“Your swan looks cold,” Candace pointed out.

“Not my swan,” Torren said, leading the way around the half-frozen pond toward a glass-encased patio off the back of the mansion.

“Nox’s?”

“Nox is going to eat it at some point. Nevada and I have bets going on how long Mr. Diddles will last.”

Candace giggled. “You named him Mr. Diddles?”

“His name was supposed to be Fergus or some fancy-schmancy name like that, but Nox saw him humping that duck statue over there on the edge of the pond and re-named him. That idiot came in and ruined everything. Vyr is going to burn him at some point. Nevada and I have bets on that, too.”

Candace gulped and jogged to catch up with Torren’s long strides, her boots crunching in the snow. “Does Vyr eat a lot of people?”

“Yep. And don’t worry about the swan. I rigged him up a house with a heater.” Torren pointed to a tiny replica of the mansion with an opening and an orange glowing light emanating from within. “The fucker is just too dumb to stay in it for more than thirty minutes at a time. I think it likes the cold.

Mr. Diddles was watching them ghost the edge of his pond with one suspicious, beady eye. Candace didn’t like birds that much, but maybe it was the tiger in her. “You built that swan house?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Okay, that’s extra sexy-points because a handyman is a sexy man.”

Torren came to an abrupt stop and turned to her, his head cocked. “Really?”

“Umm, yes. I can barely put together a bookshelf that is mostly assembled and includes directions. I’m not mechanically minded at all.” She came to a stop beside him and looked up. “Where did you learn how to build something like that? It’s beautiful. And thoughtful.”

“Not thoughtful. Vyr loves that stupid oversized goose, and if he dies, Vyr will Change and burn everything to the ground and get us all arrested and probably eat like…half the town. I probably should’ve said that last part first because it’s the most important part, but…you know…I don’t want to go to shifter prison if I can avoid it.” He cracked a stunning smile. “I hear the food there sucks.”

“No bananas?” she teased.

“Oh, she’s got monkey jokes.”

After Candace curtsied magnanimously, Torren did something that shocked her. He ruffled her hair and shoved her gently. “You’re gonna be annoying. I can already tell.” He sauntered away, but the way he’d said it made her smile. There was affection in his voice. Or amusement perhaps. And when he turned and flashed her a smile over his shoulder, something electric snapped inside of her and made her gasp.

Torren walked backward and dragged his flirty gaze down and then up her body again. “You coming?”

“Only if you make me.”

“Make you come?” he asked, his smile growing brighter and eyes churning with naughtiness. “I’d wreck you for everyone else. You don’t want that, Wildcat. You want to be able to settle with mediocre sex someday.”

“Cocky,” she accused, following him step-for-step.

Torren glanced down at his crotch and gave a nod. “Yep. Big cocky.”

“You’re gonna be really annoying,” she said, stealing his words. “I can already tell.” Candace bent down and scooped up a handful of snow, shaped it into a ball, and chucked it at him.

Torren ducked it easily. “You throw like a stripper.”

“Oh, my gosh, how many times are you going to bring that up?”

Torren bent easily and scooped snow in his giant hand, then packed a giant snowball. “At least a dozen times a day. That’s how I plan to chase you off, don’t you know? Shame you for your shameful profession.”

“You’re being mean,” she said, jumping out of the way of his snowball.

“Haven’t you heard about silverbacks? We’re the worst.”

“All of you are assholes?”

“Every last one.”

“Even Kong?”

Torren stopped walking backward and frowned. “My dad’s the only good silverback.”

Candace smiled sadly and admitted, “Sometimes I think my dad was the only good tiger.”

They stood there looking at each other, neither one saying what they’d just admitted. Each had told the other they weren’t good. That the good in their family had stopped with their fathers.

Torren straightened his spine and inhaled deeply. “Smells like dinner is on. What do you drink? We have cheap beer or tap water.”

“No fancy wine in the mansion?” she asked.

Torren’s lip twitched, but not in amusement. It wasn’t a smile. “Look around the house when you go inside. Really look. We aren’t living fancy here, Wildcat.” Torren dropped his gaze to the snow, then back to her for just a moment before he spun and strode toward the enclosed back porch.

Huh. Candace followed and opened the door that had banged closed behind him. And then she did as he asked. She really looked around. The porch was much warmer, protected from the breeze by windowed walls, but the table was nothing more than a cheap, fold-out card table that sat six. The chairs were mismatched plastic ones and two had duct tape on the legs. A blue cooler that was old and scratched sat by a charcoal grill that probably cost thirty bucks at the general store. Vyr and Nox were pulling burgers off and Nevada was setting out a tray of tomatoes, pickles, and lettuce. There were heaters above attached at each corner, but none were turned on and everyone was wearing their jackets.

“Can I help?” she asked Nevada.

“Yeah, you wanna grab napkins and a knife for the mustard?” she muttered as she began opening the condiments on the table. “Oh! And grab the strawberries?”

“Sure,” Candace murmured, making her way inside. She could see the great room from here and really took it in. The couch and loveseat were red and brown and didn’t match. They were made of tattered, old leather with rips on some of the seats. The end tables looked like they came from thrift stores, and there was nothing decorating the walls or the mantle over the stone hearth. The kitchen was beautiful with polished granite countertops and hand-scraped wooden cabinets. But when she opened the cupboard near the fridge, it had plastic cups from barbecue restaurants and paper plates.

“See?” Torren asked from right behind her.

It should’ve startled her, how quiet he could sneak up on her, but for some reason she didn’t even jump. Her body reacted differently to the sound of his deep, snarly voice. It sent a hard shiver up her spine, and she didn’t turn around.

“I like that reaction. I like that I can make you tremble,” he said, even closer to her.

His warmth radiated onto her back, and when he brushed her arm with the tips of his fingers, she automatically exhaled and melted backward against his solid stone chest. It was like resting against a wall, but one that made her feel safe somehow.

A deep, satisfied rumble rattled from his chest against her shoulder blades.

“You said you would ruin me for other men,” she whispered, her eyes closed so she could feel his fingertips running through her hair. “What if I’m already ruined?”

“What are you doing?” he asked, his voice nearly inhuman. “You’re calling the animal. It’s a dangerous game you’re playing.”

She responded with a purr and arched her back, pressing her backside against his erection. Big boy. His hand gripped her hip to keep her in place, and his other hand tightened in her hair and pulled her head back, exposing her neck.

“You would be so easy to hurt,” he whispered.

When Torren sucked hard on her neck, Candace moaned, completely lost in the moment. She reached behind her and gripped the leg of his jeans, begging him to come closer. And he did. He shoved her against the counter and ground his erection against her ass so hard, she thirsted for him. Rough silverback, he would make her feel good and forget about the bad parts of her life for a little while. He could offer her a beautiful escape.

He moved faster, grinding on her through their clothes, and when he slid his fingers through hers and pinned her hand onto the counter, she wanted to beg him to take her somewhere private so he could finish them both.

But he backed off of her so fast, she startled. One second he was there with her, connecting, touching her, warming her, and the next…he was across the kitchen, grabbing two glasses of water off the counter. Without a single look back at her, he disappeared down the short hallway to the back porch. The door slammed so hard she jumped.

What the ever-lovin’ hell just happened?

Her body was still on fire from his touch and, dumbly, she tried to recall what Nevada had asked her to get. Plates? Okay. Mayo? Yes. Good, she wasn’t completely useless right now.

But when she stumbled out onto the porch, Nevada frowned at the plates and murmured, “Strawberries, napkins, and a knife. That’s not even close.” And then she arched her gaze over to Torren, who was shoving himself into the small space between Vyr and Nox.

“Sorry,” Candace murmured. She spun around and made her way back into the kitchen, gathered the stuff she was supposed to bring, and hurried back outside.

The others were already seated, and the only empty chair was one next to Nevada with silver duct tape on the leg. Torren was squished between Nox and Vyr, and both of them were giving him matching what-the-fuck looks.

Dumb boy. He was making Candace feel like she had cooties. It’s not like she needed to sit by him anyway, especially if he was going to act weird.

She sat down beside Nevada and scooped strawberries onto her plate and then onto the fox shifter’s plate. She shoved the bowl over to the boys’ side without making eye contact with Torren. Her cheeks were on fire. It wasn’t her way to be embarrassed, but he’d bolted so fast it had to be her…right? But it was good they hadn’t taken the little romp in the kitchen any further because they were supposed to have three dates before she made a decision on the benefits part of this friendship. She couldn’t afford to just jump into a bad decision with a man. She wanted to get to know him a little first, figure out if he was a D-bag and would bail.

They ate in silence for a few minutes before Candace reached for a conversation starter. “Why have a mansion with old couches and paper plates?”

Vyr and Torren ignored her, but Nox pulled out a little book from his back pocket with bent, worn pages and a title on the front cover that read Manners & Shit.

He flipped through a few pages, popped a strawberry into his maw, and read aloud. “When you have a dinner guest, you should answer their questions with politeness and honesty. Huh.” He scooted his chair back loudly and stood, clinking a plastic knife against his beer bottle. Clunk, clunk, clunk. “Okay, I’ll go. Vyr was rich, but the government froze his accounts when he burned Covington and ate like a dozen gorillas and lions. Torren is greedy with his money, I’m between bounty hunting jobs, and Nevada hasn’t been paid but once by her library job, so…paper plates. And no heat. And we all pitch in to keep the lights on and keep this fine cuisine on the table.”

Vyr and Torren were chewing their burgers and glaring at Nox.

“What?” Nox asked, sitting back down.

“Why do you have a book on manners?” Vyr asked around a bite of food.

“I don’t know this shit, and I’m trying to be a good crew member because Nevada gets horny when I’m polite.” Nox kicked Torren under the table.

Torren yelped a curse, then shoved Nox so hard the plastic leg of his chair broke and he went down hard.

“Idiots,” Vyr muttered. “We’re out of duct tape. Now you get to stand.”

“I hate you,” Nox whispered.

“I hate you more,” Torren whispered back.

They glared at each other another few seconds before Nox whispered, “You’re my best friend.”

“Stop.” Torren shook his head and rolled his eyes and looked so mad that Candace had to purse her lips against a smile.

“It’s not funny,” Torren said, glaring at her.

“I know. I’m not laughing.”

“Well,” Torren growled, “you look like you’re laughing.”

“You two have a very cute bromance.”

“See?” Nox crowed from where he was eating his burger on the ground now. “Even she sees our chemistry.”

“Well, she’s a stripper, so—”

Splat.

Candace gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth. She couldn’t believe she’d just thrown a mayo-covered tomato slice at him. It was sliding slowly down his cheek, and when he turned a wild, green-eyed gaze on her, he looked enraged.

Beside her, Nevada was giggling as quietly as she could, which was making Candace have the giggles, too.

“Stop bringing up that I’m a stripper. If you have to call me something, call me a dancer.”

“Well, you dance for money, soooo…”

“Whoa, judgey judgerton,” Nox said from somewhere on the other side of the table. “Manners and Shit, page fourteen. ‘Try to be open minded with dinner guests to make them feel more comfortable in your space.’ And besides, you can’t say anything. So she dances for money? You fight— Oooow!” Nox howled when Torren kicked at him.

Vyr sat up straighter and stopped chewing. “What were you about to say?”

“Nothing,” Nox ground out.

“No, you said something about fighting. T, are you fighting?”

“Manners and Shit, page fifteen,” Torren rumbled. “‘Give the guest a tour of the house.’”

“I don’t see that on page fifteen,” Nox said over the sound of rustling pages.

Torren was already carrying his empty paper plate inside, though.

“Am I supposed to follow him?” Candace asked, confused.

“Uh, I think so,” Nevada answered.

Vyr was glaring at the ground where Nox was eating his dinner.

“What?” Nox asked around a full mouth.

“I hate this crew,” Vyr muttered.

“You lied!” Nevada sounded so happy right now.

Everything was confusing. Candace grabbed her empty plate and followed Torren inside for some mansion tour she was pretty sure he used as an excuse to escape Vyr’s questions.

Letting him off the hook, she said, “You don’t have to give me the tour. I have to go to work soon, anyway.” Candace pulled the sleeves of her sweater down over her hands and forced a smile as he turned toward her in the kitchen. “It was really weird eating with you and your crew. But…it was a good weird. You have something special here, Torren. Protect it.” She gave him a little wave, and turned for the door.

“Wait.” Torren scrubbed his hand down his short, dark beard. “My sister. She’s why I don’t share my money. Or much of it anyway. She’s the reason I’m not bankrolling us here.”

Candace fidgeted with a loose thread on her sweater. “What do you mean?”

He twitched his head to the side. “I’ll show you.” Turning, he led her down a hallway to the last door on the left. Torren pushed open the door and watched her face—for what, she didn’t know.

The bedroom was done in dark colors. Dark brown walls and a navy-blue comforter on a queen-sized mattress on the ground. There was no end table or even a bed frame. There was no dresser, only four piles of clothes stacked neatly against the wall. On the wall hung a single picture. It was a black and white of four people. Torren was younger in it, twenty perhaps and lankier than he was now. He had his arm slung around a dark-haired girl with a pixie cut. She had the biggest grin on her face as she looked right at the camera. Torren was smiling down at her, and beside them, a giant, short-haired man stood behind a petite blond woman with his arms around her shoulders. They were both looking at Torren and the girl.

“Your sister?” Candace guessed.

Torren lifted his hands and began to sign something, shocking her that he knew American Sign Language. She couldn’t do more than sign the simple alphabet, but he was speaking without words, and his hands were poetry.

When he was finished, she asked, “What did you say?”

“I said this is my sister, Genevieve, and she was born deaf. She’s smart, brave, and loyal, and she’s my favorite person. And when she got old enough, she wanted to be a part of a family group. Her gorilla wanted the big family. But her silverback alpha was awful and so were the females. They took her life savings away from her. She was supposed to get cochlear implants. They have a good chance of working for her, making it so she can hear. Not like you and me, but it would still be something very important to her. She would be able to hear her mate tell her ‘I love you.’ She wants to hear his voice so badly. So, a lot of Damon’s Mountains and her Red Havoc Crew have been working to save money for her, but it’s really expensive.”

“How expensive?”

“Shifters don’t get insurance because we aren’t supposed to get sick. She has to pay forty thousand dollars out of pocket.”

“Oh my gosh,” Candace murmured, dropping down to sit on the edge of Torren’s mattress.

Torren joined her and pulled out a metal ammo box from beside his bed. He glanced at her once, his eyes churning that bright inhuman green, before he opened it and showed her what was inside. There were neat stacks of money, mostly fives and tens.

“You’re a stripper. You can’t judge. You have issues just like me so we’re safe.”

Candace nodded. Safe. That felt right.

“I have to fight. The gorilla is fucked up. Nox and Vyr think it’s because I don’t have a family group under me, but that’s not it. I was always fucked up, even when I was a kid. I can’t control the Changes. I’m getting worse. The only thing that steadies me is fighting. I have to fight all the time. I hide it from Vyr because we’re supposed to be perfectly behaved right now. We can’t draw any attention. But I can’t be perfect because I never was. I can’t even pretend. I’m a monster.”

“You’re not,” Candace said, shaking her head.

“I am. Best you understand that right away if you want to be friends. You dance for money. I fight. I don’t judge you. I like to give you shit because you have funny reactions, but who am I to say you live your life wrong? Mine is a disaster.”

“You have more going for you than you realize, HavoK.”

“Everything I tell you stays in here. Swear it.”

“I swear. I’m good at keeping secrets.”

Torren drew his knees up to his chest and rested his arms on them. He searched her eyes before he said low, “I’m trying to stay sane long enough to help my sister get those cochlear implants. I want her to hear my voice before Vyr has to put me down. She’s what keeps me going.”

Ooooh, so Torren was much deeper than she thought at first glance. He wasn’t just being silly with Nox with his fighting and jokes. He wasn’t just this big, tattooed gym rat. He had layers, and the ones he’d just exposed were kind of beautiful. Still, he believed he would be put down. Only shifters who were really bad off were put down by their alphas, but Torren seemed strong, steady, and capable. “But you seem fine.”

“I’ve Changed six times today.”

“Oh my goodness,” she murmured, feeling sick to her stomach. Changes hurt. They hurt badly. Torren seemed in control now, but clearly, he wasn’t. His gorilla forced a Change that often? She couldn’t even imagine her tiger betraying her like that. She Changed once a week, and it was on her terms, when she wanted to. “How can I help?”

“You can’t. No one can.” Suddenly, Torren yanked his shirt over his head and bunched it tightly in his hands. He swallowed hard and turned so she could see his back. The top of his shoulders and the back of his neck were tattooed, but the rest of his back was free of ink. There was a massive birthmark that stretched like the milky way from his left hip up his back to the edge of his tattoos. “I’m marked, like my father was. It’s called the Mark of the Kong. I’m supposed to be the silverback leading the biggest family group with the best genetics. I’m supposed to be Kong now, but my dad gave me the choice. I could take my place with my people and rule them, or I could be like him. I could buck tradition and live the life I chose.”

“What would you have to do as Kong?”

Torren squeezed the shirt until his knuckles turned white. “Breed a bunch of females. My dad was supposed to sire this generation of monsters like me. But he chose my mom, and they only had me and my sister. As soon as the gorillas figured out I was marked, the pressure was on. I’m supposed to make the monster gorillas for the next generation. An army. That’s how they work. Family groups aren’t these big loving crews. They have their intentions on child rearing for the sake of numbers. I always wanted a baby… Fuck. Let’s go. I don’t want to talk anymore.” Torren stood suddenly and walked to the door where he turned. “It’s just I wanted what my dad found, and I chose wrong. I went all in, thinking I would find a single mate like my parents, but it never happened and now I’m messed up.” He held her for a few more seconds with eyes that had muddied to a forest green and were begging her understanding. “I’m going crazy, and I chose wrong. I can’t be your friend. Relationships make me unstable, and I have to make it to my sister’s surgery. You understand? I have to keep steady enough until then. I can’t do this. I’m sorry.”

Candace’s heart physically hurt for him. He was carrying more burden than any man she’d ever met. And she had the bone-deep feeling not even his crew knew how much weight he was shouldering.

I’m sorry. He’d apologized for not being able to give her friendship. He was admitting he was stretched too thin. Torren didn’t realize it, but that was a mark of a good man. He wasn’t one to build up peoples’ hopes, or lead anyone on. He knew what he was capable of, and though he’d looked gutted to admit it, he’d told her upfront he couldn’t be fixed.

And now she would go back to being alone, and he would go back to being in a crew, but still alone with the burden of a too-short life.

“I’m sorry, too,” she murmured.