Heart of a Fighter (Rocky River Fighters 1)

It was his turn to frown. “Of course I do. Why would you think I didn’t?”

She searched his eyes and shook her head. “There’s really nothing interesting about me,” she said softly, avoiding his question.

“I’m sure that’s not true. But we’ll start with something easy. How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-three, almost twenty-four. And I know from your license, you’re twenty-six. Next?”

“Where are you from? That accent of yours is something else.”

“I hope that’s a good thing and not bad,” she laughed, wrinkling her nose. “I’m from Georgia. I’ve tried to ditch the drawl, but I haven’t managed it yet.”

“Don’t,” he replied, a little too vehemently, judging by how her eyes widened. “I like it. It’s sexy.”

Cammie threw her head back, laughter erupting from her throat. “Sexy?” she gasped out, wiping her mirth from her eyes. Exaggerating her accent, she drawled out, “Aw, bless your heart. Ain’t that sugah sweet.”

“I feel like that wasn’t a compliment, but it still sounded hot. Seriously. No one’s ever told you before your accent is sexy?”

She shook her head, quelling fresh laughter. “Never. The most that’s ever been said is it’s annoying. Mostly, I get mocked. It’s nice to know someone likes it.”

“Annoying? Someone needs their ears cleaned out. So how did you end up in Wyoming with Ian and his crew?”

His question effectively ended her laughter, and he saw her eying him. “That’s a story for another time. I better head back to the house now. I need to get dinner started. See ya later, Alex.”

He frowned as she ended their conversation and briskly walked back toward the ranch house. Exhaling heavily, he turned back around, continuing his walk.

They’d been having an enjoyable conversation, and he was sorry it was over. Clearly she didn’t like personal questions. No, it was more than that, he thought as he remembered her suspicion when he first asked her about herself.

Something made her wary of telling people about her past. Maybe she’d been hurt before, or there was something she was hiding. Hell, maybe he had it wrong and she just didn’t like talking about herself, but it felt more complicated than that.

He wished he kept his mouth shut, but he knew better now. The next time they talked, and he hoped like hell there would be a next time, he’d let her volunteer information on her own. No more questions from him, no matter how badly he wanted to know the answers.

Chapter Two

“Can I help?”

Cammie glanced over from where she was pulling out the ingredients for biscuits, and smiled at the little girl lingering in the doorway of the kitchen.

“Of course. Come on in. You can help me make the biscuits.”

Shelby walked in, gathering her long brown hair into a ponytail. Cammie gave her step by step instructions as she helped her measure ingredients, studying the eight-year-old as she did.

Shelby came to live with them a little more than a month ago, and was still extremely shy, especially with the guys, whom she’d never met before. Shelby’s mom was a tiger, like Ian, and part of a particularly nasty tribe. Ian had been fighting to get Shelby with him for the majority of her life, and had finally won.

Now that she’d been here for a few weeks, she was starting to loosen up with the fighters a bit, but she still kept mostly to herself. Shelby’s mother, and the tribe, had been vicious, mocking her relentlessly for her birthmark. It was no wonder she was so timid.

Shaking those thoughts from her mind, Cammie showed Shelby how to use the biscuit cutter and line them up on the pan, and then she turned away to check on the chicken casserole baking in the oven.

She wasn’t the greatest cook, but she liked to contribute when she could. Besides cooking and housekeeping, she didn’t have much else to offer. She couldn’t fight for money like the guys did, because there were no other female fighters in the area. And she had no other skills to bring money in like the others.

She was taking online courses through a community college based out of Cheyenne, but once she was finished, she wasn’t sure how she’d use what she learned. She was taking the classes under a fake name, because she couldn’t risk her people finding her. While it worked for college, she didn’t think it would go so well for actual employment.

Sometimes she felt useless, but it would be dangerous to leave on her own. She could fight, and she was damn good at it, but she wasn’t sure she could hold her own against a male dragon intent on owning her. There was safety in numbers.

But she worried about what would happen if another dragon found her. She couldn’t risk any of the guys getting hurt because of her. They were her brothers in every way except blood. If she ever got wind of a male dragon coming this way, she was out of here, no matter the danger to herself.

Deliberately pushing those thoughts from her mind as she threw together a quick dessert of banana pudding, her mind immediately turned to Alex. She’d thought of little but him since she’d left his side.

This afternoon had been the first time she’d spent so close to him. She’d hardly spoken to him at all in the weeks since he arrived. Avoiding him was necessary. She’d survived as long as she had because she trusted no one. But she also couldn’t deny she kept her distance because he fascinated her on a level that disturbed her. He was incredibly gorgeous, true, but that wasn’t even close to being all of it.