Page 12 of Fastlander Fallen

“I read it in a book once. It means food. And where I will probably eat a salad or something from insecurities because I don’t want to show you what an animal I am when I eat the first time we hang out, and you will explain your people so I can get to know what my cousin needs from me better. And also, I can put in a good word with Hallie and Gunner to accept you into this Crew. Probably. Okay? Come up with lots of reasons and make them good, I am very practiced at arguing.”

She began to walk away, but turned back around and said, “Now watch me walk away, because I’m wearing a thong under these leggings and you can’t see my panty-line, so you can see the perfect roundness of my ass with no visual obstructions. I do lots of squats. And go.” She walked away, sashaying dramatically back and forth, and you know what? He couldn’t take his gaze off the indeed-perfect shape of her ass.

He didn’t know what a panty-line was, but he looked for it.

A tiny smile crept across his face, but he gritted his teeth and made it go away. He glanced around to make sure no one had seen it, and locked eyes with one of the guys close by who wore a stupid, knowing grin. “She’s getting to you, huh?”

Ace flipped him off and strode for the other side of the clearing.

Maybe she wouldn’t find him there.

She was pretty, for sure, and smelled like fruit shampoo, and her smile was hard to look away from, and her figure did those leggings justice…but she was kind of weird, and too bold, and asked way too many questions, and to a shifter like him, that spelled danger.

She was too loud, and people like that couldn’t keep secrets.

A man like him had no use for a woman who couldn’t keep his secrets.

Chapter Three

Corey popped the ice pack and shook it up until the chemicals had a reaction and turned cold to the touch in the plastic bag.

She looked up to the spot of Ace’s fight, where she’d left him, but no one was there anymore.

She frowned and scanned the clearing, but she didn’t see him in the loose clusters of shifters that were milling around. She shut her door and hugged the clipboard to her chest as she strode up the slight incline to where she’d left him.

Another thorough scan, and he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Huh.

Whatever. She shrugged and made her way back toward the trailer to jump back in on her job. Ace was fun to tease, but it wasn’t the end of the world that he’d disappeared. He probably didn’t like talking after a fight, or he wasn’t into humans. Fair enough.

She took her place at the top of the stairs of the trailer and checked that Gunner and Hallie were interviewing someone. Damon Motherfreaking Daye was in with them now, and they were all sitting at the table with one of the shifters.

Damon Freaking Daye.

She shook her head, still stunned at the unexpected events of the day.

“How many more names until Marshall Dillon?” a handsome shifter with sandy-brown hair asked from where he’d approached the railing.

She read the names. “Three more.”

“I have to get to work,” he said. “Can you move me up?”

“We’re all missing work, doucheball. Figure it out,” one of the other shifters called.

“Do any of y’all get along?” she asked curiously. “Or do all male shifters want to kill each other.”

“The second one,” Marshall said.

“Nice. Where do you work?” she asked conversationally.

“A distillery in Saratoga. I asked to come in a couple hours late.”

“Probably call your boss and tell them you’re not coming in today.”

“I don’t have that kind of flexibility,” he explained. “Please, can you just move me up?”

“Darren, Kyle, and Beaver-Jack, do you mind if Marshall moves up? He’s got commitments. Who the fuck is Beaver-Jack? And please tell me that’s a nickname.”

No one answered.

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