Page 41 of Fastlander Fighter

He puffed air out of his cheeks and admitted, “I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

“Because I want you to keep letting me in.”

“Hey, you said last night you wanted to share the bad stuff and let me make my decisions accordingly. Spill it, Walker.”

“You saying my last name won’t make me back off anymore, just so you know.”

She shrugged and hid her grin behind the beer she took another sip of.

When he had all their food spread out on the table and they had taken a couple bites, only then did he talk about his parents. Haydan and Cassie Walker were beasts in Damon’s Mountains, and well-known to the public.

“My dad asked me to take a work break, and he and my mom brought up some stuff that I hadn’t realized.”

“What stuff?” she asked, letting the smile slip from her face at the seriousness in his tone.

“How like my mom I am.”

“I remember your mom. She was nice to me.”

“She was also a test subject in the Menagerie when she was younger. IESA had done a number on her. They did experiments on shifters, and she was messed up from it for a long time. My dad was the one who dragged her out of some awful habits. He motivated her to improve so she wouldn’t lose him. He had to do some tough love on her so she could start living, instead of just surviving.”

Chills rippled up Sloane’s arms and she swallowed her bite, but didn’t feel like taking another yet. “How are you similar to her?”

“My dad said they always talked about it maybe being genetics for me and Gunner. He was a monster back in the day too. Gunner got super fucked up over a bad match with a female when he was younger, but really, he was a disaster before that too. And I guess I was worse than I thought. Distant, fought too much…” He lifted his gaze up to her and looked almost…ashamed. “I went from female to female. Maybe I still do it, I don’t know.”

Now no smile existed anywhere near her face. “Why did you do that?”

Captain leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms over his broad chest, and stared at the fireplace in the living room. She thought he was refusing to answer, but after a couple of minutes, he spoke again. “I’ve been thinking about it, and maybe it was just the fear of letting someone get close to me. Nothing bad happened to me, so it’s not like some traumatic event caused it. I just don’t enjoy someone outside of myself having the power to hurt me. I always saw it as weak. Hell, I even thought Gunner was weak when he went loyal to his mate, Hallie. It always made sense to me to touch a woman and then leave. I know how that sounds, but I wasn’t after women I could bring home to my parents. I was into women that felt the same as me. Detached was the way of life that made me most comfortable, and I didn’t freaking realize any of this until my parents laid it all out there and made me feel like shit today. My mom called me a slut.”

She giggled on accident, but covered her mouth with her hand to hide it. “Your mom sounds like she’s still sassy.”

“Completely inappropriate,” he grumbled.

“That word is going to sit in your head, isn’t it?”

“Well, I’ve never heard a man called that.”

She sucked air in past her teeth. “Hurts, doesn’t it.”

“I don’t like it,” he admitted low. “The other day I heard Naomi call you a skank, and I wanted to remove her head from her body.”

“I heard that too,” she admitted. “It sat in my head, but not because I am one. Nor should any woman be called that. It sat in my head because it felt very unfair coming from the woman who broke up my marriage.”

“Fuck Naomi.”

She didn’t know why, but it made her feel better to have someone on her side, and to have someone know her feelings on being called that the other day. He got it. He’d been called something similar today, and worse? It was from someone whose opinion he respected.

“Did the conversation end okay?” she asked. “Should you go over to their place and get back on track?”

He looked surprised and got quiet. “If I said I needed to do that, would you come with me?”

“Sure.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

---