One week had been an eternity. She missed everything about Jathan, but she’d done it. She’d put in the work and bonded to her crew again. She was finding herself, both sides, Monster and Lynn, trying her best to make them more like one and less like two.

The crew had lifted her up when she needed it and given her space when she’d asked. Eden had bullied them into backing off any time she had said, “I need a minute.”

Lynn held in a squeal of excitement as she connected the call. She leaned her back against the brick wall of Jessie’s Brewskies where she’d excused herself from her shot-guzzling crew to call her mate. It was pouring down rain, and buckets of water were streaming from the awning she stood under, splashing to the ground and getting her flip-flops wet, but she didn’t care. She bit her lip as the phone rang and rang again.

“Hey,” Jathan greeted her in that deep, rumbling voice she’d spent hours every night talking too. “Tell me you have good news for me, woman. I’m dying here.”

“You can’t die. I need your dick.”

He laughed and said, “Ask me then.”

She made him wait a few seconds and tried to make her voice serious. “When I left Damon’s Mountains—”

“Oh, my God, what’s happening?” Jathan asked, panic in his voice. “Are you ending this?”

“Just kiddiiiiiing,” she sang.

On a breath, Jathan muttered, “Oooh mother-fucking fuck you scared me. Don’t do that. I already packed up my damn trailer and gave Creed my notice.”

Fighting back laughter, Lynn wrapped her free arm around her stomach and stomped on the ground in quick succession to get some of the excitement out. “Jathan Barns, will you move out here and make a life with me? Will you be part of my crew and have sex with me whenever I want and make me pizza rolls when I’m hungry and protect me from wasps because I super-hate wasps. And will you promise to stick with me even if I still disappear sometimes? And will you be good to me and Amberlynn when I get well enough to bring her home?” She sighed to expel some of the nerves. “Will you be a family with me?”

A few breaths went by before Jathan murmured in a soft, serious tone, “It’s just…”

“Stop,” she demanded through a nervous laugh.

“Lynn…I’m already here.”

“What?”

“I’ve been here for two damn days, staying in Saratoga because I couldn’t keep away from you. I was fighting so hard to give you space to do what you needed on your own, but I’ve been in a motel here since Wednesday. I couldn’t stand the thought of an upcoming war for your crew and me being so far away. I’m yours, little badass. I was just waiting on you to tell me you were ready. I was already your family. Amberlynn’s, too. I have been since the day I bit you. I meant that claiming mark, Lynn. You girls have me.”

Her stomach erupted in butterflies, and completely stunned, she stared at the cracks in the parking lot in front of her. “I don’t have to wait to see you?”

“Nope. Give me five minutes to pack up at the hotel. I’m at a coffee shop right now, walkin’ out to the truck.”

“You didn’t bring the Harley?”

“Of course I brought the Harley. I hauled that thing in a trailer with the rest of my belongings. I’m moving in, woman. Make me some room in your closet.”

She belted out a laugh. “I’ll give you three inches.”

“I give you six inches,” he said in a sultry voice. She could imagine him arching his eyebrow at her as he told that joke.

“Perv.”

“You like it.”

Genevieve opened the door to Jessie’s and signed, Are you okay?

Lynn nodded and mouthed, I’ll be right in.

“Uh, hold up on coming out here,” she said to Jathan as she watched Gen duck back inside the bar. “We’re in town.”

“For what?”

“Beer?”

Jathan chuckled. “Is the crew partying tonight?”

“Um, you know how you said you wanted six dates?”

“Mmm hmmm,” he drawled out.

“Well, would a night at Jesse’s Brewskies with me and a crew of delinquent shifters count as a date?”

She could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “Hell yeah. I’ll be there in a minute. I’ll bring the truck so we can fuck.”

Lynn cracked up, was smiling so big her face hurt. “So romantic and poetic.”

“I’m only sweet and well-mannered for you. God, I can’t wait to get both my hands on your ass. I wanna grab it so bad.”

As much as his joking amused her, he was also turning her on right now. He’d revved her up for seven damn days with his nighttime dirty talks. “Touch you in a few minutes,” she murmured cheekily.

“Fuck. Yes. I’m ready.” The line went dead, and now the nervous flutters were warring with the butterflies.

She hadn’t seen him in a few days, and she’d gone through a lot of changes since she’d been in Damon’s Mountains. What if he didn’t like the person she was becoming? What if who she was didn’t work for him anymore?

Stop it. He likes strong women, he’s been telling you to be the badass, he’ll like you just fine. Probably.

She paced the sidewalk, stepping over dandelions that had stubbornly grown in the cracks, avoiding the spots where the rain was pouring over the side of the roof. She couldn’t believe she got to see him so soon. She’d expected to have to wait a few days while he got things in order and traveled here, but there was zero wait time. But also zero time to prepare for his arrival. She probably would’ve worn something sexier than cut-off jean shorts and an old, threadbare Moosey’s Bait and BBQ T-shirt she got when she was in high school. Her two-dollar flip-flops clacked with each step. He probably wouldn’t care that she hadn’t dressed up…right? Crap, why was she so nervous all the sudden? Be the badass. Oh God, there was his truck. Jacked up, black-on-black F-150 with a Grizzly & Proud sticker in the back window.

Her nerves disappeared the second he parked, kicked open his door, and locked eyes on her. His whole face transformed into a grin as he dragged his hungry gaze down her body, pausing on her curves. He wore a black baseball cap and a black T-shirt that was tight on his torso and muscular arms, highlighting all those sexy tattoos. The rain made darker spots all over his shoulders as he stood there. He was as tall as his lifted truck and as wide as the broadside of a barn, with a thick muscular neck she wanted to bite for some reason she wasn’t going to think about too much.

Lynn bolted for him and didn’t slow at all as he jogged toward her. He leaned down slightly with his arms out and caught her full force against his chest. He grunted but didn’t even stumble under her weight. Losing her mind, she wrapped her legs around his waist and laid kisses down his cheek to his neck where she clamped down her teeth as the rain poured on them.

“Gonna get yourself fucked right here if you don’t quit it, you bitey little thing,” Jathan snarled.

He pulled the back of her hair, easing her off his throat, and then his lips crashed onto hers. Rough man gripped her hair even tighter and plunged his tongue into her mouth over and over, possessing her completely, owning her, dominating the kiss until nothing existed outside of where their bodies touched.

“I missed you, I missed you, I love you, I love you,” she murmured mindlessly against his lips as she clung to his neck tightly.

His hands were rough in her hair and on her ass. She hoped he left a bruise back there. Her shifter healing was getting faster the stronger she got, but at least it might stay for an hour. She wanted to be marked by him. Wanted it rough right now.

With a low, rumbling snarl in his chest, Jathan spun them around and strode for his truck. “I can’t wait. I was gonna try to, but I can’t. I need to be inside you now. Right fuckin’ now.”

Yes, yes, yes to all of that. He yanked open the driver’s side door of his truck, and she scrambled across the console to her seat. As soon as he was settled behind the wheel, she slid one hand up his shirt and the other into the waist of his jeans.

As her fingers brushed the swollen head of his cock, she gave a purr of relief. Mine. All mine.

The engine roared to life. Jathan wore a wicked grin on his face as he slid his hand behind her head and pulled her face gently toward his lap. Sexy Bad Bear.

As he hit the gas and drove the truck out of the parking lot, she unfastened his jeans and unsheathed him, then slid her lips over his hard cock. She’d almost forgotten how big he was. Jathan groaned and rocked his hips up as she took him. His hand was still in her hair, but he wasn’t forcing her lower. When she took him in her mouth again, he rolled his hips to the pace she set. He muttered a cuss word, and the steering wheel creaked with the grip of his hand as he drove. Ooooh, she loved this kind of control.

She sped up her rhythm when he groaned again. His leg muscles twitched under her hand, and she gripped him at the base and sucked hard on him.

The truck rocked to a stop. He pulled her up and shoved his jeans down his thighs. “Ride me,” he growled out, yanking the button on her shorts.

Oh, hell yes. It was dark where he’d parked, on the edge of some woods. On the right of the truck, there was a chain-link fence surrounding a small power plant in the middle of the woods. On the left, she could see Jessie’s Brewskies through the trees. They were on some sort of gravel road. It was completely dark, and the moonlight peeking through the clouds in the distance cast everything in a blue hue.

Desperately, Lynn shoved out of her shorts and panties, kicked them off her ankles, and crawled over the console. Jathan gripped her hips and threw his head back against the seat when she slid over his cock. She was tight but wet enough to take him.

“Fuck, you feel so good,” he groaned. He slid deeper into her and then with a hard grip on her hips, eased her up, then slammed her down again.

Lynn snarled and clenched the back of his dark hair, lifted her chin, and shook her head slowly. She wanted control tonight. A slow, feral smile took Jathan’s lips, and his eyes blazed an inhuman green. Sexy, sexy, sexy man.

Lynn let him drive deep into her, but then stayed there, rocking gently, rocking slowly, torturing him as he gripped her ass. He was trying to let her keep control, she could tell, but every few strokes, he would let off an impatient growl and grit his teeth. Oh, he felt so good, bumping her clit with each rock of their hips, and now the pressure was building in her center. Wrapping her arms around his neck and smashing her chest to his, she sped up. She moaned at how good he felt that deep inside of her. Faster, faster they slammed against each other, and he was snarling constantly now. His lips would go to her neck, then her mouth, to her neck, to her mouth.

When his hand went up her shirt and slipped under her bra, she tossed her head back, his name riding her lips. Rough man, rough hands, calloused and strong from the work he did. So close.

“Louder,” he gritted out. “Fucking scream it.”

“Jathan!”

Orgasm exploded through her body, rocking her to the core as Jathan lurched against her. His thick shaft throbbed inside of her, over and over, matching her release and filling her with warmth. His arms shook as he held her tightly against him, bucking into her body, emptying himself completely. He slowed, smoothing out his rhythm, pulsing softly into her, pulling every last aftershock of her release from her. Good man, coveting her, even after he’d had his fill. His hands gentled on her ass, and eventually, they slid up her back. And when they stilled, melted against each other, completely spent, he just hugged her. He held her and pressed his lips gently to her cheek, nose, neck , ears and then her lips, as if he hadn’t tasted her in years instead of just a week.

He eased back and searched her eyes. His face was cast in highlights and blue shadows from the moon hanging low in the sky behind her. As she ran her knuckles gently against his dark beard, he parted his lips to say something, but his attention flickered to something behind her. Jathan’s entire body went rigid, and shock filled his blazing green eyes.

Chills rippled across her skin as she turned slowly to see what had him so enthralled. Through the drops of rain racing down the front window, twenty yards off, a silverback gorilla stalked slowly through the woods in the direction of Jessies Brewskies, eyes intent on the town lights through the trees. Behind him a female gorilla was walking on all fours in the same direction. And behind her? A fully mature male lion. And another. And another. The woods came alive with movement.

“What the fuck?” Lynn whispered on a horrified breath.

Jathan pulled the seat lever and yanked her down on top of him so fast she gasped. They lay flat in his truck, her face pressed against his neck, her body trembling in fear.

“They’re going after Red Havoc,” she breathed against his ear. “In public. Why?”

“Because then no one can help your crew.” Jathan’s voice was so soft it was barely a breeze against her eardrum. He was texting with one hand, the glow of the screen lighting up the interior of his truck. That glow was going to get them busted, but Jathan whispered, “I didn’t come alone.”

When Lynn looked at his phone, the person he was texting was listed as The Blue Dragon.

His grip tightened on her hair as something bumped the truck.

In a whisper, he said against her ear, “The shifters of Damon’s Mountains can’t help if this war is public. Everyone would recognize them.”

Something bumped the truck harder.

Blink.

“Lynn, not yet. We have to get Red Havoc to the woods. Don’t. Change. Yet.”

Blink.

Jathan’s grip tightened around her. “Wait.”

The truck rocked up on two wheels and glass shattered inward with a deafening crash. A meaty hand gripped her arm, and Lynn screamed as she was yanked away from Jathan by a massive gorilla. Window glass cut her thigh as she was pulled through the opening, and the pain was instant. She was flying through the air, thrown by the silverback, and didn’t even have enough time to call Monster. She was shocked. She was going to hit the fence and then the ground, but right before impact, a massive, tattooed arm snaked out and hooked her around the waist, cushioning her. She still fell, but it wasn’t like it would’ve been.

Jathan was scary-fast and had gotten to her. He stood in front of her, facing off with three gorillas—the silverback and two females. Two lionesses were also slinking this way. They were two against an army of mixed shifters, who had clearly become allies against Red Havoc—lions and gorillas, warring together for the first time in shifter history.

Jathan looked like a damn beast in the moonlight, body tensed and puffed up, a snarl rattling from his chest as he eased her toward the fence.

“Lynn, don’t Change until you get to the bar. You need to get Red Havoc to the woods so Damon can help them.”

“What will you do?” Damn her voice as it shook like a dry leaf in autumn.

“I’m gonna buy you time.”

“But there’s too many,” she whispered in terror.

He gave her a fiery glance over his shoulder. “Get to Greyson. Run, Lynn.” And then an enormous bruin grizzly exploded from his body with a force so big, she was thrown into the chain-link fence.

A snarl sounded behind her, and she turned just in time to see a lion running straight for her from the other side of the fence. With a shriek, she pushed off it, just as Jathan charged the silverbacks. The force of them hitting each other reverberated through her chest, and for one terror-filled moment, she watched the violence Jathan was capable of. He really was Monster, just like her. He ripped and shredded the gorillas with teeth and claws, and as much as she wanted to stay here and make sure he finished them, he’d asked her to run. To find Greyson.

She forced her legs to move, and in the woods near her, the two lionesses pulled their focus from Jathan’s fight and arched it to her. Fuck, she was giving them a perfect target on her back as she ran.

Monster snarled inside of her.

“Not yet,” she whispered, pushing her legs harder and harder. Jathan was right. If she Changed now, Monster would turn around and fight every last shifter coming for her. She wouldn’t be able to tell the crew they could get help if they made it to the woods. She wouldn’t be there for Grey and whatever was happening inside the bar right now.

Fuck! Dunn lions? Cold Mountain Pride? Gorillas? There were so many, all allied with the sole purpose of snuffing her crew from the history books. Red Havoc had made lethal enemies.

She could feel them behind her now, hear them growling and panting. The hairs lifted on her body. At the last second, she pulled off sharply to the right. One of the lionesses had been mid-leap and went flying into an oak, but one of them skidded through the dry leaves on the ground and kept coming.

Almost to the street!

Now! Monster growled louder inside of her. Blink.

“Not yet!”

There was chaos in the parking lot of Jessie’s, and smoke billowed from one side of the bar. Lion’s and gorillas were everywhere, focused on something happening on the side of the building. A panther screamed. Fuck, that was Barret. Another screamed, and a bear roared. Jaxon. Behind her, another roar bellowed, answering his twin. Jathan.

Fury boiled in her blood, tinging her vision with red. Blink.

“Not. Yet.”

She could see them now. There was a crowd around her crew, so many lions, so many gorillas. Humans were scattering in the parking lot and street like roaches running from the sunlight. The air was filled with screaming.

Now? For fuck’s sake now, or we’ll lose them!

“Not. Fucking. Yet,” Lynn gritted out.

She shoved between two female gorillas who were set to pound their fists onto Jaxon’s grizzly. Lynn ducked under his belly just as he reared back and raked his powerful claw against the arm of one of the gorillas. The war had already started, and Red Havoc was locked in battle with every shifter that could reach them. Her crew was losing. Bleeding. Eden was swooping down and clawing at faces, trying to give them relief. Kaylee’s lioness was brawling with two male lions, and She-Devil had gone straight murder-cat on two lionesses already, but had three more on her now. Greyson. Where the fuck was Greyson? There. He was off to the side. He’d been hunted and separated. He was clear on the other side of the parking lot, his panther brawling, but being dragged and herded by four gorillas.

“Get to the woods!” she screamed as a lioness closed in on her race toward Greyson. “We’ll have help if we get to the woods!” God, let her crew have heard her desperate instruction. Let Greyson have heard her.

The lioness was on her.

Now? Monster screamed in her middle.

Lynn pumped her fists and zeroed in on the silverback about to batter Greyson with his fists.

“Now.”

Blink. No time was lost.

Pain ripped through her as Monster took over her body. Black fur, lithe body, teeth and claws. She had weapons now. Weapons she was going to use to maim every fucking one of these assholes who were hurting her crew. Who were hurting Jathan.

She hit the ground on all fours and ducked the lioness, gave that bitch her back as she slammed into the silverback just as he was blasting his fists down on Greyson. Pain clawed down her side, and she sank her teeth into the gorilla’s throat. The silverback gripped her neck and went to fling her away, but she’d hit his kill spot. He was already dead, and he didn’t even know it. She pushed off him—ripping with her teeth. The ripper. She was the badass. There were so many she lost track. She sliced and clawed and bit and spun and attacked, kept those mother fuckers off her alpha as he waged war on so many. Soooo many. Grey was a war machine. She was a war machine. Eden was helping. She was dive-bombing the masses that kept coming. Through the haze, she could hear panther screams. They were closer to the woods, crossing the street and heading for the trees. They were calling her and Grey, but it was too hard to get away. Lynn and her alpha were being pushed toward the burning bar.

Grey was fighting two males now. She didn’t recognize them, but they had to be Dunn lions. They were massive with black manes, a Dunn trait. A female gorilla rushed her, but Lynn’s leg was stuck in the pile of bodies she’d tried to step over. Panicking, she pulled her leg, but it was stuck like cement. Shit! She hunched just as the gorilla came flying through the air, and time slowed. Lynn screamed, promising death if the gorilla touched her. Greyson’s panther screamed in pain behind her. The gorilla was in the air, arms out, silver eyes intent on her, black lips pulled back, baring long canines that would puncture Lynn’s body in a matter of moments.

And then something monstrous came out of the sky, straight down at them, with such power, Lynn was blasted backward, twisting her back leg painfully. All she saw were red belly scales as the wind from the dragon’s wings flattened her against the concrete and stole the air from her lungs. His enormous claws raked the concrete beside Lynn and Greyson as he picked up the two Dunn lions and the gorilla in an instant. With a powerful beat of his wings, the red dragon, Vyr, son of Damon, arched his back and pushed off the ground, creating and earthquake as he aimed for the sky.

The silverback and the two Dunns were gone, and no fire filled the air above them, raining ashes and an arc of burning magma. Vyr wasn’t minding Damon’s rules to not be seen in a war. There would be video footage of this, but the red dragon apparently gave zero shits about that. And when Lynn eased her throbbing leg out from between the two lion bodies, she looked up to see Nox’s blond grizzly and Torren’s green-eyed silverback mauling a pair of gorilla shifters. If they didn’t die in this battle, Damon Daye was going to filet them.

A firm swat on her rump pulled her attention to Greyson, who was urging her forward. Fire blasted down through the parking lot, lighting up cars and causing a new wave of screams from crowds of running humans. Vyr wasn’t a careful dragon, and as important as it was to get to the woods to get help from ally shifters, it was equally important to get as far away from Vyr’s fire as possible. He would char them alive and lose zero sleep over the mistake. That dragon was fucking terrifying.

Lynn bolted after Greyson as best as she could, ignoring the pain of her back leg and the claw marks that crisscrossed her body. How long had they been fighting? It felt like hours. She was exhausted, but fueled by adrenaline. How badly was Greyson hurt? He was running in front of her, not favoring injuries, but his coat was matted and he smelled of blood. A lot of blood. Too much. Fuck. She knew why he was important. The crew had almost folded losing her, and who was she? Bottom of the crew. If Red Havoc lost its alpha right now, right when it was crippled from losing Brody, and almost her, and with power shifting from Ben to Grey, they would all go crazy, just like her. It would be too much.

Greyson made it to the street, aiming for the woods beyond, but when he reached the solid white line, right in the center of the road, he was hit hard by a Dunn. There were so many enemy shifters cluttering the street and woods beyond. There had to be fifty lions and gorillas. Fifty against one crew. She hated them. Hated them.

Lynn leapt onto the lion’s back and sank her teeth into his neck. His mane was thick, and made it harder to hurt him fatally. This lion was the biggest she’d ever seen. He was easily three times her size. Black Dunn mane, and he reeked of a dominance so potent she choked on it. Couldn’t breathe! He had his teeth on Grey’s neck though. Her alpha was brawling, but the Dunn lion had to be on his neck. A kill bite. Fuck, fuck, fuck, she needed to end this before the alpha of the Dunn’s ended Greyson. He was pinned under the weight of the lion, and though he was clawing like some demon escaping hell and doing damage to the lion’s stomach, ribs, and face, it wasn’t enough.

“Be the ripper,” Beaston demanded, his powerful voice echoing over the screams and chaos.

Beaston?

He stood at the edge of the woods, green eyes blazing, hands behind his back, chin held high. “You are exactly as you’re supposed to be.”

She needed to be Lynn, but she also needed to be Monster.

In desperation, she blinked.

And time was lost.