Page 76 of Fastlander Fallen

“I know.” He watched the bears through the trees. They were learning to ignore him and only tried to kill him a couple times a day now when they were Changed. They’d been up here in the wilderness for a week now, trying to adjust. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I watched her say all the exact right things to Hallie while she was saving her. I watched her packing BleedStop into her stomach. She threw me some and yelled at me, and I felt stronger with her there, you know? Want to know the craziest part?”

Okay, he was hooked. He took the bait. “What?”

“Her hands didn’t shake at all.”

Huh. Ace looked back at his mate, because that’s what she was. Her bear was a beast—all weapons, protective, watchful. She was beautiful. It seemed Owen was seeing her value too.

“You’re lucky, dude. She picked you before she Turned. Now she’ll know exactly what she wants with you. I thought y’all were fucked, you know? I thought y’all were star-crossed lovers or something, but nope. Lucia Novak fixed that.”

A growl rattled Ace’s chest.

“Hey, I fuckin’ hate her too right now. That was messed up, but if you think about it? Her voice was full of truth when she was talking about giving Gunner weapons. She cares about him. She’s trying to protect us. She was trying to protect the girls. Hallie was going to be Turned anyway eventually, right? And if Corey wanted to be Crew someday, she would probably have to Turn too. Lucia took the guesswork out of it.”

“In the most traumatizing way possible. Corey was Turned by her cousin. Unwillingly.”

Owen came to stand beside him and canted his head as he watched the two bears foraging through the blackberry brambles. “They seem all right though.”

“It’s because you haven’t seen them when they Change back yet.”

“What do you mean? How are they?”

“Shocked. Sad. Wary. So fucking exhausted, and they still feel the pain of the Changes. Corey wakes up screaming in the middle of the night sometimes.”

“Fuck, man. That’s hard. You know, that’s life though. It’s Crew life. They’ll get stronger.”

As much as Ace hated it, Owen was right. This life was peppered with phases of great pain that led to growth. They’d endured the great pain, and now they were on the upswing. They would be going through a metamorphosis now. They would be getting stronger. The softness and naivete of their human lives was being sloughed away like a snake shedding its skin so it could grow.

“Did you ever guess you would be here?” Owen asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re a guardian of one of the silver bears. Hallie and Corey’s bears came from a direct genetic descendant of Beaston. That’s pretty fuckin’ rad. Your mate really is a part of Damon’s Mountains now.”

Owen started to walk away, but then turned and said, “Oh, I almost forgot. Guess who texted me?”

“Who?”

“Wreck.”

Ace frowned and turned toward Owen. Whatever he’d expected Owen to say, it wasn’t that. “You’re joking.”

Owen held up his phone, open on a text thread. There was a text from an unknown number that said, I hear Gunner is looking for me. And then Owen had said, Who is this? The answer had been one word. Wreck. That was the last message.

“I gave Gunner the number. He can handle that however he wants to. I’m not messing with that one.”

Owen walked back toward the campsite, and Ace couldn’t help the baffled smile that took his lips. Well, if the Pride was going to come for him, the Fastlanders could sure use a shifter like Wreck. Oh, Ace knew what he was. He leveled his gaze back onto the two silver, badass she-bears that would absolutely gut anyone who messed with the people they loved.

His smile grew wider.

Gunner was building his weapons all right.

Good fuckin’ luck to the Pride now.

Chapter Fourteen

“It’s so different being back here,” Corey murmured, looking around her cabin. “How long were we gone?”

---