“How?”
“Kane has everything to lose.” When Logan dragged his eyes off the road to her, she smiled sadly. “I’m Winter of Nowhere, remember? I have nothing to lose.”
Chapter Nine
“About time,” Dustin called as Logan reached the others with the bags of cold food.
He’d zoomed away from her as soon as he was able, without a single glance back to see if Winter was following. So it was going to be like that now. Fantastic.
“Are you okay?” Emma asked in that thick voice of hers. Her eyes were already big in size, but right now, they were huge as she stared at Winter’s arm.
Shit, she hadn’t covered the claw marks well enough. “I’m fine.”
Emma arched her eyebrows high and looked at the smashed-up truck. And before Winter could stop her, the little hellion charged Logan and shoved him as hard as her flimsy human arms could manage. He barely moved, but he looked away, exposing his neck. On the second shove, he held up his hands in surrender.
“You hurt her,” Emma blurted out, shoving him again.
“What’s going on,” Dustin asked, a suspicious glance to where Winter was tugging her T-shirt sleeve lower.
Behind Logan, who was still getting push-pummeled by the tiny honey-haired lady, Beast snarled and gripped the back of Logan’s neck roughly, yanked him backward out of the way of Fists of Fury.
“You hurt her?” he snarled out in a terrifying voice. The scars on his face went red right along with his angry flush.
Pulling Emma away from Logan, Dustin told her to, “Cut it out.”
She kneed him neatly and swiftly right in the ballsack.
“Oooow,” Dustin howled, releasing Emma immediately and doubling over.
“Don’t touch me,” Emma said.
Beast and Logan were locked up now, scuffling, hands around each other’s necks and snarling, so Winter rushed to separate them. Her fingers scrabbled desperately for purchase, but Beast and Logan as men were evenly matched. Beast didn’t know what Logan hid on the inside, though.
“It was an accident!” she yelled. “Beast, stop!”
The air was getting so heavy she was suffocating.
“You stupid human, I was trying to help you,” Dustin growled at Emma from where he lay on the ground cradling his dick. “Can you not feel him? You were shoving a monster! Fuck!”
Emma dropped down with a confused frown on her face and patted around Dustin’s privates as though that would cure the dick-kick. Dustin swatted her away none too gently, but Emma was persistent, and the two warring titans in front of Winter were now coming to blows.
Beast slammed his fist against Logan’s Jaw, and Logan landed the same on Beast’s face in a blur. Shit! Winter got yanked down with them as they fell into a heap of flying fists.
“Group D,” Rowan called from the porch.
Winter froze, her arms wrapped around Beast’s massive bicep. The others froze, too.
“Or should I say D-Team,” Rowan corrected, one eyebrow arched. “Please release each other’s necks and balls and follow me.”
There were about ten shifters in a loose group near the tree-line, and all of them were laughing, the asshats.
Dustin struggled to get up, still holding his crotch, and Beast and Logan shoved each other hard before they let go their death grips. When Winter was pushed backward with the force of the two disengaging, Logan snarled like a demon, eyes bright silver as he stood and launched at Beast again.
“Now!” Rowan yelled, power crackling through the air.
Emma was already to the Second of the Blackwing Crew. Dustin called her a “butt-kisser,” before he stumbled on a pile of spilled, cold french fries and loped after them. He was all hunched over like Emma had kicked his balls up to his belly button. Winter had to stay at the slow pace the titans walked because they were still glaring at each other and needed someone to walk between them to keep them separated.
Kane stood in the doorway of the cabin, arms crossed over his chest, bright green dragon eyes narrowed on their rag-tag group.
As they entered the cabin, Kane barked out, “Over there.” He jammed a finger at a couch that would only sit three and paced back and forth across the room as they took their seats.
Winter sat between Dustin and Emma, and the titans stood like pissed-off sentries on either side of the couch, eyes full of fury and locked on each other. The volume of their snarling was ridiculously high and drowning out everything so Winter barked out, “Logan, don’t ruin this for me.”
He dipped his silver gaze to her immediately, and she could see it—the slight dilation of his pupils that said part of him wasn’t broken. Taking care of more submissive females was a base instinct for dominant males. With a deep, baffled frown, he gave his attention to the wall and stopped the awful snarling sound in his throat.
Both Beast and Logan were bleeding, Beast from his forehead and Logan from another split lip. The air smelled like pennies.
“Do I even want to know what happened out there?” Kane asked.
“No,” Winter, Logan, and Emma said at once, while Dustin muttered, “Probably,” and Beast grunted like an animal.
This was ridiculous. There wasn’t a worse matched group of people for a crew, yet they were all sitting here trying just the same. D-Team was exactly right.
Beside her, Emma laughed. Winter pursed her lips against a laugh and kept her gaze carefully on Kane. If Winter looked at Emma’s smiling face right now, she would lose it in a fit of giggles.