Chapter Two
Luna
Of course, there was dancing. It was a wedding. With envious eyes, she watched as Melody and Rafe swayed in the harsh light of the bar. Despite the rustic conditions, or maybe because of them, the newly wedded couple seemed to glow with incandescent beauty.
As the first slow dance ended, the music slipped seamlessly into something with a more Latin beat. Three men standing behind marimbas began using their mallets to pound out a gentle rhythm. Standing behind them were two more men with guitars gently strumming a sensual rhythm.
“May I have this dance?”
“Oh, I. I don’t know how to salsa,” Luna confessed. She looked up, way up. “You’re DeShawn Gagnon, right? The lumberjack?” she asked the handsome man.
He grinned, strong white teeth a contrast against his skin. “My reputation exceeds me again, I see.”
Luna laughed a little nervously as she accepted his hand. “Yes, but not really. Lacey and Melody sent me pictures and bios of several single shifters for my blog.” She smiled at him. “My readers eat that kind of news up.”
“Let’s dance, and you can ask me more questions. For your readers of course.”
His easy charm should have warmed her but all Luna felt was an overwhelming need to find her big, bulky bear shifter who wasn’t good with delicate things. At least, she was pretty sure he was a bear.
She thought briefly of the pictures she had been taking all evening. Would her readers blame her if she kept the best Jason picture for herself? It’s not like any of them would know.
“I’m not being modest,” she protested as he pulled her onto the dance floor. “I really don’t know how.” She continued to pull away from him but short of creating a scene had no way of stopping the inevitable.
DeShawn led her to the dancefloor and swung her effortlessly into his arms. Or, what would have been effortless if Luna possessed even a modicum of grace. She tilted slightly, feeling her ankles wobble on her high heels.
“Stop,” she said, her voice still not raising above the raucous beat from the speakers. DeShawn stopped abruptly making her balance even more precarious.
“Crap,” she muttered as she felt herself going. She couldn’t find solid footing in the unfamiliar shoes. Luna’s hands grabbed for DeShawn, hoping he would save her from falling ass over teakettle across the dance floor but found herself captured in another set of powerful arms.
“Jason,” she said, knowing his scent anywhere. Luna’s chin turned, her cheek grazing the fine wool of his suit. Time stood still for the moment as she was held, suspended by this giant of a man.
She shivered in reaction as his hands
“You were going to let her fall,” Jason accused, staring narrow-eyed at DeShawn.
Anger flashed across DeShawn’s face, his dark eyes narrowing. “You suggesting it’s my fault?”
A dark, angry sound emanated from Jason’s throat.
“You want to take this outside?” DeShawn asked, accepting the challenge in Jason’s vocalization.
“Wait. What? No, no, no. No going outside.” Luna looked around frantically for someone a little calmer in the room, but everyone else was dancing or talking to the bride and groom.
Jason chuffed under his breath.
Bear, Luna thought. Definitely bear.
His muscles flexed dangerously. “I don’t need to go bear to beat the shit out of a fresh-faced, snot-nosed boy like you.” Challenge and excitement lit his eyes as he towered over his opponent. “But don’t think my bear isn’t just as bad-assed and angry as I am.”
While feeling the momentary thrill of being right over his animal form, Luna still felt panicked. Raised by a single mom, she didn’t know a lot about men in general. But by studying shifter the last six years, she was a pretty good resource on them.
And never once had she seen a shifter back down from a challenge.
DeShawn gulped. He actually, physically gulped. Then a bright note of awareness hit his face as though he’d made a decision. Lightning fast arms reached for Luna, grabbed her and pulled her towards him.
“You know what you smell like?” DeShawn asked, brown eyes glittering with some emotion Luna had never seen before.
“Uh. Chanel No. 5?” It was more question than answer as Luna’s heart picked up it’s nervous fluttering.
“No. Like a stinking bear shifter. You should have set your sights on a real man.”
And then the bastard licked her.
He licked her! What the actual fuck?
For a second, Luna was paralyzed with shock in his embrace. Her eyes met Jason’s and fury pulsed off him in waves so strong people began noticing.
“Get your damn hands off of me,” Luna said, beginning to twist and turn in DeShawn’s arms. She’d never felt so small and helpless in her life, but the larger man simply laughed at her squirming.
Chin set, she lifted her foot with the six-inch heels and brought it down, point first on laughing boy’s dress shoe clad foot.
“Ow! You bitch! All I did was lick you!” In an instant, Luna was propelled away from DeShawn and his now very sore foot.
Jason caught her with a fighter’s grace. He gently placed her on her feet, making sure she was okay. He lifted his eyebrows in question, and she nodded, a little shakily. Jason kissed her forehead and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket.
He was tender. Almost calm as he made sure she was okay. The scruff of his short beard brushed against her cheek, and her skin warmed as he exhaled against her neck. In that heated moment, they were connected. Man to woman. Steel to soft.
Long fingers pushed her hair away from her face, brown eyes focused on her lips in a way that had Luna longing to press kisses against his chest. Neck. Mouth. Whatever he was doing, whatever he was pulling from her pooled instantly within her and she felt her core soften in response. The need was instinct and innate. A need to be with him she was helpless to stop.
Jason’s eyes trailed down her body and focused on where she needed him most keenly. Knowledge flared between them and Luna’s body pulsed in response. Luna wanted to hide behind a girlish blush but resisted. This man wanted her, and by God, she wanted him right back.
And then he turned to face DeShawn. “You touched her when she said no,” Jason growled out.
Luna wanted to protest. She was an adult, and although the lick was gross and unexpected, it wasn’t like he’d actually physically assaulted her. But then she noticed how Jason’s nostrils flared as he took in the new scent.
Had she just inadvertently wandered into a pre-existing pissing contest between Jason and DeShawn? Absently, she took the handkerchief and wiped it along her neck. Jason seemed to calm almost instantly.
“Who still carries a handkerchief,” she wondered, bringing it to her nose. It was redolent with his scent, and she couldn’t help but smile wistfully.
“Assholes,” DeShawn commented, chin up, facing off against Jason.
“Gentlemen,” Jason corrected before letting out a large roar. With seeming preternatural speed, his left hook connected with DeShawn’s jaw. “Assholes are the ones who go around licking women who don’t wish to smell like you.”
Jason
That felt better than it should, Jason thought with glee as his fist connected with DeShawn’s chin. There were only two ways to burn off the adrenaline and testosterone building inside of him. Fucking and fighting.
And since swearing off the indiscriminate sex a few years ago, fighting was all Jason had left.
DeShawn shook off the single punch and stood to his full height, which was still a good seven inches shorter than Jason. DeShawn snorted with anger before bending his head. He ran towards Jason like some 1990s high school defensive tackle ready to grab him around the midsection.
Jason grunted and relaxed his muscles as the younger man took him to the ground. He could have braced for impact and taken DeShawn out. But he didn’t actually want to hurt the lumberjack. They landed hard, rolling into a table set up along the edge of the dancefloor.
“What the fuck do you two think you’re doing?” Cree James, his boss, muttered. “Way to keep it classy, assholes.”
“No, not a fight,” Melody complained. “Rafe, do something!”
Distantly, Jason heard Quinn grumble, too. As default alpha of the Silver Fells shifters, Quinn used his Mastiff to keep the crankier shifters in line. But not this time. This time, DeShawn deserved the punch for assaulting Luna.
From the bottom position, Jason got DeShawn into a closed guard. His legs wrapped tightly around DeShawn’s waist, waiting for the younger man to realize he was trapped.
DeShawn struggled at first and tried to escape. Only when Jason’s legs refused to budge did the realization he was well and truly caught hit him. DeShawn blinked, dark brown eyes showing a delayed shock at the situation he found himself in.
To the casual observer, Jason’s position on the bottom would look like the weaker place to be. However, as long as he kept DeShawn from getting the mounted position, Jason was in total control. And, thanks to the mixed martial arts training he’d been getting, Jason was pretty sure he could get DeShawn to tap out.
DeShawn tried to get to his knees in order to punch down at Jason, but the bear shifter blocked him by grabbing him by the arm. “Not so easy to pick on someone bigger than you, huh?”
“No, no, no,” DeShawn yelled. He tried to pull his arm back, but Jason had his wrist in a same-side lock. “Do not break my arm, you stinking bear.”
“That’s up to you, isn’t it?”
“Goddamnit. Get off the floor, you two idiots.”
Jason didn’t even turn to look at Quinn. The Mastiff thought that since he’d once been a Gunnery Sergeant, it was up to him to control the rest of the shifters.
Well, not today and not with DeShawn Miller. And, Jason thought with grim satisfaction, if Quinn had caught the young lumberjack licking his little mate, this wouldn’t be an issue.
Jason boldly met his opponent’s eyes. DeShawn realized his wrist was caught and under Jason’s complete control. Jason took DeShawn’s triceps and dragged him a little further across his body. Jason kept his elbows tight to his own chest to ensure DeShawn had nowhere to go.
Jason’s left hand came up to grasp DeShawn’s neck while his left foot dug into the lumberjack’s hip with his knee tight against DeShawn’s shoulder.
DeShawn’s arm was effectively trapped, his hips unable to move. He struggled ineffectively. “Let me go, you stinking bear.”
“You’re a bear shifter, too, fuckwad,” Jason grunted as he moved with DeShawn’s body. He retained full control of the situation but knew they couldn’t stay in this détente.
“Make them stop,” Lacey urged, coming up behind her mate. “What’s going on? Why are they fighting?”
Jason tuned out the noise of the people surrounding them. All that remained were him, DeShawn, and the tantalizing scent of the woman whose honor he was vigorously defending.
Using his right leg, Jason flung it up over DeShawn’s back at armpit level, making it impossible for the younger man to move. Jason had him by his wrist, hip, back, and arm. Panic rose in DeShawn’s face as he realized he wasn’t getting out of this scuffle unscathed. His right arm beat ineffectually at Jason, barely reaching the bear shifter’s chin.
Melody pulled Lacey back. “He licked Luna,” she whispered.
Just hearing the words, remembering the look of horror on Luna’s face made him want to crush the young lumberjack. Let alone the way she no longer smelled of sunshine, powdered donuts, and Jason’s bear.
Quinn snorted. “Don’t hurt him too bad, Jace. The tree-cutting season is starting soon.”
Jason snorted and popped DeShawn’s head through the narrow space allowed by his thighs. Knees held high, Jason pushed down hard on DeShawn’s head with his left calf making it impossible for DeShawn to come back up and attack.
DeShawn whimpered, knowing the next move in the sequence but unable to move to prevent it.
“Just tap out, man,” Cree called. “And let’s get back to dancing.” With feline power, he pulled his mate Tamara into his arms and swayed to the light Latin beat still playing. “You two dicks are clogging up the dancefloor.”
“In a sec,” Jason muttered, lifting his hips to finish the armbar completely.
“Fuck,” DeShawn cried out as pain shot up his arm. Using his other arm, he instinctively hit Jason’s hip.
“You ever gonna’ do something like that again?” Jason growled out, lowering his hips just a touch to relax in response to touch to his hip.
“No, man. Stupid little blogger isn’t even worth this shit.”
Jason rolled his eyes at the stubbornness clinging to the younger man. He lifted his hips a little higher this time, letting DeShawn know just who was in control of what.
DeShawn’s scream was instant and ear-shattering.
“Finish it up, boys,” Quinn said with a wince. “DeShawn, apologize to Luna. She’s a guest here, and whatever problems you and Jace have, you shouldn’t have brought her into it.”
Their scuffle reduced to a task to be finished, Jason lowered his hips to await DeShawn’s apology.
“Sorry, Ms. Flowers,” DeShawn gritted out. He turned to Jason. “Now, let me up, fucker.”
“Tap out.”
“Fuck you.”
Jason chuffed at DeShawn’s idiocy and his sophomoric swearing. Once more, he lifted his hips and DeShawn screamed in pain. “I’ll dislocate it, no problem. Then how will you work on the mountain?”
“Fuck you,” DeShawn spat but used his other arm to finally tap out.
Jason released his hold immediately, standing up.
“My wedding?” Melody scolded. “Really?”
“To be fair, Chelita, this is the reception.” Her husband Rafe looked at them with amused eyes. “Now, shoo. There is dancing to be done.” He pulled his new wife into his arms before showing her how to move in the sensual rhythm of his home country.
Luna approached Jason. “You didn’t need to defend me like that,” she said softly.
Jason responded by gently tugging her closer. “Let’s get you in comfortable shoes and then we can dance.”
“I’m already really short. If I take the shoes off, I won’t even hit mid-chest.”
“Then get your climbing gear ready, Luna,” Jason teased. “No way in hell are we done.”