Beck Bear (Daughters of Beasts Book 2)

by T. S. Joyce

  “No spanks, Novak.” He disappeared back inside his trailer.

  “There is beer involved, and Juno’s tits will be smashed against your back,” Remi said at normal volume.

  And like magic, Rhett reappeared and jogged down the stairs. “Like I was saying, I’d love to come play.”

  “Wait, what is happening with my tits?” Juno asked as she watched Remi dismount and let Rhett have her spot.

  “Your tits, my back,” Rhett said, revving the four-wheeler and waggling his eyebrows. “Smash ’em.”

  While Remi was crawling onto the back of Kamp’s four-wheeler, he was cracking up, discouraging her to, “Stop eating Juno’s hot dogs.” And, indeed, her best friend in the whole wide world was inhaling Juno’s dinner. Rude.

  Juno stomped over to her, yanked the one remaining un-maimed hotdog out of Remi’s hand, and angrily took a bite before she hoisted her leg over the back of Rhett’s four-wheeler.

  Rhett yanked the jacket out of her hands and tossed it up on the front porch.

  “Hey!” she exclaimed. “I’m cold.”

  “You’re a werebear,” Rhett muttered. “You’ll survive.”

  Seriously, he called them werebears, too? Ugh! “Dying, remember?” she growled against his ear.

  “Holy fuck, keep doing that, but whisper something sexier than ‘dying.’ That word is a boner-killer.”

  She leaned forward and purred, “Venereal disease.”

  “I don’t like this game, zero stars, do not recommend,” Rhett muttered.

  Remi leaned over and almost fell off Kamp’s ATV to hand Juno a flask. “This’ll warm you up!”

  Juno shook it gently. “It’s almost empty.”

  “Whoopsie.” Remi giggled and then cleared her throat primly. “Rules of the game—there are pink markers on the trees. Follow the markers to each checkpoint where there will be a puzzle. Before completing each puzzle and moving on to the next check point, we each must shotgun a beer.”

  “Fuck, yes,” Rhett said. “This is literally the only cool thing you two have ever done.”

  “Not polite,” Remi said, pointing to him. And then Kamp hit the throttle and spun out, spraying snow all over Rhett and Juno. Her cackling laughter echoed through the clearing as Rhett hit the gas. Juno yelped and barely got her arms around his waist before she fell off the back.

  “Hold on tight, but also drink that flask.”

  Her voice shook from all the bumps as she said, “Uh, pass. I’ll spill it on my sweater.”

  “So?”

  “It’s white.”

  “Make a stain, Juno! Make a memory!”

  And she got it. Smudge that perfect sweater and remember this night when she went to wash it. Or if the stain stayed, always remember it. Chest heaving with excitement, she said, “Okay! But keep it steady so I don’t choke!”

  “That’s what she said,” he called over his shoulder.

  Juno laughed into the flask and choked anyway. Dirty boy. When she recovered from coughing, she downed the rest, only spilling a few drops down her chin and onto her sweater, and then she tossed the flask on the ground just at the edge of the clearing before they hit the tree line. Rhett’s waist was taut like a Grecian statue. Boy had been doing his core workouts, yummy. And he smelled good. Sniff, sniff. Cologne. Maybe he really had made a cologne called Bad Decisions. His triceps were all flexed against his tight white thermal sweater. They both matched. White sweaters. So cute. Up ahead, she could see Kamp and Remi’s taillights. Rhett was good at driving and catching up fast. Juno gave a belly laugh when the wind whipped against her face.

  “God, you have a great laugh,” Rhett called out.

  “Aw, what a sweet complime—”

  “And great tits.”

  Juno rolled her eyes heavenward, but really, she was flattered. It had been a while since anyone had paid attention to those.

  “There’s a marker!” she yelled, pointing to the pink plastic ribbon tied around a tree. “And another way up there! See it?”

  “Yep, I see it. Good eye.” The little engine roared as he hit the throttle and took them into the woods.

  Juno squeaked and held on tighter as he wove in and out of trees, ten yards off the trail. They were neck and neck with Kamp and Remi now. Remi was still laughing like a psychopath and waving a half-eaten hotdog in one hand while holding on to her mate with the other.

  Juno was cracking up now, because how long had it been since she’d seen her friend like this? Since she’d seen Remi full of pure, undiluted joy? It was infectious.

  “Here we go,” Rhett murmured, kicking it into the next gear. He cut in and slid back onto the trail right in front of Kamp.

  Juno squeaked and expected to crash at any second, but when she eased her eyes open, they were passing a second pink marker, and up ahead was a lantern and a hand-painted sign that said Stop Here Asswipes. Lovely.

  Rhett hit the brakes hard, and they skidded to a stop. He jumped off just as Remi and Kamp slid to a halt beside them. Rhett held out his hand and helped Juno off, then they ran for the puzzle. He didn’t let go of her hand. He didn’t let go. She stared at their intertwined fingers as they ran, boots crunching in the snow, his big strong hand pressed against hers. So warm. So safe.

  There were beers sticking out of the snow. It was a redneck cooler, ha. When Rhett let her hand go to pick up two of them, there was a little moment of disappointment. She’d liked that connection.

  Rhett pulled a knife from his back pocket and flicked it open smoothly, as though he’d done it a hundred times before. And maybe he had. He tipped the first blue can on its side, cut a slice near the bottom, widened the hole with his thumb, and handed it to Juno. “Okay, you need to pull the tab at the same time you—”

  Juno popped the tab as she put her mouth on the hole and threw it back. She gulped until it was done, spilling some down her face, and for a second, Rhett stood there with his eyes wide, looking amazed. He brushed a thumb across her chin, tracking the movement with his eyes as he murmured, “You are the perfect woman.” And then he did something that shocked her into complete stillness.

  He kissed her.

  Just…leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, held for a three count before he brushed his tongue against her bottom lip and sucked gently. And for those few seconds, Juno just was. She just existed. No problems, no cares, no worries over her future, just lost in a kiss with a sexy man.

  He ended it all too soon. His hands gripped her waist and he eased back, looking as confused as a man could possibly look, eyebrows lowered over fiery blue eyes as he searched her face. “Temptress,” he murmured.

  Breath shaking, she wanted to whisper something profound that would bind his heart to hers, but all that came out was, “I shotgunned a beer.”

  Well, that broke the spell. Rhett laughed and released her waist. “Yeah, if you ever want this dick, just pull out the Bud Lights. Apparently, I’m that easy. Now stop distracting me. We need to win, and I can’t focus with your lips all pouty and cute and delicious looking.”

  “Ha! Your turn, hurry! Pop that top.” She glanced at Remi and Kamp, but if they’d witnessed their little smooch-fest, she couldn’t tell. They were already doing their puzzle, twin frowns on their faces as they stared at a pile of wooden shingles with numbers painted on them.

  Rhett shook his head hard as though trying to clear it, cut his can, and tipped it up, popping the top as he did. Beer spilled down his face like it had hers. She was grinning like a crazy person by the time he took his sleeve and wiped it across his chin, then tossed his empty can in the snow next to hers and tugged her toward the puzzle. It was a brain teaser with a pile of different numbers scattered in the snow and a sheet of directions. There was a wooden board with five empty rows, and they had to put five of the numbered pieces on each row that would add up to sixty-nine.

  “I’m really shitty at math,” Rhett muttered when they were finishing the second row.

  “I’m not!” The numbers clic
ked in her mind, and Juno pulled the remaining pieces from the pile and arranged them on the last three rows. “The fifteen goes on the end of that one!” she exclaimed, directing him. Remi and Kamp were at the same pace as them.

  “Wait, this isn’t really that fair,” Juno shouted as she and Rhett raced for the ATV. “Remi and Kamp arranged the puzzles!”

  “Nope! Grim did!” Remi called as she stumbled in the snow. She barely caught herself and then jogged toward her ATV.

  “Grim put this together?” Rhett asked, but his voice was so soft Juno thought he wasn’t really asking anyone in general. Just himself.

  “Is that weird?”

  “Grim doesn’t play games. Or socialize with us in general. Or do anything nice.”

  “Oh. Well, what does he do?”

  “Yell and kill things.”

  “Oooooh,” Juno said, disturbed at the description of this Crew’s Alpha. “Y’all are super fucked-up.”

  “Amen!” He hit the throttle and swerved in front of Kamp, hitting his bumper with the back end of their ATV. When he glanced back over his shoulder, he was grinning from ear to ear. And his smile was stunning. Perfect, straight, white teeth and those glowing blue eyes. The scruff on his chiseled jaw, muscular neck, hair all windblown…the stage lights and cameras hadn’t done this man justice. In real life, he was even better.

  By the third checkpoint, Juno was feeling the buzz from the drinks. She was giggling more and stumbling over the puzzles. Were they getting harder? Rhett was encouraging and supportive, telling her “Atta girl!” any time she helped their little team. On this one, it was cornhole, but they had to each throw in three beanbags in a row into the tiny holes on the boards before they could move on. She thought they would never get it because she kept throwing two in a row and missing the third. But they did and were somehow still neck-and-neck with Kamp and Remi. This was the last of the race, the final leg, so when Rhett hit the brakes and let Kamp pass them, she was confused.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked as he stopped on the trail.

  He pointed to a set of lion tracks in the snow. “We’re being hunted. Grim didn’t set this game up. The Reaper in him did.”

  Up ahead, Kamp had slowed to a stop and looked back at Rhett, a warning flashing in his gold and green eyes. Whatever they said with that look, Juno didn’t know, but Kamp turned his ATV around and murmured something low to Remi. Rhett pulled Juno’s hands tighter around his waist. “We’re gonna finish the race up to the trailer park, sound good?”

  “Wait, we aren’t finishing the game?”

  Rhett didn’t answer, and as he turned the ATV, the headlights caught a reflection of animal eyes off in the trees. “Shit,” he murmured, gunning the four-wheeler so fast she left her stomach back on the trail. “Hey Juno? If I stop this ATV, you and Remi finish the race.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, if me and Kamp get off the ATVs, you stay on and don’t look back. You just get to the trailer park.” He cast a tight smile over his shoulder. “You win for us, okay? Win or we’re at war again.” He was teasing, but his voice sounded so serious, and whatever he saw when he looked behind them furrowed his brow with a frown.

  And then she felt it. A wave of dominance, something big coming for them. She almost didn’t want to look back, almost didn’t want to know, but she thought to herself that imagining what was behind them would be way worse than actually seeing what was behind them.

  She was wrong.

  A massive, black-maned, scarred-up lion was charging them full speed and gaining on them. His face was snarled up with hatred, and his eyes glowed as yellow as the sun. His enormous paws and powerful, relentless stride catapulted him closer and closer to them.

  “Oh my gosh,” she whispered. “Is that Grim?”

  “No,” Rhett answered. “That’s the Reaper. Grim isn’t home tonight.”

  Rhett never let up on the throttle through the turns, he never slowed, and he stayed right on the tail of Kamp’s quad. It was like a dance. A terrifying dance where both ATVs skidded to the side on turns together, spraying snow, and straightened out in unison. The boys could ride. But Juno was on the back of the second one, which meant the Reaper was going to eat her first. She could hear him now, his paws hitting the snow, his breath, his snarl. So close, she didn’t want to turn around and see her death coming. Something was wrong with him. So very wrong. He felt off. Dominant and sick, but not physically ailing…more like head sick.

  “I need to Change,” she cried as she felt the first wisp of his breath on her back.

  Rhett tensed under her embrace and said, “Go home!”

  And then time slowed. Rhett leapt up in the air, arching his back, Changing mid-air above her, his glowing blue eyes locked on whatever horror was coming for them. She ducked as an enormous, snow-white lion exploded from him right in the middle of his graceful arch over her and screamed when he landed on the Reaper behind her with such force it blasted through her. Without Rhett at the handlebars, the quad slowed. She should Change and help him. Another lion with a tawny coat and sand-colored mane bolted past her stalling four-wheeler. Kamp.

  Juno lurched forward and grabbed the handlebars to keep it steady, and behind her, the sounds of a snarling, roaring lion war was deafening. They slapped and dragged their claws down each other’s bodies and sank their long teeth into their hides like they wanted to kill each other.

  “Juno!” Remi screamed. “Let’s go!”

  “But—”

  “No buts, the boys told us to go home. This is between them.” The sound of her engine ripped through the roaring of the lions.

  Juno hesitated a moment later, allowing the ATV to coast to a stop. She sat there stunned at the sheer aggression the fun-loving Rhett was capable of when the white lion took his body. He was every bit the size of Grim and layered with muscle, the striations showing with every powerful slap of his paw. His lips were pulled back over his impossibly long teeth. If ever violence had been poetic or graceful, it was here in the Rogue Pride Woods.

  The Reaper broke free of the battle, and his eyes locked on Juno. He was coming for her. With a yelp, she hit the throttle and fled behind Remi. Maybe she would have ignored the boys and Remi’s instruction and fight alongside them if she trusted her bear. But right now, she was sick, and when she’d Changed earlier, she’d only been confused and lost and didn’t remember most of her time in the woods. She couldn’t trust her animal to be of any help right now. All she could do was what Rhett and Remi told her to—run.

  The ride back to the trailer park was terrifying. Not for her own safety, but she kept remembering Rhett as he’d been the last seconds she’d seen him, clipping the Reaper’s legs out from under him and biting down on the monster’s back leg. He was trying to buy her time, but what would be the repercussions for him? Hurting his Alpha like that. He was fearless, but at what cost?

  By the time she pulled the ATV to a stop beside Remi in front of 1010, her heart felt like it would jump right out of her chest.

  “Why did he do that?” she punched out through ragged breath. “Why did Grim attack us?”

  “I told you,” Remi said in a sad voice. “The males here are all damaged. Grim is the most damaged of all. He has two lions. Grim and the Reaper. The Reaper is stronger, but he’s also a killer. They call this a last-chance Crew for a reason Juno. The Reaper is the main reason. Kamp and Rhett have to fight him, and someday soon, they’ll put him down. That’s the cost of settling in this Crew. We have a shot at happiness during the day, but we pay in blood at night.” Remi dismounted and shook her head, her eyes on the woods. “Welcome to my world.”

  Rhett had told her not to look back, but that was impossible to do. Inside, her bear was awake, eyes on the woods, worried.

  Remi sat on the porch of 1010. Juno wiped new snow off the bottom stair, sat on it, and leaned back against her friend’s knees.

  And together they waited for the lions to come home. Home. Juno huffed a soft breath.
She hadn’t called a place home in years. She travelled too much. But she was probably just thinking that way because Rhett had said, “Go home.”

  1010, Crew battles, fun drinking games, and everything did feel familiar—like back when she was growing up in the Ashe Crew. She’d had more fun tonight than she could remember having. Her sweater was probably ruined into a memory, like Rhett had said, and the toes of her gray fashion Uggs were splattered and stained darker from the melted snow on the tips.

  But, tonight, she’d felt alive.

  And for a split second, sitting here waiting on a man to come home, she imagined her life like this, if only she were able to continue living. To continue breathing. Beaston had told Kamp in that letter to be air for Remi. Be. Air.

  And deep inside of Juno, she wished for that, too.

  It was silly, she knew, but as she rested her fingertips on her lips where he’d kissed her, she wished for Rhett to be her air.

  Chapter Eight

  Fuckin’ Grim. Couldn’t help himself, could he? Couldn’t let them have one fun night without fuckin’ it up and bleeding everyone. And if he’d caught up to Juno? Rhett spat in the snow and wiped the seeping blood off his ribcage for the tenth time since he’d started his trek home. He had almost killed Grim tonight. Maybe that’s what that psychopath had wanted. To be put down. If he’d gotten a single claw in Juno…

  “Hey, wait up,” Kamp called, his voice echoing through the woods. His bootsteps were crunching in the snow behind him faster. There was the one benefit to being a lion shifter—they shredded all their clothes during a Change, but their paws slipped right out of their boots. “About the only thing I can keep,” Rhett grumbled.

  Rhett stomped his naked ass faster because Kamp was catching up and he didn’t want to talk to anyone right now. He just wanted to hike up to the trailer park and see if Juno was okay.

  “I saw you kiss her,” Kamp said, drawing up beside him.

  Look at the pair of them. Butt naked except for work boots, having a nice winter’s walk through the forest, both dripping blood. Juno was right. This Crew really was fucked up.