On accident, she pegged Beast in the face, and he roared a terrifying sound.
"No, no, no!" Winter screamed as a monstrous lion exploded from Beast.
He turned furious eyes directly at Dustin. Dear lord, he was as tall as the truck bed. Three times bigger than Winter's panther at least.
"Oh, my gosh," Emma choked out.
Dustin looked back at her. "Get out of here. Now, Emma!"
Beast stalked closer, his lips snarled back over impossibly long, white canines. Dustin Changed in an instant, and the snarling black wolf placed himself in front of Emma, backing her up slowly. She could barely see now, but something huge was coming in fast from the other side of the truck.
A monstrous grizzly tackled Beast, and then there was a panther in the fray, clawing, slapping, and hissing as the titan shifters went to war. Shit! She still had pepper spray, so she bolted for them. They were going to kill each other!
She emptied the entire damn canister, but all she got for her effort was a lion ass to her chest, which blasted her backward. She screeched as she hit the dirt, and now Dustin was in the fight, teeth sunk deep into Beast's back.
Her tailbone felt like it had just rocketed through her esophagus, but this was deadly bad, so she forced her way upward and to the back of the truck.
"Stop it, all of you!" she screamed as loud as she could as she lobbed water bottle after water bottle at them. A jug of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky hit Logan in the face, and he roared at her.
"What the fuck is going on?" Kane bellowed. "Change back! Now!" Power crackled through the air like lightning and, whoo, the dark dragon looked pissed.
Rowan was giggling behind him like this was funny, but it most certainly wasn't. The D-Team had just done the most D-Team thing ever, and it was all Emma's fault.
The roaring turned to grunts of pain, and then there was a pile of naked people trying to untangle. Apparently somebody accidentally touched Winter's boob because Beast got popped in the jaw by Logan, and now the two were brawling in their human skins, just … blasting each other in the faces, fists connecting with sickening thuds. The sheer violence was terrifying.
Kane ripped Logan backward and shoved a hand on Beast's chest, then gave Dustin an I-fuckin'-dare-you glare when he trotted forward a couple steps.
"Fuck," Dustin said, then spat red into the grass. "For the record, this one isn't my fault."
"Separate! Logan, over there." Kane shoved him toward one side of the truck. "Beast, over there." He shoved the tatted-up lion shifter to the other. "Dustin, stay right there, and Winter, I swear to God, if you don't stop stalking Beast, I'm going to burn your tail hair off."
Winter froze all hunched over, her eyes still glowing gold. Everyone was super naked but Emma, who gave Kane a two-fingered wave when he glared at her.
"What is wrong with you?" Kane asked to no one in particular.
"Beast is a psychopath, and so is Logan," Dustin muttered unhelpfully. "I have a submissive problem, Emma's perfect, and Winter uses her claws too damn much when she fights her own fucking people." He glared at Winter and pressed a hand to a deep set of bleeding claw marks across his chest.
"That was a rhetorical question!" Kane barked out.
"I use just the right amount of claws when you three are being territorial assholes," Winter smarted off.
"Well, I hope you get scabies," Dustin said. "Emma, woman, can you come stand behind me. I feel all crazy right now, and you're too far away for me to protect. My eyes burn like I've stuck hot pokers in them, and thanks again Kane for the forced Change."
"Are you done?" Kane bellowed.
"My dick hurts," Dustin muttered, cupping himself. "I think someone kicked it in the fight."
Kane arched one black eyebrow and looked terrifying.
"Now I'm done," Dustin murmured, averting his gaze.
Emma pursed her lips because Rowan stood right behind Kane, biting her bottom lip like she was holding back her laughter. Her eyes were doing the laughing for her. The Second of the Blackwing Crew let off a soft peel of giggles.
"It's not funny," Kane said in an exasperated tone.
"I mean … it's kind of funny," Rowan said. "Look at them. They all look like they're crying, their faces are all red, it smells like Mace, and you just know the story behind this is so dumb."
"It was all my fault," Emma said, womaning up. "Beast was choking Dustin, and he's mine to protect, but I don't have, you know, claws or teeth, so I meant to only pepper spray Beast, but I got all of us, and then I hit Beast in the face with a water bottle, and he turned into this … this … monster-lion. I mean … " Emma spread her arms as far as she could. "He was huge. And then Logan and Winter and Dustin all changed, and my eyes really burn, really bad, but it's all my fault. All of it, but I might be going blind." She blinked rapidly, tears of pain streaking down her cheeks.
But now Kane was fighting a smile. With a sigh, he hooked his hands on his hips and muttered, "You're all a bunch of idiots." But the sting was gone from his voice. He bent down and picked up a water, then handed it to Winter. "Rowan and I will fire up the grill. Get yourselves together, Crew." And then shaking his head, Kane led Rowan toward the back of Logan and Winter's trailer. Emma could've sworn Dark Kane muttered, "I need a drink," as he passed, but he was speaking too softly so she could've been mistaken.
Emma turned back around to the others, who were now pouring water over their faces and scrubbing their eyes. "Are you mad at me?"
"Yes," Logan and Beast said simultaneously.
Winter shook her head. "I'm not."
"Hell no." Dustin shook his wet hair like a dog. "The real shit-starter in all of this was Beast."
"Me?" Beast growled.
"Yeah, none of this would've happened if you'd kept your hands to yourself and stopped trying to kill everyone all the time! Emma was protecting me. You started it."
Beast lunged, but Dustin didn't back down. Huh. Usually Dustin exposed his neck pretty quick after he got hurt, but he seemed in no mood to deal with Beast's beastly mood. Logan could barely keep them separated since his hands kept slipping on their wet chests. Swinging dicks were everywhere. Emma was trying not to look, really she was, but it was like three super-models having a wet and naked party. Winter was staring, too, with her mouth hanging open.
"We should go," Emma murmured as the boys started yelling at each other.
"So many abs," Winter said.
"So many," Emma agreed.
"My eyes still really burn." Winter turned toward her, and Emma giggled sympathetically. Winter's wet, dark hair was plastered to the sides of her face, and her eyes were red and swollen.
"Does my make-up still look okay?" Emma joked.
Winter blasted a laugh and shook her head. "Not at all."
"Do you think I'll still get laid tonight?" she teased.
"Yes!" Dustin called. "Yes, you will. Stop!" He wrenched his hand out of Beast's grip and jogged over to her. He tilted her head back gently and winced at whatever it was he saw there. "Shortcake, never use pepper spray as a weapon again. Please."
"Don't worry. I learned my lesson. I think I bruised my butt when I fell."
"Nooo, not your butt," Dustin teased gently. "It was perfect, and it takes you humans years to heal."
The redness and swelling on his face was already fading away, and the claw marks had already stopped bleeding. "Not fair," she complained, frowning.
"Yeah, werewolf healing is some of the best in the game. We're the fastest to recover. He threw a middle finger to the others who were still washing their faces. "Suck it, suckers."
Emma pouted. She wanted healing powers. Her eyes felt like she'd just come out of a smoke-filled burning building. She was going to be the only one who looked like death warmed over tonight after the others had healed up.
Dustin pulled a plastic bin from the back of the truck to rest on the open tailgate, then popped the lid and dug through until he found a pair of jeans.
"You brought extra clothes?"
"We all did," Dustin explained. "This fight isn't a big shocker. Kane is building a crew of unstable nut-jobs."
He gathered his shoes off the ground where they lay in a mess of tattered clothes. He flipped his damp hair to the side and dressed while she pulled out the biggest bin of supplies she could carry with her shrimpy human arms. Dustin stacked a bin on the cooler and carried them easily, his gait smooth like they weighed nothing. She, on the other hand, was trying to look tough as her arms were nearly pulled from their sockets.