Read Online Jade Crew: Captive Bear (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 4) by Amelia Jade - Free Book Online Page B

sullenly. He hated being reminded of what had been taken from him. “If it wasn’t for that, I would probably be a Stone Bear right now. I had the raw ability and the skills.” His hand smashed onto the bar top in anger.
    “I don’t understand your anger. You made a mistake, and you paid the price for it,” Ajax said as politely as possible.
    Anger flared through Darren’s eyes, but he fought it down. “The only mistake I made,” he growled, “was not carrying a camera around with me twenty-four-seven.”
    Ajax’s eyes widened.
    “Exactly,” he confirmed. “I didn’t do it. For a reason that I still haven’t been able to figure out over five years later, somebody framed me.” With a silent snarl he grabbed his drink and finished it in one gulp.
    Ferro, ever the present and understanding bartender, had a refill ready before he put the glass down. Darren grabbed that and tossed it back smoothly as well. Ferro was still pouring the next pint, but Darren was already running himself through several calming mind drills to help relax and dilute his temper.
    “Sorry,” he mumbled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had thoughts of that part of my life come up. I had thought I was past the judging and hatred, but apparently I was wrong.”
    His shoulders drooped as he remembered what life had been like when his name had been fresh in the news. Not that Origin had more than one newspaper and radio station, but it was so small that word traveled fast in town.
    “Why have you never told anyone about this? Surely if you are not to blame, there must be some way to prove it?” Ajax said, not willing to let this angle of conversation die just yet.
    “I wish Ajax. I wish. Trust me, I tried every angle I could think of at the time, but it didn’t help. Someone wanted me out of the Stone Bear training for good, and they didn’t take any chances.” He grimaced in distaste. “Thank you though.”
    Ajax nodded, and picking up on the tone of Darren’s voice, let the conversation die.
    “We’ll talk again soon,” he said with a knowing look, before getting up and returning to his crew, who had been calling his name for several minutes.
    Darren knew what that look meant. He was talking about the group Garrett had pulled together to try and figure out just what was going on in the Valley. Did he have something new to discuss? His earlier troubled thoughts evaporated as he began to focus his thoughts on the present. The past, as far as he was concerned, was the past.
    The sound of glass clinking against the new black slate coasters caught his attention. Dragging his eyes up from the spot he had been inspecting on the bar, he made eye contact with another man sitting near him.
    “Luthor,” he acknowledged politely.
    The other man simply stared at him with slow burning ire in his eyes before looking back at the drink in front of him.
    Ugh, Darren thought to himself, slowly returning his gaze back to the bar in front of him. That was odd . What the fuck did I do to him? He racked his brain, trying to come up with something he had done to earn Luthor’s ire, but he couldn’t come up with anything.
    The tall man with the bald head and short but full beard had appeared back before the Ridgebacks had been formed. Darren didn’t know his backstory, except that he was almost always present at the bar, and rarely said or did anything. Garrett had decided that he was another dragon shifter, possibly a relative of Ferro’s, but nobody seemed to know anything about him.
    Apparently, he wanted to keep it that way.
    He thought about outright asking Luthor about why he was here in town, but the doors opened behind him, letting in a gust of frozen wind and snow that caught his attention.
    The weather had gotten steadily worse since he had arrived, and there would be few people moving around on the roads by now. Darren felt his eyebrows hit the roof as he turned to see who was brave enough to venture out just for the admittedly