For the Hope of a Crow

by T. S. Joyce

  The Crow stared at the beautiful girl. She wasn’t just pretty anymore; she was a beauty. Moonlight hitting her high cheekbones, hair wild from sex, Harley T-shirt resting on her full breasts, eyes rimmed with the gold of her animal’s.

  She reached over and brushed her fingertips down his back. Voluntarily, she touched him, and it felt so good. Vina’s smile was easy. It was just for him. She’d shared a part of herself and then looked at him like nothing else mattered.

  And her willing touch…

  Okay, Ram.

  Okay.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Did she like coffee? Pastries? Waffles? God, he didn’t know how to do this. Ramsey didn’t do sensitive shit. He’d tried with Tenlee for about fourteen seconds before she shut that down, but Vina was out of his league, and she deserved a good man.

  He was going to get everything and just hope for the best. Ramsey gave the to-go server at the Partridge Pancake House in town his giant order, and then watched, not-so-patiently, through the window to the kitchen the cook work on their food.

  The to-go server looked uncomfortable at his hovering near the counter, so with a huffed breath, Ramsey sank down in the waiting area and stretched out his leg, his riding boot making a clump sound on the red brick flooring. The Crow had let him in last night. Well, after Vina was sleepy and talking in circles to him in her front yard. She’d started nodding off, so he’d Changed back and carried her to bed. She’d wrapped her arms around his neck, rested her cheek against his chest and, for a while, he’d sat on the edge of her mattress just holding her.

  She was changing everything.

  “Are you one of those animal men?” a woman with perfect blond curls and a high-necked baby blue sundress asked from beside him. She clutched her matching blue purse in her lap. “One of those shifters?”

  Ramsey frowned at her and turned away in his chair.

  “’Cause your eyes are black and evil-looking.”

  “I’m not evil,” he gritted out. Settle down, she’s just a nosy woman, probably doesn’t mean any harm.

  She tapped him on the shoulder, and he barely avoided the snarl that bubbled up his throat. “Here’s the card for my church. We could get that demon out of you and give you a normal life.”

  Shocked, Ramsey stared at the card in her hand. “Seriously?” he asked, turning toward her. “You’d exorcise my animal so I can be like you?”

  “Well, yes.” She arched her perfectly manicured brows and wiggled the card impatiently.

  For a moment, Ramsey considered walking away and waiting for Vina’s breakfast outside, but fuck this. He yanked the card from her fingertips and offered her an empty smile. Then he ripped it slowly into little pieces and murmured, “I like my demon where he is. Why don’t you go worry about your own life?”

  “Ramsey,” said the girl behind the checkout counter, pushing a trio of plastic bags of food toward him.

  “Oh, I’m not worried about mine,” the blonde said, shaking her head slowly. “I know exactly where I’m going.”

  Ramsey huffed a laugh. “Same. You have a good and judgmental day, ya hear?” He stood and made his way to check out, paid, yanked the food off the counter, and made his way past the blonde and outside.

  Demon. She wasn’t that far off. His crow was capable of horrible things, but so was the man side of him. That lady was a pill. Was that what the public thought of shifters? He hadn’t really paid attention to the news lately. He’d had other shit to worry about.

  It was barely dawn outside, six in the morning, and cloudy. He loved cloudy days and didn’t care at all what that said about him. He bet Vina loved the sun. She was sunny spring days and he was overcast winter, and the demon in him cawed happily because he loved that contrast. She was different. She was what he needed.

  And that made him want to take care of her. To make her want to stick around.

  Ramsey, I’m yours—the three most life-altering words to a broken crow like him. And he was going to spend the remainder of his sanity making her feel special like she deserved.

  The drive to Vina’s house was a short one. She lived right in town, just a few streets away from the pancake place. He cut the engine to his Harley, settled it on the kickstand, and made his way to her door. “What?” he asked the woman glaring at him, standing on the front porch of the duplex next door in a robe and fuzzy bunny slippers.

  “You are the most inconsiderate people on the whole planet. It’s six in the morning and you are blaring that monstrous bike all around town. Perfect match for her.” She jammed a finger at Vina’s front door.

  Ramsey chuckled. “Thank you. I like her, too.” He offered the battle-ax a wink and let himself in Vina’s front door, which was unlocked. He was gonna have to have a serious talk to her about locking up. He’d locked it when he left this morning, but she must’ve checked the mail or messed with the trash bins or something.

  He could hear her singing over the running spray of the shower and grinned to himself. “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Atta girl. She was so unique. So cute. So many layers that he wanted to know about.

  “Babe!” he called, giving her the warning that he was back. Babe?

  The metal clasps on the shower curtain screeched across the bar. “Ramsey? Did you just call me ‘babe’?”

  He laughed. “Apparently, that’s where we are in this relationship now.”

  “Friends who have naked parties and call each other babe?” she asked. Her voice was infused with excitement.

  Ramsey opened the bathroom door.

  Vina screeched and yanked the curtain over to cover herself. “I didn’t know you were coming in! I just washed off my make-up!”

  He laughed, pulling the curtain back again. “You look like a disheveled raccoon.”

  Vina tried to cover herself again, but he wouldn’t allow it. “Let me see you in all your naked, wet, make-up streaming down your face, glory and get it done with.”

  “I want you to be attracted to me,” she wailed, covering her face with her dripping hands.

  He was laughing in earnest now, trying to pry her hands off her face with one hand and holding onto her breakfast with the other. “Woman, I already saw you. You’re the cutest fuckin’ raccoon I’ve ever encountered, and I would still fuck you right here in the shower, runny make-up and all.”

  “You would?” she squeaked.

  “Yes! Look at you! Curves for days, them long stems, naked, dripping wet… I ain’t even lookin’ at your make-up!”

  She pulled her hands away and pouted out her bottom lip. God, she was so cute and sexy. How could a woman master both at the same time?

  “Feel,” he murmured, drawing her hand to the fly of his pants so she could feel his boner. “That’s all you.”

  Her pout turned to a smile, and she squeezed right over his balls. God, he really did want to fuck her now. “How much time do you have before work?”

  “I have to leave in forty-five minutes.”

  “I brought you breakfast….” He rolled his eyes closed at how good her kneading little fingers felt. “Damn woman. I was gonna try to keep off you this morning, but fuck it. Come here.”

  When he pulled her from the shower, she did something that shocked him and went right down onto the bright purple bath rug on her hands and knees. Then she arched her spine and presented her cute little ass for him and, holy fuck, she was the sexiest woman alive. Soccer Mom wasn’t home right now, just Sexy-AF-Vixen.

  Ramsey couldn’t think of anything else but the curve of that ass. Like a rutting animal, he dropped to his knees and unfastened his jeans as fast as he could. She was soaking wet when he slid into her and, God, the pressure felt so good on his dick. Fast and hard. That’s all he had to offer right now. He reached around and pressed his fingers to her clit as he bucked into her. Fuck, every time he was balls deep inside her, it was ecstasy. His perfect girl. So wet and tight. She was moving with him, gasping like she was close and, thank God, because he was there. “Fuck, Vina,” h
e gritted out as he rammed into her and came, his dick throbbing hard. And then she was pulsing too, panting his name—so fucking beautiful.

  He huffed a breath and leaned onto her back, kissed her wet hair, and brushed his fingertips up and down her ribs to her full breasts and back. He didn’t want to get off her, didn’t want that disconnect, but she had to get ready, and he wanted her to have time to eat before she left for work.

  He nipped at the back of her neck and growled, “I like fucking you right out of the shower. Clean girl, and I get to make you dirty again.”

  She gave a soft giggle that made his stomach clench with something easy. Something that felt good. Happiness? Damn, what was that?

  He slid out of her and sat back on his bent knees, unable to take his eyes from his cum dripping down her inner thighs. He fucking loved it. His. She was his. He wanted her full of him all the time. A possessiveness took over him as he smiled with pride. She rocked back on her knees and leaned her back against his chest. He held her there, arms around her, lips pressed to her neck as he smiled and smiled. Couldn’t stop smiling. God, what was wrong with him? Vina was breaking him in a good way.

  Against her ear, he murmured, “I’m gonna get your breakfast ready. And you’re gonna get all gussied up in your fancy work clothes and look like a proper lady, but all day, you’ll think about how you got fucked on the bathroom floor by your man, and deep down, you’ll know you’re a badass for me. I’m gonna go handle some stuff with the Clan, and tonight, I’m gonna take you out. We’ll be perfectly proper in public, and then I’m gonna bring you home and remind you of what a bad girl you really are.”

  He swatted her ass and reveled in the happy sound she made as she rocked her head back against him. That woman had the best reactions to his touch.

  He kissed her neck, nipped her, kissed her ear, nipped her, then gripped her hair and angled her face gently to taste her lips. Then he stood slowly, careful not to let her fall back, and left her there on the bathroom floor, looking like she had no idea what he’d just done to her body.

  “I like you,” she whispered in a dreamy voice right as he was leaving.

  Good girl. My girl.

  And then he leaned against the doorframe and threw all his rules away with an admission he’d sworn to never give another girl as long as he lived. “I like you back.”

  And if the slow, happy smile on her lips was anything to go by, she knew exactly what he really meant.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Date niiiiiight!

  Today had been crazy-busy because of the rain. Usually, youth baseball practices were held at the fields right behind the community center, but it had started pouring around noon. The fields got too muddy, so the coaches had to bring the practices into the two gyms they had on either side of the building. Add that to the support group meetings, karate lessons, sculpture class and baking class, and Vina had been rushing around trying to make sure everything was running smoothly and that none of the teachers, coaches, or students needed anything. And she’d had to work late. It was seven before she said her goodbyes to the senior coordinator.

  Bright side, though, Mrs. Villanueva had invited her to stay for the cooking class, and so Vina had spent her extremely late lunch break making cupcakes with a group of rowdy but fun teenagers in the afterschool program. The cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. Crow cupcakes for the guys.

  And right as she was packing them in her car to leave, she got a text from Ramsey.

  Hey pretty girl, I have a meeting until a little later. I’ll call you as soon as I’m out.

  Hardworkin’ man. She only had a guess how much work he did to run a Clan as big as Red Dead Mayhem. Or the effort it had taken him to become Alpha. Nope, she didn’t want to think about whatever illegal ways his Clan made money because she was high on happiness right now, and nothing could dampen her mood. Not today.

  She really needed to Change. Okay, new plan. She would drop the cupcakes off at the clubhouse so the guys would have a snack after they got done with their meeting, and then she would go to the woods near Corvallis and Change and do moose stuff until Ramsey was freed up to do date night and ravage her body. Because that was definitely happening. Her mind had been in the gutter all day since he’d taken her on the shower rug this morning. That man was hot as sin and twice as naughty.

  Already she felt like a secret bad girl just being around him. He made her want to make questionable decisions, ride motorcycles, wear revealing clothes, and learn to play pool better. And…and…live! She wanted to live. She wanted to break from the normal routine of work, eat, sleep, repeat and have adventures.

  Ram liked her. He told her as much this morning, and then he’d watched her eat the giant breakfast he’d brought. And he didn’t even look disgusted when she had syrup on her face. He’d just smiled and kissed it off, and that was special. She bet the next time he brought her food, it would be double the waffles and no pastries. He seemed to genuinely enjoy taking care of her and paid attention. How sweet that a busy, rough-and-tumble outlaw like him could have the capacity to think about her so thoroughly.

  She was falling so hard for him that she had moments of fear as she imagined her life when he got bored with her. That’s what could happen for shifters who couldn’t bond. They could just end up friends. But she couldn’t let her past and the rejection of her lost marriage hurt what she and Ramsey were exploring. What they were building. She wouldn’t make him pay for the hurt she’d gone through since he wasn’t making her pay for his pain.

  The parking lot to the crow’s clubhouse was completely full, and the entire street out front was crowded with news vans. Vina slowed and frowned at a woman in a business suit holding a microphone, talking into a camera some man was holding.

  What the heck?

  She coasted past them, and when she couldn’t find a spot in the parking lot, she parked her Explorer along the curb near the row of Harleys out front. There was a crowd outside, but the only person she recognized was Momma Crow, who stood at the front door turning reporters away. She looked pissed, jamming her finger at the street, veins popping in her neck, yelling something Vina couldn’t hear from here.

  As she got the cupcakes out of the front seat, a man in a starched blue suit and navy tie held a microphone to his lips as he crowded her and asked, “Are you with the crow shifters?”

  She ignored him as she balanced the cardboard box of pastries in front of her and kicked her door closed.

  The man stood right in front of her, blocking her path to the door. “Are you acquainted with Ramsey Hunt. Are you pledged to the Alpha?”

  “No comment. Get out of my way,” she gritted through a stiff jaw.

  “Are you aware of the long history of violence with shifters?”

  “Move.” She dodged to the right, but he moved with her, standing between her and the door.

  “Are you one of the accused—”

  “Get the fuck out of my way before I stomp you to oblivion. I said no comment!”

  And then Momma Crow was there. “Back off her! She isn’t a part of this. She is just making a delivery, you prick. That’s how you treat a lady? Look in her arms. She’s clearly here delivering snacks for a private club meeting.” Momma Crow gripped her elbow and led her past the man.

  “Did you get that?” the reporter murmured to his camera man behind them. “She’s definitely one of them. Did you see her eyes?”

  Crap. “What’s going on?” she whispered as Momma Crow led her inside.

  As soon as she shut the door to the clubhouse, the woman turned on her. “Who did you tell about this place?”

  Vina felt slapped. “No one. I haven’t even told my parents I’ve been matched to Ramsey yet.”

  “Friends?”

  “I don’t have any here. I tried, but I don’t really fit in. I swear I’ve told no one.”

  “What are these, Vina?” She pulled four little black contraptions no bigger than marbles from her
jeans pocket.

  Vina stared at them, shaking her head. She wasn’t good at guessing games. “Anal beads?”

  “Oh, my God. The worst part is I can tell you are actually confused by these. Vina, these are bugs. We found one in Ramsey’s room, one in the meeting room, one under the pool table, and one under the lip of the bar. This place was clean before you showed up.”

  “Wait…you think I planted bugs in here? Where would I even get those? I don’t even like spy movies!”

  “I don’t know, but it’s really awful timing, Vina,” Momma Crow said low. “We have a shit-storm of reporters outside, bugs in the house, and the only thing different around here is you. The boys are all up in arms—”

  There was yelling behind the big double doors to the meeting room. “Either she fucking goes or we do! I’m not staying in a clubhouse with a snitch. She’s dangerous, Ramsey! You get that, right?” Was that Ethan’s voice? “She puts your Clan at risk, and we were already in the middle of an Armageddon. Your desperation to fix yourself is putting us right in the public’s eye. We are going to take direct hits. You get that, right?”

  “Sit the fuck down!” Ramsey bellowed. Something slammed against a table.

  “That’s because of me?” Vina asked, panicked.

  “Yeah.” Momma Crow shook her head slowly, her eyes pooled with worry. “Even if you didn’t do this, there was a storm building before you came. Ram is strong, girl. He’s so strong. But he’s been limping, and his Clan has seen his weakness for too long. And now he’s picked another girl who they see as a risk, and it puts his place as Alpha in jeopardy. They’re tired. Tired and desperate for things to get easier. You understand?”