Heart of a Fighter Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Heart of a Fighter

  Grace Brennan

  Copyright 2017 © Grace Brennan

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to, or downloaded from file sharing sites or distributed in any other way via the internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of Grace Brennan.

  Photographer: Nathan Hainline

  Models: Cassady Rose and Nathan Hainline

  Cover Design: Melissa Gill with MGbookcovers

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Also by Grace Brennan

  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 came 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 ju
st 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.”

  She glanced over at him with a twinkle in her dark blue gaze. “You really are exceptionally unobservant, aren’t you?”

  “Not all the time,” he told her, smirking. “I noticed you when you were trying to hide, didn’t I?”

  “I wasn’t hiding,” she replied indignantly. “I just didn’t announce I was there, is all.”

  Damn, her southern drawl was sexy, even when she was annoyed.

  “Sure,” he said, a smile still playing on his lips. “No, I didn’t realize you were there at first. I caught a glimpse of your legs hanging over the loft after I took my first swing at the bag, though.”

  “You went about it all wrong,” she told him as she walked with him.

  “I gathered that fairly quickly,” he replied dryly. “I’ll get better.”

  “Seth’s a good teacher,” she said. “He’s a pain in the ass, and he loves to tease, but he’s a good fighter. You can learn a lot from him.”

  “Anything would be an improvement over getting beat up by the punching bag,” he said, smiling to himself when she giggled.

  They walked along in silence for a few moments before she spoke again.

  “Have you remembered anything yet?”

  Alex exhaled heavily, wishing she hadn’t asked. He didn’t want to tell anyone about the little bits of nonsense he remembered, but he couldn’t lie to her. Something deep inside him revolted over the thought of trying.

  “Just some flashes that don’t really make sense. Sterile rooms that were bare besides tables or beds. Big men who looked like they’d fuck you up if you looked at them wrong. That’s it.”

  She glanced at him, a thoughtful frown on her face. “And you don’t remember anything else yet? Or know what it means?”

  “Nothing. And, like I said, what I get are flashes that don’t make sense.”

  “Maybe you were in prison.”

  He looked at her in surprise, wondering if she was serious, but she had a smirk on her face. He cleared his throat

  “Ha, funny. No, I don’t think I was in prison. Besides, do I seem like the type of man who’d do something bad enough to get locked up?”

  “Not really. Given the way you fight, you wouldn’t have lasted long in prison. You look more like an accountant or something, not threatening at all,” she replied with a laugh. “But hey, accountants go to prison, too.” The smile faded from her lips, and she turned pensive. “Looks can be deceiving, though. I mean, Ted Bundy, and all. No, you don’t look like a bad guy, but it doesn’t mean you aren’t.”

  “I’m not,” he said quietly. “I may not remember much of my life before this, but I know my heart. I don’t need my memory to be certain of that.”

  “Yeah, I don’t get that vibe from you, and I’ve gotten pretty good at reading people.”

  “What’s your story?” he asked, not caring for the thought that she might have been around people bad enough to recognize evil when she saw it.

  She wrapped her arms around her waist and huffed. “Intrusive much?”

  “You asked me about my past,” he pointed out with a shrug.

  “That’s different. I didn’t show up at your home out of nowhere, with no memory of why I was looking for you and your friends.”

  Alex inclined his head, conceding that point. “Fair enough. I’d still like to get to know you better.”

  “Why?” she shot back, looking at him with suspicion in her stormy blue eyes.

  “Uh, because I like you? Because I think you’re interesting, and I’d like to get to
know you better?”

  Cammie halted and stared at him, the suspicion slowly fading from her eyes. “You mean that, don’t you?”

  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.”