The nasty lion shifter with the chewed-off ear is glaring at me from across the table. He glances down at the wall of poker chips in front of me and his jaw tightens. When we started playing yesterday afternoon, they were in front of him.

“What are you packing, Maddux?” I ask with a smirk. “Besides that two-inch pecker of yours.”

The other three shifters at the table chuckle as he sneers at me. “Two inches?” he says as he leans back and puffs out his massive chest. “Is that what you think about my dick?”

“Actually, I don’t think about your dick at all,” I say with a laugh. “You’re mistaking me with Jack.”

“Hey!” Jack says as the lion shifter glares at me.

“You should ask your mother what she thinks about my dick,” Maddux says. “Oh, wait. You can’t because I split her in two with it. Now you have two mothers.”

“Awesome,” I say with a roll of my eyes. “Double the Christmas presents. What are you holding?”

Maddux tosses his cards on the table with a triumphant grin on his hard face. Even his happy grin looks scary. “Triple kings,” he says. The chair squeaks in protest as he leans back on it.

This is too easy. He’s easier to read than an audiobook, but it wasn’t the way Maddux always scratches his temple when he has a good hand that gave him away this time. I can see his cards through the reflection on his police badge that’s pinned to his chest.

“Use your detective skills and tell me if that beats my straight,” I say as I drop my cards on top of his.

His hard eyes get even harder as he stares at my cards in disbelief.

“Geez, Lachlan,” Jack says with a chuckle. “You’re killing it. What is that? Four hands in a row?”

“Lucky day, I guess,” I say as I reach forward to grab my shiny new pile of chips.

Maddux huffs out a breath. “A little too lucky,” he grunts. “I don’t trust this guy.”

“First smart thing you’ve said all day,” I say as I rake in my new chips, adding them to the pile. I won about sixty bucks on that hand alone.

Maddux downs his Whiskey and then glares at me. “How are you getting so lucky?”

“Cheating,” I say. Hey, at least I’m honest.

The others laugh as Maddux shakes his head in disbelief.

“Abby,” I say, calling the waitress over. She’s wearing pigtails today with little blue ribbons.

She looks all cute and harmless, but I once saw her break a man’s wrist after he slapped her ass. You have to be hard to work in The Dirty Ashtray, the town’s last seedy bar.

She walks over with the tray tucked under her arm. “You’re still here, Lachlan?” she asks with a shake of her head. “You were here when I left work yesterday. Did you go home?”

“I am home,” I say with a smirk as I lift my empty glass up and give it a little shake. “Would you be a doll and bring us each a refill? On me.”

She narrows her green eyes on me as she leans forward in a threatening manner. “It will be on you if you call me a doll again.”

“All right, babycakes,” I say. “Noted.”

Her hostile face melts away and she walks back to the bar shaking her head. “Asshole,” I hear her mutter. “Lucky for you, you tip well.”

Rickard starts dealing the next hand when the front door opens and the unwelcome sunlight floods into the grimy bar. This place always looks better in the dark. You can’t see the cigarette burns on the tables, the dried-up blood splattered on the walls, and the broken dreams and squandered potential that always lingers in the air.

This bar is the last remnant of the old town, back when this place was still known as Red Dead Creek. Back then, the biker gangs roared their motorcycles up and down the streets at all hours of the night. The bars were dangerous, the streets even worse, and the cops were the biggest criminals of us all.

It was a haven for the worst outlaws, the most feral shifters, and the most violent men and women. That’s where a guy like me belonged.

Now the motorcycles have been traded in for baby strollers, the grimy bars have been swapped for fucking cupcake shops, and the cops actually protect people now.

I glance up at Maddux who’s still glaring at me with a murderous gaze. At least some of the cops do…

The door slams shut, and I roll my eyes when I see Caleb walk in. He’s got that enthusiastic bounce in his step that only comes with youth. I used to walk like that, with a spring in my step. That was before the guilt, shame, and sleepless nights took it away.

“Lachlan,” he says when he catches my eye. He flashes his smile at Abby, and I’m anxiously waiting for her to give him the finger, but she doesn’t. She actually blushes and smiles back. That kid has definitely got a way with the ladies.

I turn back to the cards as Rickard deals me a hand.

“Lachlan,” Caleb says as he pops up beside me. “Maximus sent me to get you.”

Why can’t they just leave me alone? I’m not worth the trouble.

I look up at him and let out a heavy sigh. “Tell him you couldn’t find me.”

“You’ve been here for three days,” he says, cringing as he looks around the bar. “Don’t you think it’s time to come home?”

Like a lifesaver, Abby comes over with a tray full of Whiskeys. Just when I need it.

She hands them to me one by one to give out to my friends, but instead, I just down each of them one at a time as she hands them to me.

“Thanks for the drink, Lachlan,” Jack says, shaking his head.

“I’m the one who has to ride home with this guy,” I say, putting the glasses back on Abby’s tray. “Trust me, I’ll need it.”

Caleb frowns as I grab a few bills and stuff them into Abby’s hand. “Bring them another round, will ya?”

She doesn’t look impressed. “Are you going to drink that one too?”

I glance over at Caleb. “Do we have time?”

He just shakes his head.

“Well, I guess I’m out. When the alpha calls…”

I push away from the table and get up on wobbly legs. I’m a grizzly bear shifter, and my enhanced healing makes it hard for me to get drunk, but I always somehow manage to do it. Seventy-two hours of straight drinking will usually have that effect on a guy.

Caleb leans on the bar and watches as I cash my chips out.

“I know you cheated,” Maddux says, giving me the stink eye as I take my winnings.

“You’re a cop,” I say as I lean over him and wipe his shiny badge with the bottom of my shirt. “You’ll figure it out eventually.”

“You’re damn right I will,” he says, grinning at me as we leave.

The sun is so bright that it stings my eyes, and I have to close them before they melt my retinas. “Next time, pick me up at nighttime,” I mutter to Caleb.

He’s looking at me funny as we walk down the road. “Why do you always do this to yourself?” he asks. “We need you at the ranch for the horses. You know they get all spooked out when you’re not around.”

For some reason, the horses love me. I don’t get it either.

“Maximus was having a hard time with them this morning while you were enjoying your bender,” he says. “I don’t get why you do it.”

“I know you don’t,” I say as I slap him on his round shoulder. “This town wasn’t always like this with the nice families and smiling faces. You arrived after the dragons came in and cleaned it up.”

I glance up at the rich hotel on the top of the mountain where the dragons live. I can still remember the day they came swooping in and cleared the vermin with their flames. I still don’t know how I got to stay.

“The town wasn’t always like this with the fucking cobblestone streets and nice flowers,” I say, remembering how hopeless this town used to be. The streets were cobblestoned with potholes and any flowers that were unlucky enough to be in the town got pissed on by drunks on an hourly basis. “There was stuff going on that even a grizzly bear shifter wouldn’t want to see. It was enough to scar someone for life.”

“Come on,” Caleb says with a tilt of his head. “Maximus and Kneecap were here too, and they’ve moved on.”

That makes me laugh. “Kneecap?” I say with a scoff. “He’s moved on?”

Caleb looks flustered as he shakes his head. “Okay, maybe not Kneecap, but Maximus has. And you can too.”

“Some people don’t deserve to move on,” I say, laying some truth on the kid. “Some sins are too great to be forgiven.”

He looks at me curiously. “Like what?”

I grin at him and give him a playful punch on the arm. “Like interrupting my poker game.”

We walk for a while in silence, and I’m already starting to sober up. That’s what I envy about the humans. Alcohol can make them numb for hours or days. Us shifters only get it for twenty minutes at the most.

We pass a young mother pushing a stroller with a cute little girl inside. Caleb smiles at the mother, and she blushes like he just made her day.

“The town was that bad back then?” he says after she passes. “It’s hard to believe.”

What’s hard to believe is that this is the same town. It’s not only the name that’s changed; it’s everything. This used to be a place where people came to escape society. It was the Wild Wild West in the mountains of Montana, where the most aggressive shifters could let their animals take over. Now, it’s a place where people come to raise their families and buy high-priced real estate.

“See that place?” I say, pointing to the ice cream shop on the corner that’s modeled to look like it’s straight out of the fifties. The guy who works there is leaning out of the window and handing an ice cream cone to a little kid on the sidewalk.

“Yeah,” Caleb says.

“That used to be a strip club,” I say. “I once saw a bear shifter rip the stripper pole off the stage and shove it through someone’s stomach.”

“Oh, shit,” Caleb says, looking horrified. “In Mr. Sprinkles’ ice cream shop?”

“Yeah,” I say with a nod. “Nice little Mr. Sprinkles with his stupid fucking red bow tie wouldn’t have lasted three seconds in this town back then.”

“What happened to the guy?” Caleb asks as he watches me curiously. “The one who ripped out the stripper pole?”

I grin as I turn to him. “He’s living with you. It was Kneecap.”

“What?!?” Caleb shouts, his eyes widening in panic. “Kneecap did that?!?”

I just chuckle as I walk past him, the alcohol long gone out of my system.

“But that was the biker gangs,” he says as he catches up to me. “You’re telling me there wasn’t any good in this town?”

A heavy sigh falls from my lips when I remember that summer with her.

“Yeah,” I say with a huff of breath. Even I have to admit it. “There was one thing that was good.”

But she wasn’t from this town. Jessie’s father had dragged her here for two weeks one summer—the best fourteen days of my life. We were both seventeen years old and had our whole lives ahead of us. I can still remember how her gorgeous blue eyes crinkled up when she laughed and how her silver-blonde hair shined in the sun.

It’s embarrassing how I still jerk off to a fling I had eight years ago, but if you saw her, you would understand. I can still remember her perfect face as it twisted up in a pleasured pain while I slid inside her for the first time, taking her virginity. We were lying by the lake. I can remember every detail. The tiny specks of brown sand stuck to her cheek, the turtles plopping into the water beside us, the smell of the wet earth mixed with her cherry perfume, the taste of the lake water on her lips.

My heart starts pounding in my chest from just thinking about it.

“What?” Caleb asks.

“What?” I repeat.

He laughs. “What was the one thing that was good?”

“Oh,” I say, exhaling hard. “The beer.”

He laughs and starts rambling on about the new lifeguard again that he has a crush on. He’s been trying to get with her for the past week, but he’s gotten nowhere.

I tune out and think back to that summer, wondering what ever happened to Jessie. I had always hoped that she’d come back, but I guess it’s better this way.

Men with horrible beasts living inside them don’t deserve pretty, delicate things like her. It’d be like living next to a living time bomb, and I don’t want any harm to come to her.

Plus, she’s probably already moved on. She’s probably married with children by now.

“Where the fuck did you park?” I ask as Caleb finally shuts up about the lifeguard.

“By the diner,” he answers with a shrug. “I got some lunch before I came to get you.”

He starts laughing as we walk past the bus station. “Look at that,” he says with a snort. “Bridezilla escaped.”

My chest tightens when I turn and see her. A flush of adrenaline surges through my veins, making my body tingle as I see the ghost from my past in beautiful living flesh.

It’s really her. It’s Jessie.

Either that or I’m still really, really drunk.

But I don’t feel drunk, and I’d recognize those gorgeous silver-blonde locks anywhere.

I have a sudden urge to slap Caleb who’s bent over laughing as she rips up her gorgeous wedding dress, looking panicked as she shreds it to pieces.

My feet move on their own, and before I realize it, I’m crossing the road to her. My bear is rumbling inside my chest, urging me on. He always liked the smell of Jessie.

She shimmies her thick hips as she rips the dress, making her voluptuous breasts jiggle. Fuck. She’s not the teenager I knew back then, she’s a woman now, and she’s even more perfect than I remembered.

Her hair is a sexy mess of curls that are sticking out like she just got out of a wrestling match with someone who likes to play dirty. Her makeup is all smudged, but I don’t pay attention to any of that. I’m seeing the gorgeous girl beneath it with the beautiful blue eyes, round cheeks, and adorable ears that were always a little too big for her head.

She takes deep gulps of air as she tosses the last of the dress to the pavement and looks around with wild eyes.

My body seizes, and my legs no longer move when those deep blue eyes lock onto mine. I’m suddenly very aware of my pounding heart and how she must be able to see it thumping through my tight shirt.

“Lachlan?” she asks in a whisper.

I can’t even answer. My voice is gone.

I just want to reach out and touch her. I want to feel her again.

“Lachlan,” she repeats and the sound of my name on her sexy lips is enough to get me hard. Luckily, I don’t. “It’s really you.”

But I’m too late. She’s married.

Fuck.