Page 25 of Warlander Beast Cat

Cadence was as quick as she could be. She did a teased-up small braid to pin her long bangs back and bobby-pinned them into place, then gathered her black hair into a bumpy high ponytail and pulled at pieces until it looked nice and textured. Then she did a quick eyeliner job, mascara, and nodded her approval as Lucia slathered the lighter pink lip gloss onto her full lips.

Cadence eased back to look at her masterpiece, and a grin took her whole face. “You look hot.”

Lucia blinked rapidly a few times and looked down at herself. “Me?”

Kru chimed in. “You look really pretty, Lucia. No one would even say you look like a serial killer anymore.”

Lucia tensed up and looked at Cadence, then back to Kru, then back to Cadence. “I don’t care about your opinions, nor is my self-esteem fragile enough to hang on your compliments.”

Cadence pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. She would’ve believed Lucia didn’t care if she hadn’t witnessed that moment of vulnerability in her eyes when she and Kru had said she looked good. This shifter was a cactus, sure, but cactuses were soft in the middle.

As if Lucia could see Cadence figuring her out, she threw some of her cactus needles at her. Leaning forward, soft as a breath, Lucia told her, “I know what is going to happen to you.”

“Heeeey,” Kru said. “Enough, Lucia. She was being nice to you.”

Cadence was deeply disturbed by what Lucia had just said, sure, but she was even more disturbed by the information Lucia did not offer.

She shoved Lucia’s purse into her stomach and told her, “You could’ve just said thank you. That’s what friends do.”

“I’m not anyone’s friend,” Lucia said quietly, and went to staring blankly out the back window.

Cadence settled back into the front seat and sighed in frustration. Kru did something that shocked her. He slid his strong hand over the top of her thigh and squeezed comfortingly. “You did good,” he told her. “Don’t quit being nice to her just because she can’t process it yet.”

“I can hear you,” Lucia said from the back.

“Good. You should hear me, and you should also know I’m not going to talk quieter to spare your feelings. You’re mean as a fuckin’ rattlesnake on a good day, Lucia. Fix your shit, and people will want to hang out with you more.”

“You’re hanging out with me,” she said quietly.

“Because that’s what Crew does.”

Kru had left his hand on her thigh as he was reprimanding Lucia, turning onto the main road with that sexy one-handed turn of the steering wheel that hot boys did.

She liked it. She liked that he called out manners. He’d done it for her yesterday with Landon, and now was getting after Lucia for being rude to her. But he wasn’t just stomping around his life putting people in their place because he was angry and taking things out on people. He said things in a way that made people think. Lucia could be a pill the rest of the night and pretend she didn’t care about anything, but she would think about what Kru was saying, whether she admitted it or not.

Hell, Cadence wasn’t even the one receiving the callout, and it was making her think.

Out of all the members of the Warlanders, everyone but Kru had grown up in Damon’s Mountains and should’ve understood how Crews work. But Kru the Outsider seemed to truly understand Crew better than the rest of them. Huh.

Interesting man.

At the bar, he backed his truck into a parking space on the edge of the gravel lot and told Cadence and Lucia to wait for him to get their doors.

Lucia exchanged a surprised glance with Cadence, but did as he asked and waited. As they were walking up to the bar, Lucia trotted to catch up and said under her breath, “Thank you. For what you said earlier. You don’t think I should wear my coat though?”

“No. No coats. You have a bangin’ figure, show it off.”

Lucia dropped her gaze, but Cadence didn’t miss it. She smiled just slightly to herself before she rearranged her face into a serious expression again.

When she looked up at Kru on her other side, he winked, which said he’d seen that exchange too.

Lucia and Kru were both interesting.

“Maybe we should’ve invited Jenna,” she said as Kru held the door open.

“She’s on her way,” Lucia said, looking around the crowded bar with all of its organized speed-dating tables.

“Oh. You texted her?” Kru asked.

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