Chapter 19
“Oh, hell,” Jasmin said. “Lissa! Get back!”
Within seconds, she was a spotted jaguar, snarling and hurling herself at Tank. Lissa stumbled back behind the picnic table.
Tank’s grizzly was enormous. Way taller than her, even on all fours, with a look in his eyes that terrified her.
Flynn gave a muffled curse and began shucking his clothes. So did Sloan.
Xander leaped out of the barbecue area onto the lawn, roaring a challenge at Tank. Tank followed him.
With snarls and popping bones, Flynn and Sloan Changed, Flynn’s lion and a gorgeous spotted white snow leopard crowding the barbecue area. Lissa shrank back, fighting her bear, who saw threats from all sides and no way to escape.
Flynn leaped gracefully for the melee on the lawn, where Tank and Xander were rolling over and over, gouging at each other. Blood matted both their fur.
There was so much noise and confusion it took Lissa a minute to sort out what was really going on.
Tank looked wild, like he really wanted to kill Xander. Jasmin was fighting on Xander’s side, but only to distract Tank and make the battle even—she wasn’t really trying to hurt Tank, though she had opportunities.
Flynn was pacing the perimeter of the battle, keeping them out in the open part of the lawn, away from the fire—and away from Lissa.
And Sloan was sticking to Lissa like glue, standing between her and the others. The fur down his back was standing on end and he was emanating anxious little growls, but he didn’t leave her side.
Finally the battle broke off. Tank lumbered off into the woods, crashing through the underbrush. Everyone else turned back to human, naked and, except for Sloan, bloodied to some degree.
Flynn looked out after Tank. “Jaz, go after him,” he said.
“I’ll go,” Sloan said. “Jaz can stitch up Xander. She’s better at it than the rest of us.”
“Sure,” Jasmin muttered. “Cooking. Sewing. That’s what I’m good for. Remind me to learn how to crochet fucking doilies.”
She gathered up her clothes and stalked over to Xander, who was standing shakily on one leg, the other bleeding and misshapen.
Sloan turned back into a leopard and slipped into the dark forest.
They trooped back to the house, Jasmin helping Xander up the stairs into the main cabin.
Flynn sighed. “Blood on the floor again,” he muttered. “Awesome.”
Lissa turned on him before they went inside. “Why didn’t you stop it?” she demanded. “Xander’s leg is broken! And Tank is all…” she stopped, not knowing what to say. Angry? Crazy? Sad?
“I thought you were supposed to be the alpha,” she said instead. “Can’t you make a rule or something?”
“A no-fighting rule? In a crew of fucked-up dominant shifters? Good luck with that.” Flynn climbed into his jeans. “Even well-adjusted shifters fight. And we’re about as not well-adjusted as it’s possible to be without somebody putting us down. I warned you it was going to be like this. I think it was Rule Number Two. Or Three, maybe.”
“It was horrible,” Lissa said. “Tank’s miserable, and Xander’s hurt. And they were arguing about me.”
Flynn let out a sigh and sat down on the porch railing. “Yeah,” he said. “And no. If it wasn’t you, it would be something else.”
He looked at his shirt and then shrugged, as if it were too much trouble to put it on.
“There’s something you should know about this crew,” he said. “I was going to leave it to explain later, but here it is. For this to be an official crew, the shifters in it have to pledge their loyalty to me as their alpha. And I have to pledge my loyalty to them. Nobody’s done that yet, which means that technically, nobody has to fucking do what I say. I’m dominant enough that I can out-alpha them if I have to, but it takes a lot out of me and I’m fucking tired. Ergo, chaos.”
“Oh,” Lissa said. “Why don’t they pledge to you? They seem to have a lot of respect for you.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Flynn said. “The problem is, pledging to my crew means I can compel them to obey me, if I have to. This group spent too much time in a place where they were tortured into obedience. They’re kind of skittish about that shit.”
Lissa nodded.
“So there’s only so much I can do to keep them from fighting, and I wouldn’t do much more if I could,” he said. “It’s dangerous for them to keep their emotions locked up. They need the release.”
He massaged the back of his neck with one hand.
“Tank and Xander are both riled up right now. Tank’s worried about you, and he has feelings for you he doesn’t know what to do with. And your story dredged up some shit for Xander, too. They needed to get it out of their systems.” He cracked his neck. “They should just change the job description from alpha to referee.”
Lissa bit her lips. She was still shaky from being so close to getting her arm ripped off, and she hated seeing Tank so upset, and Xander hurt. “Will Xander’s leg be okay?” she asked.
“Sure,” Flynn said. “He has shifter healing. So do you. It’ll be fine in a day or two.”
Wow. An injury like that would take weeks to heal for a normal person.
She looked out into the woods. “I didn’t mean to upset Tank,” she said. “Is he all right?”
“Sloan will watch out for him,” Flynn said. “The problem is, his bear won’t come out anymore except to fight, or sometimes to roam the woods at night.” He glanced over at Lissa. “Or to take care of someone. When Tristan was still with us, Tank used to take care of him when his wolf went wild. Follow him through the woods, keep him out of trouble, like Sloan’s doing for Tank now. He misses Tristan—his bear needs to bond with people, but at the same time, after everything he’s been through, he’s scared to.”
“He told me about his mate,” Lissa said. “Angie. The one who was killed by shifter hunters.”
Flynn looked surprised. “He did? Huh. Did he tell you what happened afterwards?”
“Just that he left their house, left everything behind and never went back.”
Flynn nodded. “What he didn’t tell you was he joined a group of shifters who hunt the hunters. He stayed with them for about a year. I don’t know how many kills he registered, but there shouldn’t have been any at all.”
“Why not?” Lissa said. “They were horrible people. They killed his wife for no reason.” She didn’t feel at all sorry they’d been killed.
Flynn gave her a flat look. “No argument there. Somebody like me, I don’t give a fuck. Killing them’s not going to wreck my soul. But Tank…” He shook his head. “He’s a Protector bear. It’s in his DNA. He left his clan group, so he never took up the role officially, but Protectors only fight and kill when they’re defending their people. They’re not killers by nature. It does something to them.”
He added, “And even then, they couldn’t kill the good in him. You know how Grant’s shifter hunters finally got him?”
She shook her head.
“They set him up. A girl in the wilderness, said her sister was in trouble, caught by the hunters. Led him right into a trap, because he couldn’t fucking stop himself from helping someone he thought needed help.”
Anger burned through Lissa, that someone had used the essential goodness in Tank to betray him.
“That’s why I was glad when he decided to help you, even though the last thing we needed was another problem shifter,” he said. “I think it’s good for him to have you here, but it’s hard on him, too. Try to cut him some slack, okay?”
Lissa nodded.
“Come on,” Flynn said. “I’ll walk you to the tiny house.”
They went around the side of the cabin to the little house. It was dark, and without Tank, it felt lonely.
“You got everything you need?” Flynn asked as she climbed the steps. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be walking back and forth between here and the house right now. Once you’re inside, stay in.”
Lissa bit her lips. Did he mean Tank might attack her? Or Xander, or one of the others? The woods suddenly looked dark and full of threats.
She shook her head. “I’m okay. Thanks.”
He nodded, and walked silently off into the shadows.