Date niiiiiight!

Today had been crazy-busy because of the rain. Usually, youth baseball practices were held at the fields right behind the community center, but it had started pouring around noon. The fields got too muddy, so the coaches had to bring the practices into the two gyms they had on either side of the building. Add that to the support group meetings, karate lessons, sculpture class and baking class, and Vina had been rushing around trying to make sure everything was running smoothly and that none of the teachers, coaches, or students needed anything. And she’d had to work late. It was seven before she said her goodbyes to the senior coordinator.

Bright side, though, Mrs. Villanueva had invited her to stay for the cooking class, and so Vina had spent her extremely late lunch break making cupcakes with a group of rowdy but fun teenagers in the afterschool program. The cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. Crow cupcakes for the guys.

And right as she was packing them in her car to leave, she got a text from Ramsey.

Hey pretty girl, I have a meeting until a little later. I’ll call you as soon as I’m out.

Hardworkin’ man. She only had a guess how much work he did to run a Clan as big as Red Dead Mayhem. Or the effort it had taken him to become Alpha. Nope, she didn’t want to think about whatever illegal ways his Clan made money because she was high on happiness right now, and nothing could dampen her mood. Not today.

She really needed to Change. Okay, new plan. She would drop the cupcakes off at the clubhouse so the guys would have a snack after they got done with their meeting, and then she would go to the woods near Corvallis and Change and do moose stuff until Ramsey was freed up to do date night and ravage her body. Because that was definitely happening. Her mind had been in the gutter all day since he’d taken her on the shower rug this morning. That man was hot as sin and twice as naughty.

Already she felt like a secret bad girl just being around him. He made her want to make questionable decisions, ride motorcycles, wear revealing clothes, and learn to play pool better. And…and…live! She wanted to live. She wanted to break from the normal routine of work, eat, sleep, repeat and have adventures.

Ram liked her. He told her as much this morning, and then he’d watched her eat the giant breakfast he’d brought. And he didn’t even look disgusted when she had syrup on her face. He’d just smiled and kissed it off, and that was special. She bet the next time he brought her food, it would be double the waffles and no pastries. He seemed to genuinely enjoy taking care of her and paid attention. How sweet that a busy, rough-and-tumble outlaw like him could have the capacity to think about her so thoroughly.

She was falling so hard for him that she had moments of fear as she imagined her life when he got bored with her. That’s what could happen for shifters who couldn’t bond. They could just end up friends. But she couldn’t let her past and the rejection of her lost marriage hurt what she and Ramsey were exploring. What they were building. She wouldn’t make him pay for the hurt she’d gone through since he wasn’t making her pay for his pain.

The parking lot to the crow’s clubhouse was completely full, and the entire street out front was crowded with news vans. Vina slowed and frowned at a woman in a business suit holding a microphone, talking into a camera some man was holding.

What the heck?

She coasted past them, and when she couldn’t find a spot in the parking lot, she parked her Explorer along the curb near the row of Harleys out front. There was a crowd outside, but the only person she recognized was Momma Crow, who stood at the front door turning reporters away. She looked pissed, jamming her finger at the street, veins popping in her neck, yelling something Vina couldn’t hear from here.

As she got the cupcakes out of the front seat, a man in a starched blue suit and navy tie held a microphone to his lips as he crowded her and asked, “Are you with the crow shifters?”

She ignored him as she balanced the cardboard box of pastries in front of her and kicked her door closed.

The man stood right in front of her, blocking her path to the door. “Are you acquainted with Ramsey Hunt. Are you pledged to the Alpha?”

“No comment. Get out of my way,” she gritted through a stiff jaw.

“Are you aware of the long history of violence with shifters?”

“Move.” She dodged to the right, but he moved with her, standing between her and the door.

“Are you one of the accused—”

“Get the fuck out of my way before I stomp you to oblivion. I said no comment!”

And then Momma Crow was there. “Back off her! She isn’t a part of this. She is just making a delivery, you prick. That’s how you treat a lady? Look in her arms. She’s clearly here delivering snacks for a private club meeting.” Momma Crow gripped her elbow and led her past the man.

“Did you get that?” the reporter murmured to his camera man behind them. “She’s definitely one of them. Did you see her eyes?”

Crap. “What’s going on?” she whispered as Momma Crow led her inside.

As soon as she shut the door to the clubhouse, the woman turned on her. “Who did you tell about this place?”

Vina felt slapped. “No one. I haven’t even told my parents I’ve been matched to Ramsey yet.”

“Friends?”

“I don’t have any here. I tried, but I don’t really fit in. I swear I’ve told no one.”

“What are these, Vina?” She pulled four little black contraptions no bigger than marbles from her jeans pocket.

Vina stared at them, shaking her head. She wasn’t good at guessing games. “Anal beads?”

“Oh, my God. The worst part is I can tell you are actually confused by these. Vina, these are bugs. We found one in Ramsey’s room, one in the meeting room, one under the pool table, and one under the lip of the bar. This place was clean before you showed up.”

“Wait…you think I planted bugs in here? Where would I even get those? I don’t even like spy movies!”

“I don’t know, but it’s really awful timing, Vina,” Momma Crow said low. “We have a shit-storm of reporters outside, bugs in the house, and the only thing different around here is you. The boys are all up in arms—”

There was yelling behind the big double doors to the meeting room. “Either she fucking goes or we do! I’m not staying in a clubhouse with a snitch. She’s dangerous, Ramsey! You get that, right?” Was that Ethan’s voice? “She puts your Clan at risk, and we were already in the middle of an Armageddon. Your desperation to fix yourself is putting us right in the public’s eye. We are going to take direct hits. You get that, right?”

“Sit the fuck down!” Ramsey bellowed. Something slammed against a table.

“That’s because of me?” Vina asked, panicked.

“Yeah.” Momma Crow shook her head slowly, her eyes pooled with worry. “Even if you didn’t do this, there was a storm building before you came. Ram is strong, girl. He’s so strong. But he’s been limping, and his Clan has seen his weakness for too long. And now he’s picked another girl who they see as a risk, and it puts his place as Alpha in jeopardy. They’re tired. Tired and desperate for things to get easier. You understand?”

Vina stared at the door. Three or four men were yelling now, and she couldn’t even make out what they were saying. There was a roaring in her ears.

“But…I just wanted to help him. I wanted to make him okay. For him to be happy.” Tears prickled in her eyes. “He just said he had a meeting, and that he would call me after. We were supposed to go out tonight. I wanted…” Vina swallowed hard. “I wanted someone I could hang out with after work. I wanted Ramsey.” She looked at Momma Crow with wide eyes. “Am I…am I ruining his life?”

There was a banging on the front door, and even through the frosted glass, she could see the crowd of reporters. Why now? Shifters had been exposed months ago. It had been a slow leak, and now it was a tornado? A tornado focused on Red Dead Mayhem? It didn’t make any sense.

Her phone dinged with a text message. And another. And another. Wiping her eyes on the shoulder of her blouse, she set the cupcakes on the pool table and pulled her bejeweled phone from her purse. It was her dad.

You’re on the news.

Your mom and I just saw you on the news.

What’s happening?

Do we call you?

You never pick up.

You cussed on TV.

You never cuss.

Are you okay?

Oh, geez. “That snippet of me already made it to the news,” she told Momma Crow, who immediately jogged to the big flat screen television behind the bar and started poking buttons on the remote. “My parents are worried.”

“Well, honey, they probably should be,” Momma Crow murmured. “Look.”

On the TV was a shot of the outside of the clubhouse, apparently live, and the reporter, a saucy brunette, was talking about how there appeared to be some kind of disturbance inside. They were filming the shadows against the meeting room windows, and on TV, it looked like the boys were damn near close to fighting. At least six of them had Changed to crows and were dive-bombing. The sound of shattering glass was deafening. The banging on the front door was getting louder, Vina’s phone was going off too fast for her to even respond to texts, and every news channel Momma Crow flipped to was breaking news of the boys’ rap sheets, talking about how shifters were a menace to society. And yep, on channel four, there was Vina, cussing at the reporter with a dozen chocolate cupcakes clutched to her boobs.

“What do I do?” Vina asked.

Jamming a finger at Vina, Momma Crow ordered, “You go up to Ramsey’s room and don’t come down. Stay there, and don’t come down here no matter what you hear. The shit is hitting the fan, girl.” She jogged to the door of the meeting room, her black stiletto heels clacking against the wood with ever hurried step.

The animal inside of her was getting bigger. She was burning through Vina’s veins at the thought of Ramsey in the middle of that fight, being filmed without his permission as he defended her. It wasn’t fair. She didn’t do anything wrong, and he was going to get hurt because of her. He was going to lose his Clan, or worse.

When Mother Crow threw open the door, the bellowing of men’s voices was so loud the confusing words clanged around in her head.

She could see him. Ramsey. Her Ramsey. He was throwing a punch, his face all cut up by talons, fending off a crowd of his own people as they backed him to the wall.

She had her orders from Momma Crow, but for the life of her, Vina couldn’t take a single step toward the stairs.

The moose in her was no coward. She was a protector, a defender, and her person was bleeding.

Momma Crow was screaming for them to bring the fight into the bar, but the boys weren’t listening. They were too full of bloodlust, lunging, punching, beating each other. Rike was fighting Kasey, and Ethan was throwing his knuckles at Ramsey, who turned and slammed his Second against the wall and returned the pummeling. Crows dove for them, but if Ramsey felt their talons slicing at the back of his neck and shoulders, he showed no sign of pain. Just relentless, merciless fighting.

They would kill each other, those men in there. Those outlaws. Those bikers who were supposed to be bound by allegiance to the King of Crows but had somehow become so broken that their Clan was imploding.

The windows were broken, and she could see the flash of cameras. This was very bad. And it was about to get so much worse because, as the Clan surged toward Ramsey, intent on de-throning their Alpha, Vina doubled over the pain in her middle.

She always felt sick right before a Change and hit the floor on hands and knees. She dry-heaved and then cried out a warning. “Stop!” If they didn’t back off him, she couldn’t control what her animal would do to them.

Dad had taught her to be a hunter, to protect the people she loved, and she loved Ramsey. Loved him. Loved. Him.

His entire Clan needed to back away, or she would paint the floors with their gore.

She screamed in agony as she fought the animal, but it was no use. Never had been. She never did win against a full-grown, aggressive female moose.

That animal ripped out of her cell by cell until her human skin was nothing and her tough, furred hide created her new shape, her eight-foot-tall shape because Dad had passed some gnarly genetics to his only child. He’d made a monster moose just like himself. And sure, she didn’t have his antlers, but she was every bit as powerful, and all these crows hurting her mate were so utterly and uncompromisingly fucked.

She bellowed out her death chant. She roared like a bear when she was pissed, but they should understand what was coming for them. Vina charged the room, her hooves slamming against the wooden floors so hard, they cracked into halves. She was destruction, never meant to Change in a building. That saying “like a bull in a china shop?” That was accurate.

She slammed into the half-closed door and lowered her head and took the crowd with her. Four men were pinned against the opposite wall by the window within moments, and the table where they held their meetings? She barreled right through it to get to another three crows. With a crash, the table was nothing but splinters.

She charged and thrashed her hooves at anything that moved. Her fury was infinite. The boys were yelling now, bleeding. Broken. They were panicking and Changing. Crows were everywhere. Broken glass shone like diamonds across the floor. It looked like it was raining black feathers. Talons sliced at her hide, but she didn’t care. It would take a hundred crows to bleed her out. Six were left, eyes full of murder and trained on Ramsey. He was straddling Ethan, fist blasting across his jaw over and over. His eyes were pitch black and promised death, and as much as Vina wanted to allow it, she couldn’t in front of the cameras. They would use him as an example and lock him away, so she did the only thing she could. She reared up and lashed out with her hooves at the men beating on Ramsey from behind, and then she swung the top of her head against Ramsey hard enough to knock him back into the wall with a bang!

Ramsey was on the kill though, and his eyes hadn’t left Ethan, even when he hit the wall. It was an Alpha challenge, and she’d interrupted. The flashing camera lights were so bright, so irritating to her eyes, she shook her head, her floppy ears slapping at the sides of her face. Momma Crow was pressed up against the wall beside Rike, clutching her chest as she stared at Vina in horror. Her moose had that effect on people.

Ethan and the others were writhing and groaning on the floor in pain, and the crows that had Changed had flown out the broken windows and into the night.

Click, click, click went the cameras. She hated them. Vina looked over her shoulder and bellowed again. She wished she could trample them all.

When she looked back at Ramsey, he’d jerked his focus off Ethan, and his eyes were now locked on her. Black eyes. Shocked eyes. His chest heaved with his ragged breath, and the drip, drip, drip of the blood pitter-pattered onto the floor. It was the only sound other than the clicking of cameras.

I’m sorry. She wished she could talk and say those words out loud. I’m so sorry.

Ramsey looked from her to the flashing cameras that lit up his face then back to Ethan.

“Everyone who remains, get into the bar,” he demanded in a hoarse yet powerful voice.

A dozen broken men reacted in an instant. She couldn’t even guess how many broken ribs were in this room, but the men dragged their pained bodies to the other room with grunts of agony until only Ramsey and Vina remained.

This was it. This was where he would tell her to leave. To reprimand her for stepping in the middle of an Alpha challenge. This was where he would look at her moose in disgust as he realized what an aggressive, out of control monster she was. This was the moment he would reject her, because how could he not? Every king deserved a queen, and she wasn’t that. Not even close.

He straightened to his full height, his gaze steady on her. She closed her eyes, ready for the words that would hurt the most.

And then he spoke. “My name is Ramsey Hunt. This is my mate, Vina Marsh. We will conduct interviews in three days’ time at the community center in Darby if you give us space and give us peace enough to clean up our home.”

Vina jerked her eyes open. What?

Ramsey wasn’t looking at her, though. He was addressing the people outside.

“You’ve caused enough trouble with my people,” he gritted out. “This is private property, and you are all trespassing. You got what you came for. Now get the fuck out.”

And Vina, the giant moose shifter who’d expected to be rejected, stood there on locked legs, stunned into stillness over what he’d just done.

Ramsey had just told the entire world that she was his mate.