Ash Bear (Daughters of Beasts Book 3)

by T. S. Joyce

  “Uuuuum,” she drawled out as she rested her fingertips against the vent blasting warm air. “I like the music on the one-oh-eight-point-five station.”

  Grim hit the seek button on the radio until it settled on the station. A Youngbloodz song was playing its first chorus. She mouthed the lyrics and bobbed her head to the fast beat as she stared out the window at the snowy woods blurring by.

  Grim laughed, and it sounded surprised, so she looked over at him to try to understand. He took his eyes off the road long enough to look at her with a big what-the-hell grin, then back to the road, then back to her. Ash’s cheeks felt hot again, so she ducked her gaze and scrunched up her nose in embarrassment.

  “No, no, no, woman, sing it. Do you know the lyrics?”

  Ash nodded. “I have a good memory.”

  “Rap,” he demanded. Usually, if someone told her to do something so directly, she would wiggle away from it unless it was her dad, her boss, Audrey, or the Alpha she’d grown up with, Harrison. But Grim looked like he was impressed with her, so she whispered the next two lines of lyrics.

  “Do it louder.”

  She giggled and then inhaled deep. Then, at normal volume, she finished the verse, and when Grim joined her on the chorus, she cracked up through the first two lines. His voice was good for rap. Nice and gritty, and he seemed to have a good memory, too. She liked this. She liked this very much. So she lifted her voice and danced in her seat and sang every word of the rest of the song.

  “Who are you?” he asked, his smile lighting up his whole face.

  Well…no one had ever asked her that before, and it drew her up short. Who was she? “I’m Ash Bear, the daughter of Bash Bear, barbecue maker, bestie to Juno and Remi, under the protection of Damon Daye, and apparently Vyr Daye if the mostly-healed burn on your neck is anything to go by. I cook, rap, have blue hair and big curves, and like being happy. And I’m a bad talker, but I want to be better, so I keep trying.”

  “Listen to you, Ash. You talk fine with me. You can work on anything you want, but I don’t see a single thing wrong with the way you talk.”

  “Well, it’s different and easy with you,” she said softly.

  An old-school song came on the radio then. Grim and Ash both said, “Ooooooooh!” and then burst out laughing before they could catch the third line of the first verse.

  Grim danced in his seat with her, and he grinned so big when he hit a good lyric. Tattoos, huge muscles, and a mohawk spiked up just right, and he smelled like hot-guy cologne. Or deodorant. She couldn’t tell which. He was so, so, soooo pretty.

  Her heart pounded hard as they sang together. She didn’t care if she missed lyrics or mumbled through a line. She was having so much fun she didn’t even notice that Grim had taken a wrong turn and missed the road for the movie theater in Saratoga. She didn’t notice anything until he pulled into the parking lot of Sammy’s Bar. It was early, only 6:30, so the gravel parking lot was mostly empty. Only a few cars were parked on the side, and one of them was Layla’s, the owner of the bar.

  “I know you wanted to go to the movies,” Grim said, backing the car into a parking spot like he’d gotten a college degree in car reversing. “But I can’t do a theater. I know what I am and am not capable of, and being on a plane to get here was literally hell on my animals. Being in a crowded movie theater is a recipe for disaster. I would rather not traumatize you and every human in there for our first date.”

  “Oh.” He said date, he said date! Ash reached over and patted his thigh. “It’s okay Reaper and The Good. We can go to the bar instead. They have delicious chicken wings, four for a dollar tonight. We can eat like sixteen chickens’ worth and play more pool or something.”

  Grim put the SUV in park and relaxed back against the headrest, staring at her with pretty green eyes. The Good was bigger than Grim had said he was. “You’re an accepter, aren’t you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Doesn’t matter if I fail at something, you don’t pout or get disappointed in me. You just find something else to focus on.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like me.”

  “It’s a rare thing to find, Ash. In a good way. Most people would make me pay every time I fuck up, but I don’t think that’ll be how you handle hanging out with me. You’re gonna make it hard to hate myself, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, that definitely sounds like me.”

  He chuckled a warm sound that vibrated through her veins and landed in her chest. That’s maybe what joy sounded like. She wished she could bottle it up in a jar and keep it in her purse, listen to it when she got confused by people. It would make everything better.

  “I know it’s not a real theater, but I talked to Layla, and she’s letting me use the screen and projector equipment left over from Rhett’s concert.

  Wide-eyed, Ash looked behind them at Sammy’s Bar, and sure enough, the screen was still set up. It took up half the old brick wall.

  “I asked Juno what your favorite movie was,” Grim admitted, pushing the door open. He jogged around the front of the SUV and opened her door for her.

  “My favorite movie is Empire Records,” she murmured, completely stunned.

  Grim reached over her lap and unbuckled her, then stopped, his lips right near to hers. “I know. I got it from the store where I got the roses. And popcorn, the movie-theater-butter kind.” He leaned in and kissed her so gently she melted. That’s the only word that could describe her right now. She slipped her hands to his neck and moved her lips against his. Grim moaned softly, and that tiny noise lit every nerve ending in her body on fire. Oooh, she liked him. And he liked her. She could tell. “You really did all this for me?” she asked against his lips.

  She could taste his smile. He kissed her again, a soft peck, and then locked his arms against the edge of the seat and leveled her with brown eyes. For a moment, they were normal. It was just Ash and Joshua. Two people having their first big date, falling for each other, or at least that’s what it felt like when she kissed him. Like her stomach was dipping from a roller coaster ride. Grim was the loop-de-loop. And the loop-de-loop was her favorite part of roller coasters.

  “Come on,” he murmured, offering her his hand like a real gentleman. No one would’ve expected a man who looked like him to be a gentleman, but she knew better than to judge a book by its cover. He was a great book.

  She followed him to the rear of the SUV where he opened the back. As the door lifted slowly, it exposed a pile of blankets. The last row of seats had been folded down, making a place to sit.

  “I’m gonna pop the popcorn and grab us a drink,” he murmured, blowing frozen breath into his hands.

  “Will you tuck me in?” she asked.

  He canted his head, studying her for a second, and then nodded toward the blankets. “Get on in.”

  Ash crawled in the back, breathless and giggly and her cheeks all warm. From happiness, she supposed, like Grim said. She plopped her tooshie right up against the middle row of seats as her back rest and then enjoyed the butterflies as he covered her in blankets and tucked them all around her. He straightened her beanie, pressed his forehead against hers with a little growl in his throat, and sauntered off toward the projector. He fiddled with it for a few seconds. The previews started up on the screen, but she couldn’t take her eyes off his back as he jogged toward Sammy’s. Black shirt, dark jeans, scuffed-up tan work boots, and that raven-black hair. The thin layer of pristine white snow in the parking lot made him look so dark.

  She really, really liked him. It wasn’t just her either. Her inner bear sat right under her skin watching him, too. Mesmerized with him. Awed perhaps. Definitely taken with Grim. Even after the door closed behind him, she found it hard to pay attention to the previews playing on the wall of Sammy’s. Her attention stayed rivetted on the doorknob as she and her bear waited for Grim to come back. She didn’t much like being separated, even for buttery popcorn. A growl scratched up her throat. It’s okay bear. He’ll be back soon.

/>   And he was. Five minutes later, and he was cradling two cups of steaming hot chocolate against his ribs with one arm and a bowl of popcorn in the other.

  That was her man. Hot chocolate and popcorn and a smile just for her. And his soft brown human eyes. Her heart skipped a beat.

  The movie started just as he got to the SUV, and she pulled the edge of the blankets up for him. He got all situated and adjusted, right up next to her. How was a man this warm? Even for a shifter, he ran hot. He was like a six-foot-four, muscle-bound furnace. She wanted to do bad stuff with him, but snuggling was good for now.

  About ten minutes, half a bowl of popcorn, and her entire cup of hot chocolate later, something kinda cool happened. The sun was setting and the movie showed up better against the screen, and just as Grim slipped his arm around her shoulders, the door to Sammy’s opened. Ash gasped with surprise but also happiness. Her best friends were here. Remi and Juno piled out of Sammy’s with Kamp and Rhett following, both talking to each other too low for Ash to hear over the sound of the song from the music store scene. Remi looked back at the movie and then at the SUV. She squinted and then smiled really big as she waved. “Ash!”

  “Oh my gosh, is this what you guys meant by movie night?” Juno called, jogging with Remi toward them.

  “Fantastic,” Grim muttered, but he had a tiny smile pulling at the corners of his lips that said he wasn’t that mad the Rogue Pride Crew was crashing their date.

  “I’ll get the truck,” Kamp said, “that we had to borrow because some asshole stole the rental car.” He didn’t sound that mad, though, as he jogged toward an old Ford that looked like Tagan’s of the Ashe Crew.

  The sound of the engine reached them as Juno, Remi, and Rhett stomped snow off their boots near the SUV.

  “If you’re going to watch this with us, you have to shut the fuck up,” Grim muttered.

  He was so cute when he cursed.

  “Wait…” Rhett whispered, his eyes going round as a pea on a plate. “Did you just invite us to movie night?”

  “No,” Grim said, never taking his eyes from the screen.

  “But I think you did,” Rhett murmured. “I knew it would happen. I knew it all along.”

  “Shhhh!” Grim demanded.

  “We just became best friends,” Rhett said, stooping. He picked up a pair of snow-covered pebbles and handed one to Grim. “Put this in your pocket so you can remember this moment for always.”

  “Fuck. Off.” Grim grabbed the small rock and chucked it into the parking lot. He enlightened Rhett with, “You’re standing directly in the way. As usual.”

  Rhett canted his head and looked mushy. “I love you, too.”

  A ferocious growl vibrated Grim’s entire body as he dragged his bright gold gaze to Rhett, who suddenly looked like he’d sucked on a lemon. He took three deliberate steps to the side.

  After Kamp backed the borrowed truck right up next to the SUV, Juno ripped one of the thick blankets from their legs, grabbed a handful of popcorn, kissed Ash on the cheek with a loud smack, and then she and the others of Rogue Pride situated themselves in the back of the truck beside them.

  And that wasn’t the only cool thing that happened. A pair of headlights shone against the wall before another truck backed in on their other side. It was one of the humans in town, Davis Mauro. “Hey all. I just got off work and was driving by. Saw the movie playing. It’s a good one. Mind if I watch, too?”

  She thought Grim would say no, but he didn’t. He just nodded and went back to watching. Good Reaper being nice and quiet tonight. She slid her hand on top of his thigh under the covers as a reward, and it was the first time she heard Grim purr. She’d been wrong about his chuckle being what joy sounded like. It was this, his animal’s satisfied purr. Gooood, goooood Reaper.

  And they kept coming—the headlights. Headlights and cars, filling up the parking lot of Sammy’s one by one. Some people went inside, but most stayed right out here, watching the movie. Some got out of their cars and stood outside in heavy jackets, all paired up, talking low and laughing at the funny parts. It was hard to watch the movie because everyone seemed to be having so much fun.

  “This is the coolest night,” she whispered excitedly.

  Grim pulled her closer and looked around at the makeshift party. “It is? I was afraid your movie night was getting ruined.”

  “No! Look what you did, Grim.” She twisted in the seat so she could look out the front window at the cars filtering into the parking lot. “These people are coming here to spend time together and watch a movie. You gave the people in this town a fun night. Look! There’s some of the Gray Back Crew right there!” Willa’s fiery red hair and echoing laugh as she hung out the window of her truck and waved were impossible to miss.

  “And this is all a good thing?” he asked in a gravelly voice.

  Ash turned back around and snuggled closer into his ribs. “I like it very much.”

  “I talked to Vyr today,” he said suddenly in a soft voice.

  Ash checked his burns again on instinct. She brushed her fingertips across the raised pink marks that would probably look like nothing in a few days, thanks to his super-healing. No new burns so it must’ve been a civil talk.

  “He said I should be a better Alpha.”

  “Do you want to be? Better, I mean?”

  Grim shook his head and then sighed. “I never wanted to be an Alpha. I can barely keep my own shit together, but for better or worse, those idiots have stuck with me. I keep trying to kill them, and they keep surviving. Now I’m starting to think I’m stuck with them.”

  Grim was very cute when he was grumpy.

  “Well, you’re lucky then. They are like little love-barnacles on the tail of a beluga whale—”

  “Great white shark,” he corrected her.

  “Of a great white shark…and sometimes they say offensive stuff, but they smile when they call you names to let you know they really care. It’s good to have a Crew like that.”

  Grim gritted his teeth so hard his jaw twitched. And then he muttered, “Do you want to sit in the truck with them?”

  “Yes!”

  And as he gathered up their blankets and the popcorn, she poured out of the back like a ladle of gravy because one of her legs had fallen asleep. But she didn’t mind because tonight was amazing. Rogue Pride was calling to them and waving them over, and Grim was growling quietly, as if he didn’t mind that much.

  As he helped her onto the tailgate, she told him, “I’m really glad you aren’t a great white shark shifter because I’m not good at swimming…and sex would be very difficult…and our love story would be very short on account of me drowning.”

  Grim froze for a one-count, his hands gripping her hips as she sat on the edge of the truck. And then he let out a great echoing laugh.

  “Oh my God, that was awesome,” Rhett said from behind them.

  The others were laughing, too, and she didn’t really know what she’d said that was funny, but she did know one thing—every time Grim laughed or purred, he made her heart happier.

  They scrambled into the back of the truck. There wasn’t much room because the males in this Crew were silly amounts of gigantic, but she sat in Grim’s warm lap like Juno and Remi did with their mates. It was more comfortable for her butt cheeks. Plus, while they laughed at the movie and joked around with each other, Ash got to feel Grim’s glorious boner against her tailbone, and everything was finally, finally right with the world.

  She looked around at her friends that she’d missed so much. At their easy smiles and banter, at their mates who looked at the Remi and Juno like they were the stars and the moon and glitter and pizza rolls and all of the other best things in the world. Grim’s hand was resting lightly on her hip, his eyes sometimes green, sometimes gold, but mostly steady brown on her and her smile. Her favorite movie was playing in the background, and they were sharing the last of the popcorn like they were all old friends. The soft murmur of happy voices all around them was a
song for her soul. She’d been so lonely when Remi and Juno had left, but tonight, right now, she couldn’t even remember what loneliness felt like.

  This was magic and all made possible because Grim wanted to give her a special night.

  She should tell him her nice thoughts because even strong men should know when they’ve done something right.

  “Tonight is my favorite night of all nights, and it’s all because of you.”

  He looked surprised in a good way, and his eyes flashed that pretty green color for just a few moments. Then he pulled her close against his chest, leaned back against the metal of the truck bed, and murmured against her ear. “Mine, too. Because of you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The movie was through and the cars were starting to disappear from the parking lot in front of Sammy’s. Everyone seemed distracted, so maybe now was a good time.

  Over and over again, Grim had looked at that lone pebble that sat near the front sidewalk of the bar. Rhett had kept his, and Grim had this stupid urge to pocket the one he’d given him. Why? Because, apparently, he’d turned into a sentimental pussy cat. The Tarian Pride would kill him on principle if they ever found out how weak he was now.

  He tried to ignore it, but the damn pebble kept talking to him in Rhett’s voice.

  “Grim.”

  “Grimleton.”

  “Grimapotamus.”

  “Grimmy Grim Grim.”

  Stupid fucking rock.

  And stupid fucking Grim for being a legitimate psychopath who made up words for a rock in his least favorite friend’s voice.

  Rhett was a canker sore.

  But as much as he didn’t trust Vyr, the Red Dragon had made some fair points earlier. One of them being that he should maybe try to be a better Alpha. Or at the very least, let the Rogue Pride Crew in a little bit.

  So when everyone was distracted with gathering the blankets and the popcorn bowl, he strode over to the dumb pebble, stooped down to pick it up, and pocketed it as fast as he could.