Page 30 of Fastlander Phoenix

Hallie was right. A man like that needed friends. He needed support and understanding before he burned everybridge in his life just for the excuse to self-isolate. If he chased everyone away, he wouldn’t disappoint anyone.

She’d seen it before.

She’d seen it in herself.

Timber typed out,Address?Send.

1010 Winding Creek Way. Follow the trail of smoke up the mountain.

She bit the corner of her thumbnail and stared at the pan of lasagna that had stopped steaming nearly an hour ago. Testing herself, she typed the address into her maps function. If the drive was more than twenty minutes away, it was a sign she shouldn’t go. Estimated time of travel was nineteen minutes. Crap.

Okay, she would close her eyes and stick her hand into the plastic-container cabinet, and if she didn’t pull out the exact right size to fit exactly half of the lasagna in, it was a sign she needed to stay home. Drat. She pulled out the specific one she needed. Even the lid was easy to find.

She tried that three times more with the plastic containers the exact size of the parmesan-roasted brussels sprouts, garlic bread, and one for the mac and cheese, and each time, fate foiled her plans of just going to bed.

Maybe she should go and set the food on his doorstep, and that could be her final farewell. Just leave a mind-grenade in him so he would always think of how classy that one human woman had been when he’d been a petrified turd to her.

No.

Yes.

No, yes. No.

Yes!

No.

Irritated with her thoughts of even daring to show up at that disaster-man’s house, she put the food away in the plasticstorage containers and shoved them in the fridge. She stomped her way to her bedroom, where she dressed in cotton shorts that were two sizes too big and a T-shirt that swallowed up all her curves. Then she mussed her perfectly-curled hair, and did a couple of air kicks and punches in frustration at the little voice that said she should go to the address Hallie gave her and yell at Wreck for being a coward.

This was toxic. It was bad behavior. It wasn’t a healthy relationship dynamic, and she’d been searching for perfect.

Until the perfect man came along, she would simply stay single. Forever. And ever.

She would rather be single than deal with a man who couldn’t even give her a call to tell her he wouldn’t make it to dinner, or be honest about his feelings. A man who sets freaking fire to his own house when he’s angry. A man who could fly!

True, the green flames were fun, and he was interesting. Very interesting. And he had moments of depth that drew her to him like a moth to a flame. She couldn’t be the moth forever, though. She couldn’t exist in the push-and-pull he created.

She didn’t need a man. She just…wanted one. She wanted someone to ask how her day was, and show up and load her car onto a trailer, and take care of things without her asking. Someone to be nice to her.

And okay, she was disappointed. She was! There was the admission. She’d felt something she hadn’t ever felt before—some spark that started in her heart and reached for him. He was different, and she saw so much potential in him, but he wasn’t ready.

That was it. That felt like the core of the issue between them.

Wreck wasn’t ready for her.

Timber could be a friend though.

She packed the containers of food into a paper bag with handles, backed out of her driveway in her new Ranger, and headed for the plumes of smoke in the mountains. It was just a few turns before she was on the two-lane road that would lead her to the Fastlanders…to Wreck.

He would be angry. She expected it. She’d treated many clients with mental-health disorders, and sometimes guilt came through as anger.

He wouldn’t feel good about what had happened tonight.

She turned onto Winding Creek Way and followed the road up, then took a right at a small fork in the road with a bullet-riddled No Trespassing sign. When her headlights lit up the sign, there was a subtle outline of a dragon that shone behind the lettering. Part of Damon’s Mountains, she guessed.

Her truck had an easy time getting up the steep gravel incline, and she eventually pulled through the last line of forest before she reached the clearing. There were tents, and people moving around in droves. She was stunned, slowing her truck down just to witness the mass of people in these woods. Many looked frustrated, and were talking in small groups. What the heck was going on? There was no way there were this many Fastlanders. There were only nine shifters and a human child listed on the recent shifter-registry updates for this Crew. There were dozens of people camping out here though, and not all of them were in their human forms. Two massive grizzlies ambled through the woods, glowing eyes on her truck.

She gripped the steering wheel harder to stop the trembling in her hands.

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