Jennifer Ashley - Bodyguard (Shifters Unbound)

Bodyguard

by Jennifer Ashley

Book 2.5 of

Shifters Unbound

Bodyguard

Copyright 2011 by Jennifer Ashley

All rights reserved.

Excerpt from Wild Cat copyright 2011

by Jennifer Ashley

Excerpt from Pride Mates copyright 2009,2010

by Jennifer Ashley

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoymentonly. All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used orreproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission fromthe author.

This book is a work of fiction. The names,characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer'simagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to beconstrued as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead,actual events, locales or organizations is entirelycoincidental.

Books in the Shifters Unbound Series

By Jennifer Ashley

Pride Mates

Primal Bonds

Bodyguard

Wild Cat

Fighting Cat (Spring 2012)

Mate Claimed (Oct 2012)

And more to come!

* * * * *

BodyGuard

Chapter One

The store's owner had short and sassy blackhair with a few red streaks, a compact but curvy body, and afine-lined tattoo peeking over the collar of her shirt. Her blueeyes right now were wide as she contemplated the gun barrel aimedacross the counter at her.

Ronan ducked his huge bulk back down behindthe aisle partition, where he'd been crouching to examinemerchandise on the bottom shelf. The robber hadn't noted Ronan,who'd come in to do some late-night shopping, almost hidden at theback of the SoCo novelty store. Ronan was willing to bet that thestore's owner, Elizabeth, didn't remember at the moment that he wasthere either.

It was just the three of them on this Fridaynight: Elizabeth, the robber with the gun, and Ronan, who startedmaking his way noiselessly toward the front counter. Ronan didn'tdare charge while the gun was almost against Elizabeth's nose--onewrong move, one sound, and Elizabeth was dead.

Wait for it.

The robber wasn't much more than a kid; maybetwenty as humans figured age. Would be still a cub if he wereShifter. Humans couldn't control their young, Ronan thought indisgust. He'd have taken down any cub that even contemplatedcarrying a gun, let alone robbing a store.

Elizabeth had her hands flat on the counter.Ronan smelled her fear but also her rage. This was one of the fewstores that allowed Shifters inside it, so Ronan knew a little bitabout her from the Shifters who regularly shopped here. The humanwoman Elizabeth Chapman owned this store and worked it with heryounger sister, Mabel. The store and the money in it were all theyhad.

Just stall him, sweetie. Don't do anythingstupid.

The man put a shoulder bag on the counter."Put the money in there. All of it."

"I only have about two hundred dollars."Elizabeth's voice was shaky, but Ronan heard the desperate edge toit. She was going to try to bluff him.

"I didn't ask you how much you had,bitch. I said put it in the bag. Then we'll check your safe."

Givehim the cash, Ronan willedsilently. Leadhim back here.

"I already made the night's deposits,"Elizabeth said.

"Don't lie to me, chica. I know whenyou make your deposits. I've been watching you. Now put the cash inthe bag."

Ronan sensed Elizabeth's pounding heart,scented her fear sharpening over the oily smell of the arrogantyoung man. The kid wasn't wearing a mask or keeping out of sight ofthe store's cameras. That meant he didn't care if Elizabeth wouldbe able to identify him later, which meant that either he wasoverconfident, or he meant to kill her and be long gone before anycops arrived.

Notgonna happen.

Ronan heard rustling as Elizabeth put thecash in the shoulder bag. "That's it," Elizabeth said. "See?"

"Open the damn safe."

"It isn't out here. It's in the back. In theoffice."

"So we go in the back."

Elizabeth made a little sound of pain, andRonan knew the man had grabbed her. His blood boiled, the Shifterin him wanting the kill, and he almost came up roaring. Notyet. Not yet. But the bastard would pay for hurting her.

Elizabeth and her robber went by the end ofthe aisle, the guy carrying his shoulder bag, his gun shoved intoElizabeth's side. The look on Elizabeth's face was blank, resigned.She thought she was about to die. She didn't look around at thefaint sound of Ronan shucking his jeans; never turned her head tospy him in the shadows, ready to shift. The robber kept his gazestraight ahead, focused on the office door and the potential moneybehind it.

Elizabeth fumbled with her keys, unlocked thedoor, and opened it. The lights were off. The robber shovedElizabeth inside in front of him and let go of her long enough toreach for the light switch.

That'smy cue.

Ronan shifted, and charged.

Elizabeth heard a small sound then felt arush of air as something huge barreled at her in deadly silence.She saw a giant face, a massive ruff of fur, an open maw, a collararound a gigantic neck, and wide dark eyes with murder in them.

The robber, a young man with black hair anddark eyes, still had his hand on the light switch. In the nextinstant, the doorframe and wall around it splintered, and therobber found himself knocked to the floor with a Kodiak bear on topof him.

Elizabeth scrambled to her desk, grabbed thepepper spray she kept in her drawer, and snatched her cell phoneout of her pocket at the same time. She turned around, but stopped,watching in shock as the young man struggled against all odds withthe colossal bear on her Victorian pile rug.

The robber's gun went off with a boomof noise. Elizabeth screamed. The bear roared, the sound shakingthe walls, and blood splattered to spray the floor.

The bear drew back a paw with six-inch clawsand backhanded the robber across the face. The guy's head rocked.Still he fought, and the bear struck again. This time, the youngman went limp, slumping to Elizabeth's rug in an ungainly heap.

The bear climbed to his feet, swung his greathead around, and fixed red-raged eyes on Elizabeth.

He was the biggest living creature Elizabethhad ever seen. On all fours, the bear stood about six feet tall atthe shoulder, which put his head well above Elizabeth's. His breathhuffed between immense and sharp teeth, his growls rumbling fromhis throat like thunder. His gaze still locked on hers, he took astep toward her on one massive paw.

Elizabeth brought her hand up, aimed the canof pepper spray at his face, and gave him a full dose.

The bear blinked, drew back, blinked again,sat down on his hind legs, and rocked his head all the way back.Then he sneezed.

The noise exploded into the room like a sonicboom, vibrating papers on the desk and rattling the Victorianprints on the walls in their prim and proper frames.

The bear rose on his hind legs again and keptrising, ten feet--twelve--fifteen, his bulk hunching to fit underthe low ceiling. At the same time, his immense body started toshrink. The bear's face contorted, muzzle shortening, as did, thankGod, his teeth.

In about thirty seconds the bear was gone,and a man stood in its place. The man was just as massive as thebear--at least seven feet tall, with chocolate brown hair buzzedshort, eyes as dark as the bear's, an almost square face with aonce-broken nose, and a chin and jaw dark with five o'clockshadow.

His arm bore a bloody gash where the bullethad whipped by it, but his body was muscle on top of muscle on topof muscle, not an ounce of fat that Elizabeth could see. AndElizabeth saw it all, because the man was stark naked. Except forthe Collar, which had shrunk to fit his human neck, the bear-manwore not a stitch.

He wiped his streaming eyes. "Shit, woman,"he said in a voice that brought down a trickle of ceiling tile dustto whiten his hair. "That