She couldn’t depend on Jaxon to keep her steady now.
If she wanted any kind of stable life back, she would have to depend on the Red Havoc Crew.
Chapter Two
“Son of a bag of dicks,” Jaxon muttered as he looked over the steering wheel of his truck to what definitely resembled a moonshiner’s camp. This was not at all the hotel he’d been told Annalise would be at. He’d been duped.
Jaxon rolled down the window halfway, scented the fresh Virginia forest smells, and promptly gagged. It smelled like cat piss. Mother fucker.
As seven different revenges played across his mind, he connected a call back home to Damon’s Mountains.
“Hey, Jax!”
“Bash, please tell me you didn’t send me straight into panther territory to find Annalise.”
There were a few moments of silence before the best stalker-slash-hunter in the Boarlander crew lowered his voice. “Your mom made me not tell you. She’s scary.”
Jaxon scrubbed his hand over his face tiredly and then strangled the wheel with his free hand. “Is she there?”
“No?” The brawler bear shifter didn’t even try to hide the lie in his voice.
“Bash!”
“She’s been waiting for you to call me. We’re eating Twinkies and drinking beer on my front porch. Your dad and brother are here, too.”
“Hey dickweed,” his twin brother, Jathan, called through the line.
“Oh God, this is my nightmare,” Jaxon muttered.
“I had a nightmare last night, too,” Bash said solemnly. “I dreamed that I accidentally told you that Annalise was a panther shifter, and your mom made the grocery store stop selling pizza rolls like she said she was gonna do, and I couldn’t figure out how to special-order the pepperoni ones, and they would only deliver cheese ones—”
“Give me the phone,” Ma muttered across the line. There was a blast of static and then, “Hey, baby boy.”
“Ma, what the fuck? She’s a panther?”
“First off, don’t use the word fuck with me unless you do that curse justice. Second, I had good reasons for keeping her big-catness quiet.”
“Just…” Jax counted to three in his head and prayed for patience. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
“Okay, pinky swear me you won’t get mad.”
“No.”
“Fine. I accidentally made Bash research her when you first started talking, and I know how you feel about dating shifters, so I accidentally kept it a secret that she wasn’t human. Did you bring the green M&Ms?”
Jaxon blew out a soft, steadying breath and did another three-count before answering carefully. “Why would I bring her candy right now?”
“Orange M&M’s will make her boobs grow, but I’ve seen a picture of your girl, and she’s got plenty. You don’t need those. Green M&M’s will make her horny. You’re welcome.”
Jaxon stared defeatedly out the window, shaking his head as he watched a pair of birds on a low-hanging branch. His ma, Willamena Madden, aka Willa Barns, aka Almost Alpha, aka Second of the Gray Back Crew was a handful on a good day. But right now, she was being ridiculous.
“Hey,” Jathan crowed in the background. “Remember that one time Jaxon dated a panther shifter for four months and didn’t even know it?” The slap of hands sounded, and Jaxon could just imagine him high-fiving his dad. This was the worst day ever.
A freaking panther shifter? He wanted to kick everything. He’d been epically lied to, not only by the girl he’d been talking to for months, but by his family and Bash. And now several things Annalise had said or hinted at made sense. She’d been asking him more about shifter stuff lately, like she was testing him. He’d thought she had figured out he was a grizzly shifter and had been avoiding her questions like the plague. His views on his animal were…complicated.
And now his views on Annalise were pretty damn complicated, too. If Bash was right, and she was here, she was in the heart of a notoriously private, violent, and reclusive crew of panthers. Jax’s bear was a brawler, but he didn’t know enough about this crew to go in there guns blazing and asking what the fuck Annalise meant by ditching him all the sudden three days ago. He knew the picture she sent was of her brother, but she’d gotten rid of her phone or something and hadn’t picked up in days.
Stupid him, he’d thought she was in trouble, and he was here on some half-cocked rescue mission to get her out of whatever danger she’d found, but nope, she was just a damn big cat, doing big cat shit. Girls were complicated enough without claws.
Fuck, he’d really liked Annalise, but big cats and bears didn’t mix.
“Don’t run,” Ma said through the phone, like she could read his mind. He hated when she guessed his feelings. “See why she moved out there at least. She hasn’t been a part of a crew before now, so something happened. You owe it to yourself to at least see her tits.”
“Ma,” he gritted out.
“I meant see her.” There was the crinkle of paper, and then she was chewing loudly in the phone.
“Ma, listen to your maternal instincts and share,” Jathan demanded.
“Boy, I love you, but I’m not sharing my Twinkie with you. You’re a grown man. Go get your own.”
Tiredly, Jaxon muttered, “I’m hanging up now.”
“Don’t forget to expose your neck, boy,” Dad called through the phone.
Unease unfurled deep in his gut. “What do you mean?”
“If you’re in panther territory, they’ll be hunting you already. Put up a fight, but if you’re losing too badly, expose that neck and hope they don’t go for the jugular. Good luck getting boned.”
“Fight good! Bye, baby,” Ma sang.
“I’m kind of sorry, Jax!” Bash rushed out right before the line went dead.
Jaxon dropped the phone in the cup holder and threw the truck into gear. Hell no to all of this. He was out of here. He needed to regroup at a local hotel and figure out his next move, but he was definitely not ready to go to war with the panthers over Annalise. If he was perfectly honest, he was pissed at her for lying.
Jaxon spun his tires out on the grass. The headlights were facing the road again before he noticed the red-headed man standing in the middle of the dirt track. His blazing gold eyes were hard as stones, his head canted, his mouth set in a grim line of fury, and every muscle in his body tense. Sheeyit.
With a snarl, Jaxon slammed on the brakes and shoved the truck into park. His bear was right there now, ready to fight, just like always when he saw another male shifter. He pushed open the door and was pulling off his shirt the second his shoes hit the soggy ground.
“Careful,” the man drawled in a voice too low and gravelly to be human. “You’re in my territory. You’ll answer questions before we bleed. Why are you here, Jaxon Barns?”
Great, this man knew him, but Jaxon didn’t know a damn thing about him. He hated this kind of disadvantage. “You know my name, so you know who will come raining fire if I don’t make it back home.”
“Damon? Damon doesn’t scare me, Grizzly. I could have Dark Kane here much sooner than the blue dragon could burn my woods. Let’s not put our friends at war though, yeah?”