RED ROCK SHIFTERS

Chapter Four

I woke up slowly and stretched languorously feeling relaxed and satisfied for the first time in ages. It took a few moments for the memories of the night before to surface and when they did the stiffness of my shoulders immediately returned. Damn that Jace. If I’d slept with any other man in the bar I would have been waking up in a good mood feeling refreshed and happy and ready for round two. Instead I wanted to track Jace down and shoot the bastard. I’d settle for simply clawing up his pretty face though.

My grumbling lasted all the way to the bathroom as I went for a shower and freshened up, it even lasted through getting dressed in a pair of black shorts and a tank that matched the one from the night before. My grumbling probably would have lasted through the rest of the day if I hadn’t opened the bottle of vodka I’d been saving for a special day. A couple of glasses of vodka and soda had me feeling much better and I actually decided to go shopping and stock up my fridge. I hadn’t intended to stick around this long and I was certain that someone would figure out who I was but if the town’s golden boy couldn’t even sniff out the traitor in me then hopefully nobody could. It meant that for the first time in a long time I felt safe enough to put down some roots, starting with filling my fridge and making my room feel like more of a home.

I slipped on my flipflops and slid my sunglasses over my eyes before grabbing some cash and heading out the door. It was only about nine but already the shifter community was hard at work and I’d been greeted five times before I was even halfway to the grocery store. California was fucking hot this time of year and even in my shorts and tank I was sweating my ass off. It didn’t help that shifters tended to run hotter anyway. What I wouldn’t give for an ice cold beer right about now. Not that I was an alcoholic. I could take or leave alcohol since it didn’t really do anything for me anyway unless I consumed a large amount in a short time period but there were some days when nothing else would do.

The grocery store was busy but not heaving. I got a couple of funny looks and panicked thinking that somehow they knew what Jace and I had done. It wasn’t until one girl called me a psycho bitch that I realised they must have heard about me breaking his nose. I relaxed a little at that. It was only the younger girls that seemed to feel any hostility to me though as the older generation were sweet as could be. I didn’t doubt for a second that it would change in a heartbeat if I actually intended Jace or anyone else in the town serious harm. It was the good thing about Red Rock, they all looked out for one another. I’d never had that before. My father was all about himself and if someone had intended to harm one of his shifters he would have only thought about how it affected him. If someone going after his shifter made him look bad then he might make a half hearted effort to stop it but if it hadn’t affected him in any way then he had been more likely to hand them over than help them. The young girls of Red Rock had no idea how lucky they were. The kids were protected here and nobody got away with hurting them. If the unthinkable happened like the kidnapping then all of Red Rock banded together to give out its revenge. They didn’t simply hand you over for a punishment simply because you’d been acting like a kid instead of a trained killer. I envied them that.

I was halfway round the grocery store and trying to decide between healthy carrots and junkfood chips when I became aware of Jace standing behind me.

“Need something?” I asked him without turning around as I continued my great debate.

“You,” he answered without preamble and I rolled my eyes.

“You had your chance,” I said as I dumped the chips in my basket and turned to him. “You blew it,”

“Not yet,” he said with a pointed look at my shorts and I took a deep steadying breath. Arguing with Jace was like arguing with a bloody child, neither of them stayed on topic and both wanted their own way. I could only hope that Jace wouldn’t simply have a tantrum when the conversation didn’t go his way. Funny as it would be to see, I didn’t need that sort of attention.