Chapter One
Good for them.
Jason Trager climbed down from the treehouse and watched his alpha, Creed, and his new mate Gia walk toward the Grayland Mobile Park, hand in hand. He couldn’t take his eyes off their entwined fingers as they talked and joked with the other Gray Backs.
Damn, he wished he and Tessa had managed even a fraction of the respect Creed and Gia had for each other. Things sure would’ve worked out differently. Tessa. Jason snarled his lip and ripped his gaze away from Creed and Gia’s clasped hands. Not everyone who found a mate got the happy ending. He would know. His ending was a life of loneliness and a crew of blood-thirsty, broken Gray Backs.
“Man, I’m leaving this place,” Clinton muttered beside him.
He always threatened that, so Jason ignored the half-assed threat and sauntered around a jagged tree stump. The poor pine had probably been a casualty of Beaston dragging his singlewide up the trail and into the woods to avoid living with the rest of the crew.
Clinton spat on a pile of leaves. “I’m serious this time. Willa and Gia are awesome, but you saw what women did to the Ashe Crew.”
Jason sighed and glared at Clinton whose blond brows were jacked up with seriousness.
“We’ll all be mated in a year,” Clinton said, blue eyes gone round. “It was one thing having Willa come into the crew, but now Gia? I’m calling it now. If I stay here, I’m as good as whipped.”
“Then leave,” Jason said. “See who will take you.”
“Harrison would take me.”
“You gonna be a tree cutter now, Clinton? You gonna be a Boarlander? You gonna abandon Creed who took you in when no one else would?”
Easton appeared out of the trees like an apparition, green eyes eerie and glowing as he walked beside them. “Harrison will kill you as soon as he finds out how fucked in the head you are, Clinton. So go ahead and leave. Maybe I’d go to your funeral.”
“You would?” Clinton asked in a shocked tone.
“No.” Easton jogged back into the woods and disappeared behind an old spruce.
Jason laughed. Easton was bat-guano crazy, but it was funny watching Clinton get all choked up about him going to his funeral.
Clinton shoved Jason in the shoulder and stomped off in the direction of his trailer. “Asshole,” he muttered.
Jason made a shocked sound in his throat. “I’m an asshole? Easton just talked about Harrison killing you, but he doesn’t get in trouble?”
“He doesn’t know any better!” Clinton yelled right before the screen door to his trailer slammed loudly behind him.
That right there was bull crap at its finest because Jason would bet his chainsaw that Easton knew a lot more than anyone gave him credit for.
With a deep rattling growl in his throat, he tromped from the dirt path to the white gravel that surrounded their semi-circle of trailers. Clinton had been a pissy dick on and off since Willa had been Turned but, damn, couldn’t he just let them have a good, drama-free hour? This was the problem with the Gray Backs. They’d had this cool moment in the treehouse Easton had built for the cub Gia was carrying in her belly, and they’d all been getting along great, happy that Creed and Matt had come home after a couple of days in Louisiana with their mates. Everything was great, but Gray Backs had a tendency to stomp on good moods. Easton with his death speech and Clinton with his “mantrum,” as Willa called them. Now, Jason’s mood was headed nowhere good.
He made a ticking sound behind his teeth as he threw the door to his trailer open and headed straight for the fridge. This morning at the landing before Creed and Matt returned had sucked as he tried to keep from killing Easton, who picked a fight every thirty seconds in order for his inner beast to claim fourth in the crew. Jason didn’t even care! He’d already told Easton he could be fourth in the crew because, hell on earth, it wasn’t like they were fighting for second. Easton was challenging him for one of the lowest ranks. It didn’t make any damned sense, and Jason didn’t care where he ranked. All he cared about was keeping his bear sane today, tomorrow, and the next day, too, if he was lucky enough.
He’d managed to survive a couple of days on the landing without Creed or Matt there to break up the fights, but it had been close. And when Creed had come back home and the crew had been reunited again, dang it all, that had been an awesome reunion . And he’d been mooning over how happy he was for Creed, finding a woman who was his perfect match, and then Clinton had to go and ruin his happy thoughts.
Jason threw open the refrigerator and yanked a beer out of the front. With a clink, he popped the cap and dropped it on the floor like a slob—because Tessa had hated that, and he found pleasure in doing things that would’ve pissed off his late mate.