by T. S. Joyce
Kill her.
The Reaper’s whisper was a punch to his stomach. Ash was a hummingbird, and he could never protect something so fragile from himself. The Reaper would pluck off her wings just to watch her hurt. He couldn’t allow that. Grim would die before he broke this sweet bear.
He reached over and brushed a blue strand of hair from her cheek and away from her glowing eyes. And then he gave her another admission—the biggest one yet.
“You’ll be better off when I’m gone.”
Chapter Eight
Grim was hot.
Ash crossed her legs and leaned back against the pallets in the back of Moosey’s Bait and BBQ. It was break time, which meant staring-at-a-picture-of-Grim time.
She’d totally snuck a picture of him early this morning, out in the freezing cold, his bull onesie covering the bottom half of him, the top half unzipped and hanging off his muscly butt like it didn’t want to let go and, damn it all, she didn’t blame the costume. She’d never been jealous of fabric before, but she supposed there was a first time for everything.
The picture was him standing over the chopping block, ax raised in the air, six-pack flexed as he prepared to slam the blade into a log. His tattoos looked extra dark against his chilled, pale skin. And his arms were thick like tree trunks. She’d never felt like a small girl before, but around him, she felt like the size of a fire ant.
Just gonna zoom in a little…
Oh God, right where the zipper was opened, she could just make out a light happy trail. Why hadn’t he wanted more than a kiss last night? He was hard and she was wet, and they would’ve been good together. But he’d been content to just fall asleep beside her on top of the covers.
When she’d dropped him off at the hotel this morning, she’d gotten real sad because she had to say goodbye to him. The Rogue Pride Crew would all fly back to Oregon today, and her life would go back to being boring.
Her phone lit up with a message from the bangaboarlander site, but she did what she always did and swiped the notification banner up to make it disappear. She had better things to do, like stare at Grim’s rib muscles. Was that a real thing? Rib muscles? He looked like he had rib muscles.
Another message popped up from the site, and Ash glared at it. How dare whoever this was interrupt her Grim ogling?
In a huff, she opened it up to tell him thank you but no thank you, there will be no romance found here, but the user’s name was Joshua.
Ash’s eyes bugged out of her face and she nearly choked on her gum as she stood up in a rush. She opened the message.
I like your bio. It was very…enlightening.
Joshua
She didn’t even remember what her bio said. Juno had set it up years ago, so Ash exited the message and went to her profile page. It was an old picture of her with plain black hair like her dad’s. She was looking off to the side with a flustered smile on her face. She remembered when Juno took that picture. It was a big holiday party for all of Damon’s Mountains, and there were so many people there it had been uncomfortable for Ash. Everyone talked so fast sometimes, it was hard to keep up with their conversations. It was easiest if she was quiet and laughed when other people laughed. She hadn’t talked hardly at all that night. But her sweater was kind of pretty. Maybe that’s why Juno picked that picture to post. For her purple sweater. Purple was the color of grapes, and grapes were Ash’s very favorite snack.
“Ash!” Audrey called from inside. “Break’s over.”
Crap. Ash speed-read her bio, which was actually her reading super slow because she wasn’t very good at it.
I’m one of the good ones. Sweet, passionate, non-judgmental, double-D boobs, always up for a good time, soft-spoken. Pro-shifter interest only. Humans are okay. Must want a family. Must be good with animals. Must not be a douchebag. I work at Moosey’s BBQ therefore I’m every man’s dream. I can pour a beer with very little froth on top, and I always smell like meat.
Ash scrunched up her face and sniffed her shoulder. Did she?
Hobbies include: skinny-dipping…
What the heck?
Cooking the best damn food this side of the Mississippi, boning, and taking sexy lingerie pictures. I have great feet for those of you with fetishes. Likes butt stuff.
Dear God, had someone changed her profile? She didn’t remember any of this!
Also, this profile update is brought to you thanks to Juno Beck, because Ash is very good at hacking airline apps and almost got me fired. Payback is a biyotch.
There were two middle finger emojis and a gif of a girl twirling her wrist and taking a bow.
Ash’s bear growled. No wonder she was getting all these weird messages lately.
“Ash!” Audrey called.
All she wanted to do was stand in the freezer to cool her fiery cheeks and change this profile back to something not ridiculous, but Audrey, the mate of Ash’s Alpha, Harrison, took that moment to throw open the door. “Girl, you need to get in here. You have customers waiting.”
“What? But…Brandt is working still, isn’t he?”
Audrey was wearing a weird smile. “Best you get to the front counter quick.”
“O-okay.” Ash followed her boss past the refrigerator, down the hall, through the indoor barbecue pits, to her register.
And who should be standing there but Grim himself, wearing a tight black T-shirt, a blue and black flannel shirt, a gray beanie, and a bright smile that stopped Ash dead in her tracks. “Grim?”
The smile reached his eyes and made them crinkle at the corners. Pretty, pretty man. Her heart was trying to jump out of her throat, so she swallowed really hard to keep it inside of her.
“Hi,” she said, making her way to the register. She looked around to find Juno and Remi ordering food from Brandt at the register down the counter, but mostly they were staring at Grim with matching frowns and squinty eyes.
“You look pretty,” he murmured, his face turned away from his Crew, his eyes locked on Ash.
“Y-you also do that. Look pretty, I mean.” She huffed a breath because her lungs felt funny. Wringing her hands didn’t help, so she picked up a stack of paper menus and busied herself with straightening them. “I thought you had to go,” she murmured.
“Rhett decided to stay a few more days to record in the Beck Brother’s studio over at Sammy’s Bar. He told me to leave, but I think I’ll stick around. You know, to piss him off.”
“Oh. Oh, yes, pissing him off would be good.”
“Plus…I wanted to see you again.”
“Me?” she asked too loud.
Grim chuckled and cast a quick glance at his Crew. “You’re fun to be around.”
“I’m a great friend.” Heck yeah, she was going to sell herself! She wanted him to stay, too!
“Yeah, but fortunately her friend card is full,” Remi griped. “Stop looking at her like that, Grim. She’s not a steak.”
“Well, if she was, she would be a porterhouse,” Rhett said nonchalantly from where he was standing next to Juno, popping open a bag of Cheetos.
Juno elbowed her mate.
“Ow! What?” he asked, glaring at whatever look Juno was giving him.
The country crooner looked from his mate to Ash and back. “She’s grown. She can get whatever dick she wants to. If she wants to slum it with Grim, who are we to tell her no?”
“Rhett!” Remi yelled.
He hunched his shoulders at the shrillness. “Are you seriously being a cock blocker? Remington Novak, you’ve been bitching for three months about how Grim needs to get laid, and now you’re cock blocking him?”
“Laid by anyone other than my best friend!”
“There’s no laying,” Ash whispered, mortified.
“And furthermore,” Juno said, “Grim is a damn monster. Ash is innocent.”
“No, no, no, no,” Ash murmured a little louder, pressing her cold palms to her heated cheeks.
Grim snarled. “Says the girl who put that she likes butt stuff on Ash�
�s profile.”
“Don’t growl at her, man,” Rhett said, anger flashing in his eyes.
Oh no, they were definitely going to fight.
“Can we get through one fucking meal without a brawl?” Kamp asked from where he was pulling a beer bottle from a bin of ice.
“No!” Juno and Remi said in unison.
“I’m not innocent.” Ash’s cheeks were on fire. It felt like someone had doused her in kerosene and lit a dang match on her face. “I’m not,” she reiterated to Grim.
He was staring at her with an odd, intense expression, and his eyes were bright green, the brightest green she’d ever seen. Hello, The Good. He kept his eyes on her as he growled out, “You’re upsetting her.”
Ash didn’t understand. She was upsetting who?
Grim dragged a slow gaze to his Crew and said it again, much snarlier this time, “You’re upsetting Ash.”
“She’s fine,” Juno said.
“No, I’m not.” Ash’s eyes were burning. “I’m definitely not fine.”
“What’s happening?” asked a very human Brandt from where he was piling brisket onto plates for the Rogue Pride Crew.
“Nothing,” Remi and Juno said in unison again. They’d turned into twins or something, and Ash was getting mad. She didn’t even have an exact reason why. She just felt like the odd man out since they’d linked up in the same new crew and synced all their responses. She didn’t like this. Not at all.
“Yes. Yes, something is happening,” she said, glaring at the register because she was too submissive to look all the dominants in the eyes right now. “You aren’t listening to me. You never listen to me.”
“Who?” Remi asked.
“Both of you.”
The entire Crew went still and silent, and Remi and Juno now looked like twins with their eyes all round like that.
Ash took a long, shaky breath. “I’m not innocent. I know what I want, and it’s not some stranger-mate from bangaboarlander.” Her stupid voice was so quiet, and it shook like a leaf. It made her even madder. “I want to go out with Grim.” She dared a glance at him. “I want to go to the movies.”
“I’ll Change in a movie and probably maul seven people,” Grim muttered, but that wasn’t helpful so she ignored him.
She made her voice get stronger. “And I want extra butter on my popcorn. I’m going to wear the purple shirt from the picture, and I don’t want anyone to update my profile anymore. I haven’t taken any pictures in lingerie because I only own granny panties, and I don’t know if I like butt stuff!” She clenched her hands at her sides. “But if Grim likes butt stuff, I would try it. Because I’m not innocent. And he has a very good-looking dick. I think about it a lot.”
Grim’s dark eyebrows disappeared under the edge of his gray beanie.
“Uh, when did you see his dick?” Remi asked.
“Last night,” Grim responded. “And none of this is any of your business.”
“I feel like it is my business,” Rhett said, crunching on a Cheeto. “Serious question, Ash. If I gave you a measuring tape, would you measure his dick next time you see it because we have a bet going on, and I’m pretty sure mine is the longest and also the thickest, so I’m gonna need the numbers on length and also girth, and—”
“One more word, and I’ll kill you,” Grim deadpanned.
Rhett stopped talking immediately, zipped his lips, but then unzipped them, put another Cheeto in his mouth, and zipped it again, all while Grim stared at him with the most exhausted, slow-blinking expression Ash had ever seen. He was kind of cute when he was murdery.
“When does your shift end?” he asked.
“Um—”
“Four o’clock,” Audrey called from behind a smoker.
“But I’m not supposed to get off until six,” Ash argued.
“I’m letting you off early today,” Audrey said, giving Ash some serious look she didn’t understand. She waggled her eyebrows. This was like reading hieroglyphics. God, people were confusing.
“But—”
“Four o’clock!” Audrey declared and marched back toward the freezer.
Okaaaay. Brandt was going to have to cover her shift. She hoped he hadn’t made plans. “F-four o’clock, apparently,” Ash answered Grim.
“Good. I’ll pick you up from your place at five then. Is that enough time to get ready?”
“Y-yes. I don’t want to smell like meat.”
Grim chuckled and pushed off the counter, then sauntered toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Kamp called after him.
“I’m taking the rental car. You idiots can find your own way back to the hotel.”
“You’re a terrible Alpha!” Rhett called.
“Agreed,” Grim said without turning around. “And yet you keep calling me your Alpha.” He arched his eyebrows like they were all dumb and turned just in time to shove the exit door open and disappear outside.
Well, Ash didn’t want to say goodbye yet, so she bolted around the counter and right out the front door after him. He turned in the parking lot, his eyes bright gold, a grim set to his lips.
“I know we are friends, and friends aren’t supposed to just up and kiss other friends,” she blurted out breathlessly. She ran the last few steps that separated them and threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. She meant to do a peck-and-release move on him, but his arms went right to her hips, gripping her hard, and his lips moved against hers. The cold wind kicked up, and between the power of the oncoming storm and the power of the man who was wrapping his arms around her, she was overwhelmed.
When he slipped his tongue past her lips, she was shocked to stillness. Her skin was tingling with the wave of dominance pulsing through her. He snarled deep in his throat as he gripped the back of her neck and whooooaaah, no one had ever kissed her like this before. Over and over, he stroked his tongue inside of her mouth until she was a panting, melting mess splayed against him.
With a soft smack, he ended the kiss but held her in place with his strong hands. Good thing, too, because her legs totally buckled and she would’ve hit the pavement if he wasn’t holding her upright.
“I ain’t a good friend,” he growled through a devil-may-care smile. And then he leaned forward until his lips were right by her ear and whispered, “I fucking love the way you taste. Those are the code words.” For sex? He clamped his teeth onto her earlobe until she moaned and then released her to bare her own weight on two legs that didn’t want to work properly. He strode away like he knew he was king here.
And he was.
Holy balls, Ash was in trouble with that one. She grinned and swayed. Ash couldn’t even remember the last time her life was this exciting. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt like this about a boy. In fact, right now, watching him walk away, she couldn’t quite remember anything except how to breathe, and even that was questionable because she was huffing and puffing like a winded racehorse.
Maybe Juno and Remi were right. Maybe Ash was a little innocent. But with a teacher like Grim, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t stay that way for long.
Chapter Nine
The breeze was frigid and lifted chills on Grim’s forearms as he pulled on his pants.
He’d barely made it deep enough into the woods before he had to steer the SUV off the road and give the Reaper his body. The rental car was skidded sideways off the edge of some old logging road. He couldn’t remember exactly how to get back down the mountain. He’d taken so many turns, desperate to find wilderness big enough for the Reaper to hunt. His clothes were scattered on the ground where he’d haphazardly thrown them in his desperation to Change.
The Reaper snarled in his throat, and Grim seized suddenly. He staggered forward, almost went to his knees, but kept upright. Fuck. The demon in him was agitated, but hell if he knew what was wrong with him.
“You are a disaster.”
Grim looked up to find a tall red-haired man leaning against the rental Ford Expeditio
n. Vyr.
Grim didn’t even try to stifle the snarl in his throat. The Reaper didn’t like other dominant monsters this close. Grim balled his fists, ready.
Vyr’s eyes were bright blue and had long reptilian pupils. Dragons were fuckin’ creepy. The Red Dragon’s attention went to Grim’s fists and then to his neck. “Your burns healed well.”
“Fuck you for burning me.”
Vyr’s lip curled up, and for a split second, his calm and collected façade slipped into something monstrous. His face twisted with rage, but then—snap—he looked stoic again.
“What do you want, Vyr?”
“That’s a complicated question with a complicated answer. What do I want? For my people to be happy. What does my dragon want?” Vyr gave him an empty smile. “Everything.”
Grim sized him up. In a fist fight, he could take him, but that damn dragon pulsing waves of power off of Vyr was a big fuckin’ problem. Grim knelt by his discarded black T-shirt and pulled it over his head. Taking his eyes off the dragon for the split second the shirt covered his face dragged another snarl from the Reaper.
“The mountains my Crew lives in?” Vyr said softly. “Those are Vyr’s Mountains. The mountains you and Rogue Pride live in? Those are Vyr’s Mountains. Those aren’t the only two. My dragon is claiming territory, and he isn’t stopping like my father was able to do with his mountain range. Or Harper, or Kane, or Rowan. The Red Dragon wants it all. He wants the world.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I only choose mountains where I can put a Last Chance crew with a Last Chance Alpha, so I can do good in this world, too. That’s the compromise the man in me has made with the monster in me. I’m telling you so you know you aren’t alone.”
“I’m better off alone—”
“I remember when I thought that, too. I was full of bullshit back then. You want your inner monsters to steady out? You surround yourself with a small circle of good people. And you take care of them so you can earn their loyalty. You create a team of people who will care enough to stop you when you go off the rails. You let them bond to you, and you actually become their Alpha, not just the word. You accept the throne.” Vyr lifted his chin and looked down his straight nose at Grim. “Most importantly, you let a girl in. You pick her and give your monsters something sweet to take care of. You let her inside of you, Grim. And then she can feed your demons light without them even knowing they’re being poisoned.” Vyr swallowed hard. “Do you know why I gave you the mountains, the trailer park, and the job?”
