She was the most interesting person he’d ever met, and now this city shifter had all of his attention. He didn’t want to beg because it had to be her decision to come back but, fuck, he would sell his bones to have her here, just for a chance at…something.
She took the edge off everything, and he was addicted to the happy feeling and relief that washed through him when she was around.
Remington Novak was the most beautiful distraction he’d ever known.
And she was gone.
Everyone always left.
“Honey, I’m hoooome,” Rhett sang out as he crawled up the firewood processing machine.
“Fuck. Off,” Kamp called over the blaring country music.
“I come bearing gifts. Get it? Bear-ing gifts?”
“I have two hours before I’m quitting. If you have time to make up riddles, you have time to finish the shift with me.”
“Ew. No. Look, I made you a picture.” Rhett slapped it against the outside of Kamp’s window. It was a horribly drawn lion fucking a teddy bear.
“You’re sick, dude.”
“It’s the first picture of you two! Do you want me to hang it on your fridge?” Rhett waited with a big dumb grin on his face. “Yes?” He nodded. “Okay, I’ll put it on your fridge.”
“Stay out of my house!”
“Your house is my house!” Rhett called over his shoulder as he walked away.
“You’re saying it wrong. And don’t drink my beer!”
The asshole threw a middle finger over his shoulder and, for a moment, Kamp gave serious thought to chopping down the tree right next to Rhett and squishing him out of existence. So tempting.
First picture of them. A deep ache spread through his chest, and he cut the engine and hunched over the pain. He scrubbed his hands down his face. His body hurt. Three fights since Remi had left, and for what? They didn’t make him feel better. Not anymore. They didn’t steady him out like they used to. Fighting Grim just made him glitch and feel as if he needed to keep fighting, and fighting, and fighting until he didn’t feel anything anymore.
Pissed off at the world, he muttered a curse and shook his head. He hadn’t wanted something in so long. He hadn’t dared to crave attention from anyone, because look what happened? He would still be alone in the end.
Movement caught his attention at the edge of the tree line he was working. Grim stood there, battered to hell, claw marks all over his torso and arms, eyes bright gold, black Mohawk a mess. He twitched his chin for Kamp to get out of the processor.
Addict. That’s what the Reaper was. Fighting fed his demon. Last chance Crew, and the Alpha was the sickest of them all.
With a sigh, Kamp shoved the door open and hopped out, his boots squishing into the mud. “Again?” he asked.
“Always,” Grim rumbled in a deep, snarling voice.
“Why?”
“You don’t want the fight?” Grim asked, an empty, knowing smile spreading across his face. “I’m helping you out, Kamp.”
“By bleeding me?”
A long snarl rattled his throat, and he took two steps closer. “By letting you bleed me.”
“Maybe I should just kill you and take the Crew.”
Grim lifted his chin and looked down his nose at Kamp, eyes nothing but gold slits. “You think you and Rhett would be better off? You think you could run these mountains better?”
“Probably a pinecone could run this Crew better.”
“Then end it.”
Kamp frowned. “What?”
Grim’s nostrils flared as he inhaled. “End it already.” There was an order to his tone, one that urged Kamp’s instincts to obey. “Do it.”
Kamp shook his head and backed up. “Stop it, Grim.”
“Do it,” Grim said again, stalking forward. “Put me out of my misery. Fight to the death. You know you want it.”
Yes, his lion whispered. We want that.
“Grim, I said stop it! I’m not throwing an Alpha Challenge. We aren’t doing this. No one is going to die.”
“Yet.”
Kill him.
Kamp slapped the side of his head and shook it as hard as he could to get his animal to shut up.
Kill him and take the Crew. He wants you to.
“Stop fucking with my head,” Kamp said to Grim through gritted teeth. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” Grim answered, his eyes flashing as bright as the sun. “And everything.”
“I’m so sick of riddles, Grim. I’ve had a couple of bad days, and I just want to finish my shift and get on to my next day. Eat, work, sleep, eat, work, sleep until I go crazy enough with the monotony of my life to actually give in to an Alpha Challenge. I got nothing but that machine, Grim.” Kamp jammed a finger at the processor. “Metal. That’s all I got, and I swear if you and Rhett get us fired off this mountain, I’ll make sure you live forever. I’ll walk right behind you through your entire life and protect you from any harm that comes your way. I’ll pledge my fealty to your survival just to piss you off. You want to die? Ask Rhett to do it.”
“Rhett can’t get the job done.”
“Then too fuckin’ bad! Guess you’ll just have to put in some effort and run this Crew.”
“You have a voice in your head, don’t you?” Grim yelled, his voice echoing through the mountains. “One voice. One lion dictating when you fight, fuck, sleep, eat…one voice telling you what to do.”
Kamp didn’t know how to respond. The woods around them had gone eerily quiet.
Grim leaned down, picked up a fallen branch, and chucked that thing like a javelin with such power it sank into a massive tree and hovered there, six feet above the ground, vibrating against the split trunk.
Kamp had never seen strength like that. Grim had been hiding what he was capable of, and now Kamp really was treading dangerous territory.
Chest heaving, Grim gave Kamp his back. He hooked his hands on his hips and dropped his head. “I have two,” he uttered in a hoarse voice. And then he walked away.
“Wait, what? Two what?” Kamp asked, following a few steps. “Two voices? You got two voices in you? Grim, hold up!” He walked faster, then jogged after him. “You got two lions inside of you?”
Grim cut to the right suddenly and disappeared behind a huge tree trunk. Kamp pushed his legs harder and skidded on the pine needles that blanketed the forest floor when he reached the stump, but on the other side, there was no one there. He searched in vain. The Alpha had disappeared like he’d never existed in these woods at all.
Two lions? Was that what Grim really meant? He was two animals? Holy shit. Kamp was slowly going insane, and he only had one lion running his life. He couldn’t even imagine being the vessel for two predator animals.
****
Remi had heard it all.
She stood there between two pines, staring across the clearing at Kamp as he searched for Grim. Two lions in him. That’s what the Alpha had meant…right? How awful.
But what was even more gut-wrenching was Kamp’s face. He scanned the woods with a deep frown, face pale as if all the blood had drained from it. He looked like he was going to be sick.
Slowly, she stepped out of the woods. Kamp’s green and gold gaze jerked right to her. He froze there like a pond in the middle of a cold winter. The brush crackled under her sneakers as she made her way past the logging machine and the stack of firewood he’d been cutting with those big blades. She came to a stop a few feet away from him.
“Tell me you’re real,” he murmured. “Tell me you’re really here.”
“I’m here. And I’m real. Here…feel…” She made her way to him and slid her arms around his waist.
Dropping his hands from his hips, Kamp sighed, expelling tension from his rigid body as he did. Oh, he’d told her he didn’t like touch, so she wasn’t hurt he didn’t hug her back at first. That sigh of relief counted for more. And when he rested his whiskered chin on top of her head and slid his arms around her shoulders, she melted against him. This right here was the best feeling in the world. It was like the first breath after she’d been drowning.
