Page 44 of Bad Blood Bear

Chapter 19

“Oh, hell,” Jasmin said. “Lissa! Get back!”

Within seconds, she was a spotted jaguar, snarling and hurling herself at Tank. Lissa stumbled back behind the picnic table.

Tank’s grizzly was enormous. Way taller than her, even on all fours, with a look in his eyes that terrified her.

Flynn gave a muffled curse and began shucking his clothes. So did Sloan.

Xander leaped out of the barbecue area onto the lawn, roaring a challenge at Tank. Tank followed him.

With snarls and popping bones, Flynn and Sloan Changed, Flynn’s lion and a gorgeous spotted white snow leopard crowding the barbecue area. Lissa shrank back, fighting her bear, who saw threats from all sides and no way to escape.

Flynn leaped gracefully for the melee on the lawn, where Tank and Xander were rolling over and over, gouging at each other. Blood matted both their fur.

There was so much noise and confusion it took Lissa a minute to sort out what was really going on.

Tank looked wild, like he really wanted to kill Xander. Jasmin was fighting on Xander’s side, but only to distract Tank and make the battle even—she wasn’t really trying to hurt Tank, though she had opportunities.

Flynn was pacing the perimeter of the battle, keeping them out in the open part of the lawn, away from the fire—and away from Lissa.

And Sloan was sticking to Lissa like glue, standing between her and the others. The fur down his back was standing on end and he was emanating anxious little growls, but he didn’t leave her side.

Finally the battle broke off. Tank lumbered off into the woods, crashing through the underbrush. Everyone else turned back to human, naked and, except for Sloan, bloodied to some degree.

Flynn looked out after Tank. “Jaz, go after him,” he said.

“I’ll go,” Sloan said. “Jaz can stitch up Xander. She’s better at it than the rest of us.”

“Sure,” Jasmin muttered. “Cooking. Sewing. That’s what I’m good for. Remind me to learn how to crochet fucking doilies.”

She gathered up her clothes and stalked over to Xander, who was standing shakily on one leg, the other bleeding and misshapen.

Sloan turned back into a leopard and slipped into the dark forest.

They trooped back to the house, Jasmin helping Xander up the stairs into the main cabin.

Flynn sighed. “Blood on the floor again,” he muttered. “Awesome.”

Lissa turned on him before they went inside. “Why didn’t you stop it?” she demanded. “Xander’s leg is broken! And Tank is all…” she stopped, not knowing what to say. Angry? Crazy? Sad?

“I thought you were supposed to be the alpha,” she said instead. “Can’t you make a rule or something?”

“A no-fighting rule? In a crew of fucked-up dominant shifters? Good luck with that.” Flynn climbed into his jeans. “Even well-adjusted shifters fight. And we’re about as not well-adjusted as it’s possible to be without somebody putting us down. I warned you it was going to be like this. I think it was Rule Number Two. Or Three, maybe.”

“It was horrible,” Lissa said. “Tank’s miserable, and Xander’s hurt. And they were arguing about me.”

Flynn let out a sigh and sat down on the porch railing. “Yeah,” he said. “And no. If it wasn’t you, it would be something else.”

He looked at his shirt and then shrugged, as if it were too much trouble to put it on.

“There’s something you should know about this crew,” he said. “I was going to leave it to explain later, but here it is. For this to be an official crew, the shifters in it have to pledge their loyalty to me as their alpha. And I have to pledge my loyalty to them. Nobody’s done that yet, which means that technically, nobody has to fucking do what I say. I’m dominant enough that I can out-alpha them if I have to, but it takes a lot out of me and I’m fucking tired. Ergo, chaos.”

“Oh,” Lissa said. “Why don’t they pledge to you? They seem to have a lot of respect for you.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Flynn said. “The problem is, pledging to my crew means I can compel them to obey me, if I have to. This group spent too much time in a place where they were tortured into obedience. They’re kind of skittish about that shit.”

Lissa nodded.