Page 5 of Cold Foot Croc (Wreck’s Mountains #3)

“You’re putting it off,” Dylan said from where he sat on a felled log.

“I’m not,” Garret lied. “I’m just wanting to finish making camp before I Change.”

“I can get this place set up. I always do. It’s not going to get any easier if you stall. It’ll get harder. Rip the Band-Aid off, Gar.”

He made a click sound behind his teeth and continued hammering the tent stakes into the snowy ground. Dylan had always acted like he knew everything about everything, but he didn’t understand. Not really. How could he? Dylan was still human. He was still normal.

“Who is the girl?”

His brother’s sudden question made Garret freeze. Dylan must’ve seen the post on his page. “A friend,” he said carefully as he stood. Keeping his eyes averted, he tossed the empty stake bag into the tent and made his way inside to set up the wood-burning stove that would keep Dylan warm tonight.

“Is it your kid?” Dylan asked from beside the tent.

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Yeah it does. You have trouble staying steady around a normal person who talks too loud. What is your bear going to do around a crying baby?”

“Protect it.”

“Garret—”

“She’s pretty, huh?” he asked, standing to his full height. Thank goodness they’d sprung for the tall tent. He hated feeling enclosed in small spaces nowadays.

“How would I know? I haven’t met her.”

Garret frowned. “You didn’t see my post?”

“Chh, you know I don’t do that shit. Mom called and told me about it. Aunt Shay saw a picture of her somewhere. What if you hurt her, man?” Dylan asked.

“You date people and you don’t hurt them.”

“I’m a man—”

“I’m a man too!” The whip-crack of anger surged through Garret. He stalked Dylan out of the tent, and his brother held his ground until he couldn’t and had to back up pace for pace. “I fought with a female shifter before, and the bear couldn’t end her. He didn’t want to. I won’t hurt Raynah. Take it back, fucker.”

Dylan’s glare was hard. “Is Raynah a shifter too?”

“Yeah, and when she has her baby, she could fuckin’ end me.”

Dylan lifted his chin higher into the air. “She’s a bear?”

“Scarier. Crocodile.”

Dylan’s eyebrows arched high. “She can—” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat and tried again. “She can turn into a crocodile?”

“A big one, I’m betting. She ain’t soft either. She was in prison for a while out in Alaska.”

“For what?”

“Killing a man. And eating him.”

“What the fuck?” Dylan barked. “She told you that?”

Garret swallowed the growl that threatened to rattle up his throat. “No. She doesn’t know that I know, as far as I can tell.”

“How did you find out?”

“The internet.”

“Is the baby yours?”

“No.”

“Does it belong to the man she killed?”

“No. That was a long time ago.”

“Dude,” Dylan muttered, pacing away, his hands running through his hair. “That’s a mess. You’re going after a black widow?”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It means she killed her man!”

“It wasn’t her man.”

“Who was he then?” Dylan barked, his voice echoing off the mountains.

“Her mom got beat up by a boyfriend. Some dude named Harold Price. A police report was filed. They arrested him, but let him go because her mom decided not to press charges. That happened multiple times. There were pictures of what he did to her face online. I found them. The last time he was arrested and released, he disappeared.” God, this felt good to say out loud. He hadn’t known how to admit to Raynah that he knew. He’d wanted to earlier, when he was leaving the dollar store, but didn’t want to ruin the night after he’d just given her the baby-shower presents.

“That doesn’t scare you?” Dylan asked.

Garret frowned and sat down on the log. He rested his forearms over his knees and looked at the fire his brother had built, considering the question. “No. Nothing really scares me anymore.”

“Why not?” Dylan asked quietly.

Garret clenched his jaw, and then threw his brother’s words back at him. “Maybe because I’m not a man.”

Dylan huffed a frozen breath and sank into the camp chair he’d unfolded earlier. “I’m sorry I said that. You know what I mean. I’m human. You aren’t anymore.”

“I still remember what it’s like though. I wouldn’t hurt a woman or a child as a human. I won’t hurt them now.”

“Are you with her?” Dylan asked.

Garret shook his head, but couldn’t understand the dark feeling that swirled around in his middle. “No. We’re just friends. It’s new.”

“We had a deal. Women complicate things, and we can’t afford to make any mistakes right now.”

“ I can’t afford to, Dylan. I can’t. You’re good. You’re in the clear. You can still live a normal life. Nothing about mine feels normal anymore, except one thing. When I’m talking to Raynah, I forget what I am for a little while. I’m just Garret again.” He stood and made his way to the truck, pulled the can of bear spray from the back seat, and then tossed it to Dylan.

“What’s this?” Dylan asked, squinting at the label in the fading light of evening.

“Raynah bought it for you. Just in case I find camp too soon.”

Dylan’s bright blue eyes darted up to Garret.

“She’s a badass, but she’s nice,” Garret said to his brother. “She doesn’t even bat an eye at what I am. She makes me feel kind of good about being the bear. I’ll introduce you to her when I’m ready. I still don’t know what I’m freaking doing.”

He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over the log by the tent, then began to hike toward the trees. His skin had been tingling all day in anticipation, and now it felt like electric currents were zinging up and down his spine, and through his arms.

“She still killed a man,” Dylan called.

Garret halted, and then turned. “If someone beat Mom up, and the police released him, what would you do, Dylan?”

Dylan just stared at him, turning the bear spray in his hands over and over, refusing to answer.

“I know what I would do. I’d do what Raynah did. I bet when she talks to me about it someday, I’ll agree with her decision even more. I’m pretty sure that the Cold Foot Crew wouldn’t let her in if she didn’t have reasons for what she did. I don’t sense anything bad about her.”

“You didn’t sense anything bad about that Farrah chick either, and look how that turned out.”

And there it was. There was the exact button Dylan knew how to push.

Garret shook his head, furious with his brother and furious with himself as memories of fighting Farrah’s Komodo dragon flashed across his mind. He’d really liked her, and he’d messed up. If he could’ve figured out her intentions earlier, maybe he could’ve stopped her from attacking Sasha at all. Instead, he’d died that night, and Sasha had painted the snow red and died right along with him. And now she was a new shifter, like him. Everything got so fucked up because of Farrah.

Because of him.

Garret didn’t turn back again, didn’t look over his shoulder, didn’t say goodbye to Dylan.

His brother was in a mood, and it was pissing him off. Right now, this close to a Change, he couldn’t get pissed off at his brother. He was afraid his bear would hunt the camp and punish Dylan. That was his biggest fear.

He wished Dylan would stay in town, but he also understood his brother’s worry. What if Garret attacked a hiker, or made his way to town and terrorized the community? Dylan would fly a drone in the sky and watch Garret to make sure he didn’t make any mistakes he couldn’t come back from.

As much as he and Dylan butted heads sometimes, as brothers did, the truth was that Dylan had rearranged his entire life to help Garret transition into this confusing shifter life. He didn’t have to do that, but he did it without a second thought because that’s the type of man Dylan was.

He also said things as they were. Sometimes Garret appreciated the brutal honesty, but sometimes, like today, he wished his brother would just be happy for him, that he found a woman he was interested in again. He’d been single for a long time.

Garret marched farther and farther into the woods, stalling.

The Change was the worst part of this life.

It was slow and painful, and he didn’t want to do it. No benefit of the animal was big enough to make up for all the shit he had to deal with now.

Fuck. He climbed higher and higher through the woods, weaving in and out between trees. Farther and farther, step by step through deep snow. He wasn’t cold, but really, he didn’t get cold anymore. It felt as if his skin was on fire, but still he held off the bear. He didn’t want to be him. He didn’t want any of this.

Garret climbed higher. Higher.

The hum of the drone irritated the animal, and Garret had to blow out a trio of steadying breaths, hand clutching a low-hanging branch before he trudged on. When at last he couldn’t stand the burning of his skin any longer, he fell forward and hit his knees on a rock hidden under the snow.

The only time this had been manageable…the only time it had ever been bearable…was the night Raynah had come to his door with panic in her eyes, asking for his bear to help her and Sasha.

That Change had been fast, like the snap of his fingers—just a moment of pain, and then fury.

God, he wished it could be fast like that all the time, but instead, he had to suffer.

That’s what being a shifter was—suffering.

Garret rushed to shed his clothes and looked around in desperation, hoping he could remember where he left them, but everything looked blurry.

Ripping sounds filled his head. The snapping of his bones echoed through his mind. The pained noises that wrenched from his tormented body filled the woods. The Change lasted hours. At least, it felt like it lasted hours. He lost track of all time when it was like this.

And when at last the roar of his animal filled the evening air, Garret grew so small in his mind that he didn’t really care what happened anymore.

The bear owned the body now.