Chapter One
Zuri dropped her worn copy of The Sun Also Rises into her bag and opened the door to her apartment. She jogged down the old orange-carpeted stairs and out into the evening.
She stopped at her stoop to double check that she had her cell phone, mace, bear spray, and panic alarm.
“Hi Zuri.” A soft voice tinkled up to Zuri and she looked down to see the fresh face of her young neighbor.
“Ava,” Zuri said the girl’s name and walked down to the street. Ava, her brother and mother lived in the apartment above Zuri’s. Ava was 17 and turning into a beautiful young woman. Her round face and alert eyes could regularly be seen devouring textbooks, volumes of history, and only occasionally stuck in her phone.
“How is school?” Zuri pushed her bag over her head and around her body. “Any news about colleges yet?”
Ava shook her head. “No and the waiting is killing me,” she said in the overdramatic manner of her age.
“I doubt you have anything to worry about.”
“It’s the scholarships that will be the real news though, without them it won’t matter where I get in.” Zuri could see the anxiety in the girl’s face and pang of understanding and compassion went out to her. There was something about Ava that reminded Zuri of herself. It felt like a hundred years since Zuri had been having the same worries. In the end it hadn’t mattered. Zuri had received scholarships to three of her five top schools but her mother’s battle with addiction and eventual overdose had kept her from going to school at all.
“Cogent?” Zuri tested.
“A clear and logical argument.” Ava picked up the game. The year before they’d begun the game to help Ava prepare for her SATS.
“Loquacious?” Zuri continued.
“The locker room was full of loquacious arguments over which was the best brand of mascara,” Ava said before laughing at herself.
“If you had your choice right now, which school would it be?”
“That’s easy,” Zack, Ava’s brother, said as he came up behind Ava. “She’s gaga for Oregon State.”
Zack’s hair swung over his forehead and part of his face and he spent a considerable amount of time trying to keep it out of his eyes.
“If I went to Oregon State I could still see you and mom whenever I wanted,” Ava said back to her brother.
Zuri tapped her forefinger on Ava’s shoulder. “Well, I have a very good feeling about it. Don’t fret too much, huh?”
“You going to work?” Zack asked. Zuri remembered only a few years ago when Zack had barely come up to her shoulders, he’d sprouted in the last year and now Zuri had to look up when she talked to him.
“Yup, I’ll see you two another day. Say hi to your mom for me.” Zuri gave a forearm high five to both brother and sister. They had thought it hilarious when they’d first conceived the idea of their very own handshake and now it was something they did all the time.
Zuri headed down the sidewalk and looked back to her stoop once to make sure Ava and Zack had safely entered their building.
If she had her own way she would help all the kids in town the way she’d help Ava. Zuri knew that getting a good education was the secret to getting out of Cliffs. Instead, too many kids ended up with needles in their arms, on the streets selling drugs, girls selling their bodies for a quick buck. Ava was proof that a better life could be had with hard work and a little dedication.
An empty soda can rolled along the sidewalk with the fresh Oregon air. Zuri bent and picked it up. She turned and threw the can six feet where it slipped perfectly into a community trash bin.
A whistle passed through the air and she forced herself to ignore it. She had learned a long time ago that it was pointless to respond to the usual whistles, catcalls, and kissing noises she heard when she walked along her neighborhood streets.
The year she turned fifteen, when her hips and butt blossomed into the full figure of a woman, Zuri had learned that her body was going to be noticed by men.
The Smoke Stack was only a few blocks from her apartment building and she would have enjoyed the walk if she weren’t constantly forced to defend her own space. A car passed her with music flowing loudly from its lowered windows. She turned up her own music and let the sounds of the world disappear.
Music had long been her escape. It closed her off from the world that threatened at every turn to overtake her.
Out of the corner of her eye Zuri saw a hunched older figure walking toward her. She pulled out her earbuds.
“How are you doing today, Mrs. Perez?” Zuri spoke loudly, knowing that the older woman was nearly deaf in both ears.
“Huh?” The creased and wrinkled face looked up at her and Zuri smiled.
“You good?”
Mrs. Perez smiled back and nodded, “Good, good.”
“Ok, you have a great night.” Zuri patted the curved and bent shoulder. She watched as Mrs. Perez shuffled away, a plastic bag swinging from one arm.
A roar startled Zuri and she turned to see a man start his motorcycle. He was handsome in a rugged way. She recognized the man, thick unkempt brown hair, jaw covered in stubble. His dark eyes turned toward her and Zuri quickly looked away. He was a shifter and one of the leaders of Magus Motorcycle Club. She knew enough to know that the man was dangerous. He was quiet, she’d only seen him at the Smoke Stack a few times and he’d barely said anything.
Magus was a dangerous group and Zuri knew to keep her distance. She heard stories about people who had gotten on the wrong side of Magus. The usually ended up in traction, minus a few fingers and toes. She hadn’t heard of them being violent to innocents or bystanders, but she didn’t want to test it.
She picked up her step and rounded the block.
The bar was just beginning to get busy. In a few hours she knew it would be overflowing.
“Greg.” She acknowledged the bar’s owner, who was leaning over the bar top counting out bills.
The Smoke Stack was known as a rowdy shifter bar. She saw the same faces day after day. She’d become an expert at being friendly without being personal. Soon after she’d started working as a bartender the regulars figured out that they wouldn’t be taking her home and they’d stopped pursuing her in earnest. She still got plenty of flirtations and plenty of pickup lines but everyone knew that Zuri was not on the menu.
She put a hand through her thick black curls. Her hair framed her mocha face well and highlighted the high cheekbones given to her by her mother, one of the only things she was happy to have inherited from the woman.
“Big night tonight,” Greg said as he walked up to Zuri.
Zuri pushed her bag under the counter and looked at her boss. “What’s going on tonight?”
“Some Ukrainian wolf shifters are in town, causing problems. The Magus are all up in arms.” Greg looked excited by the news. “They were here a bunch of years back, got into some dark stuff, but Magus outnumbered them four to one. Seems they came back prepared, Magus might be outnumbered this time.”
“Hmm.” Zuri tried not to get involved in the underbelly of her neighborhood. She would be leaving as soon as she had enough money and then nothing that went on in Cliffs would be of any consequence in her life. If she could take every kid like Ava with her she would, but she couldn’t, so she just had to take care of herself.
“Have you seen any of them?” Greg asked.
“Any of who?” Zuri turned her attention a group of dirty glasses.
“The Ukrainian mobsters,” Greg opened his eyes wide.
“Nope.” Zuri turned away. Truthfully she had noticed some new men in town. It did worry her, because no one who came into Cliffs was there for a good reason. Her goal was to ignore it to the best of her ability and when in doubt use the can of mace in her bag.
She could feel Greg staring at her but she kept her focus on her hands. She pushed the dirty glasses into the warm soapy water.
“Well, I will be prepared for a busy night,” Zuri said to appease him.
“You’ll tell me if you hear anything? The guys are always trying to talk to you…”
Zuri looked up at him. “Why do you care so much?”
“I care about my neighborhood.” Greg gave an offended look and Zuri pursed her lips. She knew enough about Greg to know that there was no part of him that cared about the neighborhood. He cared about himself and his bottom line.
“Right,” Zuri said nodding, “or maybe you think they are going to take over Cliffs and you want to be on the winning side.”
Greg threw a rag over his shoulder and crossed his arms over his chest before he turned and walked away.
Five hours later Zuri knew that Greg hadn’t been exaggerating. The bar was busier than she’d ever seen it. It felt like the entire Magus club was present and accounted for. Every time she thought it couldn’t get any busier she heard the roar of more motorcycle engines pulling up outside. The men spilled out onto the front walkway. The pool table in the back was being used as extra counter space for the men to put their drinks on.
“…and can I get some wings too?” The young man looked over Zuri’s body as he asked.
“Sure thing.” She pushed a beer toward him.
She found herself wondering about the man she’d seen earlier in the day. The handsome moody one. She scanned the room looking for him but he was decidedly absent.
Zuri chastened herself for even thinking about it.
“Big Joe, what can I get you?” Zuri leaned over close to Big Joe. He already reeked of beer and Zuri assumed he’d spilled half of his drinks on himself during the night.
Joe was called “Big Joe” for a good reason. He was a burly, hulk of a man. Like all of the Magus members he was a bear shifter and had the dark eyes and strength to prove it. She’d seen him turn over a heavy oak table with an accidental hand gesture. Despite his strength he was a soft-spoken and almost shy.
“Same.” He smiled at Zuri.
There was a huge commotion at the front of the bar and without thinking Zuri ran around the counter. The key to bar fights, which weren’t unfamiliar territory at the Smoke Stack, was to cut them off early, before anyone shifted. Once a bear unleashed in the same space, it was impossible to do anything but watch or run for cover.
She pushed her way through a group of four men to see a man she’d never seen before. He was blond, tall, with icy blue gray eyes. Zuri couldn’t tell exactly what was going on, only that the man was standing face-to-face and eye-to-eye with one of the more hot headed members of Magus.
“Why don’t you say that again?” The new guy moved forward and pushed the other man.
The other man pushed back.
“Hey,” Zuri yelled and moved between the two men. “What the hell is going on?” She pushed her hands between them, one hand in front of each heaving chest.
“This asshole was just leaving.” The Magus member practically spat the words.
“I’m not going anywhere,” the outsider said. He moved closer to Zuri and she had a fleeting moment of panic. If either man shifted she was a goner.
“Cut it out,” Zuri shouted. She looked around and saw Big Joe and Greg moving behind her. She felt the pressure in her chest start to release as Big Joe stepped in. Zuri moved out of the way. She pushed her way through the crowd of people to the bar. She leaned over the bar top, grabbed a beer, and snapped off the cap.
“Here.” She shoved the beer into the stranger’s hand. “Now you can leave.”
The man looked at Zuri for the first time. His eyes were blazing with a fire she’d seen before. He stared at her face for a long tense moment then looked at the men around him. His eyes rested on Greg for a quick beat.
“Show’s over,” Greg yelled, trying to release the palpable tension that ran through the room. “Come on,” Greg said to the new guy, “not tonight, huh? Come back another time when things aren’t so tense. This is a family establishment.”
Zuri tilted her head at Greg. He was being a little too nice to someone who had almost started a wolf and bear fight in his bar. She also felt an odd impulse to laugh. The situation was far from funny but Greg calling the Smoke Stack a “family establishment” was hilarious.
She cleared her throat instead and walked back to the bar. She felt the moment of adrenaline still rolling through her body and she tried her best to shake it off.
Even after the stranger was gone the tone of the room remained heightened.
“On the house.” Zuri pushed Big Joe’s wings and a new glass of beer across the bar top. “As a thank you for stepping in back there.” Zuri motioned her head to where the encounter had gone down.
Big Joe practically blushed. He waved a hand in front of his face as if waving away the idea that he’d done anything extraordinary.
“Really, I was getting panicked there for half a second,” Zuri pushed the compliment. She really was thankful for him and Greg. It was a dangerous business to get in-between two men who could literally rip you to pieces in a matter of moments.
“Hey, Zuri,” Greg called to her from the other side of the bar. She smiled once more at Big Joe.
She walked over to where Greg was pouring drinks. “Sandy just called in for tomorrow, can you cover?”
Zuri felt a wheezing release of air float out of her chest. She’d been thinking about spending a full night wrapped in a warm blanked, curled up on her sofa, reading a good book with a glass of wine, and a candle. And another night of the same heightened emotions and possible brawls didn’t sound too appealing.
“If you absolutely need me,” she sighed.
Greg nodded his head, “I absolutely need you.”