One week.

Torren had said he would call in one week, but he hadn’t. Gen had checked her phone a hundred times today, and no call, no message, no nothing. Shit, shit, shit.

She tried calling him again, but it went straight to voicemail, just like every other time. Something had gone wrong.

If something bad happened to Torren…

God, she couldn’t even think like that. Couldn’t imagine life without her big brother. He’d been there to protect her for always. They’d grown up having each other’s backs because they’d been raised right outside of Damon’s Mountains. She’d relied on Torren growing up. He was her brother, but also her best friend.

She wanted to talk to someone, share the burden, but Grey had been pulling away over the last couple of days. It was Ben’s fault. Gen wrung her hands as she sat on the steps of 1010 and stared out at the daisy field. Many of the little white flowers were painted with crimson now. Every morning, at the same time, Ben waited for Grey out in this field, and Grey met him, every day. And every day, she watched her mate be punished for her being here. She watched him bleed. She watched him hold back and pull out of the fight without hurting Ben. Something bad was happening to him though, on the insides. Grey’s smile didn’t come as easy, and he hurt. He wasn’t healing as fast. He was hiding injuries from her, but she saw everything. She watched him undress after he worked at the bar every night, traced the claw marks on his back and arms and chest. She winced at the teeth marks that had ruined the skin of his neck. Not even his tattoos could hide the scars now.

Every time she asked him if she should leave, he would get angry and hold her so tightly. And then he would beg her not to go. “Never go. Don’t leave me, or I can’t do this.” But “this” was a concept she didn’t understand, and he wouldn’t explain.

Gen had told herself to wait the week, and if Torren took care of any danger Sean posed, then she would go to Ben again, tell him she was safe for the crew, and he could stop punishing Grey. She really, really needed the punishment to stop because, inside of her, the gorilla wanted to rip Ben apart limb-by-limb. She hadn’t Changed all week just to make sure she could keep in control around him.

The crew was sitting around a fire pit in front of Ben and Jenny’s cabin, talking. Twice, Eden had waved her over, but Gen had ignored them. They were good at including her—amazing, actually—but she’d seen herself in the mirror. Silver eyes that wouldn’t turn human blue anymore because the gorilla wanted out of her skin so badly. Red Havoc was full of dominant monsters, and she could trigger their Changes too, if she wasn’t careful. Plus, she was waiting for Grey to get back from moonshine deliveries.

Gen checked her phone again. Nothing. Fuck. Torren, where are you?

The fine hairs on her arms rose, and she felt watched. When she arched her gaze back to the bonfire, Ben was staring at her with a calculating look in his blue eyes. Gen barely resisted the urge to flip him off before she gave her attention back to the bloody daisies.

The sun was setting behind her, behind the mountains that surrounded Red Havoc Territory, and it made the shadows of the trees long. It saturated everything in gray light. Gray. Grey. Grey was light.

Just the thought of leaving him felt like a knife in the heart, but she couldn’t watch him bleed every day because of her. That’s not what love was. It wasn’t hurting the person who meant everything just so she could be comfortable and stay here.

Grey’s truck bumped slowly up the dirt road toward her. He parked by her Mustang, a tight smile for her on his lips. But the second he looked over at the bonfire, his eyes went dead again. Ben was standing now, removing his shirt, eyes locked on Greyson.

No, no, no, it wasn’t morning yet, and they’d just fought twelve hours ago. Grey wouldn’t be healed enough for this.

He shoved the door open and spat on the ground. When he cast her a quick glance, his eyes were vivid gold and his face was twisted in a feral mask of fury. Gen stood and bolted for him, then stood in front of him as he walked, pushing against his chest.

“Stop it, Gen.” He tried to avoid her, but she stuck on him like glitter on glue because this was messed up. It was more than she could take, more than she could bear.

Desperately, she looked to Eden and Jaxon for help, and thank God, Jax was headed her way. But when he reached them, he pulled Gen off Grey by the waist.

She fought viciously, kicking his shins, but his grip on her only tightened, and now Grey was almost to Ben in the field of bloody flowers. “No!” she screamed loud, the words scratching up her throat. She didn’t care if it was off-key or thick-sounding. She didn’t care about anything but saving Grey. His arm under his sleeve was mauled still from the fight this morning. “Noooo,” she screamed again, struggling as Jax and Eden and Barret now held her. The gorilla was here, ready. She was going to kill Ben. Kill. Ben. Kill him. Protect Grey.

Eden stood in front of her, so Gen craned her neck, trying to see around her. Get the fuck out of the way!

Eden was signing something, her eyes serious. Signing something…fast…in simple alphabet. Ben is trying to help.

Jax released Gen’s arms, but not her waist.

“Fuck Ben,” Gen yelled.

No, not fuck Ben, Eden was mouthing the words with her sign language now. Grey is supposed to be alpha!

Gen stared at her, completely shocked to stillness. “What?” she signed.

“Can’t you feel him, Gen? Can’t you feel the cat inside of him? He tried to hide it, but he can’t hide from Ben. Ben isn’t the most dominant panther here. He’s pushing him because he has to, Gen. And you have to let him do it. Balance has to be restored to Red Havoc. You brought out Grey’s protective instincts, his dominance. There’s no more hiding for him.”

Grey and Ben were talking now, shirts off, chests puffed up. They both looked pissed. Oh God, they’d been fighting alpha fights? Ben didn’t understand!

Gen turned on Jax and let her gorilla out enough to roar in his face. Smart man let her go, and she bolted for Grey. Before she reached him though, Ben held out his hand. “Stop. Gen, this needs to happen.”

“Why?” she asked out loud. Fuck what she sounded like. “Why!” she screamed.

It was Grey who answered, enunciating his words carefully. “Ben thinks I want alpha.”

Ben’s face turned beet red. “No! I think you need it. I can’t run this crew when no one listens to my orders. I couldn’t figure out why everyone was disobeying my orders all the fucking time, and then it hit me the day Gen showed up, the day you let your guard down, and I felt your monster! The crew isn’t minding me because there is another contender for alpha.” Ben jammed his finger against Grey’s chest. “You.”

Gen was crying tears of anger, but screw everything. She signed simply to Grey, I thought you were being punished because of me.

Grey hugged her so fast, so hard, it stole her breath away. He gripped her hair in the back and made her look at his face. “Ben’s trying to get me to fight. He used kicking you out of the territory to get me riled up. I don’t want alpha. I don’t want to fight. I’m stuck. I’m not my father. I don’t need power. Don’t want it. I want bottom of the crew. My dad reached for Alpha, and look where he is? And look where that hunger for power got me! Banished from my crew. I just want to be invisible.” Grey looked sick as he searched her eyes for understanding. “I just want to be invisible with you.”

Gen clutched his arms and sobbed because, God, she hadn’t known he was fighting this war alone. He hadn’t reached his potential, and now Ben was trying to push him to it. But the more Grey fought being like his father, the more he got hurt. And suddenly, it hit her. She’d hated Ben this week. Hated him for hurting her mate, hated him for being a bad alpha. But he wasn’t being a bad alpha. He was trying to help. Trying to restore the balance of his crew, even if that meant giving up his place as king of these mountains.

Ben was trying to get Grey to rise up and fight for his throne.

I just want to be invisible with you.

“Grey,” she said, hoping to God her words sounded okay. “You. Aren’t. A. Ghost.”

Her phone vibrated in her back pocket.

She ignored it because Grey had her trapped in his gaze. He rested his hands on his hips and snarled up his lip, shaking his head. Ben was moving toward her mate, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Grey’s churning, golden eyes.

Her phone vibrated again and again, back-to-back. Grey was yelling at Ben now, the veins standing out in his neck as he unbuttoned his jeans. He didn’t want to do this, but what choice did he have? Balance was pivotal to a crew staying intact. His panther was hurting the dynamics here by not taking his place in the ranking of dominance.

Her phone vibrated again. Gen yanked it out of her back pocket and sighed in relief when she saw Torren’s name on the caller ID. But the weight slammed back down onto her shoulders the second she read his messages.

Gen I was wrong

The Crew of Two Wars

The first one is yours

Get inside!!!! Get everyone inside. Help is coming.

What? Terrified, she scanned the woods, but they’d gone eerily still. They’d turned scary as the final rays of daylight struggled to reach deeper into the forest.

When a massive shadow moved across the tree line, Gen patted the air, utterly stunned by the terror that filled her chest, but trying to get the boys’ attention. “Grey,” she said, forcing air past her vocal cords to a whisper.

The shadow in the woods came closer. Her heart banged against her ribcage when she laid eyes on the enormous, blue-eyed silverback who had taken everything from her—her pride, her money, her chance at hearing. She’d run for good reason, but he was here for her. Torren hadn’t been able to stop Beaston’s Crew of Two Wars prophesy.

“Grey,” she repeated, wishing so badly she could hear what he and the alpha were yelling, but their lips moved too fast for her to read, and now they were circling each other. Gen was frozen in panic as Sean charged, his meaty knuckles punching the earth with each stride, his eyes filled with rage. His deadly gaze was on Grey. Oh, God. He knew she had paired up, and he was in this for a kill. It was the gorillas’ way. He would have Grey’s exposed neck snapped like a twig before Grey even knew he was in danger.

Behind the charging silverback, the trees shook with shadows, limbs snapping, hitting the ground, leaves raining as the females from her family group screamed and bore their long teeth. And like Sean had given them a signal, all of them, all thirty females, hit the ground and were charging, too.

Grey was too far away and focused, so was Ben. All she could do was protect her mate from the first wave of destruction—Sean.

Rage boiled her blood, and all she saw was red. He’d taken enough. She would be damned if he took Grey away from her, too. With a roar of fury, she let the gorilla have her body. Fuck being submissive. Fuck being half Sean’s weight. Fuck the little voice inside her head that used to say she wasn’t good enough, wasn’t strong enough, that she couldn’t do this. She killed that voice the second her knuckles hit the blood-stained flowers. Lips curled back so Sean could see what was coming for his throat, she charged him, cut off his line of sight to Grey. His focus shifted to her, but she wasn’t backing down, she wasn’t slowing down, and she sure as shit wasn’t playing chicken tonight.

My mate.

My crew.

My territory.

My war.

Sean was gonna paint the flowers red tonight for coming here and threatening the life she wanted. For threatening the people she loved. At the last moment, she pushed off her back legs and leapt through the air. She slammed into Sean with the force of two eighteen-wheelers colliding. She could feel the wave of power from that collision blast through her body, but she didn’t feel the pain. Maybe it was the adrenaline, but she didn’t feel anything as she pummeled her fists against his face. He was off balance as they hit the ground. She sank her teeth deep into his shoulder just as he wrapped his giant hand around her arm. Sean threw her hard, but she dragged her canines through his muscle, inflicting as much damage as she could before she was flung sideways and skidded through the dirt. Grey was on the silverback before he had any time to recover.

In the span of a breath, the clearing had erupted in chaos. Jaxon’s massive grizzly was tearing through two gorillas, Annalise’s She-Devil had her claws sunk deep into the back of another. Eden’s albino falcon was ripping her talons at the face of Margo, Sean’s favorite female. Kaylee’s lioness had another by the leg, preventing her from running. Ben, Barret, Anson, all of them had Changed in a moment and were brawling. She was so fucking proud. Gorillas were huge and with bone-crushing strength, but her crew wasn’t backing down.

It wouldn’t be enough, though.

Thirty gorillas meant certain death for every one of the Red Havoc Crew. They were buying time, that’s all. Their breaths were numbered because gorillas trained for war. Secret wars between each other. Wars over females. Entire family groups annihilating each other for territory. They lived to kill.

Grey was the only one fighting Sean, and she couldn’t get to him. Can’t get to him. Can’t. The female she battled was named Merin. She was one who helped to break her, but Gen wasn’t the same weak submissive she’d been before. She’d spent too much time with the badasses of Red Havoc, and now her gorilla was too angry at this war to let up on Merin. She beat her powerful fists against her and yanked her leg out from under her. Merin was vicious with her fists, and Gen was running out of time. She needed to help Grey. Every instinct in her said to stay close to him, so she hit Merin so hard her arm rattled with the force, and then she bolted for Sean. Grey was latched onto the back of his neck, but he was about to be thrown against a tree. It was Sean’s move, but she could stop it if she was fast enough.

The force of impact with the silverback forced the air from her lungs in a huff. He threw Grey, but messed it up. It was a desperation move to save his throat, and rushed, and she’d hit Sean right as the silverback had grabbed Grey’s leg, so he didn’t go far. He landed on his feet, and then he was bolting for her again. She fought like some wild, injured creature, pummeling Sean with her fists.

Fuck him for telling her she was nothing.

She was the daughter of Kong.

She was mate to the Ghost Cat.

Whether Ben liked it or not, she was going to die as Red Havoc with Red Havoc. This was the crew of her heart.

Something inside of her broke at the thought of this being the end. It wasn’t fair. She hadn’t lived this life long enough. She’d only just found Grey and her crew. She’d only just found happiness.

She was hurting now. The numbness was gone. Sean was ruthless. His teeth sank into her bicep, and there were hands ripping at her. Sean’s females were rallying, protecting him. Where was Grey? She couldn’t see him through the hoard of massive bodies.

Sean slammed her to the ground under him so hard her breath whooshed out of her lungs, and she couldn’t draw it again. He slammed his fists against the ground on either side of her face and roared, exposing three-inch canines. This was it—the end. His blazing blue eyes dipped to her throat, and all she could do with his massive weight on top of her was cover her face as he pierced her skin right at the base of her neck.

But in an instant, the pain disappeared along with his weight, and shocked, Gen looked up to see Torren’s monstrous gorilla stand up on his hind legs, blazing green eyes on Sean as he beat his chest and roared in challenge. Sean was slow to get up off the ground where he’d been tackled.

He’d come. Torren had come for Red Havoc. For her. He’d ripped Sean away from her just in time. Dad would be so fucking proud if he saw Torren slamming into Sean to defend her right now. Panting, she looked around, but Grey had pulled the females off her and was in trouble. Everyone was in trouble. The crew was losing their battles now, playing defense, protecting themselves. Furious, Gen charged the females, prepared to fight to her last breath if it meant helping Grey. He had to exist on this earth, or what was the point of anything?

As she hit the gorillas, a great wind hit the clearing so hard, Gen was slammed to the ground. When she caught her breath again and looked up, a terrifying beast blocked out the entire sky.

Torren had said help was on the way, but she hadn’t expected this.

He’d called in Destruction.

He’d called in Death.

He’d called in his best friend, the mother-fucking red dragon.

He’d called in Vyr, son of Damon and Clara Daye.

The dragon pulled a tight circle and showed his blood-red belly scales and black claws. And with a roar that shook the earth beneath her, Vyr opened his mouth, exposing hundreds of razor sharp teeth. And then he spewed a line of fire across the clearing, cutting off four females charging Jaxon and Annalise. Heat blasted against Gen’s face, and on instinct, she threw off the gorilla Grey was fighting and shoved him toward the woods. They needed to get clear of the dragon’s wrath. This was why Torren had told her to get everyone inside. Vyr wasn’t his father. He wasn’t careful. He was fury and fire, fueled by protective instincts so strong they made him lose his reason and become reckless in battle.

Run. Run, run, run, Red Havoc, because Vyr was going to burn this territory to the ground.

Next to her, Grey was running with graceful, powerful strides. Beside him were Anson, Ben, Jax, the girls, and Barret. On her other side, Torren was running on all fours, twice her size, a fully mature silverback, attention on her. She’d never seen her brother scared, but fear dwelled in his bright green eyes and the set of his mouth.

Through the smoke, Jenny was up ahead with Raif and Bentley, screaming and waving them toward her. Her lips formed the words, “Hurry!”

Heat blistered Gen’s back and urged her faster. Vyr roared again. She couldn’t hear it, but she could feel the earth shaking with it. She’d always been afraid of the red dragon. Everyone was except for Torren.

At the break in the heat, Gen skidded to a stop and spun around. Red Havoc woods were burning, and the surviving gorillas were scattering, bolting across the forest floor and swinging through the trees as fast as they could. Vyr dipped down, jaws open as he scooped ashes into his mouth. Arching his back and beating his massive crimson wings, he lifted into the sky and circled back.

Chest heaving, Gen looked at the line of her friends and her brother, standing there beside her, staring just like she had been at the red dragon as he fed. Silverback, lioness, panthers, falcon, grizzly—all covered in soot and blood. Jenny’s eyes looked haunted as she hugged Raif and Bentley close against her legs and watched Vyr make another pass at the ashes he’d created.

Grey looked over at her, his gold eyes full of question. Are you okay?

Panting and in complete shock, Gen nodded slowly.

Beaston had called Red Havoc the Crew of Two Wars.

Well…they’d just survived the first.