“Why did you slash my tires?” she asked, standing up.
“Because I like destruction.”
“But I heard you when I drove away. You said you wanted me to stay. Why?”
Rhett huffed a breath, gave her the finger, and then gave one to Grim while he was at it. Kamp came out of the woods, a frown marring his face.
“Why?” she asked again, louder.
Rhett meandered right past Kamp, gripping the neck of his guitar in a stranglehold. He didn’t answer, nor did he turn around.
“You shouldn’t dig up graves here,” Grim said in a raspy voice.
“Fuck off, Grim,” Kamp growled. “Don’t tell her what she can and can’t do. You ain’t her Alpha.”
Grim turned an empty smile on Kamp. “But wouldn’t that be something? Being the Alpha of a Novak Grizzly. She would be like a trophy for the Crew.” But there was something strange in Grim’s tone, as though he didn’t really believe in what he was saying.
“She isn’t a trophy, asshole,” Kamp said, stepping between Grim and Remi. “She’s the best of us.”
“Us? There is no us, Kamp. There’s you, Rhett, and me…and her.” He turned his lightened gold gaze on her. “You’re messing with the balance around here.”
Remi narrowed her eyes at him. “You gonna tell me to leave? I would eat you, Grim. And you forgot one. It’s Kamp and Rhett, you and the Reaper, and me. You want to be on the mountain all alone with the Reaper? Go ahead and chase us off then.”
Stupid boys. She was messing with the balance? She was trying to help! She pulled open the door to the shed and slammed it closed behind her. Only the door wasn’t super sturdy, and it cracked, right down the middle. Half of it fell off with a dusty crash, so now she had to see Grim’s dumb, smiling face outside.
And something about that just proved to be the last straw. Her bear was pissed, she was pissed, and everything was tinted in red. And, yeah…she sometimes had a temper problem and, yeah, she was about to throw a full-fledged fit, but damn it all, Rhett and Grim had it comin’.
“Rhett!” she bellowed as she kicked open the broken door. “Rhett! Rhett!” Remi clenched her hands at her side and got real determined to annoy him into paying attention. Tossing her chin back, she roared his name at the sky. “Rheeeeeett! Rheee—”
“What, what, what, WHAT?” he yelled, crashing through the brush like a pissed-off bull elephant.
“Crew meeting! Shit’s a-changin’ around here!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “I was gonna try to be gentle about this and patient and take my time getting to know the ins and outs of this Crew before I started encouraging you to make positive changes in your lives, but fuck that! Seven a.m. tomorrow, all of you start work.”
All three men stared at her with eyes round as dinner plates, as though she’d lost every last bit of her mind.
“Oh, she gets a country accent when she’s pissed,” Rhett said quietly.
“Seven a.m., I’ll be waiting out front of the trailer park, and if you three aren’t out of bed and headed to your machines, I’m going to do horrible things to wake you up.”
“Like what?” Grim asked, his frown so deep it furrowed his forehead.
“Dude,” Kamp muttered. “She’s on a tirade. Stop interrupting.”
“Like Change in your trailer and rip everything to shreds, including you.”
“Wait, what if it’s Kamp whose late?” Rhett asked.
“What?” she yelled.
“If you maim Kamp, he can’t stick his pickle in your lady cavern.”
Kamp slapped Rhett upside his head. “What the fuck, man?”
“I’m saying it’s not really fair for you to get free passes!” Rhett said, rubbing his hair back into place.
“I’m the only one who’s finished a whole shift since we moved out here to BFE, you prick!”
“I finished one, one time,” Rhett argued, arching his eyebrows.
“When?” Grim asked.
“When you weren’t paying attention.” Rhett looked smug as a beetle on a turd right now.
She might actually kill all of them and just put everyone out of their misery.
“Anyways,” she punched out, “you’ll work like you’re supposed to, you’ll hit your numbers, you’ll get whoever runs these mountains off your back, and you’ll feed the lumber yard. And once a week, we are going to barbecue.”
“I don’t like barbecue,” Rhett muttered.
Glaring at Rhett, Grim growled, “I swear to God I’m gonna kill you.”
Kamp sighed and called Rhett out, “Everyone likes barbecue, and you spend every Tuesday night at Hoppers eating brisket sandwiches, so cut it out with your bullshit.”
“Okay, stalker, I go to Hoppers because there’s booze and hot girls with perky tits there. I eat the sandwich because it’s half off on Tuesdays so it would be a sin to ignore such a good deal on meat.”
Remi was actually breaking out in rage-hives. Was that a thing? She scratched at the raised itchy bumps on her face. Her bear wanted to turn Rhett and Grim into poop about now.
She counted to three in her head so she wouldn’t scream. “Work and bond. That’s the point,” she said. “This Crew sucks balls right now, and I deserve better. So do the three of you.”
The boys all went still as their attention froze on her. “What do you mean you deserve better?” Grim asked suspiciously.
She looked the Alpha dead in the eyes and clenched her fists at her sides as her stubborn streak grew as wide as the Grand Canyon. “I’m not going anywhere. And this,” she said, twirling her finger at the three of them. “This doesn’t work for anyone. You’ve been doin’ it wrong, boys. Time to shape up.”
“We’re not listening to some hyped-up woman trying to change everything around here,” Grim snarled. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
“Or you can leave,” she retorted. “As it stands, no one would miss you.”
Grim snarled a terrifying sound. “Listen here, you—”
“No you listen! You’re fine with staying stagnant, but that’s your problem. You aren’t growing. You’re staying exactly the same, and has that worked for you? Huh?” She turned to Rhett. “What was your last Crew?”
After a few seconds, Rhett answered, “Saga Pride.”
Kamp tensed up. “Wait, isn’t your last name Saga?”
For the first time since she’d met him, Remi witnessed Rhett completely close down. He crossed his arms over his chest, and his eyes went dead.
Realizing he would get no more from Rhett about his old pride, Kamp answered low, “No Crew for me. I was raised around humans. This Crew is my first.”
When Remi looked at Grim, his smile turned downright unsettling. “Tarian Pride.”
“Holy shit, are you serious?” When Rhett took a couple steps back from him, Remi totally understood the instinct. The Tarian Pride were monsters.
“High ranking?” Remi asked with her face all scrunched up. Please say no.
“Yep.”
“Aw man, we’re so screwed,” Rhett muttered.
Kamp was standing right next to her and looked down at Remi. Trouble swirled in his mismatched eyes. “It’s a problem that none of us even knew these simple answers about each other before now. We’ve been here for months and didn’t even know our old Prides and Crews? Remi’s right. We need a change. It would be nice to not be the only one finishing shifts. It would be nice to have some trust in you guys to help me get stuff done.”
“Veto. That sounds boring.” Rhett gave the peace sign and walked away.
Grim turned and made a beeline for the woods. “I’m gonna go kill stuff,” he snarled and then disappeared behind a tree. “Fight you soon, Kamp,” his voice echoed back to them. Oh, fantastic.
“We need a Crew name!” Remi called.
“The Never Gonna Happens,” Rhett answered without turning around.
“Well,” Kamp said, draping his arm around her shoulders. “The first Crew meeting went well.”
