Blackwing Defender (Kane's Mountains Book 1) (3 page)

When fifteen remained, Logan couldn’t help but think Air Ryder’s antics were either really stupid, or he was a secret genius. By not telling Kane he had advertised for a Blackwing Crew, the crowd had been witness to his violent reaction.

Kane had weeded out half the applicants by smashing faces and daring them to stay in his territory. And that shifter didn’t make idle threats either. Logan had met few who he hated turning his back on during a fight, but Dark Kane was certainly one of them. He’d opened himself up to a fist to the face and this split lip in an effort to keep Kane in his peripheral. And he was fighting with him, not against him.

Yep, Kane was just what he needed. He wouldn’t pussy out when it came time to put Logan where he belonged. Not like his last alpha. Fucker still made him mad for not following through. Any last shred of respect had been stamped out like a tiny sidewalk weed when Trey had refused to put Logan down. So here he was, trying to hold onto his steady long enough to make it into the Blackwing Crew so Kane would have a reason to give him an honorable end. So he could go with dignity.

Fuck, Winter was cute. All destroyed-looking like a little lost kitten who’d been through a pit bull fight and survived. Logan was having trouble paying attention to Dark Kane’s speech because she was standing in the doorway, her eyes glowing gold like the fucking sexy big-cat she had tucked away inside of her. He hoped she was a panther, but she would make one helluva lioness, too. That little hiss she’d given him was about the sexiest thing he’d ever heard. Her hair, nipple-length and unbrushed with a few blond highlights grown out by inches, was straight down her shoulders. She was maybe six inches shorter than him, fit but curvy with those big titties that would feel perfect cupped in his hands.

Logan clenched his teeth. He shouldn’t be thinking of her like this. She was a person, and from the ghosts in her eyes, she was going through hell right now. And why else would she be here? Two black-marked dragons heading up a crew? They would only attract the broken. That much was clear from the scent of sickness he smelled on the remaining shifters. No one was going to put up with this much effort to pledge to a crew if they weren’t desperate.

Hell, that’s why he was here.

Winter’s eyes were on him again. Gold as the sun and surrounded by dark lashes, and she had a tiny, slightly crooked nose that said she snarled up one side of her lip too much. She looked tough. A green fitted T-shirt over black skinny jeans all ripped to hell, and black combat boots on her feet with the shoelaces undone. Her outfit was at total odds with the big-ass fancy purse she carried.

Logan canted his head and dragged his attention to those perfect tits she had stuffed into a push-up bra. He was usually really good at assessing someone in a glance. That’s what he’d been trained to do. Winter, however, was an unreadable enigma.

“You got fuck-me eyes, Bear,” Dustin said from beside him. He shoved Logan in the shoulder.

Kill him.

Logan took a careful step away from Dustin. Fuckin’ werewolf was going to rile the monster and end his own life with one more of those stupid touches of his. Wolves were too damn feely for his animal’s taste. If it was up to his inner bear, Logan would eat the entirety of the werewolf race and make the world a better place, but here in the dark dragon’s territory, he had to play nice. Eating the competition would probably be frowned upon by Dark Kane and his sweet mate.

Logan almost snorted. He’d just thought of a dragon shifter as sweet? She’d just blown fire at one of the idiots who charged her mate. She was no pushover, but Logan could just about taste the sweetness wafting from her.

Winter wasn’t so sweet. He bet she could tear him up in the bedroom. He would’ve let her, too, if his bear was okay to sleep with a woman. He wasn’t, though, so Logan was stuck in hell as the eternal masturbator. God, he needed Kane to kill him quickly. Beast smelled sickest of all. He was too damn close and set Logan’s bear on edge. That, and Kane gestured Winter back into the house and out of Logan’s sight. Something about that made him want to pull the same shit that bear had and charge the Blackwing alpha. Kane smelled sick, too. This crew was fucked.

Kill him.

Who? Who the fuck was his bear even telling him to kill now? Just another psychotic day in the life of Logan Furrow.

He missed Winter. Missed staring at her. Missed the push-up bra. Missed smelling her. How long were these interviews supposed to last?

“Dude, stop it,” Dustin said from where he was pissing beside the house. He gave him a narrow-eyed glance over his shoulder as he jiggled piss droplets from his dick. “Cool it with the growling. No one is even standing near you.”

Was he growling? Shit. Beast was staring, his fists clenched and his nose all scrunched up as though he was half shifted already. Logan crossed his arms even tighter over his chest and swallowed the snarl.

Dustin was zipping up his pants now.

“You know there are cameras, right?” Logan pointed to one in the tree and one on the porch.

Dustin shrugged like it made no matter to him. “What’ll Dark Kane see? Me marking my territory, big fuckin’ deal.”

Logan huffed a breath at his stupidity. “Well, good luck not getting eaten,” he muttered as the werewolf passed him by and picked up a discarded application.

“Oh, he won’t eat me. I’m a shoo-in for his crew.”

“Why?” Beast grunted.

“Because,” Dustin said nonchalantly. “I have something the dragon wants.” And with that, he loped over to the log seats again and began filling out his application.

Moron couldn’t have anything Kane wanted. No one did but his mate, Rowan. Anyone with eyes or senses could tell that Kane was a broken but simple man with simple needs. Rowan likely met every one of them, or he wouldn’t be so pissed at having to do interviews in the first place. A crew needed Kane, but he didn’t need a crew.

He’d liked the way Winter hadn’t been able to take her gaze away from him. Liked the way her pupils got all small when she stared. Liked how she made him want to…want to…

Logan frowned. She made him want to do something he hadn’t wanted to do in a long time. Protect someone. Protect her and, in a way, protect that mousy human, Emma, because Winter had been standing protectively in front of her during the fight, like the girl meant something to her. Like she would’ve been hurt if Emma had ended up in the fray.

He should’ve been paying attention and keeping the idiot mob away from Dark Kane, but time after time, he’d looked over at Winter to make sure she was out of the way and safe.

Stupid. She could take care of herself. She was a panther. Or a lion. Either way, she didn’t need some broken man to be her make-shift hero. And besides, he was too damn dark to be anyone’s hero. He was a nightmare instead.

“What’s taking so long?” he murmured to Beast, who was mirroring his posture, staring at the front door ten yards away from them.

Beast grunted like a caveman.

“Dude,” Dustin called. “They’ve been in there for ten seconds. Don’t get in too big a rush to get rejected.”

Logan wanted to kick Dustin’s teeth in.

He picked up one of the fluttering applications blowing along the ground, but the front door opened up and Winter stood there, wide-eyed. Was she frightened?

Kill him.

“Rejected already?” Dustin asked.

“No,” she said in that pretty bell-tone that said she could probably carry a tune. “Kane told me to stick around for group interviews. Logan, you’re up.”

He’d watched her lips form his name, and as she walked up to him, he had this overwhelming urge to kiss her quick so he could taste the lingering word on her lips. He stood frozen as she did something he hadn’t expected in a million years. She gripped his shirt in a clenched fist and bumped her shoulder against his chest, rubbed her arm from one side of his ribcage to the other like he wasn’t some terrifying animal. “Affectionate kitty,” he whispered mindlessly. She’d made him drunk on her closeness. He wanted to fuck her in the woods.

Logan closed his eyes and held his breath until she released him, and when he opened them again, she looked just as confused as he felt. That, and she was standing ten feet away from him still on the porch.

She hadn’t touched him at all. He’d just imagined it.

Kill him.

“Shut the fuck up,” he gritted out to his bear.

Winter looked hurt.

“Not you!” He flung the application like a Frisbee and flinched his gaze away from the pain in her eyes.

“Smooth move, Romeo,” Dustin called as Logan brushed past her to the door.

He should turn around and apologize to her, but what good would that do? It was just a selfish ploy to get her to see him as something he wasn’t. For her to see him as decent. Best she figure out what he was now and stay the hell away. He wanted her to survive him.

In a rush, he shut the door behind him. Kane sat at a table, elbows on the polished surface, hands clasped in front of his mouth as he studied Logan. “Name.”

“Logan Furrow,” he answered, lifting his chin high.

Kane glared at him a few seconds too long, then pulled an open laptop closer and typed onto the keyboard, which gave Logan a few seconds to assess the situation. This part he was good at. That instant where he could take everything in and remember it for the rest of his life. The new-home sawdust smell that said Kane and Rowan had been renovating their lair, the dust motes that said he hadn’t dusted in a week. The flipped corner of a rug near the back door that said someone had left the back way in a hurry. The buzz of a new refrigerator, marks on the beams of the ceiling that said the roof was new. The soft flutter of papers that said Kane probably had notes pinned to a wall somewhere. An office maybe. Down the hallway to the right. The frown on Rowan’s face as she stood in the kitchen leaning on the counter. Not a threat. She smelled worried. Not offensive. Everyone felt uneasy when they got into tight spaces with him. Air Ryder’s scent lingered, but he wasn’t here anymore. He was probably the one who flipped the corner of the rug. There were three escapes. Front door, back door, and the picture window in the living room. A knife block sat on the counter, a fireplace set had a metal poker in it near the hearth, and that was all if he was too lazy to reach the six-inch-long Bowie knife he kept in a sheath at his ankle.

“Former Ten Rivers Crew?” Kane asked, arching his black eyebrow. “Why did you leave?”

“The alpha didn’t cut it.”

Kane’s monstrous green dragon eyes narrowed. He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms as he studied Logan. “In what way?”

Logan growled. “Because he broke a promise.”

“Just one promise?”

Logan nodded his chin once.

“Must’ve been a big one.”

“It was the only one that mattered to me.”

Kane slid his computer out of the way and leaned forward on his elbows. “Logan Furrow. Your name sounds familiar. What did you do for work?”

Logan huffed a humorless breath. “Pass.”

“Then you can leave.”

Well, now he was directly in between a rock and a hard place. He would have to leave anyway if he admitted his career. “Any other question to start. Get to know me before you cut me out.”

“Fine, what did you do to your bear to break him?”

That was basically the same question. “Nothing. He’s fine.”

“Liar. I can feel how fucked up he is all the way from over here. From the way my mate is bristling behind me, I’m guessing she can, too. So please illuminate me, Mr. Furrow. Why should I allow you to be in my crew?”

“Because I’m loyal, and I can protect you and your mate. I can protect your entire crew if it came down to it. I have a skillset.”

“From your career?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Name your job, Logan. I’m not going to ask you again.”

“Mercenary. Assassin.”

“Fuck,” Kane spat out. He wouldn’t look at him now, was shaking his head back and forth. “Your choice?”

Logan hesitated.

“Answer me.”

“Not at first. At seventeen, I was ordered by my alpha to put down a problem shifter he couldn’t muster the balls to put down. My bear was…” Logan inhaled deeply and spilled the rest of his sins in one breath. “He was dominant, and I was young, and I didn’t know I could say no, and he hired me out after that.”

“How many kills?” Kane asked low.

“Enough,” Rowan said.

Kane made a tick sound behind his teeth and asked again, over his mate’s wishes. “How many?”

That number was for Logan alone. It was his ticket to hell.

“Sit down,” Rowan demanded, making her way to the table.

Kane shot her a warning look. “Rowan—”

“You said this was just as much my choice, and before we nix anyone, I want to know more than their career. I want to know them.”

“He is his career.”

Rowan cupped her mate’s cheeks and smiled down on him like an angel. “You see things in black and white.”

“I’m supposed to protect you.”

“I’m a dragon, and I’m not his target.” Rowan dragged her lightened eyes to Logan. They were gold now, with elongated pupils. “Sit down and tell me…what was the happiest day of your life?”