She swallowed hard as she remembered his dark hair and eyes, his height, his tattoos. “You look even better in person than in the picture you sent me.”
He heaved a sigh. “Dammit, Anna, I’m so mad at you right now. I’m just pissed. You pretended you were moving in with another man. And you’re a freakin’ panther. If you were any other shifter…any other one…”
“What? Finish it. If I were any other shifter, what?”
“This would be do-able. God, I don’t date shifters. I never have. I want a human mate. But you sunk your damn claws in me before I knew what you were, and now my head’s all messed up.” His voice was so gravelly. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to talk to her on the phone. She would’ve figured out he was a shifter just from talking to him. “Panthers don’t go outside of their species to date, Anna. You live by a whole different set of rules than the rest of us. We were dead in the water from your first shift. Do you understand?”
“No,” she whispered. “I don’t understand any of this, Jaxon. I’ve only been this…this…monster for six months.”
“What?”
“I got bit.”
“Fuck, Anna!” Static blasted across the phone, causing her to wince away from the painful sound. “I need a minute,” he said.
The line went dead.
She had never heard such fury in a man’s voice before, and it left her shaky, and gripping the phone harder, like it was a lifeline. It felt so damn good to hear someone be angry on her behalf for what happened to her. She’d been alone with her fury for so long. Slowly, she settled it back into its cradle and slid off the counter. The conversation had ended so abruptly she didn’t know what to do with herself. Was she supposed to call him back in a minute? Did he mean a literal minute?
When Samuel got worked up like this, she’d learned to give him as much time as he needed, so after a minute passed, then five and then ten, she decided to keep herself busy and give Jax a big chunk of time to work through whatever had pissed him off.
Bear shifters had bad tempers.
Well, so did panther shifters. Were all shifters just angry beings in general? Thanks to She-Devil, all signs pointed to, hell yes.
Absently, Annalise wiped down the already shining two-seater table with a damp rag. She’d cleaned this place from top to bottom over the last few days, just avoiding the hell out of the crew, who, if she was perfectly honest, intimidated and scared her. They were all this tight-knit group of foul-mouthed, burly, growly, giant mountain men. The alpha’s mate, Jenny, would be nice to get to know, but she’d stayed closed off and spent the days in town with her son, Raif. The boys had mentioned another female in the crew, but they made the she-panther named Lynn sound like she was crazy. Not just typical emotional-woman-on-her-period kind of crazy, but certifiable. Annalise didn’t even want to meet her if her animal was even more psychotic than She-Devil.
She’d wanted to tell Jaxon what had happened over the last three days so she wouldn’t feel alone with this insane living situation she’d found herself in. This wasn’t supposed to be her life. She’d done well in school, been raised in a perfectly normal two-parent household with her brother, gone to college, had normal boyfriends, normal friends, got a normal job at a post office in her hometown right after graduation. Her life had been set on a path of utter brown-colored normalcy since the day of her birth. Until the bite.
That one second had annihilated her entire future.
That one second that plunged her into infinite loneliness.
One second, and she was ruined.
One second, and all she could hope for with a man was what she’d built over text with Jaxon—a shallow relationship that would never go as far as touch.
She was monster now. How could she expect any man to love her the way she’d turned out to be?
The phone rang, and she jumped nearly out of her skin. Before she could stop herself, she peeled back her lips and hissed out a feral sound. God, she was weird now.
“Jaxon?” she answered.
“Come outside.”
“What?”
“Come outside. Walk around your cabin and head straight back to the tree line. There is an old, wooden broken down fence about thirty yards in. It’s rotted and falling down, so you’ll have to look for it. There’s an opening in a broken section, and behind it there is a deer trail that leads straight up the mountain. Follow it until you get out of Red Havoc territory.”
“I can’t just run away.”
“I’m not askin’ you to. You’ll go back to your den tonight, cover your ass, tell your crew whatever you want. This is me giving you a choice, Anna. I’ll be there on the edge of the territory. Face me. Tell me all the whys. Tell me what’s happened and if you’re in trouble because I can’t get my animal to leave this town until I hear you say the words.”
“What words?”
“That you’re okay. That you don’t need my help. That you don’t need me. Tell me to my face, and I’ll leave.”
“And what if I get there and I don’t want you to leave?”
Silence dragged on for eternal seconds. “Then you should tell me that to my face, too. I’ll be here. Come or not, it’s up to you.”
“Wait. Jaxon, I have to think about this. Ben forbade me from seeing you. This crew is my shot at some kind of life where I’m not in a fucking cage. I can’t just run up the mountain and disobey him. I’m already on thin ice here.”
“Then no pressure, Anna. I’m not here to ruin your life. That was never what I wanted. I wanted…”
“What, Jax? Finish.”
“I’ll be on the edge of the territory for three hours. Bye, Anna.”
Click.
Annalise strangled the phone and made a screeching sound that hurt her throat. Ridiculous man, she couldn’t just disobey Ben! She didn’t know much about shifter culture, but being alpha meant he was basically mayor of Moonshine Town and she was nothing but a peon. She made to slam the phone down in the cradle, but thought better of destroying her only means of communication with the outside world and slowed it down right before it hit. Gently, and like less of a psychopath, she settled it into place.
Three hours. She glared at the bay window. It was full dark outside now, but how was she supposed to sneak by a crew of freaking panthers who heard and saw everything? She couldn’t even go to the stupid communal bathroom without being watched.
She wanted to see him. There it was. She was really tempted to do this, and damn the consequences because it was Jaxon. Her entire body had gone fuzzy in the moment they’d locked eyes. He was important to her, and she couldn’t even think of him driving away without seeing him first.