Heart of a Fighter (Rocky River Fighters 1)

Chapter One

Cammie Samuels sat perfectly still with her legs dangling over the edge of the loft in the barn. She watched, breath catching in her chest, as Alex Kincaid pulled his shirt off and circled the punching bag on the main level.

He didn’t look like he knew where to start, and part of Cammie wanted to help him, but a bigger part of her wanted to just drink him in. With her shifter sight, everything about him was perfectly clear, every detail on his body mouth-wateringly visible.

He was tall, towering over her tiny frame when they stood next to each other, and he had deep chestnut colored hair that contrasted nicely with his light gray eyes. He had a beard when he first showed up, but he shaved it sometime in the past few days, showing off a strong, square jaw, and a cleft in his chin.

She watched him as he cocked his head, studying the punching bag, noticing he was leaner than her fighter brothers. It was obvious he didn’t train like they did. She always thought she preferred a more muscled physique, like Ian’s or Jax’s, but Alex’s body was causing reactions to stir in her she never expected.

Though he was lean, he still had muscle mass on him, and his bicep bulged as he ran a hand through his hair. She trailed her eyes down his strong chest, dusted lightly with hair, to the abs that were flexing with his movement.

She winced as he prepared to swing, shaking her head when he took a jab at the punching bag, his ineffectual strike barely making it move. She couldn’t watch this. He really needed some help. As she stood to intervene, Seth walked in. He watched Alex take another swing and began to laugh, bending over and wrapping his arms around his stomach.

Cammie scowled. Alex was no fighter, but he didn’t deserve to be laughed at. She decided then and there she would kick Seth’s ass for it at some point in the future.

Alex hooked his hands on his hips and frowned at Seth, but before long, he was laughing along with him. When Seth finally calmed down, he wiped his eyes and started talking Alex through the proper way to make contact with the bag. Relaxing, she settled back into her spot in the loft, going back to studying the human.

He was a complete mystery. A few weeks ago, he’d been in an accident with Hannah from Red Moon Farm. She’d been in a bad way, and her mate, Chase, called 911 for Alex before leaving with her. But when the emergency personnel arrived, Alex was gone. His car was still there, but he’d vanished like he never existed. Then, a week later, he stumbled into a party at Red Moon, with no memory of who he was or why he was there. They knew his name from the paperwork in his car, and he’d recognized it when someone called him by name. He said he was looking for the Rocky River Fighters, then passed out cold.

And that was all they knew about Alex Kincaid. He hadn’t regained any memories, of himself, or why he was looking for the fighters.

Maybe he’d heard about their events. They didn’t really keep a low profile here. Ian, Jax, and Seth all fought on Saturday nights at the Anderson’s ranch. It paid good money, and the fights themselves helped keep their animals steady. Each of them needed to fight, for their own various reasons, and the money was a much needed bonus.

But they weren’t known as the Rocky River Fighters. In fact, when Alex showed up, they’d just been moving onto this property, known to the locals for the Rocky River Creek that flowed through the land.

How this man, who wasn’t from around here, had known to call them that, no one knew. It made Ian, their leader, deeply uneasy. He stood to lose the most, having just gotten his daughter back. So he brought Alex here, intent on watching him closely and finding out what the hell he wanted from them.

Cammie didn’t mind, because she needed to know why Alex was here, too. Next to Ian, she had the most to lose. She was being hunted by her people, and there was always a possibility they’d find her. No, more like a probability. Her animal was rare, a dragon on the verge of extinction. Add in a culture of males who would stop at nothing to take what they wanted—by brute force and with no questions asked—and she knew her time was limited.

She’d tried to prolong it, to put off the inevitable. Not long after her parents were killed, she met Ian, a rough and tumble tiger shifter, when she was sixteen and living on the streets. He taught her to fight, to protect, and defend herself, trying to give her a shot at surviving what was coming for her. But lately she was feeling more like her reprieve was coming to an end. Maybe it already had, though she was fairly certain it wouldn’t come from Alex.

He didn’t seem like a shifter at all. Technically, he could be a dragon. And they wouldn’t realize it because dragons don’t have tells, other than their eyes showing their animal when they were riled up. They don’t have a smell, like fur, that other shifters possess, either. But he didn’t have the characteristics males of her kind had. To be sure, she’d have to get closer to him to know for sure, but she didn’t want to risk it, in case he was looking for her. But she watched him when she could.

He wasn’t brutal. He wasn’t cocky or arrogant, he didn’t talk down to others, or expect them to wait on him hand and foot. She watched him talking to Shelby, Ian’s daughter, one day, and he was unfailingly kind and gentle.

A male dragon wouldn’t have taken the time to interact with a child, much less a child like Shelby, who had a birthmark down the side of her face. Like the tigers, dragons prized beauty. A dragon would have shunned her, but not before he destroyed her with a few nasty words first.

Cammie watched, stifling a laugh, as Alex hit the punching bag and it cam

e swinging back, bouncing off his body before he could get out of the way. He definitely didn’t have a shifter’s agility, either.

No, chances were he wasn’t a dragon, or any other animal. He was most likely just a human. But his presence still warranted watching. His appearance was too odd to ignore.

Alex cursed as the punching bag clipped his shoulder. Seth was laughing loudly at his expense again, but he still managed to hear the quickly stifled laugh coming from the loft.

He hadn’t realized Cammie was up there when he first came in, or he never would have started this. He enjoyed hearing her laugh, but at his expense wasn’t exactly ideal. Still, he found himself playing it up a bit, exaggerating how bad he was, just to hear her giggle.

He’d been drawn to her ever since he woke up here at Rocky River with a lump on his head and amnesia. Even with no memory of his life before, he was positive he’d never reacted to a woman like he had her. A feeling like that was simply too strong to forget. Of that, he was certain.

She was tiny, her head only coming up to his chest. She had brown hair with strands of red that fell halfway down her back. Her face was oval, and she had large, denim blue eyes set above a pert nose and full, bow shaped lips.

She was stunning.

In the beginning he thought she was shy, but now he realized she was wary of him. She wasn’t timid with the men, hardened fighters who dwarfed a delicate little thing like her.

He quickly realized her size was the only delicate thing about her. She had no trouble keeping up with the other fighters, giving as good, if not better, than she got. She was as good as the men, even if she didn’t go around advertising it or showing off.

She was fast, so fast she moved in a blur at times. Where the men had brute strength, she had speed and cunning. All of them were a little too good, a little too fierce, to be believed.

But maybe that was because they were shifters.

Alex didn’t know how he knew they were shifters. But something deep inside him recognized their characteristics. Maybe it should have intimidated him, but it didn’t. He felt at ease with them, instead. Which was really strange, when he stopped to think about it.

“You really do suck, Alex,” Seth said with a laugh as Alex kicked out at the bag in frustration.

He shrugged and backed up a bit, hoping to avoid the bag attacking him again. “I’ve never done anything like this before. At least, I don’t think I have,” he amended with a frown for his faulty memory.

“It shows. I have a training session with Ian in a few minutes, but we can do this again soon, if you really want to learn.”

Alex studied the other man’s face for a moment and nodded, deciding the offer had been genuine. It never hurt to be sure with Seth. Given how much Seth liked to kid around, it could have just as easily been a joke.

Typical leopard.

Alex frowned at the thought whispering through his mind. He’d sensed that the people here at Rocky River were shifters, but he hadn’t had any clue what kind of animals they harbored. And it wasn’t like he could come out and ask them, since he hadn’t let on he knew what they were. So he wasn’t sure where that thought had come from, or why he was so sure it was true.

He nodded again to Seth, realizing the other man was still waiting on a reply. “Yeah, thanks, I’d appreciate it. I can use all the help I can get, obviously,” he replied with a self-deprecating grin.

A muffled snort from the loft hit his ears, and he felt his lips quirk up at the corners as he grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head. As he turned to leave the gym, he glanced up at where Cammie was sitting, throwing her a wink as he walked out. He heard her gasp, and he grinned to himself as he left.

Deciding not to go back to the house just yet, he turned toward the forest, and began wandering aimlessly. Given how his muscles ached, he was fairly certain he wasn’t normally so active. He searched his memory once more for any semblance of something familiar, but it was more of the same. Nothing.

He knew he wasn’t from Eagle Creek, and apparently, he’d been looking for the Rocky River Fighters when he got in the wreck. But why?

All he could find in his memory were glimpses of sterile rooms, full of rude and condescending men. He had no clue what it meant. And until he did, he was keeping his discoveries to himself. There was no reason to spill it all to the fighters until he remembered more.

“Did you know I was there the whole time?”

Alex stumbled, cursing as he put a hand over his racing heart. He glanced over to see Cammie strolling beside him, looking like she’d been by his side the whole time.

“Dammit, Cammie. A little warning would have been nice.”