He was thinking about it, too. He stood, as if he didn’t care about dying at all and took a step toward her, then another. The low snarl in Rhett’s throat was constant as he came to stand beside Remi, facing the Reaper with her. Grim looked back and forth between them with such hatred it made Remi’s stomach hurt. And then he sat down and began licking his paw like he didn’t give a single shit about any of this.
Nice try, Monster. She’d been born a Gray Back. She’d seen that move before. He still cared about the fight, and the second they gave him their back, he’d go for their exposed spines. Remi stood on her hind legs and roared at him again. She landed hard on her front paws and huffed breath, shaking her head, exposing her teeth. Piss off, Grim.
He snarled up the side of his mouth, showing her his long, curved canine, and then he stood and sauntered off slowly, giving her his back in a show of utter disrespect. That was him saying she wasn’t a threat.
There was this little instinct telling her to chase him down and punish him, but that was just the predator in her. She had good control. Unlike this Crew.
They were the biggest fucking mess.
Behind her, Kamp wasn’t there anymore. She looked back just in time to see him in human form take his porch stairs two at a time and slam the door behind him.
Rhett the white lion looked completely defeated and tired of everything. He was panting, staring at her with empty blue eyes, and when he turned and stalked off toward his trailer, there was a new set of claw marks on his ribs. Why did he do that? Why did he only give them a shot at that side of his body?
She wanted to cry for these broken boys. These sick boys. What did they have? No comradery, no motivation to work together, no future. This was no real Crew.
She embraced the pain of Changing back so she could check on Kamp. She stooped and grabbed her sleep shirt on the way to his trailer and pulled it over her wild hair. She felt like Hell. Two Changes in one day, two fights in one day, and she wasn’t conditioned for this—not anymore. City bear. These boys would toughen her up quick if she decided to stay. She couldn’t, though. This wasn’t her fight. She had to deal with the life she’d run away from in the city.
She pulled open Kamp’s door and made her way inside. All the lights were turned off, but she could see well enough. He was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, body humming with tension, every muscle rigid.
She hesitated for only a moment, and then she sighed and sat next to him. He didn’t say anything so neither did she. She just wrapped her arms around his middle, hugged him, and rested her cheek on his shoulder.
As minutes passed, he stayed just as tense, not relaxing a single muscle. But eventually, he dragged his hands down his face and shook his head. He smelled like blood, but she already knew him well enough to realize he wouldn’t let her doctor him.
“Don’t like touch,” he murmured.
“Yeah, I don’t care.”
“He ain’t dead.”
“Who?”
“My boy. I heard Rhett tell you. Don’t you go pitying me. His momma took him. I found out she had a man on the side, and I lost my shit. My mom came over and tried to settle me down, and I bit her when she got too close. The day my mom got Turned, Sophia saw it all. She saw my mom’s first Change, and she was already checked out on me. She got scared I would Turn her too, and took my son in the night. She felt safer with her other man. Our cub was just a baby, and now my boy is being raised by some fuckin’ hyena shifter. I can’t even see him. Can’t talk to him on the phone, nothing.”
“How old is he?”
“Raider is four.”
Four years. Kamp was missing those bonding years a little shifter needed with his father. Remi murmured, “He’ll be Changing for the first time soon if he hasn’t already.”
“He had his first Change six months ago. My mom gets updates from Sophia a couple times a year. If I had any question about the cub being mine before, it was laid to rest with this.” Kamp pulled his phone off the coffee table and showed her the lock screen. Little lion cub looking right at the camera, one gold eye, one green. A mini Kamp.”
A lump formed in her throat, making it hard to breathe. “Oh, Kamp, he’s precious.”
“Little brawler. Already got in trouble at preschool for fighting.”
“You have rights to see him, you know.”
“What rights? Shifter rights? Sophia is human. She’s used it to her advantage. Humans always get what they want. The one loophole I had was that shifter cubs needed so many hours with an adult shifter in their life to keep their animal in training. She took that away by shacking up with the hyena, and now I don’t matter. I’m allowed to pay child support into a fund for him, and that’s the closest contact I’ll ever have. I’m not necessary.” He swallowed audibly and repeated that last part softly. “I’m not necessary.”
And it was those three words that changed the direction of her life.
Kamp was warm under her touch. He was allowing her to hold him, to comfort him, but how long would he be here if things didn’t change? His existence on this earth felt very important for reasons she didn’t fully understand. Sure, she could go back to the city and rebuild her life there. She could take the break-up as a challenge and make a better life, because that was the best revenge on anyone—be okay anyway. But that determination to get herself living again wouldn’t mean a hill of beans if this man, Kamp, wasn’t living again with her.
“We’re gonna get better together,” she murmured.
Kamp huffed a soft laugh. “Yeah, okay.” He didn’t sound like he believed her in any way, but he would see.
Eventually…he would see.
He didn’t know her very well yet, but he would. She was a Novak, and it was ingrained in her to heed her sensitive instincts and fix the things that were broken.
And this broken boy felt special. How did a man become so important after one day?
She laid a tiny kiss on his shoulder, and for the first time since she’d wrapped her arms around him, he relaxed, if just a little.
And with a hardened man like Kamp, any progress was a victory.
So when he leaned over and rested his cheek against the top of her head, she wanted to cry. How long had it been since he’d let himself give into touch and return it?
Another victory.
She would tally them up, one by one, until the day he stopped calling the Reaper.
Chapter Six
It was right before dawn when the mountains were still sleeping and the stars were still out. It was dark in Kamp’s living room, but she didn’t need to see anything. All that mattered was what she felt—his arms around her.
It had been so long since she’d felt safe. She didn’t mean physically. She was a bear shifter and could take care of herself, but how long had it been since she could felt she could lay in a man’s arms and not get hurt by him?
She laid there, trying to piece together what made Kamp so special to her. Inside, her bear was fast asleep and quiet. She was at peace, which was ironic considering this entire Crew was at constant war with each other.
Kamp’s arm was draped over her hip on the couch, and his forehead rested against the back of her head while he slept.
She didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to leave this.
That realization hit her right in the gut. Was it possible to feel homesick for a place that wasn’t home?
As he inhaled and stretched his legs against the back of hers, those little flutters in her stomach kicked up again, and she smiled in the dark. Big strong, closed-off lion shifter had her all scooped up and was now hugging her tighter in his sleep. That’s when a woman knew a man liked her—when he hugged her in his sleep.
She wiggled her bottom against him and snuggled closer under the blanket he’d pulled off the back of the couch and draped over them. It was chilly in the trailer, but she was nice and toasty warm against Kamp the Furnace.
Outside there was a chorus of crickets and frogs, still active in the month before it became really cold.
She felt…peace.
And thinking about leaving here made a little hole in her chest that she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to fill up again.
