Page 14 of Cold Foot Croc (Wreck’s Mountains #3)

Garret lurched up in bed.

“Hey,” Raynah murmured tiredly. “Are you okay?”

Garret slid his hand to her stomach, but she felt fine, other than everything feeling really tight.

His eyes were glowing in the dim dawn light that was filtering through the front window. They’d dragged the twin mattress and the crib mattress down in front of the fireplace last night, shoved them together, covered them with blankets, and slumber-partied down here.

A low growl emanated from Garret and he stood in a blur, dislodging the blankets from his lap.

Raynah struggled upward, and couldn’t take her eyes off him. Garret was only wearing underwear, and every muscle in his body was flexed and tense as he moved to the front window and looked outside. He stood there still as a statue, but the growling in his chest stayed steady and loud.

With a huff, Garret returned and pulled on his jeans in a rush, then left as he was still buttoning them up. “Stay here,” he murmured, but his voice came out too deep, too gravelly.

The stink of anger still hung heavy in the air as she pushed up. Straightening up wasn’t an option, and she cried out and doubled over as a deep pain pierced through her lower belly. She exhaled slowly as she braced against the deep ache.

Fuck, she regretted not getting a couch. She didn’t have anything to hold onto down here but plants.

“Garret?” she called, but he didn’t answer. Outside, there were multiple men talking, but she couldn’t decipher the words.

“It’s okay, baby,” she said in a hushed tone as the pain eased up and she could straighten her spine.

Something was happening. She scanned the living room and found her snow boots by the front door. Her pajama pants were upstairs, and she didn’t have it in her to climb up there to retrieve them. Currently she was wearing Garret’s T-shirt, which only came down to mid-thigh thanks to the baby belly.

She blew out a steadying breath, slipped her feet into her snow boots, and pulled open the door. Outside near the firepit, Garret was talking low with some guy in a suit. His voice was pitched low, but he was pissed. Wreck was out there too, his hands on his hips, listening to the fancy guy. A black Land Rover was parked near the mouth of the road. Garret held a manila envelope in his clenched fist, and was pointing down the road.

“…I don’t care what…”

“…the fuck out of here…”

She only caught snippets of Garret’s voice thanks to the whipping wind. The snow was still falling in earnest. The others were gathering on their porches. Kade looked over at her, his arms crossed over his chest. “Go back inside, Raynah.”

But he wasn’t saying that to Timber, or Sasha, or Katrina.

This was about her…right?

“What’s happening?” she asked as she slowly scuffled toward the stairs.

“Wreck and Garret will handle it.”

The aching was picking up again in her stomach, and she had to pause at the bottom of the stairs, gripping the railing. She yelped and cradled her cramping stomach. God, this was awful.

She lifted her gaze to call out for Garret again, but he was storming toward the Land Rover, and he nearly ripped the door off the hinge opening it. He dragged someone out of the car, and something was wrong. Something was wrong!

Garret threw that man like a rag doll, and the man in the suit was yelling, but Garret was already ripping another man out of the back seat of the car.

“Go!” he roared, pointing up toward the firepit.

The guys were huge, and they looked at each other from where they were crouched on the ground. Their eyes were what froze her breath in her lungs.

They looked familiar. The shade of blue brought back instant memories of that goddamn breeding room.

They looked like the Jackal. One of them in particular looked just like him.

Two women got out of the car as Garret waited by the car, holding the door.

The man in the suit was pleading with Wreck, too low for Raynah to make out over the sound of roaring in her ears.

Was that the Jackal? Was it him?

“We need to go inside,” Timber said. She was right beside Raynah now, and Raynah jumped at her touch on her arm.

“Don’t touch me,” she rushed out, panic flaring in her chest as she watched the man who looked like the Jackal stand and glare at her with such a familiar hatred.

Oh God. She’d thought he was dead. She’d thought he was dead!

No, no, no, he was dead, right? Damon Daye had told King the Jackal was dead, and she was safe. Right?

She cried out and doubled over at the pain in her stomach, and now the women were looking back at her with that same damn shade of eye color as the Jackal’s. These were his people.

Wreck’s Mountains were crawling with jackals.

“Timber, get her inside,” Wreck demanded.

Sasha and Katrina were running for her now.

“King, I said stay back,” Wreck barked out. “Stay. There! That’s an order!”

On King’s porch, an enormous silverback gorilla was pacing the length of it, never taking his eyes from the Jackal, who had positioned himself in front of his people.

“He’s dead though,” Raynah choked out. “That’s a ghost. That’s a ghost. He’s dead.”

Katrina grabbed her arm. “That’s not the Jackal. That’s his fucking brother. Let’s go.”

Raynah slung Katrina’s grasp off her arm. “Stop telling me to go inside! What the fuck is happening?”

“She’s going to set Garret off,” Kade warned from his porch. “Wreck! Release my order. Let me go with the girls.”

“Stay back from here, only go with the girls,” Wreck barked.

Kade huffed a breath like he’d been holding it, and hopped over the porch railing of his home. He headed straight for Raynah, positioning himself between her and Garret, who was pacing behind Wreck, looking like he was going to lose it.

“Cash, you too?” Wreck asked.

“Nope, let me stay here in case the gorilla goes off,” Cash said somberly.

“Go!” Kade barked, pointing up to her front door.

“I just want to know!”

Kade pressed his hand on her lower back, trying to get her to go up the stairs, but she lashed out, claws ready, and aimed for his eyes. He barely ducked back in time. “Don’t touch me,” she said, a long hiss at the end.

Kade gritted his teeth and looked back at Garret, who was staring at him. Kade lowered his voice. “It’s the Jackal’s Pack, coming to collect the baby.”

“Collect…the…baby,” she uttered, shocked.

“They have a lawyer and are trying to sue for custody—”

“You want my baby?” she yelled. “You want my baby! You will have to pry him from my cold, dead hands. Let’s see how many of you I take out before you get to him!” she screamed. Another hiss emanated from her as she staggered forward through the pain. “Let’s make bets. I’ll fucking kill all of you.” And ooooh, she could feel her old self coming back. She would. She would kill them.

A smattering of pops sounded, and the roar of Garret’s grizzly shook the trees in the woods.

“Yep, we gotta go,” Kade gritted out. He stooped and picked her up in one smooth motion, then rushed her up the stairs and inside of her cabin.

She struggled, but he had her upright again within a couple of seconds. He shut the door behind them.

“Let me out!” she shrieked, rage consuming her. “I’ll kill them! Let me out of here, I need to kill them!”

Timber and Katrina were standing between her and the door. “You can’t Change right now,” Katrina said softly, hands out like she was trying to calm an injured wild animal.

“Fuck,” Raynah yelped out as she doubled over at another wave of excruciating pain.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Sasha said low. “What’s happening?”

“I think the baby is coming,” she gritted out.

Sasha and Timber exchanged a glance, and Timber shook her head slightly.

“Okay, we can’t take you into town right now,” Sasha explained. “I don’t want you out there while Garret is this worked up, and we can’t leave the safety of Wreck’s territory. They’ll push to be around if you’re in the hospital. I don’t know who the police would back if it came to that.”

“I want to have him here,” she gritted out. “I want the jackals to go away. I don’t want any of his people anywhere near me or my baby.”

There was yelling outside. Wreck? Kade was at the front window, eyes on the scuffle, but Raynah couldn’t read anything from his expression.

“Hey,” Sasha said, cupping her cheeks. “We have work to do, okay? We’re the team in here. You and me, and Timber, and Katrina, okay? Kade will keep everyone else out. Garret and Wreck will handle what is happening out there. They are a team on that, but in here? It’s a big day for you and that baby boy, okay?”

“I was learning to hope,” she whispered raggedly to Katrina. “This one is mine. This one is for me. I’m his mom. I want to keep him safe.”

Katrina’s eyes were full of determination as she nodded. “Keep that hope. Over all of our dead bodies will they get the baby.”

“They are not taking the baby,” Timber uttered. Her eyes were the bright-blue of her polar bear. Truth. She could hear the truth in Timber’s voice. “Not now or ever.”

“Nope,” Sasha murmured, looking her straight in the eye. “Not now or ever.”

“Not now or ever,” Raynah whispered, trying so hard to believe it.

“Are you ready to work?” Sasha asked.

Raynah bit her lip to halt the trembling there.

She nodded as a tear streaked down her cheek.

“I’m ready to work.”