Every day was the same as the last. Lynn Matheson winced when Jaxon set her down where he always did—in a yard of dandelions.

Jaxon. Jaxon? She looked around, but this wasn’t Red Havoc Territory. Jaxon Barns was up in the Appalachian Mountains with his mate. With Lynn’s crew. This wasn’t Jaxon, and she wasn’t in Red Havoc Woods. This was…what was his name? Identical twin. Funny. Bad. He’d always been in trouble when they were growing up. The local cops knew him by name. He rode a Harley and got arrested and got tattoos and piercings and didn’t give a fuck about anything. Bad grizzly, Bad Bear. Jason…no…Jathan. Jathan Barns.

She couldn’t muster the energy to hiss as he backed away and sat on the bottom stair of her treehouse. Beaston had built it long ago, and now this was her home for six more days. She was counting down.

Jathan was a hot boy name.

This place didn’t even smell like Red Havoc territory. It was all wintergreen and pine sap and oil from the logging equipment up the road.

A hot boy name for a hot boy. He’d always looked good. Time had treated him well. He wasn’t lanky anymore. He was built like a tank. A sexy, tatted-up tank.

Her focus was scattering like ashes on the wind.

Where was she again?

She blinked. Time must have disappeared on her. That happened a lot. She came to with a feeling like time had passed, but she had no idea how much. Jathan was still here, but he was leaning back against the stairs, hands behind his head, staring up at the blue sky. It was too damn bright out here, and her body hurt. She wasn’t healing very fast anymore. Nox hadn’t been a careful fighter. She’d almost had him. So close, if only Beaston had stayed away. Why was everyone here protecting her? Couldn’t they see she was already gone? Couldn’t they see she was unredeemable? This was Eden’s fault. And Jaxon’s. And all of Red Havoc who voted she come to the Gray Backs so the alpha could try to save her. She was too far gone for even Creed, though. Everyone here said that, and they were right.

Another blink. More time lost.

The shadow of the tree house was creeping closer across the dandelions. It would reach her soon. Maybe she would feel it, the instant the edge of the shadow touched her. Maybe it would be cold. She hoped she could feel it. It would be nice to feel something before the end.

Jathan was waiting for her to Change back. It was rude to keep him from his life. He always did this—waited for her to tuck her psychotic animal away. She would go through the pain of the Change, and he wouldn’t say a word. He would just lift her body up like she was helpless and carry her up the stairs, set her in bed, and leave until tomorrow.

Jathan Barns smelled sick, too. Not as sick as her, but his head was messed up, and that damage made his bear a beast, just like his identical twin brother, Jaxon. Jaxon. Was this Jathan or Jaxon? They looked the same. Same dark brown eyes and black hair. Same massive stature and thick arms and neck. Same smile for everyone but her. He only looked at her in pity or anger, but the fury part she didn’t understand. She hadn’t asked him to carry her around. What right did he have to be angry?

Six more days, and he would be free from whatever obligation he felt toward her.

With a groan, she forced the Change. It was a slow process because she did this too much, too often. Her panther didn’t let her keep her skin for long. She was sad and angry, just like Lynn, and somewhere along the way, they’d split completely. She was animal and human, shoved in the same body, and both of them hated each other. Neither one of them had been successful at digging out of the hole they’d gotten themselves into. Not even a little.

Jathan narrowed his eyes at her. Pretty brown, and they turned bright green when he was worked up. She used to have a crush on him when they were kids, but he never gave her the time of day. He was too cool for a shy orphan shifter trying to make her foster parents love her enough to keep her. He was a party boy, but she had real-life problems, and even if they lived in the same mountains, they were from two different worlds.

Her voice came out raspy when she asked, “What’s your favorite food, Jaxon?”

His eyes tightened at the corners, and his dark eyebrows drew down. “She talks. She talks, but she calls me by my brother’s name.”

“Jathan, Jathan, Jathan,” she whispered three times so she could remember it. She wouldn’t, though. Her mind didn’t work very well anymore.

“Pizza.” He rocked up to the sitting position and cracked his knuckles. “You?”

“I’m Lynn.”

“I know your name. I’m asking what is your favorite food.”

“Oh. Food. Food is good. I’m hungry.”

“What for?”

“Ribs before I hated Red Havoc.” Barret had made her ribs to try to draw her out of her treehouse and back into the crew. She wasn’t dumb, just broken. She didn’t like being manipulated with her favorite things.

“Well, that was a weird fucking answer.”

“Chicken fried steak. With gravy.”

Lynn pushed herself up on her hands and knees, then settled onto her bent legs. Jathan was staring at her tits now, but she didn’t care. Nudity was natural, and all shifters had to deal with it since they were young. Tits were tits. No one had enjoyed the sight of hers since…Brody.

Blink. Time was lost.

When she opened her eyes, she was in the tree house, lying in her bed on top of the covers. And she wasn’t even naked anymore. When Lynn sat up, she let out a tiny gasp for the ache in her muscles. She fingered the hem of the sundress Eden had packed for her before she had left Red Havoc Territory. It was white with pink flowers and was, literally, the girliest thing she owned.

The smell of fur hit her nose, and she jerked her attention to the back wall of the treehouse where Jathan stood with his broad back to her, hands clasped behind him as he stared at the marks she’d etched into the wall.

“What the fuck is this?” he asked, his voice low and growly.

“You don’t scare me,” she murmured. “Nothing does.”

He slid her a bright green-eyed glare over his shoulder.

Okay, he was a little scary. Like…fourteen percent intimidating when his scary-beary was at the surface. “What are the marks, Lynn?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “My countdown. Six more days, and Creed’s time is up.”

“You mean six more days, and your time is up,” he snarled. “Put your shoes on.”

“What? No. I’m staying here, and you had no right to dress me in this—”

“I’m taking you into town, we’re going to eat chicken fried steak, and you’re going to actually live for the last six fucking days of your countdown. And I swear to God, if you fight me on a single thing, I’ll strap you into my truck and take you so fucking far away from anyone who would put you down, you couldn’t scream loud enough to get attention. And I’d make you live out your entire life with me staring at you and counting your billion remaining breaths. Put your fucking shoes on.”

Lynn pursed her lips. Okay then.

She slid off the bed, dared to cast him a dirty look, then slipped her feet into a pair of tattered, black flip-flops that didn’t match just to spite the bully currently standing against the wall, watching her. He had the same color eyes as Beaston. The snarl in his throat and the weight of his dominance made the air feel like clay in her lungs. Someday, she had no doubt he would be alpha of the Gray Backs. Creed’s days were numbered as king of Grayland Mobile Park unless he pushed this bruin out of his territory.

Jathan jerked his chin toward the small bathroom. “Go brush your hair.”

“Fuck you.”

Jathan was to her so fast he was a blur. He gripped her arm and pulled her into the bathroom, pushed her down onto the closed toilet lid by the shoulder, yanked the brush off the counter, and then he did something that stunned her to her bones. He gentled his hand and ran the brush through the ends of her snarled, red tresses, then worked his way up.

“You’ve brushed hair before.”

He was quiet so long she thought he would ignore her the rest of the time he forced her to get presentable, but after a while he said in a softer voice, “Willa is my mom. She made me and my brother do this shit for her when she was feeling lazy or had two glasses of wine in her hands and needed help. She’s ridiculous.”

“You love her.”

He huffed a breath. “She’s one of the very few things I love. Do you want to do your make-up, or do you want me to? I’m pretty good at making people look like hookers. Mom made me watch stupid fucking tutorials online on how to do smoky eyes, but mostly I will make you look like a frightened raccoon.”

Lynn huffed a strange sound, but it startled her, and she jumped. When she looked up at Jathan, he was frowning down at her, but his expression wasn’t harsh anymore. It was curious. “Did you just laugh?”

Blink. Time was lost.

****

Jathan lined her lips with a petal-pink color she kept with her other make-up. God, she was pretty. Always had been. Full lips led to a perfect, little pixie nose, high cheekbones, soft brown eyes slightly slanted like cat eyes, fair skin, a light dusting of freckles he hadn’t bothered to hide with foundation because he liked her spots. And that hair—red as fire and flowing down her shoulders in soft, rolling waves. She was too thin now, and her eyes had dark circles under them. They looked vacant, as if she was dead already, especially when she was checked out and staring straight ahead, like right now. But even as a broken bird, she was a swan.

What was he doing?

Squatting down in front of her, he rested his hands on her knees for balance. She was warm and alive, and in six days she wouldn’t be anymore. He wanted to puke. Such a waste.

There was a tiny green pot with a Venus Flytrap on the bathroom sink. Someone had hand-painted a name in pink letters. Medusa. It was a healthy, ugly little thing, nice and green with several heads, open, teeth out, waiting for a fly to land and feed it. Medusa. Lynn had a disconnect problem with people. He’d been watching and could see it plain as day, but she had some kind of attachment to this little plant.

How did he know? Because when he’d taken her back to Damon’s Mountains from the Red Havoc Territory, she’d cradled the little plant in her lap the entire way to the airport and on the flight to Damon’s Mountains. She hadn’t said a word to him, and she’d been lost in her head for most of the trip, but she’d uttered three soft-spoken words to Medusa when she thought he wasn’t listening. “It’ll be okay.”

Just to experiment, he cupped Lynn’s cheeks. Skin so soft against the callouses of his hands made rough from the logging work he did. “Lynn, can you hear me?”

Nothing. Pupils constricted to pinpoints, her eyes stared straight ahead, looking right through him.

Jathan chewed the corner of his lip a few times and tried again. “Medusa.”

Lynn blinked and turned her face slightly. Pupils dilating, she focused on his face. “W-what?” Her lips were pretty as she formed the question.

“Do you want to bring Medusa tonight?” he asked.

“Bring her where?” Her voice was sing-songy and not quite right.

“I’m going to take you out.”

Her delicate, ruddy eyebrows drew down in the cutest fucking frown he’d ever seen. “Like on a date?”

Jathan laughed. “Woman, I don’t date. I fuck. You don’t want a date with me.”

Hurt slashed through her eyes for just an instant and confused the shit out of him. “Oh. Then no, I don’t need Medusa. She is safe here.”

Hmm.

“Do you want to call it a date? We can. You only have six days left. Six days, six dates with the Bad Bear. I’ll find us lots of trouble. Sound fun?”

The corner of her lip ticked up, then fell. “You think trouble is fun. Trouble isn’t fun. Trouble ruins everything.”

“Nah, you just found the wrong kind of trouble, little nut.” He made a knocking sound while gently rapping his knuckles against the side of her head. What the fuck was he doing? He didn’t do rapport with girls. He had this with Mom and Dad and Jaxon, and that was it. Girls were dangerous. This one was the biggest danger of all. She was already half gone.

“I think I’m more than a little nut,” she said, her cheeks flushing a pretty pink color. “I’m a big nut. I think I’m crazy. Everyone in Red Havoc calls me Crazy Lynn.”

“So does everyone here.” Honesty was best. She knew what was happening.

“Do you call me Crazy Lynn?”

Jathan dipped his chin once. “In my head, I do.”

More hurt slashed through her eyes, and what the fuck was happening? Broken little kitty. She wasn’t the same panther goddess who had left these mountains ten years ago. That Lynn had been destroyed by whatever had happened to her. Now she got hurt by everything. He was the worst one to be taking this on because he wasn’t kind, sensitive, or understanding. Likely, he would break her faster.

The world was black and white to him. You fight or you didn’t fight, and Lynn wasn’t a fighter anymore—but he was. They were too different, and he didn’t understand her. And now he’d offered six dates in six days but with the worst intentions. It wasn’t to fall for her, or to get her to fall for him. He didn’t feel emotion like that, and love was a crock of shit. He was going to manipulate her into living because everything else had failed. And admittedly? He didn’t carry a single ounce of guilt for what he was about to do.

“I want to show you something before I take you into town for our first date.”

“I don’t want dates. Dates lead to dying inside.”

Jathan offered her an empty smile. “Well, lucky for you, we’re both dead inside already. You call it what you want, and I’ll call them dates.”

Her cute little frown got deeper before she formed an O with her mouth, but she didn’t argue. Instead, she pursed her lips and clasped her hands in her lap. “If you’re going to show me your dick, I’ve already seen it.”

Jathan bellowed a single, surprised laugh. “You have?”

Lynn nodded. “I watch you Change at night when you think no one can see your monster. I have a monster, too. Soon we’ll fight. Clash of the monsters.”

Her eyes were going hazy, so Jathan pulled her off the toilet lid quick and turned her around in the mirror so she could see her make-up. He wanted to laugh at the difference between them. He was a foot taller than her, covered in tattoos up to his neck, and his eyes were glowing bright green. While Lynn was a dainty little redhead who looked tiny in front of him and shocked to see her reflection. He would fucking wreck her in the bedroom. Jathan frowned. If that were an option. Which is wasn’t, because she was broken and didn’t need any wrecking from him… Shit.

“Oh,” she murmured in a surprised tone as she angled her face from side to side. “I look…different.”

“Like a petrified raccoon?” Hell yeah, he was digging for a compliment. He’d done good. He’d even done cat-eyes eyeliner on her like the stupid tutorials had shown him how to do.

“No. I look…”

“Beautiful.”

Lynn looked at him in the mirror with wide, startled eyes, as if she was a deer in headlights. “I do?”

Jathan nodded. Yeah, the word “beautiful” was one of his manipulations, but he didn’t care. The slow smile on her face said it worked well enough. He would give her a hundred compliments if it made her fight again. If she was stronger, he would’ve told her she looked hot and fuckable, just like he told the girls he was trying to sleep with in town when his bear became too much and needed sex to settle. Lynn was fragile though, so she would need pretty words. He was going to have to pretend to be a gentleman.

“Show me,” she whispered.

But as he led her out of the tree house and down the narrow staircase to the field of dandelions below, her eyes went dead again, and she walked behind him like she was already a ghost.