by T. S. Joyce
Winter burst out in a laugh, and even Logan, Rowan, and Kane chuckled. Beast stood against his wall with his arms crossed like he hated the world, and Dustin snapped his underwear back in place and argued that his dick was, “at least a bratwurst.”
Winter was rolling now. God, today had been exhausting and partly terrible, funny, and overwhelming. Her arm hurt, she was hungry, and she should be mad as a hornet at Logan for what he’d done, but mostly she was relieved. Tonight she was listening to werewolf dick-jokes instead of drowning out Lynn and Brody’s loud honeymoon fucking with music and the sound of her own crying.
Her giggles tapered off slowly. Maybe she was hysterical or emotionally exhausted, and this was the result. Whatever it was, the others were smiling, too, and she imagined it had been a long, hard day for all of them.
“This interview is done,” Kane muttered, his smile lingering. “Same thing I told the others—if Rowan and I are still interested, we’ll call you by ten in the morning. There’s a motel ten miles down the road you can stay in, or you can go all the way to Bryson City for rooms if you want.” The dragon jerked his chin toward the door and muttered, “Get out of my territory.”
And as they filtered out of the cabin, something settled inside of Winter. Maybe it was the sunset that cast the sky in such pretty colors, or the lush greenery around Kane’s land. Or maybe it was the chill she got when she brushed her knuckle over the lopsided house number, 1010. Or the sound of the others saying their farewells, or Logan’s lingering glance over his shoulder at her as he made his way to his battered truck.
She couldn’t put a finger on just one thing that made her feel so deeply comfortable in this moment, but down to her marrow, she knew this place was part of it.
And these people were important.
Chapter Ten
Winter felt better this morning than she had in a long time, which made no sense because she bore a new claw mark that still looked seven shades of awful. But whatever. The D-Team had already talked about it, along with Kane and Rowan, so what was the point of hiding it?
She’d actually brushed her hair today and piled it up on top of her head in a messy bun that, if she said so herself, looked cute with the actual make-up she’d applied and her aviator sunglasses.
The nerves were there, though, fluttering in her stomach like dry leaves in a stiff wind. As she laced up her boots over her skinny jeans, she checked the clock on the nightstand for the hundredth time this morning. It was 9:50, and still no call from the dragons.
What if she was out on the first round? Even with Ben vouching for her, what if she didn’t make the cut? Then she would have to go back to Red Havoc with her tail tucked between her legs and settle into a life she couldn’t imagine anymore. That, or she would have to search for another crew. But that put her hackles up because the dragons now knew the grit she’d gone through, and she really didn’t want to explain that to another alpha again. Plus…Logan.
With a sigh, she stood and made her way out of her small motel room.
Logan was sitting outside of his room a couple doors down, his knees drawn up, arms resting over them and his phone dangling from one hand. He slid her a glance and, to her shock, a little smile that disappeared almost immediately. But it had been there. It counted.
“You get a call yet?” she asked.
“No, you?”
Winter shook her head.
Dustin appeared between two cars with a massive sack in his hand. Grease stains at the bottom said whatever he’d brought was probably delicious. When the scent of Chinese food hit her nose, her stomach growled.
Without an invite, Dustin sat down next to Logan and started unloading little cartons of food from the bag. Beast was now making his way toward them from the other side of the motel parking lot, and Emma came out of a room about ten doors down.
Winter reached for a carton of noodles, but Dustin slapped her hand and said, “No,” sternly like she was a dog taking from the dinner table. “You still owe me money from yesterday’s failed food run.”
Winter pulled out a wadded twenty from her pocket and threw it at him. It bounced off his forehead, but he caught it neatly and said, “You can have one bite. Don’t give me mouth herpes.”
Winter rolled her eyes and grabbed a pair of chopsticks from the pile of condiments he’d upended onto the sidewalk. Emma didn’t even ask, just sat down and grabbed some fried rice. Beast sat on the curb a few doors down, glaring across the parking lot at another group of shifters from yesterday—the competition.
“Hey deaf girl,” one of them yelled. “You get a call yet?”
“She can’t hear you, dude,” one of his friends said. The A-Team cracked up. High fives were exchanged, but Emma ignored them and kept her eyes on her food.
“What if I yell louder?” the idiot called. The others snickered again. “No? No call then?”
Winter wanted to claw their smirking faces off.
“Keep talking,” Logan dared them. He smelled like fur.
“Okay. All six of us got calls an hour ago.” The boastful B-hole gave one of his friends a high five and then cupped his mouth. “Looks like the handicap squad didn’t make the cut.”
“False,” Dustin said nonchalantly. “I haven’t got my call yet, so they aren’t done with them. Kane’s just trying to scare me. I know I’m in so not all the calls have been made.”
Logan turned on his phone and glanced at the time that flashed on the screen. “You sure seem confident that Kane will call you back.”
“Oh, I know he will.”
“How?” Beast asked in a gravelly voice. Why were his eyes glowing gold like his animal was riled up? No one was even threatening him.
Around a bite of eggroll, Dustin said, “Because I have something he wants.”
“Blackmail?” Emma said. “Good luck with that angle. Kane’ll burn you for trying.”
Dustin snatched the carton of fried rice from her hands and glared at her, but Emma didn’t even miss a beat, just grabbed another container of food and started eating that.
Winter liked her. Human she might be, and a little differently abled with her hearing, but Emma didn’t take shit from anyone. Winter wanted to be more like her.
Beast’s phone dinged and, a moment later, the other four phones chirped with text message alerts.
Looking borderline terrifying, Beast glared back at them. “Rejection?” he asked in a gravelly voice.
“Should we all check at once?” Logan asked quietly.
Winter sighed, so disproportionately nervous to what she should’ve been. It was just a crew rejection, not the end of the world. A few days ago, she hadn’t even wanted to try for this crew. Why did everything feel so different now?
“One,” Dustin drawled out. Then he opened his text and pumped his fist. “I’m in, suckers.”
“I thought you were counting to three, asshole,” Winter muttered as she navigated to the right screen.
A group text came up titled D-Team.
This is your call-back. We’re doing more group interviews with the others over the next couple of days, but want to do something different with the D-Team. Horseback riding on Saturday. Smokemont Riding Stable at six and then dinner after. You guys were a hard no from Kane, but I’m pushing for you. Don’t make me regret this.
Rowan.
“Horseback riding?” Logan asked. “No horse is gonna sit under me.”
“Me, either,” Dustin said, eyes narrowed at the screen of his phone.
Beast grunted. If Winter spoke caveman, she would guess he agreed with the other guys.
“That’s the test, right?” Winter said. “To see if we can control our animals enough to ride a horse?” She was trying to stay positive, but the hard, cold fact was this was going to weed them out real quick.
Gesturing to the A-Team, Emma asked, “Why don’t they have to do this? I’m human, and I can feel the bad vibes when I’m around them. They’re all psychopaths like you guys.”
�
��Thanks for the judgment,” Dustin muttered as he shoveled another bite of noodles into his maw. “And what are you bitching about? You’re human. You’ll be fine on a horse.”
Emma shrugged. “Maybe I don’t want to be in a crew with the A-Team. A stands for asshole.”
Dustin froze, noodles hanging from his mouth to his chopsticks. “I knew it. I didn’t want this to happen, but you’re falling for me. Should we bang now? I like doggy style.”
“Screw you,” Emma said, swatting his chopsticks.
When a noodle snapped and smacked Dustin in the face, Winter laughed. “Okay, so the horseback thing will be hard, but it’s not a definite ‘no’ yet. At least we got a call-back.”
“You’re so positive,” Dustin said. “And you washed your hair today. Is that actual lip gloss you’re wearing? Winter, you don’t look like a hobo. Sex with our resident lunatic did you good.”
“Enough,” Logan growled.
“You don’t think she looks extra pretty today?” Dustin pushed. “She probably dressed up for you. Look, she even has your marks on display.”
Winter sat frozen and mortified as Logan looked over at her arm. He winced and refused to agree with Dustin. The flush in her cheeks reached the tips of her ears.
“Fail,” Dustin muttered. “I set you up nicely, man. All you had to do was call her pretty, and she would’ve let you put your worm in her slimy hole again. See if I help you get laid again.”
Emma scrunched her face up in disgust. “God, do you know anything about women?”
“Uh, I know everything about women,” Dustin said as a blob of fried rice fell out of his mouth.
Logan stood and made his way to his bashed-up truck.
“Where are you going?” Beast ground out as he passed.
Logan yanked the driver’s side door open and muttered, “To the stables. I have to figure out how to ride a horse.”
They all sat there frozen as Logan backed out of the parking spot. And just as he was about to pull away, he slammed on the brakes and rolled down his window. Leveling Winter with a bright-eyed look, he said, “Do you guys want to come?” in a snarly voice.
“I know Winter wants to come. Heyoooo,” Dustin said, raising his hand for a high five that Emma did not return.
Winter was trapped in Logan’s questioning gaze. He was so handsome in the morning light, so earnest in his invite, and even though he’d offered for everyone to come, it felt as if he was speaking directly to her.
Winter set her carton of food in the bag, stood, dusted off the seat of her pants, and then made her way to the truck.
“Shotgun!” Dustin called, scrambling to close lids and load up the food bag with the leftovers.
Fine with her. Winter got in the back seat with Emma, and to her shock, Beast opened the opposite door and climbed in the back with them. He took up damn near half the seat and barely got his seatbelt buckled.
So none of them were friends, and really, they were each other’s competition in a way. But this was a good idea. They knew the challenge coming, and if they could get a leg up and practice beforehand, maybe some of them would have a shot at staying.
Logan’s gaze drifted to her in the rearview, and she smiled. She couldn’t help herself. He made her feel all fluttery and happy, despite the chasm that yawned between them. He was a perfect distraction from her old life and intrigued her more than she was comfortable admitting. As they hit the main road, Emma rolled down the window and Beast cracked his knuckles like a barbarian. Dustin passed Winter’s half-eaten carton of food back to her as he chattered on about how much better he would be at riding horses than the rest of them.
Winter propped her feet up on the console and bobbed her head to the rock song Logan had turned on.
If she really thought about it, this was terrifying, being shoved in a small space with these people. The marks on her arm still throbbed, and the memory of Logan’s bear was still fresh. Beast felt like a maniac beside her, and Dustin’s wolf would no doubt be just as broken as the rest of their animals. But Winter’s alarm bells stayed silent, and her panther stayed calm inside of her—waiting and observing.
So they were the D-Team and a hard no from Kane, according to Rowan’s message. They had an icicle’s chance in hell at registering to the Blackwing Crew without the alpha backing them. At least they were still in the game, and at least they weren’t just sitting around the motel hoping to squeak by the next round. This was a proactive bunch of monsters.
And suddenly something struck her. Before Brody, Winter had kept her eyes on tiny bright sides. That’s how she’d survived, but somewhere along the way, she’d slipped into shadows and had lost sight of the positives. And now here she was, looking at the bright side again.
Winter gave a private smile. A few days out of Brody’s shadow, and she was beginning to feel like her old self again.
Logan met her eyes in the rearview again, then shocked her silly when he reached back, gripped her ankle in his giant hand, squeezed gently, and said, “You look real pretty today.”
Dustin went off on a pervy tirade, and Emma bumped her shoulder, but Winter couldn’t take her eyes from the slight flush of red that crept up Logan’s neck and landed in his cheek. He was embarrassed, but he’d said it anyway. He’d given her a compliment in front of everyone, and now her cheeks were heating, too, but not with embarrassment.
With pleasure.
Chapter Eleven
“This is a disaster,” Logan muttered from where he lay on his back in a pile of warm horse shit.
His mighty steed was running full-speed away from Logan like he was in a race for the back gate of the massive corral. Beast was trying to approach a horse that had pinned itself into a corner out of fear and was kicking its back legs. Dustin was hunched over, clutching his arm, which looked to be pulled from the socket while his paint horse was charging after Logan’s, and Winter was up on a bucking bronco, holding onto the saddle-horn for dear life while the handlers at Smokemont Riding Stables were trying to settle the beast.
Logan narrowed his eyes at Emma, who was prancing around the arena like a goddamned professional barrel racer.
They were all screwed but the human.
A pretty blond in sparkly-pocketed jeans and a plaid button-up shirt offered her hand. “Let me help you up.”
One, Logan didn’t want to take his eyes off Winter right now, and two, he didn’t much like touch. The mouse wouldn’t have been able to lift him up anyway, so he stood on his own and dusted dirt off his jeans. The back of his T-shirt was rank, so he peeled it off carefully, but then realized his mistake when Blondie looked at him as though she wanted to shove one-dollar bills down his underwear. Fuck, he forgot how horny humans got over nudity, and now he was feeling vulnerable. Not enough to put the crap-stained shirt back on, though.
Winter’s eyes flashed his way, and with a little scream, she dismounted. And by dismounted he meant she flung herself off the bucking horse and landed with cat-like grace on both feet. And now she was stomping his way like a sexy little hellion. Logan bit his lip against the accidental smile promising to wreck his face. If Winter’s smoky-eyed glare was anything to go by, Blondie better run.
“I don’t understand why the horses are actin’ like this,” she said to Winter as she approached. “We’ll get y’all a refund, and maybe you can try to come back another day when the horses are settled. Maybe there’s a snake slitherin’ around their stalls, rilin’ ’em up or somethin’.”
Winter’s smile didn’t reach her eyes but she was polite as hell. She parted her lips as if she would say something cordial, but a harsh hiss sounded from her. Eyes wide, Winter clapped her hand over her mouth as Logan belted out a surprised laugh.
“This isn’t funny!” Dustin called from where he leaned against the fence, all red-faced and sweaty. His arm was flopping around, obviously out of its socket, and now Beast was stalking him like a lion on an injured wildebeest. Shit.
Big old dominant shifters got some unf
ortunate instincts when they were around other injured predator shifters. Their animals wanted to attack. Hell, Logan was having trouble keeping his bear from ripping out of him and putting Dustin out of his misery right here in front of everyone. Too many human eyes on them, though, and he definitely didn’t want to die of old age in some shifter prison.
“’Scuse us,” he muttered, pulling Winter behind him. Hell, she seemed to be able to tame over-muscled, under-sexed dominants. She’d been working wonders on his bear all day and had kept him and Beast from murdering each other yesterday. She was basically a monster-whisperer.
Beast was getting closer to Dustin, walking faster, hands clawed up and eyes bright gold.
“Beast, stop!” Emma yelled from atop her bay horse.
Beast did not stop. In fact, he sped up as if he needed to attack before someone stopped him.
“No, no, no!” Dustin yelled, good arm out as he sidled down the fence.
Logan muttered a curse and sprinted to cut him off, was able to push him back and off-course but Beast was determined. For the effort, Logan got a fist to the freaking eye. Pain blasted through his skull, and he scrambled to hold onto Beast’s waist. Squinting out of his good eye, he could see Winter struggling to pop Dustin’s arm back into place. She was yelling at him to, “Stay still!” but Dustin was howling at the pain because Winter apparently didn’t have a gentle touch when she was panicked.
“Hurry,” Logan grunted, tackling Beast to the ground.
As he hit Beast across the jaw to try and rattle him out of his hunt, Emma sprinted by. Dustin was snarling too damn loud, and Winter was going to get bit. If Emma did, she’d be turned into a psychopath werewolf, so Logan barked out, “Emma, get back!”
She ignored him like a champ and held Dustin’s good shoulder. She gestured to Winter, walking her through some professional-sounding steps to get the arm back in the socket as if she’d done it a hundred times.
Almost done.
Beast slammed him into the dirt and whaled on him, but okay. This was better than him murdering Dustin in front of these humans.
