
    “They took her.”
    “Brennan? What…what time is it? What are you talking about?”
    “They fucking took Scarlett. She’s gone!”
    “Is this some kind of a joke?”
    Angry that he would even ask, I growled and screamed into the phone at the same time. I heard another crack and tried to rein myself in.
    “Brennan, calm down.” The alpha power in his voice forced my bear to submit. “Now, where are you? Tell me exactly what happened.”
    “We’re still in Anchorage.” After I told him what had occurred since I woke, he sucked in a long breath and took his time figuring out what the next step was.
    “I’m calling Major.”
    Not what I was expecting. “The tiger? Why?”
    Brandt said something to Emma before returning to the phone. “Because he’s in the city for his flight out in the morning and it will be more than four hours before any of us can get there. You can’t do this alone. You know that, right?”
    “Sure,” I grumbled.
    “Brennan,” the alpha voice was back. “I’m serious. Take Major as backup.”
    “Fine.” Brandt didn’t need to know that I had no intentions of working with a tiger shifter who helped get us into this mess in the first place.
    “Let him help.” When I sighed, Brandt continued. “I’ll tell him to meet you at the hotel. Don’t lose control, Brennan. Bo and I will be there as soon as we can.”
    “Thank you,” I said just as he was hanging up the phone. What should I do? Scarlett was in trouble. Sure, she was strong but she’d been drugged. There’s no way she’d be able to take care of herself without having her full abilities. And what if she turned? What if she changed in front of those humans? We’d be right back to where we were twenty-four hours ago and Scarlett wouldn’t be safe.
    “Fuck!” I screamed into the air. “Fuck!”
    “Hey man, is everything okay?” A trucker who’d just arrived at the hotel started to make his way toward me.
    I turned on him, teeth bared and a deep growl rumbling from my chest. He paled, raised his hands and practically tripped over himself trying to get inside. I almost chased. Both me and my bear wanting to take some action now. But I should wait and listen to Brandt’s orders. He was my alpha and he knew best. Right?
    No, fuck him.
    I spun on my heels and started to run into the night when a car door slammed shut and someone called out to me. It took him several times of shouting my name before it registered in my brain.
    “Brennan Callaghan,” the accented voice said. “Wait for me.”
    The tiger had arrived.
    I stopped, looked up into the sky, and cursed the world. Then I thought of Scarlett. My sweet, sweet Scarlett with that black hair and smoking hot body. My Scarlett who’d shared more with me in the last few days than anyone else in my lifetime. My mate.
    “Brennan?” Major asked, standing somewhere beside me, but not too close.
    “They took her,” I said.
    “I know, Brandt