Connor and Kiran Artos are Mercs hired to rescue the partner of a top exec at HHR Industries,  an American business operating  in South America.
 
What their customer doesn’t realize is that they aren’t ordinary ex Special Forces Army Rangers.  They’re bear shifters and that makes them even better at their jobs.
 
What the brothers don’t realize is that they weren’t actually hired to save the partner.
 
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DARK AND DANGEROUS:
CLAN OF THE BEAR
By
Madelaine Montague
Chapter One
Stealth wasn’t exactly their strong suit.  Connor and Korin Artos were big men and under any circumstances that made it difficult to sneak up on an enemy.  In the South American jungle—where they were currently working—that difficulty was directly proportional to the thickness of the jungle growth they had to wade through.
For that reason, they tended to stick to jungle paths even when they might have made a more direct connection between point A and point B by making a new path through the undergrowth—because they could manage stealth a hell of a lot better.
And, exposed or not, it actually wasn’t a problem for them.
Their hearing was excellent—due entirely to their heritage.
They had no trouble hearing a human, however good they were at stealth, and smelling them, long before there was a problem, giving them plenty of time to leave the trail and melt into the jungle—either to launch a surprise attack or to preserve their covert approach.
They had another advantage over the predators generally to be found in the jungle.
They had been expertly trained in every form of warfare by the U.S. Government as Army Rangers before they’d struck off on their own as Mercs.
Being Mercs paid better, and they hadn’t been thrilled with the leash the Army kept them on.
They’d had enough of that in the old country before they’d migrated to the U.S.
Not that the government back home exerted any influence upon them at all—it was the fact that the only way they could ‘blend’ in the old country was to wear human skin.  There was no freedom to just be themselves.  Bears had been wiped out in the old country for over a thousand years and they didn’t dare appear—any member of the clan—in their own skin for fear they’d have the entire country up in arms and trying to track them down.
In all honesty, they—Connor and Korin—didn’t understand why any of the clan stayed—or were drawn back to the homeland wherever they might wander.
Well, there was the little matter of finding a mate, but since neither of them felt any great rush to settle with a single female and make little cubs in their image, they figured a trip home could wait a bit.
Connor, in the lead, glanced up at the sky to gauge the time as they neared a rushing brook—which they could hear just a short distance from the path—and signaled a break to Korin.
They’d been walking for hours and Korin was definitely not against it—regardless of the urgency of their task.
Because the bastard that had hired them had allowed a criminal amount of time to elapse before he’d even called them in.
He figured if they didn’t stop soon, though, the bastards were going to hear them coming from his growling stomach.  
When they’d found a spot near the water and settled, Connor dropped his pack, dug out a couple of trail bars and bit the first in half as he dragged his map out of his pocket to study it.
Korin took his canteen and Connor’s and refilled them at the brook and then returned and settled with his own protein bars.  
Lifting his head after a moment, Connor sniffed the air and turned his head slowly.
Thinking he must have noticed something Korin echoed his movements and then frowned, wondering if Connor was pulling one on him.  He didn’t hear or smell a damned thing.
“We should be catchin’ up with tha bastard any time now,” Connor said quietly when he was sure there was no one close enough to hear his voice.
It was one of the down sides to jungles or forests—whatever they were called.  They prevented line of sight, but they magnified sounds.
Korin frowned.  “Somethin’ about this doesna feel right ta me.”
“Ye always say that,” Connor muttered.  “It comes with tha job.”
Korin’s lips tightened.  “And I wouldna ken this?” he growled.  “I mean tha tale tha man wove fer us.”
Connor nodded.  “I dinna like tha smell of him, neither, if ya want tha truth of it.  I’m thinkin’ there’s a big lie there somewhere, but …. We’ll get paid.  If I have ta choke it out of tha son-of-a-bitch.”
“It ain’t tha money tha’s botherin’ me, Connor.”
Connor shook his head.  “He’d have nae reason ta set a trap fer us.”