Cold Foot Komodo (Wreck’s Mountains Book 2)

Timber had sent her exactly zero pictures of the homes up in Wreck’s Mountains, so Sasha had no idea what to expect as Reed drove them up past the final ridge and into a clearing. In her imaginings, it had been single-wide mobile homes all lined up like the pictures she’d found on the internet of some of the Damon’s Mountains Crew territories, but while this had a familiar layout, the homes were not single-wides.

A half-circle of A-frame, expensive looking, dark-wood cabins lined the clearing. The backdrop was huge pine trees dusted with snow. Each cabin had a different color painted on the wooden shingles around the front doors. There were six of them, all lining a circular gravel drive, with a firepit up front covered by a big canopy. Someone had dragged heaters out there, as well as burgundy and navy blue rocking chairs.

The warm light filtering from the cabins cast the snowy ground in hues of gold.

It looked like a postcard.

“Oh my gosh,” she said on a breath, hand clutching her necklace as she scanned the beautiful scene. Her sister lived in paradise.

There was a crowd at the firepit who waved to her, and Timber came sprinting out of the group, a megawatt grin on her pretty face.

A sob clogged up Sasha’s throat, but she didn’t know the reason for the emotion as she shoved the door open and got tackled by her sister.

She laughed thickly as Timber hugged her in the snow, and embraced her as hard as she physically could. She could do that now that Timber was a polar bear shifter. She was ten times stronger than Sasha.

“You’re here! You’re really here!” Timber exclaimed as she eased back.

“Are you going to let me up now, heifer?”

Timber laughed and stood, pulling Sasha up by the jacket flaps like she weighed nothing at all. Sasha was probably never going to get used to how powerful her younger sister was now.

She tossed a glance at Reed, who came around the truck at that same moment, and time slowed. He was wearing his wool-lined jacket, the collar flipped up. One of his hands was shoved deep in his pocket, and his strides were long and powerful. He wore the ghost of a smile that made his face look so handsome in the flickering gold light from the firepit. He came to a stop, his bi-colored eyes on her, and wore the softest expression as Timber was pulling her in for another hug, chattering away in her ear.

Sasha smiled at him as she gripped Timber’s sweater. “Where is your jacket?” she admonished her sister. “It’s freezing out.”

“Polar bear, remember?”

Aaah, yes. Polar bear shifters probably didn’t get terribly cold.

Wreck approached, blocking her view of Reed, and he pulled her from Timber’s hug into his. “Hey there,” he murmured, and then released her. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“He’s glad you’re here so he doesn’t have to listen to me whining about how I miss you,” Timber said.

“She’s always been a stage-five clinger,” Sasha told Wreck.

“I’m beginning to understand that,” he deadpanned.

“Look!” Timber said, pointing to the house on the very left. “I made you a welcome sign!”

Indeed, a bunch of pieces of notebook paper spelling out the word Welcome were draped across the front.

“It looks like a toddler made it.”

Timber shoved her in the shoulder and laughed again. “My handwriting won’t get better with age. At least you can read it though.”

“And it’s spelled right,” one of the guys from the crowd said. He gave her an eye roll and offered his hand for a shake. “Because I spell-checked it. I’m Kade.”

“Sasha,” she introduced herself, shaking his hand.

She met Cash next, and King, and Katrina. A quiet woman named Raynah introduced herself last, and Sasha noticed she was pregnant. “How far along are you?”

Raynah shrugged her shoulders up to her ears. “Honestly, I lost count in Cold Foot. And I also don’t know what the gestation is for my…kind. I should know that answer,” she said. “I feel like my motherly-instincts are a little shaky.”

“No worries at all. If you want to figure it out, I bet we can do some research. I’m a nurse. Give me a week, and I’ll have access to the ultrasound machines.”

“You’re a nurse?” an older, familiar woman asked.

“Sasha, you remember my mother, Beth,” Wreck said.

They’d met at talked briefly surrounding Wreck and Timber’s wedding. “Of course I remember you,” Sasha said.

Beth pulled her in for a hug instead of a handshake like the others had done. “Oh honey, we’ve been counting down until you got here.”

“You have?”

“Oh yeah.” She eased Sasha back to arm’s length, and the look in her eyes was so tender. “Your sister has told me so many good things about you. I saw you at their wedding, but I never got the chance to really talk to you.”

“Are you…” Sasha was a little overcome with emotion over the warm welcome. “Are you living here too?”

“Nope. I’m down in Darby, a few neighborhoods south of you. I’m not trying to move in on my son and his new bride, or what they’re building here.”

“I told her that was stupid,” Timber announced. “We’re still trying to convince her to change her mind.”

“I like my space,” the woman said, releasing Sasha’s shoulders.

“Me too,” Sasha agreed. “Well, since we are both down in Darby, maybe we can meet up one of these nights. My neighbor said there is a good bar that serves some excellent wings, if you ever get bored.”

“I’m in,” Beth told her.

And Sasha smiled from her inside out. She felt like she’d made a friend already.

When she looked around, Reed had disappeared. His truck had been turned off, and she scanned the clearing but couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Do you want the official tour before we eat?” Timber asked excitedly.

“Um, sure!” She yelped as her sister grabbed her hand and yanked her forward.

“Places, people!” Timber called out.

Sasha watched the shifters of Wreck’s Mountains scrambled to the different cabins, like this was rehearsed. “Timber, you don’t have to go through all this trouble. Let’s just eat.”

“I want you to choose this place,” Timber uttered honestly as she pulled Sasha up the stairs of the A-frame cabin on the left. The front shingles had been painted dark brown.

When Timber pushed the door open and Sasha ducked under the low-hanging welcome sign, she gasped. The cabin was much bigger inside than she’d realized.

The bottom floor was a living area and kitchen, and dining table, with what looked like a bathroom and laundry room in the back. There were stairs on the left side that led up to a huge loft, but that wasn’t the best part of it all. From here, she could see that the upstairs bedroom loft had a full wall of windows at the back of the house that looked out onto the snowy woods.

Timber clapped her hands together. “There’s push-button fireplaces!”

“Whaaat,” Sasha whispered as she watched Timber flip a switch near the fireplace. Flames leapt up on fake logs.

“It puts out heat, too! Wreck and I have spent like five nights down here on the sleeper sofa, watching movies and falling asleep by the fireplace!”

“Timber,” she whispered, taking in the granite countertops in the kitchen, the dark-stained wooden cabinets, the pictures of her and Wreck from their wedding day positioned on the dark-wood mantle over the fireplace. The floors were natural wood with fuzzy rugs. The kitchen had all stainless-steel appliances, and the bedroom above looked like it belonged in some Pottery Barn catalog.

“I’ll open a bottle of wine,” Wreck murmured, his arm slipping from around Timber’s shoulders. He turned and pointed at Sasha. “Timber said you like red wine? From your wine-and-gossip nights?”

Sasha laughed and nodded. “Red is perfect.” She looked back at Timber. “Are you happy?”

She could see the truth in Timber’s eyes as she nodded and said, “Yes. Stupidly happy. I mean, we have a lot of work to do to build this Crew, and we’re all kind of in transition, and sometimes I freak out—”

“Freak out why?” Sasha asked.

Timber puffed air out of her cheeks. “You know why.”

Sasha pursed her lips, and oooh, she understood. She understood down to her bones. “You do deserve this.”

“Wreck says that too. Hopefully soon I’ll actually hear it.”

“I’ll be here telling you, too,” she assured her.

Their mom had done a number on both of them.

Sasha grabbed her hands and squeezed. “This is your happily ever after, Timber. Fuck the noise.”

Timber’s whole face stretched into an emotional smile. “Fuck the noise,” she repeated.

Timber took her through the home tour, and asked her to stay the night on the sleeper sofa before she did a little cheers with her wine and said, “Cheers to bread, for without bread, there would be no toast.”

Sasha giggled and muttered, “You’re stupid,” before she took a sip and followed Timber and Wreck outside.

The next cabin belonged to Kade, and the next to Katrina and King. The next was Cash’s, who Timber explained was the resident snowy owl shifter, and that’s why he didn’t have the pegs next to the door for jackets. He was currently wearing a T-shirt and looked comfortable. The next house, Raynah met them at the door and asked Timber if she could show Sasha the house by herself.

“Absolutely,” Timber said. “Raynah’s been nesting, and doesn’t like anyone near her nest.”

“We don’t have to do a tour of your place,” Sasha offered.

“No, I feel good,” Raynah said. “With one person.”

Timber’s hand pushed the small of Sasha’s back, and her sister left her at the stairs.

Sasha followed Raynah into her cabin, and reveled at how different her decorating sense was. She liked a lot of greens and browns, and had positioned plants in every nook and cranny.

“I like growing stuff,” Raynah explained.

“I have a fern,” Sasha admitted.

“Did you bring it with you?”

“Yeah,” Sasha answered. “I’m going shopping for my rental tomorrow, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I pick up a few more plants while I’m out. I like growing things too.”

“I can give you advice on what will grow here, in the cold climate,” Raynah offered.

“I would like that.”

“Um, I have a phone now,” Raynah said softly. “I could get your number. And then you could call me if you ever need anything. Or if you want a third wheel when you and Beth go out in Darby. I won’t drink, but I could just hang out.”

“It’s probably a little overwhelming being surrounded by the couples, huh?” Sasha asked.

“So barfy,” Raynah said. She scratched her forehead, and asked, “Did you mean that earlier? About the ultrasound?”

Sasha smiled, and she got it. Raynah was curious and probably had a whole lot of questions. Sasha couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for her in Cold Foot Prison, pregnant. “Yeah, I mean it. I’ll be working at Bitterroot here in a couple days.”

Raynah nodded, and then gestured grandly. “This is my home. That I don’t feel like I deserve. That is very different from my prison cell, and feels very big, so I actually sleep in the corner of the bedroom on a pallet on the floor.”

Sasha laughed. “You should come see the house I’m renting. Pretty sure there is a high chance of bed bugs there.”

“It’s rough?” she asked.

Sasha shrugged. “Reed got the rent down to five hundred a month. And I met one of the neighbors. He’s a shifter. Reed thinks he’s a bear shifter.”

“Is he hot?”

“I meeeean…he doesn’t look not-hot.”

Raynah snorted. “I’m sure Reed loved that.”

Sasha frowned at the woman as she walked away toward the front door. “He seemed fine with him.”

“Yeah, well, he texted Wreck and asked him to do some research on your neighbor. Looks can be deceiving with Reed. Ready to see my neighbor’s house? He’s also hot and mysterious,” she said, waggling her eyebrows.

“Let me guess. Reed’s house?” Sasha asked.

“Yep!”

“You think he’s hot?” Sasha asked curiously.

“Uuum, yeah. Have you seen him?”

Sasha giggled and nodded. “And he knows how to fix stuff.”

“Like in a house?” Raynah asked, her eyebrows arched high.

Sasha nodded. “He drained my hot water heater today. I didn’t even know what a hot water heater was.”

“So hot,” Raynah murmured, honesty in her eyes.

Sasha followed her out of her cabin, lost in thought. Reed wasn’t just handy around a house, or fun to look at. Reed had shown her a glimpse of his depth when he was talking over the sandwich picnic on her neon-blue carpet earlier. Now that…that was even more attractive to Sasha. Looks faded over time, but emotional intelligence? That had the potential to deepen over time if a man worked hard enough at it, and she had seen a glimpse of that skill in Reed.

The prison had depended on him to keep peace between monsters, enough so that they kept him even after he was supposed to be free. She could tell he was strong from the way he wasn’t complaining about his treatment to the news, or to anyone who would listen. He admitted it and didn’t require any conversation back. He was just here under a new Alpha, picking up a job immediately, and helping her when he didn’t even know her.

There was a good man inside of that shifter, and that…that was hot.

Outside, Reed was sitting on the porch stairs of the final cabin. He offered her a crooked smile, and stood as she approached. Raynah excused herself and headed back toward the firepit. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked back at his cabin, then to her. “Mine looks the same as everyone else’s, but probably less décor.”

She grinned. “Bachelor pad?” she guessed.

“I would’ve furnished it with a futon, and that was all, if we weren’t all required to look through a décor book and pick out our personal style. It was all weird. I’ve been in a small cell for a decade with no freedom to make even the smallest decision, and then suddenly I was answering a questionnaire about what color scheme I would like for my countertops and cabinets.”

She laughed. “So you would’ve rather gone with just a mattress on the floor?”

“Well, maybe a sheet on the mattress, but maybe not,” he said through a grin.

“Are you territorial?” she guessed.

“A little.” The admission, and the honesty was nice.

“Do you want to skip the tour and go eat?” she asked him.

“Really?”

She dipped her chin once. Sure, she was very curious about his cabin, but his blue eye was damn-near glowing white, and she didn’t need to rile up his animal anymore than he already was.

He pointed to the wine glass in her hand. “Buzzed yet?”

“Chhh, no. I’ve had maybe three sips. Want to try it?” Sasha offered the glass to him.

“Not on your life. Wine is too fancy for me.”

“Grape soda is much tastier.”

He huffed a laugh, and she could tell he was slowing his stride so that she could keep up. “Are you warm enough?”

Touched that he cared, she hugged her jacket tighter around herself and nodded. “I’ll be right as rain as soon as I get near the heaters. Probably you super-shifters have no problem with the chilly weather.”

“The warm-blooded shifters are fine. I get cold.”

Her eyebrows arched up, and she took a sip of wine. “You’re cold-blooded? Like a turtle?”

Another grin cracked his face. “There aren’t any turtle shifters.”

“Pity. When I was a kid I had a pet turtle for six years named Eddie Macaroni.”

“Superb name.”

“Thank you. He was my best friend, until one day I came home and my dad announced he had set him free in our neighborhood pond so he could live a better life. And then my dumbass became obsessed with visiting him and bringing him food, so I did that for years—almost every single day after school and on weekends.”

“He died, didn’t he.”

“Yes. My dad just admitted it a couple years ago. I still checked the damn pond though!”

“Hope is a good thing,” he said softly. “I like that you checked. His little turtle spirit probably appreciated it.”

“Snake shifter,” she guessed suddenly, trying to catch him off guard.

“I’m not a snake. Don’t look now, but I think your sister is staring at us.”

At first she thought he was just trying to change the subject, but sure enough, Timber was watching them from near the firepit. She waved, and Sasha bumped Reed’s shoulder, then doubled her speed to meet up with the others. “See you later, alligator,” she tried.

“Not a gator,” he called after her.

She gave a private smile and greeted the others. There wasn’t any of the awkwardness she had expected as the night went on. Everyone seemed comfortable enough with her, even if a few of them were quieter. Raynah and Kade seemed like watchers, but their smiles were easy if anyone cracked a joke or did a jab.

The Crew had done a potluck soup buffet. There were five different kinds, all steaming away in Crock-Pots lined up on a long table. The plates were metal, and deep, with different sections. Timber, Katrina, and Cash poured a ladle of each soup onto her bowl-plate. There was clam chowder, beef stew in thick sauce, tomato bisque, broccoli-cheese, and chicken tortilla soup.

Timber handed her a piece of paper and a pencil.

“What’s this?” Sasha asked.

“We’re voting. Best soup gets that cooler over there.” She pointed to an old blue cooler. It looked twenty years old and all scuffed up. “I know it doesn’t look like much, but this old thing made its way through some of the Crews in Damon’s Mountains. It was gifted to us at the territory-warming party a couple weeks ago. And you all know the rules!” Timber groused, looking around the Crew. “You can’t tell her who made what soup, because we know you cheaters are going to all vote for your own soup. Sasha will have to be the decider. If you even hint to her, you are disqualified.”

“I can vote too, if you want,” Reed offered. “Since I didn’t make one.”

Timber frowned suspiciously at him. “You were at the meeting where everyone signed up for soups.”

“I promise I’ll be unbiased in my vote. I hate all these idiots equally.”

Wreck belted out a laugh. “Truth.”

“Fair enough,” Timber said primly. She pointed between him and Sasha. “Share notes.”

Okay, this was fun, and a great icebreaker, and now she got to do teamwork with Reed. Something about that made her heart drum a little faster in her chest.

One of the burgundy rocking chairs was calling her name, mostly because it was closest to a free-standing propane heater, and had empty navy-colored rocking chairs on either side of it. There was a real good chance Reed would get one of those, since he was going through the food line now.

There was a wide log that someone had chopped and set like a little table, and she scooted it closer with the toe of her snow boot, then set her steaming food on it before she made her way toward the blue cooler of drinks.

“I’ve got it,” Reed rumbled as she passed.

“Huh?” she said, sure she’d misheard him.

“I’ll get your drink. Go on, start eating before your food gets cold.”

“Yeah, whose idea was it to eat outside, anyway?” one of the men joked. She thought she remembered his name being Cash.

“Um, want me to take your food over there for you?” she asked Reed, so he could free up his hands for drinks.

“Sure. I appreciate it.” Whooo, his voice was kinda hot when it was all low and gravelly like this.

Yes! Now she could park him right beside her, muahahaha! She was the sneakiest. She had game. She had all the moves. She was so smooth—aah! Sasha stumbled and nearly dumped Reed’s soup all over the ground. As it stood, she sloshed a few of the soups into other compartments and mixed them.

“I saw that. Nice work, clumsy,” Cash said as he strode by her and took a seat in one of the navy rocking chairs next to her. Eek! The chairs were filling up now, and she had to scurry double-time to claim the empty rocking chair for Reed.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, but she ignored it. She would get back to messages later.

Reed came over and took a seat next to her chair just as she was situating his food on another log table. She’d swapped their plates because of the spillage, giving him the better one that wasn’t all mixed up.

He wore a smirk as he set their canned sodas between their chairs, and then swapped their plates back.

“How did you know?” she said, heat touching her cheeks.

“I saw the whole thing. You nearly fell in the fire.”

“In my defense, it was icy over there, and I probably just slipped on ice.”

He narrowed his eyes at the perfectly-clear ground, but he didn’t call her on her bullshit, bless that man.

She scooped a spoonful of the tortilla soup and blew on it. She wanted to try this one first, before the strips of tortilla chips Timber had sprinkled on there got soggy. She tasted it, and her eyebrows probably went up to her hairline. Holy moly, it was delicious, and just the perfect amount of spicy.

“Okay, I already know you’re going to be fun to eat with,” Kade said from across the fire. “You probably have a terrible poker face.”

“Oh, the worst,” she agreed. “I used to date a card player—”

“She means a chronic gambler,” Timber added.

“Hey, sometimes he won.”

“And sometimes he spent all of your rent and didn’t tell you.”

“That is true. Anywho, he wouldn’t even let me sit anywhere around him when he was playing, much less let me play with him and his friends. He said he could tell exactly what cards I had from the looks on my face.”

“How often did he gamble?” Reed asked, blowing on a spoonful of the broccoli-cheese soup.

“Mmm, every day.”

“Geez,” Kade said.

“He’s probably still gambling every day.”

“I am surprised he even noticed the breakup when it happened four years ago,” Timber joked.

Sasha snorted. He hadn’t been the most attentive partner. “Look, I may look like I have my entire life together, but I have terrible taste in men.”

“And you’re clumsy,” Cash pointed out.

“And I get cold easily,” she admitted.

Reed took another bite and set his plate down, got up immediately, and strode out of the firelight. He disappeared into the shadows between the firelight and his porch light, and she watched him go, confused, as the others kept up their banter with her.

Distracted, she added, “And my spelling is atrocious, and I have a problem with authority, and I am a little gullible, but other than those very few things, I am a diamond in the rough.”

The others laughed easily, and she appreciated it. There wasn’t tension, as she had feared with a bunch of shifters. They were just…happy. Perhaps that was from the difficult situation they had come from in Cold Foot Prison. Maybe they were just happy to be here, where they had freedom and control over their own lives. The easy laughter was contagious.

She kept glancing at Reed’s house across the clearing as she ate, and perked up when his front door opened and he reappeared. He held a thick blanket in his hands.

A fluttering sensation filled her as she realized what he was doing. She’d said she got cold easily. He was bringing her a blanket.

For some reason, his gesture touched her heart completely as he handed it to her.

“Whooooo,” Kade called along with Cash, both in high-pitched voices. “Reed and Sasha sitting in a tree,” Kade sang. “F-U-C-K-I-N-ow!” Cash yelped as Katrina smacked him hard in the arm.

“I’m going to set the two of you on fire,” Wreck muttered. “Shut up.”

Reed shook his head and sat back down beside her as she positioned the edges of the blanket under her legs. Really, this was much warmer, and she appreciated his gesture so much.

Sasha giggled at their antics as Kade and Cash went back and forth sassing Wreck, who truly was starting to look like he wanted to turn them to ashes. Timber had told Sasha stories of her husband’s power. Sasha had no interest in ever seeing what he was truly capable of.

All of the soups were ridiculously good, but there were two that were standouts.

“We need to have a team meeting before we make our final decision,” Sasha announced as she sopped up the rest of the tomato bisque with a sourdough roll.

“That’s genius,” Cash said, watching her.

“Bread is just an edible spoon,” she said around a bite.

“Are you single?” Cash asked, but his eyes were on Reed.

“I have like eight boyfriends,” Sasha said sarcastically. “I have so many boys interested, it’s ridiculous. I have to beat them off with sticks.”

“So, yes?” Cash asked.

“That’s a rude question,” Timber popped off. “Besides, you’re not her type.”

Cash scoffed. “I would make a good boyfriend.”

Wreck leaned back in his rocking chair and belted out a single laugh at the sky.

“That’s rude. That’s rude,” Cash said, pointing at his Alpha. “I’ll have you know I was almost paired with an actual mate before I went to Cold Foot.”

“Blow-up dolls don’t count as girlfriends,” King said from where he had his arm draped across the back of Katrina’s rocking chair.

Sasha giggled as they went into a debate on whether blow-up dolls could, in fact, count or not. She loved the playful nature of this place. It was such a breath of fresh air after the tension back home.

Her phone vibrated again, and she checked it quick. Where are you? Her mom had texted, followed by a bunch of question marks a few minutes later, and then more question marks just now.

Just like that, the smile slipped from her lips.

Reed didn’t ask who it was, but when she looked up, he was watching her face intently. “You good?”

“Let me guess,” Timber said. “Is it our mother, the joy bringer?”

“I’ll just text her really fast and tell her I got here safe. She’s probably worried.”

I’m here safe. Send.

That’s not what I asked. Where are you?

Sasha closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, praying for patience. She wasn’t worried about her getting here okay at all.

She pushed her phone into her back pocket and forced a smile. “I wish I could re-do that entire meal. It was so good.”

“Nerd, we need you to build a time machine,” Cash said to Kade.

“Why the actual hell would you think I’m a nerd?” Kade asked.

“Because you say big words.”

“Oh my God, Cash. Is this about the other day?”

“Kade used the word consciousness in a sentence.”

“Wait,” King rumbled, head cocked at Cash. “You think consciousness is a big word?”

“If it has more than seven letters, it’s a big word, King. Duh.” Cash shook his head and looked across the fire at Sasha. “That’s why I don’t call King ‘Nerd’. He don’t know nothin’.”

Sasha was having such a hard time containing her giggles.

“Look, if anyone is a nerd around here, it’s my graduated-first-in-her-class nurse sister,” Timber said proudly. “She probably knows lots of seven-letter words.”

“We should play strip-scrabble,” Cash suggested.

“Every time you talk I get a headache,” Wreck muttered.

“Battle of the nerds,” Cash said. “This is a genius idea.”

“I think we’re all physically dumber for listening to your ideas,” Katrina dead-panned.

“I would play,” Raynah said. “Pretty sure no one wants to see a big ol’ pregnant lady in strip games, though.”

“Ummmm, do you have boobs?” Kade asked.

“Yes, Kade. I have boobs,” Raynah told him.

“Then we would all love to see you in strip poker.” He held his hand up and squinted one eye. “If I cover you like this, you look normal.”

“Can we behead him?” King asked Wreck.

Sasha was trying so hard not to cackle-laugh. She swung her gaze to Reed to see if he was hearing this hilarious interaction, but he was watching her lips.

“There is that smile again,” he said low.

“My phone is still going crazy,” she admitted.

“I know. I can hear it vibrating. Do you want me to set it over here?”

And she understood what he was really asking. Can I take that burden from you and give you a peaceful night?

And you know? After all of the uncertainty of the move, and the mess that existed at her rental house, and her mother’s attempt to keep her claws deep in her life here, she appreciated him asking. He didn’t know her history, or how heavy it really got sometimes. He just knew her mood had shifted when she’d opened the text.

“Sure,” she said softly, handing him the phone.

Reed pretended to chuck it into the woods, and she laughed as he set it on the empty log next to his chair, face-down. She wouldn’t hear it vibrate from over here.

Thank you, she mouthed.

He nodded once, and then pointed to the list of soups they still needed to vote on. The paper was pinned down under her plate now, and she pulled it up, then looked over at him with her eyebrows raised, like “Which one?”

He pointed to a couple, and she agreed with him. She pointed to the tortilla soup one and did a thumbs-up.

With a curt nod, Reed stood and said, “We have an announcement, you bunch of criminals. It seems you kept some of your cooking skills in prison, because none of these sucked very much. The tortilla soup wins it though—”

“Yes!” Cash crowed, standing up. He fist-pumped and stomped around in a tight circle. “I knew it! I knew I was the best. This makes me Second now, right?” he asked Wreck.

“What? No. King is Second.”

“Oh, come on. Let’s take turns. I want to tell people what to do.”

“When do I ever tell any of you what to do?” King asked.

“Exactly! You aren’t even appreciating your power! I would!”

“Cash, you are making everyone so tired,” Katrina muttered.

“Fine, Third. Final offer,” Cash said.

“Dude, I’m Third,” Kade said.

“What are you talking about?” Wreck asked.

“You flipped me off three times last week,” he said. “That’s three votes for me.”

“I probably flipped you off a dozen times,” Wreck said. “You’ve been pissing me off all week. I guess you can be twelfth.”

“What do the ranks mean?” Sasha asked.

“Jack-shit,” Katrina said. “Only Alpha and his mate, and then Second, mean anything.”

“And the mate of the Second doesn’t suck either,” Raynah pointed out to Katrina. “I think I’m at the bottom of the Crew.”

“You definitely are,” Kade said somberly, nodding his head.

“Raynah, you’re second to bottom,” Wreck said. “Kade, you’re bottom.”

“That’s what she said,” King muttered.

“What?” Kade demanded. “That’s bullshit. Let’s all Change and see whose animal belongs at the bottom.”

“Dude, your animal would freeze to death in like four minutes,” Reed said.

Sasha couldn’t stop giggling, and now Reed was joining in on their antics? This was awesome. “Technically, I would think I’m bottom of the Crew,” Sasha pointed out. “Since I’m human and all.”

The others got quiet, and Timber looked over at Wreck with the strangest expression.

“Oh, honey,” Beth said softly from a couple chairs away. “We aren’t a part of the Crew.”

Sasha’s eyes went wide. “Wait, why? Because I’m human?”

“No, it’s not just that—”

“But it’s part of it,” she said to Timber. “Beth and I are human.”

“We’re still talking about it with Damon,” Timber assured her.

“Okay. Yeah, of course. Even if I’m not part of things around here, I can still…hang out,” she said, trying to give them all an out from this awkward moment. She felt so silly. She’d come here thinking she would be a member of the Cold Foot Crew. Her cheeks were on fire right now.

“Look, not yet,” Timber said. “Doesn’t mean never.”

“Okay, but if she was a part of the Crew, what rank would she be?” Kade asked.

“Higher than you,” Wreck assured him.

“Horsecrap!” Kade’s voice echoed through the woods, and a smile was stretching Sasha’s face again as the banter picked up.

Thank goodness for the Crew who could see her discomfort and actively moved the conversation away from it.

She wasn’t Crew.

Okay.

Okay.

She was still having fun, and would figure out how to fix up her rental house, and she was still close to her sister, and she would be starting a new job in two tiny days, and nothing had really changed.

Everything was fine.

Beside her, Reed was frowning down at her phone, which meant her mother was probably blowing it up.

Sasha sighed. The space from that relationship also made this all worth it.

Truly, whether she was officially in the Crew or not, everything was fine.