The second time his fist slammed into my face, I was ready to go full-on panther on his ass. The stupid small cat shifter honestly thought he could take me in a fight. Granted, I’d allowed him one hit to the jaw, giving him a false advantage so he’d keep a bit of his dignity, but that second hit—well, that was just dumb luck.
“That’s right, asshole. I got this.”
The guy, barely a day over twenty, bounced around on his feet like he knew what he was doing. His name was Pete, according to the fox shifters who’d complained about him. And Pete was trying to piss on everyone’s territory, literally, claiming their camping area as his own. He’d arrived in Eagle Creek less than twenty-four hours ago and had already managed to ruin the good thing we had going here. I’d started off trying to explain the rules to him—register with Mariah, find an empty space in the camp, and behave. It was really that simple.
But good ‘ol Pete didn’t like to follow the rules.
He jumped forward, right hand swinging toward my ribs. But I saw him this time and grabbed his puny wrist before he could even shout an insult. Twisting it back, I felt the tension in his bones—ready to snap if I just moved one more inch…
“Ow! That hurts!” Pete’s whiny voice angered me even more than his insubordinate attitude, so I yanked back a little harder. He fell to his knees. “Hey, asshole. Enough!”
“I’m sorry. What did you say? I couldn’t hear you.” A chorus of snickers rose up around me from the crowd that had gathered. The fox shifters, a group of five, stayed huddled together next to their torn-up tent and overturned picnic table. That had been Pete’s doing. Pete the bobcat.
Yep, a fucking miniscule bobcat shifter had terrorized the foxes who’d been nothing but quiet and complacent since they’d arrived a few weeks earlier. It had been about the time Donovan took control of the crew and Rhys, as his second, started the official registration process for all of us in Eagle Creek. Gone were the days when we could hide in the woods and stay off the grid. Nope, the voters of the great fifty states decided that we needed to register like criminals so the government could track our movements at any point in time. I was still a bit bitter about this, but growing up as a shifter, always hiding who I was, had simply become a way of life. And this was just one more kink in the routine that I would get used to. Eventually.
“Seriously, man. Are you gonna let go?” Pete writhed beneath my grip, his face crinkled up in pain.
“I haven’t decided yet.” More snickers.
“Come on,” he whined. “I only wanted to talk to them.”
I looked down at Pete and gave him a blank stare. “Talk to them, huh? Since when did talking include whipping your dick out and urinating on their food, shredding their tent, and being a grade-A asshole?”
“You tell him!” shouted one of the female foxes.
I gave her a quick head bob and pulled Pete up to his feet. Dragging him in front of me, I forced him to face the group of shifters he’d irritated. “You will apologize to them.”
“No,” he mumbled. “I didn’t do anything wrong. They should be submitting to me.”
Twisting his arm up and behind his back, I pulled on it until he cringed. “Wrong answer. This isn’t a free-for-all, Pete. Eagle Creek is an organized, well-oiled machine and if you want to be a a part of this crew, you will follow the rules. And the very first rule is that you listen to your alpha.”
“You’re not the alpha,” he spat.
“No, I’m not, but I’m the enforcer—” My words were cut off when a blinding pain smacked me in the face. No, not a pain. Pete’s fucking head. He’d slammed the back of his skull into my nose so hard, it took a second for the pain to radiate. But when it did, holy hell did it hurt like a bitch.
The force of the hit, and the immense amount of pain, caught me off guard and I dropped Pete’s scrawny arm. He leapt forward, immediately attacking the largest male fox as though that would solve all his problems. He slammed the man to the ground, punched at his face several times, and didn’t stop until Mary came along and kicked him in the side of the ribs hard enough that he fell over.
Mary, a formidable lynx shifter who’d made it to the final rounds of the alpha challenge, had asked to be my second. As in my second-best enforcer. And I’d agreed. Mary was a brute and had even less control over her anger than I did. It made her a good fighter and a good partner.
Pulling myself up to my feet, I was surprised by the dizziness that took hold. Shit, Pete must have hit me harder than I realized. I pressed my hand against my nose only to feel the sharp sting of a broken bone and the warm liquid of my own blood streaming out of it. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered.
“You okay there, boss?” Mary asked, eyes still glaring down at Pete while he made growling noises like he was about to change.
“I’m fine.”
“Well, I think we have a bit of a problem,” she said.
“Yeah. His name is Pete.” I shuffled over toward Pete but focused on the fox shifter still lying on the ground. His face was bloody but he would heal soon enough. I hated that we’d turned into a bunch of brawling idiots, but I supposed this was the normal when a new group was formed. In my old pride, someone was getting pummeled every single day. It had been the norm.
But Eagle Creek was better than this. Or at least I’d hoped we could be.
Speaking to the foxes, I started to direct them toward their camp. “I’m sorry you had to deal with this. I promise, Donovan will take care of Pete. We hope you’ll stay.”
The woman who’d enjoyed seeing Pete get what was coming to him smiled. “Thank you.”
Her large, green eyes and very ample breasts would have normally had my panther all up in a twist. But not anymore. He only had eyes for one woman now, and the human in me agreed. Thinking about Fawn made my already pounding heart work faster. She’d been a silent but stoic member of our community for a little while now, and each time I had a construction project to work on, I’d be sure to ask her to join my group. Fawn was smart, quiet, and sexy as fuck. And one day soon, I hoped to officially make her mine.
“Hey, Max. Cool it.” Mary waved her hand in front of her nose. At some point while I was daydreaming about my exotic raven shifter, she’d stepped on Pete’s back and held him to the ground like he weighed nothing. Note to self—don’t piss off Mary. “Your pheromones are killing me.”
“What?”
She raised a brow in my direction and then shot her gaze quickly down to my crotch where I felt the boner growing. I couldn’t help it, Fawn just did that to me. “Really?” Mary asked with disgust.
“Hey, someday you’ll be flattered when a man gets hard just thinking about you. It’s a compliment.” I adjusted my jeans to try and hide the bulge the best I could.
“Ew, were you thinking about me?” The disgust in Mary’s voice was offensive.
“Absolutely not,” I scoffed, trying my best not to ask her why that would have been so gross.
“Well, good,” she huffed. “Because my body isn’t for your dirty fantasies. My body is only for my mate.”
“Not going to argue,” I said, trying to smile but then stopping when I felt the agony rip through my nose again. God damned Pete. “What were you saying earlier? About a problem?”
“Oh, yeah.” She stomped on Pete again, pressing his face into the mud. Hopefully it was a spot where he’d felt the need to mark his territory. “I found this about a mile away.” Holding up a yellow rain jacket like a prize, she clicked her tongue. “Smells like bobcat.”
“It’s probably Pete’s.” Pete tried to say something, but it came out all mumbled due to the way his face was smashed into the ground.
“It smells like female bobcat.” Mary leaned forward and pushed the jacket against Pete’s head. “Is there something you’re not telling us Petey-boy?” Mary had her brown hair pulled back into a tight pony tail, and the way she always dressed in all black when working with me, had me wondering if she’d picked the wrong career a long time ago. I could see her as a prison guard. Or a cop. Not as a bartender in the nearest town.
Pete wiggled on the ground, trying to break free from the weight of Mary’s boot. I waved to her and said, “Let him up so he can talk.”
With a groan of disapproval, Mary complied. She was strong-willed and stubborn, but she listened to me without arguing. Pete stood slowly, pulling in some deep breaths as though he hadn’t been able to get air for a while. Serves him right.
“Do you want to explain?” I asked him, pointing to the jacket Mary still carried.
“I don’t know whose coat that is!” He coughed a few times and then spit on the ground.
Mary pushed him in the back hard enough he stumbled again. “Don’t lie to us, asshole.”
He glared at her, a look that made me think I should recommend to Donovan that we ban him. Pete had a few lose wires hiding up under that dark head of hair. “I’m alone. There’s no one here with me.”
Mary sniffed the air, right in front of Pete’s face. He recoiled in disgust as she did her thing. “You’re lying.”
“Am not.”
She punched him in the jaw and chuckled when the blood flew from his mouth as he shouted in pain. “Lie to me again, and you’ll get another one.”
“Mary,” I warned.
“What?”
“We should take him to Donovan.”
Mary flicked Pete on the cheek, taunting him. “Why? Donovan won’t do anything. He’s too wrapped up banging in his love nest.”
I spared a glance toward a cabin at the end of the dirt road that split the camp in two, where Donovan and Mariah had spent most of their waking hours for the last three weeks. Donovan, a ridiculously powerful lion, had succumbed to the idea of having a mate. He’d had a rough life and deserved a little bit of happiness, but I definitely felt like Rhys and I had been picking up the slack quite a bit. However, it wasn’t my job to second guess the alpha, and I certainly couldn’t have the others thinking the same.
“He will,” I argued with Mary. “He cares about this place more than anyone. He’ll step up.”
“Well, if he can pull his dick out of Mariah for a few minutes, sure.”
Mary wasn’t wrong, but she needed to keep her opinions to herself. Especially with the way I saw Pete watching her speak with a smirk on his face. It wouldn’t help if Pete thought there was any kind of tension amongst the leaders.
“You know what, I’ll take Pete to him. You go ahead and…well, do something else.” I’d kept my tone calm, but let the hints of authority sneak in.
Mary balked at my suggestion for a moment but eventually nodded. “Fine. I’ll be at the camper.” Mary and her small group of friends had purchased a used camping trailer and were starting to make things look nice. They’d added a short picket fence out front, a wood patio for grilling and chilling, and even started to build an outhouse in the back. I’d often wondered about their arrangements as there were two women and two men all living together, even though Mary was clearly the leader. But then I shook my head, as there was no room for any of those kinds of thoughts about Mary to slip in. I watched her stomp away, mumbling something to herself and then smile when the other three greeted her with open arms. After a rather long group hug, she disappeared into her trailer.
“So, what now?” Pete asked.
I didn’t like the tone. “Now, I take you to Donovan to see if we should let you stay or kick your sorry ass back into the wilderness.”
“Whatever,” Pete groaned as I grabbed his bicep and started pulling him toward our alpha’s cabin. He didn’t fight back too much, and that instantly had my instincts on high alert.
“Where are you from?” I asked, letting the deep timber of my voice show him that I expected an answer.
“Nowhere. Everywhere.”
Asshole. I dug my fingers in a little harder, just to let him know I wasn’t amused. And that’s what distracted me from the threat rapidly coming up behind me. Only I didn’t see it. Instead, I heard a piercing shriek overhead, and looked up in time to see a large bird, three times the size of a normal raven, barreling down toward us with talons extended and wings spread wide. Fawn screamed again, barely missing my head when she flew right past me and sliced into the woman just a few feet behind me. A shiny piece of metal, a shank of some kind, fell to the ground at the same time the two women collided into each other.
Fawn shifted back to human as she rolled, crouching up on her back legs like a pro and daring the mysterious female to attack. All naked and glorious, Fawn looked like a feral, deadly beast. Her long, black hair always hung free after she shifted, and now it flowed down her back in waves. Plump, round tits stood at attention, her tight abs and curvy hips perfectly evening out her figure. Good god, this girl was going to kill me if I couldn’t have her. I used my free hand to adjust my boner again.
“Gross,” Pete muttered and instant before Fawn attacked the woman. “Paula! No!”
But it was too late. In just a few seconds, Fawn had subdued the other bobcat shifter and managed to break the hand once holding the shank meant to stab me in the back. Fawn, sitting on top of a screaming and thrashing Paula, tucked her hair behind her ears and looked up at me bright green eyes and smiled. “Hi,” she said.
I chuckled and shook my head. “Hi.”
“This one of your problems?” she asked with a smirk and a quick look down at Paula.
“Apparently.”
“Well, looks like I got here just in time.”
“You did.” My dick flinched again with the way she smelled. Powerful, dominant, and in heat.
“Oh my god,” Pete groaned. “Will you just take us to your so-called alpha so you can fuck and get it over with?”
I elbowed him in the nose.
No one talked about Donovan like that. Plus, the pain of smashing bone against bone helped me get my libido under control. I would fuck Fawn right here and right now if she let me. In fact, I’d fuck her all night long if I could.
As though reading my mind, Fawn giggled as she lifted Paula off the ground. When she walked past us, dragging the other bobcat shifter behind, she said, “In time, big boy. In time.” Sauntering away, swinging her ass and hips in front of me, she knew what she’d just done. There was no making a promise like that and then taking it back.
Oh no, we would be fucking real soon.