Beside her, Dead was turning the wheel expertly, navigating the trees with his back-end fishtailing back and forth.
This was okay. Everything was all right.
Through the trees, there was a clearing, and Dead pointed the nose of the truck toward an opening through two massive pines. Quickdraw was already in the clearing, right on the edge, stopped and revving his engine.
“Little shit thinks he has a chance in a Chevy,” Dead said through a laugh.
His eyes were bright green and dancing every time he glanced at her. “I’ve got you,” he said suddenly as he pulled up next to Quickdraw.
She nodded jerkily and grabbed onto the oh-shit handle above the door. “Just live.”
His grin turned straight wicked. “Atta girl.”
On Dead’s other side, Two Shots pulled up, and the passenger window rolled down. Cheyenne stood up out of the window, threw her arms out, and yelled at the sky. Pretty Cheyenne was even prettier with that free spirit leaking out. Maybe that’s where extra beauty came from. Letting go of control gave a person a different aura.
Cheyenne finished her howl and pointed at Dead. “You’re going down.”
Dead revved his engine loudly as Cheyenne scrambled back into the passenger seat and began rolling up her window.
There was a loaded moment when Dead was looking on either side of him at the trucks all lined up. Quickdraw hit the gas first, and Dead whooped as he gunned it. One hand on the wheel, one hand slipping to her tensed thigh, he drove them straight across that clearing. The problem was, there were puddles. They would get bogged down, and Dead would have to correct, but the same was happening to Two Shots and Quickdraw, and by the time they were midway through the field, Raven was cracking up and yelling encouragement. “This way, this way, this way!” she whooped as Two Shots had to veer to the right to avoid a tuft of brush. His movement gave them just enough room to skirt a deep muddy bog.
“Oh, yeah, I see it,” Dead murmured, heading for the gap.
Raven couldn’t stop laughing as adrenaline surged through her. Her skin tingled, and her breath caught in her chest as they almost, almost, hit the brush. Oh, Dead could drive. His wheels had come less than an inch from the branches of the foliage, and then he gunned it.
Two Shots was struggling to get out of a mud pit, and Quickdraw had made it out front. He cut sharply and settled in front of Dead.
“I don’t think so, Quickdick,” he muttered, taking his hand from Raven’s thigh to turn the wheel sharp. He aimed for a slope on the left and caught better traction. He was still fishtailing, but he was going fast enough now that it made her stomach do a flip like she was on a roller coaster.
She was yelling for him, cheering for him as they caught up to Quickdraw, who was now on their right.
He flipped them off out the window, and Dead did the same to him just as he found another gear and blasted past him on higher, drier ground. They made it to the edge of the clearing first, but Dead wasn’t done. When he cut hard to the right, his back end spun out. They spun in circle after circle, spraying a rooster tail of mud as Raven held onto the oh-shit bar for dear life, her breath trapped in her throat. Dead was yelling a victory battle cry as they spun and spun and spun. When he slowed and came out of the donut, Quickdraw was doing a wide loop around them and Two Shots was doing donuts in the middle of the field. It was like a dance.
“God, I love this,” she huffed out, shaking with excitement and adrenaline.
“Your eyes,” Dead said as they rocked to a stop.
She searched his bright green ones. “What about them?”
He reached over and stroked his thumb gently across her cheek. “They’re beautiful.”
Confused, she popped down the sun visor and looked in the little mirror there. Her eyes were black as pitch. There wasn’t any white at all.
“Oh no,” she whispered, looking away. “I didn’t— I don’t—”
“You aren’t going to change,” Dead said with such confidence. “You’re going to keep having fun. You don’t even smell like fur. Your animal is having fun.”
Raven didn’t feel as sure as he sounded, though. She’d never gotten what she called “the demon eyes” and not changed before.
He leaned over suddenly and kissed her. Hand on the back of her neck, squeezing comfortingly, he moved his lips against hers, and that racing heartbeat of hers slowed.
He drew back and rested his forehead on hers. “It’s just me and you. Having fun. And if you got to the point where you had to change? Okay. That’s natural, and I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Raven forced the words past her tightening vocal cords. “It’s not me I would worry about.”
His lips curved up in a handsome smile. “Then I wouldn’t let you hurt anyone. You trust me?”
She nodded. “I shouldn’t trust a stranger, but I do.”
Dead snorted. “Woman, you can’t use the stranger excuse anymore. I’ve met your parents. Now, hold onto your panties. We have company.”
“Company?” Her confusion lasted until she followed his gaze to the other side of the clearing they’d just raced across.
Four more trucks appeared out of the tree line. Five. Six. It must’ve been
