“Why?”
“Why what?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.
“Why don’t you like touch?”
“Never have. I wasn’t a kid who needed a lot of hugs.” He stared off into the woods with his arms crossed over his chest, so she supposed he was done with this conversation. Stubborn man. But when she parted her lips to change the subject, he said low, “I had a lady, and she needed touch, and I gave in. I gave in and I started to like it, and I started to crave it, and I started to need it, and it made me weak.” He slid a bright eyed glance at her, and then down at the toe of his boots as he finished, “And it hurt worse when she left.”
A wave of ache washed through her chest. She knew all about that feeling. Someone had damaged him, and his reaction was so recognizable. How many times over the past week had she promised herself never to let a man touch her again? To never let another person in so she never had to hurt like this again?
She cleared her throat and gave him an out with a new conversation. “Why did your mom follow my people?”
Leaning back on the porch railing, he shrugged up his bad shoulder. “It was a way to feel connected to something, I guess.”
“What about her Crew?”
“No Crew for us. I tried to find one for us when I was older and having trouble with the animal, but I couldn’t find anyone I wanted to pledge fealty to. And they wanted my mom to Turn. I didn’t know how to be around shifters, and I was dominant, so any Alphas I talked to tried to put me in my place.” A slow smile took his face. “I don’t take orders well. So…my mom raised me on her own. She was interested in shifters because I was one, but she was all human.”
“That’s okay if she’s human. There are humans in Damon’s Mountains.”
“Was.”
“What?”
“She was human.” Kamp clamped the lid on the first-aid kit with a click and lifted it up like it weighed less than air. “And not every Crew is as accepting as your people. You can take Grim’s trailer tonight. He won’t be back until the morning.”
“I’m sorry. Whatever happened to your mom…I’m sorry for it.”
He pursed his lips and gave her a single nod, and then he made his way to the door of his trailer.
“Why won’t…Grim?...be back tonight?” she asked, just to make sure she really could stay in the angry Alpha’s trailer without waking up dead.
“Because he sleeps in the woods.”
“Uuuuh, why does he do that?”
“Because he’s an animal,” Kamp said, shoving the door open and pausing in the doorway. “We all are.”
And when the door swung closed behind him, she startled with the loud sound of the slam. A dozen memories of working in the shop with her dad flashed through her mind. She could fix the door so it wouldn’t close so violently. Maybe she would adjust it before she left in the morning. It would probably bother her forever if she looked back on her night at this trailer park and thought about his eternal slamming door.
“Scared yet?” Rhett asked from where he was leaning on the porch of 1009. She hadn’t realized he’d come back out. He might’ve looked like a model who belonged in some big city, but this man could be eerily quiet when he wanted to be. It wasn’t often she got snuck up on.
“Nope,” she murmured, standing to test weight on her bad leg.
“Well, you should be. This is a last chance Crew. You know what that is?”
“Yes, I do.”
He grinned brightly. “A Novak Grizzly. I’ll be damned. When I put out that ad, I thought we would get a plaything who would run away from here screaming. Not you. You went griz first thing. Well done. You should challenge yourself and stick around. See how much you can take.”
“Nice try, but challenge not accepted.”
Rhett narrowed his eyes and nodded, then jogged down the steps and headed for the trail that led to the parking lot. “Just as well.” He gave her a little salute. “I’ll be back soon, Griz.”
“My name is Remington. Where are you going?”
“To get your crap from your car, Griz,” he called over his shoulder as he hit the tree line.
“But my keys are in my purse!” she called, standing.
“Then I’ll just break the window!”
“Rhett!”
The obnoxious man turned around with a baiting smile and held her keys up in the air.
“Where did you—”
“Stole ’em. Be back in a jiff!”
She didn’t know how she felt about him going through her car. He’d proven himself a thief, and she had twenty dollars in the cupholder.
“He probably won’t roll your car off the cliff,” a throaty, growly voice said.
Grim stood leaning against the trailer with the pink roses. They were the complete opposite of him. The flowers were perfect, down to every last petal. There were no dead leaves, and from the looks of it, the thorns had been cut off. The roses were delicate and beautiful, a stark contrast to the tattooed, dark-haired giant who stood there glaring at Remington. The other mens’ eyes had changed back to their human colors, but not Grim’s. They were as bright gold as when he’d been a lion fighting his own Crewmate.
“Why did you answer that ad?” he asked.
Remington shrugged. Honesty was best. Shifters could hear a lie. “I guess I got to the point in my life where I thought, why not?”
“Your dad.” He cleared his throat and stood up straighter. “Don’t want no problems with him. You can stay the night, but no more.”
Before she could change her mind, she asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
A slow, wicked smile stretched his face. “Everything.”
He turned and walked away, disappeared into the woods like an apparition. Kamp had said to stay in the Alpha’s trailer, but she didn’t want to impose on anyone. Plus, if she was honest, she would rather stay the night in 1010, missing wall and all. Grim might be an animal who slept in the woods, but she’d slept rough many nights, too. Her choice. Any night she’d felt confused or vulnerable, or just needed space away from her big family, she’d snuck out of her trailer and slept out in the woods or in an old tree house her dad had built when she was a baby. Her older brother Weston used to hang out there with his friends from Damon’s mountains, but they were older than her and thought her annoying, so she’d steered clear of the tree house when they’d been there. Sometimes she met up with Juno and Ashlynn from other Crews but, mostly, on those nights, she wanted to be alone. Mom had always said she was like Dad in that way.
1010 could have no walls at all, and she would still prefer to sleep there than in a stranger’s den.
She limped over and made her way onto the porch, shoved the door open, and took a deep breath before she stepped inside. The entire living room wall was caved in, the blade still hanging out of it. There was a green couch and a flat screen television on a small TV stand. The kitchen was all white-washed cabinets and a farm sink with wooden countertops. The ceilings sagged a little, and the floors had a spongey feel to them with each step she took, but it really did remind her of the old trailer up in Damon’s Mountains. The dilapidated thing had fallen apart years ago, but her brother, Weston, had some of the pieces with his Crew—the shutters from the old 1010, if she remembered right.
The sound of her suitcase and purse hitting the entryway startled her so bad she jumped. Rhett had tossed it up with zero care and was sauntering back to the mobile home next door without a word.
Good golly, the shifters up here were social idiots.
Past the kitchen was a single bedroom, and this was where she dragged her belongings. No point in unpacking, so she unzipped the lid and pulled out some clothes that actually fit. In the small bathroom, she scrubbed off the pink paint from earlier with a dark washrag. She dressed, pulled her long hair into a ponytail, and folded Kamp’s clothes neatly. And then she limped back out toward the front door of the trailer because she wanted to put them on his porch chair. A full-length mirror was nailed right next to the door. Of course Rhett was vain enough to put one there if this had been his place, but she wasn’t as comfortable with her reflection.
