by T. S. Joyce
Gen was looking up at him as they walked, her delicately-arched, perfect dark eyebrows in the cutest fucking little frown he’d ever laid eyes on.
You okay? she asked.
Huh. He liked how she made him feel when she cared. She probably wouldn’t appreciate if he told her he was imagining ways to murder her ex, so he put his arm around her shoulders and gathered her close to his side instead. She liked when he touched her. She always softened against him. Good mate.
And fuck Ben for trying to lay down the law when it came to Greyson. The alpha had let everyone else pick their mate, and then balked when it came to him? It was bullshit. Just because their pairing was arranged didn’t mean it couldn’t be something worthwhile.
Gen nuzzled her soft cheek against his chest as they walked, and it did something strange to his heart and his dick at the same time. Hard dick, soft heart. She was so damn easy to be around. Not just because she was beautiful, sweet, and interesting. But her being deaf? That was never a deal breaker. Sure, he’d been shocked at first, but he was quiet naturally and didn’t need a woman who filled silence with empty words. He would never wish the disability on Gen, but she suited him just fine the way she was. Hearing impaired or not, it didn’t matter to him. He would just learn how to talk her language, and that would be that.
The second they walked in through the door of the restaurant, he smelled the lions. Fuck. Seth, the new alpha of the Cold Mountain Pride, and Abel, his Second, were sitting at a table in the corner, staring at him. The second Seth’s eyes slid to Gen, Greyson wanted to shove a fork in his eye.
He was completely distracted by the staring contest with those assholes as he followed Gen and a waitress to a table on the opposite side of the restaurant.
He had to rush to pull out Gen’s chair before she sat down because he was in his own little world of wondering what the hell he was going to do about the pride. He needed to get his head back on Gen so he didn’t hurt her feelings. She was more sensitive than him.
She started texting the second after the waitress got their drink orders.
Lions?
Smart girl, she had been watching through the window of the laundromat as he’d argued with the leaders of the pride.
He nodded and clasped his hands in front of his chin, debating on what to tell her. We are on the verge of war, he mouthed. No sound because Gen didn’t need it, plus he didn’t want the lions with their oversensitive hearing to catch wind of this conversation.
He texted her, explaining something he hadn’t even told Ben or the others in Red Havoc. We’ve been going back and forth with these battles. They’re pushing into our territory, we’re defending it, their last alpha came after Kaylee and her son, and now he’s gone. Dead. There is a new alpha in the pride. When power shifts, it’s hard on a crew, and right in the middle of that, two of our cats went after them a couple weeks ago. We got in a scuffle that should’ve never happened. It’s their move now. I’ve been trying to slow the retaliation down without my crew knowing. The more people who get involved, the worse it is. I can’t avoid war if I have Barret and Anson and Jaxon and even Ben pushing the pride to the edge. Send.
She texted back, You’re like the Red Havoc Guardian, but no one knows.
He huffed a breath and shrugged. I guess. I’ve done quiet stuff like this since Ben let me in. Stopped battles from happening before they became an issue. The others are too loud. Too ready to fight. Too reckless. I want to keep the crew together, and safe. Send.
Because you were kicked out of your crew when your dad went to prison?
He nodded. I do best in a crew, and I like Red Havoc. They get on my damn nerves most of the time, but they’re mine. Mine to protect. God, he wanted to tell her she was his to protect, but it was too soon. He didn’t want her to run if she saw how protective he already was over her. If Gen had been under a big domineering silverback in that family group and hurt by that, he didn’t want her to lump him in with that kind of man. He wanted to be better for her. So instead of saying that, he typed out, After I was kicked out at seventeen, the loneliness made my panther hard to manage. I don’t want to go back to that, and no one else is going to take me in but Ben. Shifter memory is long, and no one has forgotten my dad getting that crew outed and forced to publicly register. No one forgot the video of him Changing in the middle of a bar parking lot and killing the alpha of our crew. He messed up, and it’ll follow me for always. I’m okay with that, so long as I have a place in a crew. Send.
After reading, Gen sighed and cocked her head. Then she texted him, What if I get you kicked out of Red Havoc? I don’t want that.
“You won’t,” he murmured, forming his words carefully. “Ben will have to just accept us eventually. Let me worry about him, okay?”
She still looked worried, so he brushed his work boots against her knee-high fashion boots under the table. So fucking pretty, looking all worried that she would get him banished from his crew. She was a protector just like him. A guardian. It was natural for her. He loved that about her. For the rest of his life he would never forget her charging into that fight with Ben, her powerful, black-furred arms punching the ground with every deliberate stride, her eyes blazing an inhuman silver, her smooth black lips curled back to expose long, curved canines that rivaled big cat shifters. So fucking dangerous. Powerful. Gorgeous. His.
“You’re easy to talk to. I feel like I can confess things to you that I don’t to other people.”
You’re quiet?
“Red Havoc bitches about it all the time, me being quiet. I just don’t talk if I don’t have something important to say. I think actions speak louder than words. I keep them safe quietly. I’m good with not talking.”
Her full lips mouthed words as she typed the next text into her phone. She probably didn’t even realize she was doing it. He wished he could hear her voice. Her laugh was different from any he’d heard, but it was perfect. It made him proud when he could make her smile like that and lose her self-consciousness.
His phone chirped with her message, and he read it. I like that you talk to me.
He inhaled deeply as the waitress set their drinks and food on the table between them. It was one of those old-fashioned family-style joints that only served fried chicken, mashed potatoes, biscuits, and corn. Gen started filling up her plate while he typed the next message. It was a long one.
The pride came to me a week ago, pressuring me to cut them in on our moonshine business. They want the profit. Not only that, but they want us to make bigger batches and expand territory so they have a big income coming in. They would assume none of the risk though. Red Havoc would. Right now, we make smaller batches and sell it to regulars. Locals. I know all of our customers and keep our risk of getting caught low, but the pride will get us caught, arrested, and human law won’t go lenient on us. Making more means more illegal profit. We can’t get caught doing huge batches or human law enforcement would use us as an example. I think the lions want that. They’re playing the money angle, but there are only four males in the pride right now, and Red Havoc has been growing with females that could fucking annihilate them, even without the boys. Their only play if they want our territory is to use the humans to cut us out of the Appalachian Mountains.
By the time he hit send, Gen was handing him a full plate she’d made up for him. She didn’t look for thanks or anything, just went to unwrapping her silverware. It made him grin. She was so much more comfortable with him now than she was even yesterday. He loved it.
It took her a while to read his text, and when she finally finished, she mouthed, What will you do about the lions?
Gen watched his lips, so he mouthed the answer. I don’t know. I’m stalling as much as I can. We can’t up moonshine production without getting bad attention. They’re threatening war, but right now, I’m banking on them being too small a pride to really come after us. It would be a stupid move on their part. We have a crew of monsters.
Gen texted a quick response and star
ted cutting her chicken off the bone like a girl with manners. Cute. He was going to eat like an animal and see if she ran. Test. She made him want to test if she would stick around when things went to shit, because they would. If it wasn’t war with the Cold Mountain Pride, they still had a Dunn lion cub, Bentley, whose massive and violent Dunn relatives would come for him someday. And then there was Eden, Barret’s mate. She was an albino falcon. Eventually her people would come for her too, and Red Havoc would go to war to defend its own. He could understand Ben not wanting to bring in a female gorilla shifter on the run. He understood, but it didn’t change his mind. She had a place at Grey’s side if she wanted it. If she passed his tests. If she stuck around even through the hell that would come for the Red Havoc Crew.
The little blue light on his phone was blinking, letting him know her message was waiting for him to read, so he did. You could kill the lions. Problem solved.
For a moment, he thought she was joking, but as he stared at her, she just kept cutting up her food and eating, like she saw nothing wrong with making the problem disappear by way of death. He was going to have to do more research on gorillas. They were even more reclusive than panthers and hard to find information on. He was starting to think they lived by different rules than other shifter crews. More violent ones perhaps. And now he had the feeling that if he could get her to bond to him, Gen would be a true ride-or-die mate. No wonder she hadn’t been scared off by his confession that his father was in prison. She didn’t seem like the type of woman scared easily by inner demons. The more he got to know her, the more interesting she became. And now his inner panther was practically staring at her like a trained seal waiting for a fish. If he was good to her, she rewarded him with little insights to herself.
Sean had no idea what he’d let go, the dumbass.
As he watched Gen eat her food, Grey thought there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do to keep her safe and happy. Too soon? Fuck it. That’s the way he’d always hoped it would work when he found a mate.
She was his now, and that was that. He just needed to convince her they were a match, and then he was going to burn her other two Bangaboarlander option sheets to ashes.
Chapter Ten
Gen pulled up in front of 1010 to find Greyson had beat her there and was sitting on the bottom stair of the small porch of the trailer. In his fingers, he twirled a little white oxeye daisy flower, and the butterflies in her stomach fluttered on.
She parked on the weeds and gave him a little wave as she turned off her Mustang. Grey smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Uh oh. What had she done wrong? They’d had a great lunch date, made out in the alley, and he’d talked with her for half an hour at her car before they’d parted to drive back to Red Havoc territory. What had changed from thirty minutes ago to now?
She pulled her laundry out of the passenger’s seat and made her way across the ankle-high grass to him.
“Nothing’s wrong. I just…” Grey gave his attention to a pair of panthers walking the tree line side-by-side. His eyes were a muddy cross between blue and gold when he arced his gaze back to her. “I was offered a full-time manager position at Jessie’s a couple of weeks back. I put off the decision because it will have me working almost every night, and I have to run the moonshine deliveries. I didn’t have any reason to pile on more work before…but now things are different.”
Why different? she mouthed.
“Because we have to start rebuilding your savings for your cochlear implant, Gen. What Sean did? It was sooo fucked up. But you still deserve the surgery if you want it. All I want to do is spend every second with you that I can, but I’m gonna take the job and I’m gonna up our moonshine production so I can bring even more in. Fuck the lions. This has nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with you. I’m sorry if it’s too soon to talk like this, but it’s how I feel. How my panther feels. I want to help you, take care of you, and keep you… It’s an instinct…and I need to start bringing in more income because, someday, I want you to hear my voice. Mine first. I know that’s selfish, but I don’t give a fuck. I want you to hear me when I tell you how pretty I think you look, how valuable you are. And how kind, sweet, and strong you are.”
Gen’s face crumpled and her eyes burned. His offer meant more than anything in the world to her. This was the moment she chose him. Ben was kicking her out, but she would simply have to find a way to stay here with Grey. With her Grey. She reached into her purse as a tear streaked down her cheek and handed him the other Bangaboarlander matches.
Without a single second of hesitation, Grey ripped the pages to tiny pieces and left them in a pile on the bottom stair. And then he stood, handed her the little white flower, and took the bag of folded laundry. He was trading her, giving her something small and meaningful in exchange for the burden of the weight. How symbolic. How very Greyson—giving her something beautiful but taking the weight from her to put it onto himself.
Her inner gorilla was utterly stunned, and smitten. And possessive. Greyson had Gen’s attention like no man had ever managed. He was a good-to-his-core man, and she wanted to keep him, too.
He led her into 1010. She didn’t flip the light switch on because she didn’t have a pleasant conversation with him on her mind. No, she wanted more. She wanted to touch him. Wanted him to touch her, because deep down she knew they would be bonded completely if he buried himself inside of her. And she was so worked up from earlier in the alley already, she just wanted that and more. She wanted to feel again.
Grey dropped the laundry bag on the floor near the hallway and then rounded on her like he knew her intentions. Like he could feel her stalking him. His eyes blazed gold as he strode for her, and then his lips were on hers, crashing like a tsunami wave. It would’ve hurt if she wasn’t ready and wanting a little pain right now. Grey felt heavy, so heavy. Dominant, mature shifter, and how was he not an alpha? His intense, raw, primal dominance rivaled any silverback she’d met. She fucking loved the way he grabbed the hair at the nape of her neck and arched her head back to kiss her throat. Hard suck, then a lick and, oh my God, she was gone. She clutched his shirt with a gasp, then ripped it. Fuck the fabric, she needed to touch his skin. His chest rattled under her touch. Growl or purr, it didn’t matter, he was so fucking sexy all riled up like this. He backed her toward a table by the door and shoved off a key bowl. It shattered on the floor, but Grey only smiled against her lips and bit her bottom one in a delicious tease.
Bossy boy, she loved him taking control. He ripped her shirt like she had his and tossed it on the floor, yanked her hands back to his pecs, and pressed her touch there as he kissed her. He gripped her hips hard and lifted her up to sit on the edge of the table. God, she wished she could hear the noise he was making right now. It rattled the air, vibrating against her skin and driving her mad.
Feeling bold, she eased out of the kiss and bit his neck, softly, teasing, but hard enough to say without words, “This is mine.”
Grey jerked her hips into his so hard the legs of the table stuttered a few inches across the floor under her. She bit down as she spread her legs wider, creating a cradle he could fit into because she needed to feel his erection against her right now. He rolled his hips, and she met him, reveling in the sensation of him between her legs. His kisses were harder now, more desperate. His control was slipping, and she felt like a goddess. She felt like a vixen. Like she was beautiful. Greyson popped the button of her jeans and ripped them down her legs, kissing her so hard her lips throbbed. His gold eyes flashed with hunger as he stared down between her legs, and the smile on his lips turned devilish as he slid his hand to her sex and pushed two fingers inside her.
She curled her toes and arched back, gasping at how good it felt. He stroked his fingers into her slowly, torturing her until she cupped his hand and encouraged him to go faster. Grey lifted her hand and bit her right by the thumb. Punishment, but his smile was still there. It was feral, sure, but it was there, and it counted. He knew how to play, but she’d b
een close, so he got punishment too. She gripped the back of his head and pulled him to her breast. He unsnapped her bra in the back and pulled it smoothly from her arms, then sucked hard on her nipple. Holy hell she’d never wanted a man more than him. He knew exactly what she liked, knew exactly how to toe the line of pleasure and pain. His hand was rough on her one breast, massaging it as he paid attention to the other with his mouth. And then he sank to his knees suddenly and shoved her knees wider. Before she could balk, his mouth was on her sex, and his tongue was buried deep inside of her. She lost her damn mind. Gen could feel the vibration of her helpless moan in her chest, but didn’t care what she sounded like right now. There was no more control as his head bobbed between her thighs, as he licked her until she shook, until her belly quivered and her legs went numb. Until he built the fire in her center so hot she threw her head back and let go completely. Orgasm shattered her, blasting through her body from where his tongue was thrusting into her upward. So intense, and she was gripping his hair in desperation. She could feel him growling against her sensitive clit as he sucked.
And then he was on her. He was up, shoving his jeans down his hips, then an arm around her back as he yanked her toward him. He wasn’t gentle, and she didn’t want him to be. Grey rammed into her, filling her. God, he was so big. Thick and long, and she had to remind herself to relax so she could take all of him. The second thrust, he pushed into her all the way. He entwined his fingers with hers and pulled her arm behind her back, pressed it against her spine to keep her completely at his mercy, and she fucking loved this. Loved him in control, loved him teaching her what he liked. Oh, outside of intimacy, he held doors for her, gave her tiny flowers, and carried her things. But in the bedroom, he liked to be boss. Sexy Greyson. He made a really good boss.
He bucked harder and harder, his powerful hips thrusting as he pulled her against him. Her boobs were smashed against his impossibly strong chest. His lips and teeth were all over her mouth and neck. She was coming again. Again, again, it was happening again. Greyson! Fuck, she wished she could hear. Wished she could hear to scream his name, and hear the sexy grunts in his throat as he pummeled her. Another orgasm took her, and with her free hand, she raked her nails down his back. He arched for her and slammed into her again, throbbing deep inside of her, filling her with bursts of warmth. His dick pulsed over and over, and then slower until he was spent. They moved together until both of their releases faded completely.
