Shifters of Grrr 1 by Emerald Wright, Terra Wolf, Shelley Shifter, Artemis Wolffe, Wednesday Raven, Amelia Jade, Mercy May, Jacklyn Black, Rachael Slate, Eve Hunter

That, she told herself, would be the last time she saw him, or thought of him.
    That evening, when his phantom touch tried to reach out to her in the shower, she angrily slapped it away. As she tossed and turned, not getting any sleep, she cursed his name again and again.
    ***
    Jake
    "Thank you for all your fucking help."
    Jake stood there, rooted to the spot as his mate stormed away. His senses were assaulted by the rage pouring off of her. It washed over him in a wave, the strength of it pounding him near senseless. It was so strong his leg weakened and he almost dropped to one knee.  
    He had never before known such anger and emotion from another person. Shifters had a faint connection to their parents, but it was so mild as to be nearly nonexistent. As Jake was finding out, that was far from the truth with a mate. Even after she disappeared from sight, he was bombarded by her ire.
    What the hell did I do?
    It had something to do with him, or the campsite, or perhaps Christmas. What any of those had done to make her suddenly hate him was beyond him. It just didn't make any sense. He had felt her starting to come around, to accept that something was going on between them.  
    She still didn't know him, nor he her, but that didn't matter if both of them accepted what was happening. They would have spent the next weeks and months learning everything there was as they prepared to live a life together. Now she had done her best to cut herself off from him.
    There hadn't been words associated with it, but he'd felt it when she decided she never wanted to see him again. It had hurt.  
    Now, alone, his own anger flowed.
    "What the hell!" he shouted into the emptiness, trying to understand. It seemed that despite the shifter connection they shared, this woman was still as confusing to him as one must be to a regular human. He kicked a burnt out tree in his rage, the husk of it shattering as it crumbled to the ground under his blow.  
    "Is there a problem here, son?"  
    He jumped at the sound. It took a lot for someone to sneak up on a shifter, and yet this man was leaning out the window of his truck, which he had managed to drive up the road without Jake noticing. That just went to show how confused and angry he was at the situation, that he was becoming unaware of his surroundings.
    "Probably, but with women, one never knows, do they?" he replied, heaving a sigh of frustration.
    "Pissed Miss Muller off something good did you?"  
    Jake looked at him sharply at that. "How did you know?"
    "Easy son, I drove by her on the way up here. She looked mighty pissed. Then here you are yelling to the skies about something. It was a pretty easy conclusion to make."
    "I just don't get it. Things were going great, then I picked something up from the campsite we were at, and then she flipped her lid."
    Now the Marshall was looking at him weird as well.
    "You're giving me the exact same look she gave me. What did I do wrong? It seems clear to both of you, but I'm obviously not picking up on it."
    The older man sighed, then pointed to the campsite that Jake and his friends had been assigned to, the one where he had grabbed the melted ornament.
    "That, son, is where the fire originated. So, if that was your campsite, that means you're the one that caused all this damage."
    Jake sat down heavily at the edge of the road as the words hit home. The Marshall exited his truck to come crouch down next to him. It didn't seem real, he must be lying, there was no way we started the blaze. The thought kept replaying in his mind over and over again, a record stuck on repeat.
    "What happened?"
    So he told the Marshall exactly what they had done. The bonfire had been in its assigned pit and almost down to embers by the time they left for food. As he looked around at the damage once more, Jake thought he was going to be sick.  
    He needed to fix this, to make it right. It would take a lot of time, energy, and most importantly, money. Not for the first time,