by Liza Street
Hell, none of this would go over well. His clan had tentative allegiances at best, barely holding it together after the challenge that had brought about Jameson’s victory and Willow’s death, and matters hadn’t improved two years ago with Jake’s arrival. Now this young lioness came waltzing into the Ring of Fire and damn if she wasn’t going to stir up all kinds of trouble.
He pulled on a pair of pants and a t-shirt. No need to pretend the crisp night air had any effect on him—it didn’t. Especially not with Nina’s proximity making his blood run hot.
He thundered out the front door and took stock of the campfire scene in front of him. It should have looked idyllic, a small crowd of eight—nine, counting him—huddled around a fire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and drinking beer. Instead, there were clear divisions. Gemma, Rex, Nolan, and Nina stayed on one side, with Jake obviously butting in where he wasn’t wanted. Erena, Margot, and Carl sat on the other side of the fire. There wasn’t much conversation crossing over from one group to the next.
Nina was smiling at something Gemma said, and seemed to be doing her best to ignore Jake. Jake stood up, stretching as if the sight of his rippling abs would do something to help his cause. Nina looked past him, saw Jameson. Gave Jameson a tentative smile.
Oh hell. It did things to him, that smile. Her teeth just visible, white and sharp, he supposed. He wanted to feel them scraping against his shoulder while he pounded into her. He wanted, he wanted, oh, he wanted.
Without a word, he strode over to the fire until he stood right in front of her, blocking Jake’s body from her gaze.
Rex looked like he might say something, and Jake too, but Jameson gave them the death glare. Jake huffed derisively but moved to the other side of the fire pit, and Rex turned to give his attention to Gemma.
Nina stared up at Jameson in puzzlement. Her wavy hair was down around her shoulders, and she wore a hooded sweatshirt that shouldn’t have been sexy but somehow was.
“So, the alphahole finally shows up,” she said. Smirking, but her bewilderment was clear as day on her face.
“Yeah, the…alphahole? What do you mean?” he narrowed his eyes.
“It’s just the term I use for walking clichés such as yourself.”
He ground his teeth together. “A walking cliché, huh?”
“Uh…” She looked from him and back to the bottle of beer in her hand. “Shit. Sometimes my mouth says things before my brain can think them. Especially when I’m drinking beer, also known as truth serum.”
“Oh, then you’ll fit right in here,” Gemma said with a laugh. “This is a clan without filters.”
Jameson sat down on the bench next to Nina. So close he could feel her body heat. “Does your runaway mouth ever get you into trouble?” he asked.
She stared at him as he carefully wiggled the beer bottle from her grip. “Um, yes. Sometimes.”
He kept his eyes on her, knowing there was a dare written on his face. Stop me, Nina, he thought, as he lifted up her bottle and took a drink. His lips pressed to the same place her lips had been just moments before, sharing her taste, something flowery and dusty and intoxicating.
Nina’s gaze was glued to his mouth, and her fingers worried the frayed ends of her cut-off jeans. Did she want him as much as he wanted her? If so, it was a miracle neither one of them was jumping on top of the other.
Passing the beer back, Jameson said, “Didn’t taste like truth serum to me.”
She finally looked away and laughed. “I guess you get to keep all your secrets, then.” She took a drink of her beer, keeping her eyes on Jameson’s. The way her lips wrapped around it—hell. He needed to stop this. Now.
“Gotta go.” Jameson shook his head, turned around, and went back to the woods.
Rex called after him, “What the hell, J? Come back and have some dinner.”
He’d rather crawl into his cabin and pull stale leftovers from the fridge than be confronted with a woman who had the power to crowd out visions of his dead wife’s face. This wasn’t right, it wasn’t okay. He shouldn’t want to be with her so much.
And that saucy little smirk as she goaded him—if he wasn’t careful, she could probably get him to do anything.
Five
Two days had gone by and Nina hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the alphahole. The alphahole who’d…flirted with her? She still didn’t know, and she’d been afraid to mention anything to Gemma.
There had, however, been some nice feedback from readers on her blog post about meet cutes.
She surveyed the forest in front of her, feeling pleased at how much dead wood she’d cleared. It was backbreaking work, but hell nope she wouldn’t be complaining to anyone. Little did Jameson know, even the worst chores were better than being around reminders of her failure to make things work with Rafe, and how stupid the entire, decade-long ordeal made her feel.
She’d crushed on Rafe since she was thirteen. Thirteen. Ten years. That was a long frickin’ time to hold a torch for someone. The more she thought about it, the more she realized Rafe had been a fairytale in her mind. She and Rafe had been kids—still growing into who they were and what they wanted out of life.
Jameson was no kid. He had to be in his thirties, from the faint lines around his eyes and mouth. He looked like he used to smile a lot, but she’d never seen a smile on his face.
Grabbing the end of one dead trunk, she dragged it down the trail she’d made by dragging other dead limbs and trees, piece by piece, from the brush. This job sucked. She was sweaty, the chainsaw freaked her out because it was so noisy and stank like gasoline, and her hands felt raw from all the carrying. The gloves Gemma lent her had helped, but not to the point that the work became comfortable.
She took off a glove and wiped sweat from her brow. Despite the hard work, she kind of liked this place. The Rock Creek territory was beautiful. In late April, everything was warming up. She’d already hiked around to see how full the creek was with all the melted snow from the mountains. Fish leaped in the sparkling waters, and there was other wildlife around, too. Smaller creatures rustled around in the brush, and birds chirped in the trees above her. It was fantastical, really, like a forest scene in a fairytale movie. Little critters, bright green trees, dark green trees, the blue sky and fluffy clouds.
Her sense of joy and belonging were spoiled only by the knowledge that she was, once again, not wanted.
At least this time, she didn’t want the asshole back.
The other thing spoiling her joy were a few of the clan members. Jake, specifically, with his aggressive sexual overtures. Erena, a fox shifter, and Carl, a wolf, didn’t like Nina either. Nolan was a wild card—she didn’t know what kind of shifter he was. Maybe a grizzly like Jameson and Jake, maybe something else. He hadn’t warmed up to her, either.
But this wasn’t freakin’ junior high, and Nina wasn’t trying to be popular, so she ignored the hostile looks and muttered comments.
She finished dragging the log toward a pile of the rest of them. There, they’d probably be chopped for firewood for either the wood-burning stoves in the little cabins, or the campfire that seemed to happen every night with the Rock Creek Clan.
Despite their nightly campfires, Nina couldn’t help but feel that something was off. Maybe it had something to do with Jake, Erena, and Carl. Sometimes Nolan, who gave Nina a wide berth. The clan wasn’t exactly a single unit, but more an amalgam. The disjointedness didn’t seem to have anything to do with the fact that there were different shifters here; it was more that there were certain loyalties or past stories that had some people sticking to one side, and other people sticking to another. The only people who seemed to move easily between the “sides” were Jake—and Jameson, when he happened to be present. Or so she’d been told. Because she hadn’t seen him since he stomped off at that first campfire.
Stomp off with your sexy self, she’d said in her mind after he went.
Now she decided to take a roundabout walk back to the cabins. She thought of
shifting into her lion, but she didn’t want to have to come back for her clothes. The forest around her buzzed with life—it wasn’t just the insects that flew around on their business, but a force that felt like it came from the ground, feeding into her feet.
The feeling grew stronger as she walked, so she kept going. When she saw the movements of a person up ahead, she paused. She didn’t want to bother anyone. After a second, though, the person scented her and waved her over.
It was Rex, and Nina smiled in greeting. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He leaned against the trunk of a Ponderosa pine and faced a stack of rocks.
Now that Nina stopped to look at their surroundings, she noticed she and Rex stood in a circle of Ponderosa pines. The pines were taller than most of the other trees around them, and they were spaced equally in a circle around the rocks.
She gestured to the circle. “What is this place?”
“Don’t know,” Rex said. “It was here when Jameson, Gemma, Nolan, and I bought the property. It’s one of the reasons we chose this parcel of land instead of another one closer to Sawtooth National Forest.”
“And the rocks were here, too?” she asked.
“It’s a cairn,” Rex said.
“Like a…burial site?”
“Doesn’t have to be.” He shrugged. “We call this place the Circle. We have our clan meetings here, and we used to hold challenges here, as well.”
Nina nodded. The place had a sense of sacredness to it; it would be a good spot for meetings.
“So,” Rex said, “how’s that log-hauling going for you?”
Nina wrinkled her nose. “I’ve put in my mandatory two hours and I’m done for the day.”
“Want me to walk you back?”
“Nah, I’m good. See you later.”
She walked back to the Ring of Fire. Circles. Rings. It was a very round kind of clan, she thought with a snort. She took off her gloves and tossed them on the little porch of her cabin. She could already imagine how she’d decorate this place if she were allowed to stay. She’d replace the blinds in the front window with thick curtains in a dark shade of purple. Some of the old throw rugs could use some updating, and Nina preferred funky, bright floral patterns. The dark tile counter top in the open kitchen would have to go, and she’d put in a taupe or gray granite. Probably gray, which would better go with the curtains.
For the time being, she’d enjoy what she had. This was temporary, anyway. She went inside and grabbed her e-reader. The book she was in the middle of, a historical romance, was gorgeously written. Egypt, Cleopatra’s time, featuring a Roman soldier falling for an Egyptian slave. It wasn’t all porny, which in some ways disappointed her, but the feels. She couldn’t wait to review this book and share it with her readers.
Ads were lining up for the next month, too, which meant she’d have more money saved. She really meant it when she had said she’d pay Jameson for staying here, but if he wouldn’t take her money, great. She could stockpile it until she was ready to go somewhere else.
At the moment, she couldn’t imagine going back to the Corona Pride. She really was happy for Rafe and his mate, Brigitte. The problem was that she didn’t feel like she had a place there. Being with Rafe, she’d hoped, would solidify her place. He’d be her sense of belonging.
It had taken her too damn long to figure out that would never be the reality.
She tapped her e-reader to reach the next page of the Egypt romance, before realizing she hadn’t really absorbed the previous page. Geez, pay attention, Nina. Three more books waiting for reviews, and she wouldn’t get them done if she kept losing her focus.
A text came in on her phone. Laura again. Things are heating up with the vamps.
Nina straightened up in alarm. What do you mean?
Laura: I mean the vamps who were here, they’ve been okay. But now there are new ones I guess.
Nina: New ones???
Laura: Yeah. New ones.
Nina: Do you need me back there?
There was a pause. Finally, Laura wrote, No, we’ll be okay.
That “no, we’ll be okay” concerned Nina more than if Laura had begged her to return. She worried her lip between her teeth, thinking. If Nina went back, there was every chance that she’d be sucked into the daily life of the Coronas. Always a lion at the bottom of the pride. Not particularly valued by anyone outside her family. Always wondering whether there was something more for her, out in the world.
Here, with the Rock Creek Clan, she was experiencing something new and different. She was starting to live her life on her own terms.
Well, her terms, and the alpha’s.
She tried again to focus on the Egypt book, but a rustling noise caught her attention. At first she thought it was a bird, or maybe a chipmunk. She sniffed, but couldn’t smell it. She got up and walked off her little porch and looked around.
There. She peered past the edge of the trees lining the camp. Erena sat at the tree line in her fox form, staring at Nina.
Staring at her like she had been stalking her, hunting her.
Nina stared back and hissed. Then she purposefully turned her back on the fox shifter, and walked into her cabin. It wasn’t a retreat, but a statement. Bitch, I’m not scared of you.
Six
Jameson slammed back another shot and watched Rex and Gemma do the same. The two of them had dragged him out to this tiny little bar on the far side of Helene and insisted he drink with them.
At first he was confused as to why they wanted him to come out…until Rex started pointing out women he thought Jameson should talk to. Jameson had so far said nope about every woman Rex had pointed out, and now Gemma was getting in on the game, too.
“What about that one?” Gemma said, pointing to a pretty, fair-skinned woman with gigantic blue eyes. The woman looked like some kind of cartoon princess, which wasn’t a problem, exactly, but she looked nothing like the woman he really wanted to talk to. Nina.
“Nope,” Jameson said.
Gemma pouted, but didn’t look at all deterred.
“Look, guys,” Jameson said, “if this is all we’re here for, I want to head home. I’m tired.”
“You’re tired,” Rex said with a frown, “because you won’t even sleep in your cabin. What’s going on with you, J?”
“Nothing. It’s just not comfortable there.”
“You mean the all-pervading feelings of dissatisfaction from the clan?” Gemma said. Then she covered her mouth with her hand. “Sorry, it’s not my place. I’m not even one of you guys—”
Jameson leaned back in his chair. “Gems, you are too one of us. Hell, some days you’re mouthy enough to be my second more than even your mate here.”
Rex nodded somberly, not at all offended or bothered by his wife’s dominance.
“So there’s discontent?” Jameson said.
“Which you’d know,” Gemma said, “if you’d actually show up once in a while.”
Jameson raised his eyebrows. “Look, when I said you were mouthy enough to be my second, I didn’t mean you could be rude.”
Gemma nodded. “But if I kowtowed to you all the time, that would get boring, wouldn’t it, now?”
Holding back a smile, Jameson shook his head. “I know the clan isn’t happy. They haven’t been happy since…I don’t even know.”
“Since Asshole Jake came,” Gemma said in a barely-disguised cough.
“Asshole Jake,” Rex echoed. “You’ve seen it, J. The snide little comments he makes, the way he flirts with the sisters so neither of them are happy, the way he turns everything into a dominance battle.”
“Erena and Margot need to get the hell over him,” Gemma said. “That dude is no good.”
“But what are we gonna do?” Jameson rubbed his eyes. The whole thing made him feel so damn tired. “I can’t chase out the unhappy people. Where would they go? Who else’s problem would they become? Is it just Jake who’s the problem, or are there others?”
“It’s mostly Jake,�
�� Rex said, thoughtfully tapping on the edge of his pint glass. “He’s doing a lot of it, and he’s sucking some of the others under with him.”
“So I get rid of Jake, save the clan? Is that what you’re thinking?” Jameson asked.
Rex and Gemma were silent.
“Some help you guys are,” Jameson muttered.
“You should also know,” Gemma said, “that they’re not crazy about Nina.”
“The lion?” Jameson asked.
“You know very damn well who I’m talking about,” Gemma said sweetly. “Yes, the mountain lion. Nina. The one who gives you an instant boner every time you see her.”
“Woman, why are you looking at his boner?” Rex said incredulously.
Gemma laughed. “I’m not. I just know that it’s the case. I can see every time he spaces out and starts thinking about her that he’s having sexy thoughts. You get the same look on your face when you think about me, darling.”
Rex hmphed, then smiled when Gemma gently bit his neck.
“Guys. Focus,” Jameson said. “You’re telling me Jake and the others aren’t crazy about Nina?”
Gemma’s dark eyes got serious. “Jake seems to be trying to drive her out by getting too close. Erena hates her because of Jake’s tactics. Carl…well, Carl hates everyone, but right now he’s directing all that at Nina. And even Nolan’s acting weird about her.”
That was a surprise—Nolan was one of the most laidback guys in the clan. “What’s Nolan doing?”
“I don’t know,” Gemma said, shrugging. “He’s usually friendly, you know? But not with Nina—it’s like he’s holding back. So it’s weird for Nolan.”
That bothered Jameson. Despite the fact that he wanted Nina gone, he at least didn’t want her to be lonely and miserable while she was here. “So they don’t want the lion around. You guys are the ones who gave her the sanctuary excuse, and now we’re stuck with her until she wants to go. And the chores don’t seem to be bothering her at all.”
Rex shook his head. “Nope, she’s already cleared the north portion behind your cabin. Not much else for her to do there.”