Read Online Promising Peter (Bad Boy Alphas) (Shrew & Company Book 6) by Holley Trent - Free Book Online Page B

stepped into a cold shower and washed away grime and guilt-inducing arousal.
    She was still on her side in the same spot he’d left her in when he stepped out of the bathroom in his towel.
    He knelt at the sofa side and laid the back of his hand on her cheek.
    Her eyelids fluttered open, and her body convulsed with a slight startle, and then her lids closed again.
    “Andrea?”
    “Hmm?” Her acknowledgement of his query came on a profound delay.
    “Are you well?”
    “Mmm.” Another delay.
    “We need breakfast. Will you come with me?”
    “Mmm.”
    She didn’t move. If anything, she relaxed even more into her repose.
    What’s wrong with her?
    Vigorously scrubbing the water from his hair with his towel, he found some jeans and underwear in his bag and stepped into them. He pulled on a T-shirt and clipped his knife sheath to his waistband. He put on socks and boots, and then inserted a gun into the holster he kept inside the right one. He stuffed his wallet into his pocket and returned to the sofa.
    “Andrea.”
    She gave no response at all.
    He dragged his tongue across her slightly parted lips, trying to trigger a reflex of any sort, but none came. She didn’t smell stressed at the moment. Her scent was neutral enough, which only meant she wasn’t having a nightmare.
    Raking a hand through his hair, he paced in front of the sofa for a minute, and then threw his hands up.
    Just go.
    Her not moving while he was gone wouldn’t have necessarily been a bad thing, seeing as how he wanted her to be there when he returned.
    There was a donut shop a couple of blocks away. Peter was there and back in fifteen minutes with large coffees, a dozen assorted donuts, and a couple of breakfast burritos he’d grabbed from a food truck during the return trip.
    He set everything on top of the table in the kitchen and held his breath as he returned to the sofa. She could have left while he was away.
    She hadn’t. She hadn’t moved a muscle. As pleased as he was that she hadn’t, her listlessness scared him. Born-Bears should have been easier to arouse, especially that time of year. Bears became slower and less focused during the winter, but it was spring. The sun was back with a vengeance, trying to make up for the sad days of January and February.
    He sat on the edge of the sofa in front of her and picked her up. Pressing his nose to the bend of her neck, he breathed in deeply, hoping to catch some note of what was wrong with her. If there was some illness building up, he could possibly discern a change in her scent. Some Bears did fall victim to healing sleeps, but he’d never heard of any of the Ridge Bears being affected by them. That evolutionary advantage—or dis advantage, depending on how he looked at it—seemed more typical of the Bears in Europe.
    Andrea smelled as she always did. Sweetly fragrant and fertile. She smelled right . The only thing out of place was his scent that had transferred to her. He liked finding his aroma on her. The scent wouldn’t stick until they’d mated. He knew that, but he liked the idea of marking her as his in some way—some way that repelled other Bears.
    That seemed a trifling consideration at the moment, though. He didn’t need to worry about other Bears taking a shine to her when she wasn’t even upright and paying attention.
    He put his lips to her ear and whispered, “My peach? I have breakfast.”
    She didn’t give him so much as a sigh.
    He laid her back down, fixed the covers, and paced a bit more.
    Pacing didn’t seem to be helping. If anything, the movement agitated him more. His inner bear was worked up again—agitated now, too, because something was wrong with his mate and Peter didn’t know how to fix her.
    Fix her, the bear said.
    “Okay, asshole,” Peter muttered. “Tell me how.”
    Naturally, the bear part of him had nothing useful to suggest.
    “Fuck.”
    He didn’t want to resort to Plan B, but he could admit when he didn’t know enough. He wasn’t