Tuff Enough

by T. S. Joyce

  TUFF ENOUGH

  (BATTLE OF THE BULLS, BOOK 5)

  By T. S. JOYCE

  Other Books in this Series

  Two Shots Down (Book 1)

  Dead of Winter (Book 2)

  Quickdraw Slow Burn (Book 3)

  First Time Train Wreck (Book 4)

  Tuff Enough

  Copyright © 2021 by T. S. Joyce

  Copyright © 2021, T. S. Joyce

  First electronic publication: February 2021

  T. S. Joyce

  www.tsjoyce.com

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Published in the United States of America.

  Editor: Alyxandra Miller

  Contents

  Other Books in this Series

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  Newsletter Sign-Up

  More Series from this Author

  For More from this Author

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  He liked the mean ones.

  Tuff Enough Fast Burn swung the rope lazily in his hand to keep the colt moving. It was a big-boned red roan, and a looker, but man was he a fireball. His last owner called him Little Devil, but he wasn’t little, and he certainly wasn’t evil. Just pissed at the world, and good grief, Tuff understood that some days. He called him Dev, instead.

  The horse’s eyes were full of fury and his breath froze in front of his face in the cold morning air. He was galloping along the outside of the corral as Tuff stood in the middle and watched him move. He did this to bond with the colts he trained, to earn their trust as they spent time with him. He would start teaching them the rewards he would give, make them eager to please him. He wasn’t mushy about rewards. They would get an “atta boy,” and a couple pats on the neck, but that little bit eventually made them hungry to please.

  Not this one though. Dev didn’t give a single shit about pleasing Tuff.

  He grinned to himself as the horse locked his legs and spun, came running right for him.

  “Ho!” He said, moving out of the way easily.

  His inner wolf snarled and the horse bucked, kicked up and nearly clipped Tuff.

  Little fucker was going to be a challenge.

  Another trainer had started him, but Dev hadn’t handled it well, to say the least. He’d put that trainer in the hospital and his owner had unloaded him to Tuff for seven hundred bucks.

  This…Tuff understood. That fire-for-no-reason that sat in a soul, seeping out every chance it got. Tuff had to change into a wolf to soothe his soul. This animal didn’t have the option of escaping his own skin. He just had to live with himself.

  “Come on, boy, give me a few good passes and I’ll let you be for today. I can’t leave you on a bad note though. You know the rules.” His voice was too growly. The wolf didn’t like being charged at. Truth be told, the animal inside him wanted to eat the damn horse.

  He got the loop of rope swinging again behind Dev and the sweating horse lowered his head and trotted around the outside of the corral in the direction Tuff wanted him to. He did three passes before Tuff said, “Atta boy,” and eased off him.

  He hopped over the fence easy. Wolf or man, he was agile. That was one of the things he liked about being a shifter. Clearing the fence was easier for him than unlatching the gate. He couldn’t do that around all horses though. Some learned they could jump fences by watching him, but Dev wasn’t a jumper. He wasn’t a runner. He was a fighter.

  Maybe he would keep this one.

  Aw shit, he always said that and then he always sold them. Getting attached to anything was dangerous for a shifter like him.

  His boots sank into a thin layer of Montana ice as he made his way back toward the barn to get a bale of hay for the colts he had out in the pens. They’d been nice and patient this morning, but now they knew what was up. Two of them whinnied behind him, and he chuckled. Chunky things acting like they were starving to death.

  The weather was about to turn. He lifted his nose in the air and sniffed. Smelled like snow. A lot of it. He felt it in the air, too. He always got this urge to clean his cabin when Mother Nature was about to unleash on him. That was the wolf instinct to have the den in order.

  A sound disrupted his thoughts and he halted just in front of the barn door. A truck engine?

  Tuff frowned and backed up a few steps so he could see the dirt driveway around the edge of the cabin.

  The wolf rattled out a snarl again, and he shook his head hard. He got harder to control in the off-season like this. He spent too much time by himself, or something.

  Yep, sure as shit there was the sound of an engine coming up his drive. A trailer too, if the rattling metal was anything to go by.

  He scanned the colts quickly. None of them were supposed to be picked up this week. Wasn’t Dad. Quickdraw Slow Burn and his herd knew better than to show up to a werewolf’s territory unannounced. At least, a werewolf like Tuff. He didn’t have the best control in his den.

  A gunmetal grey Highboy came chugging through the trees, hauling a single horse trailer behind it.

  What the hell?

  The truck was nice. Someone had lifted it and put some badass tires on it, but kept the rest of the truck lookin’ original. It was loud as hell. He swallowed down the snarl in his throat and sauntered over to where the truck was pulling up near the corral.

  Dev was going insane, bucking around, which pissed Tuff off. “Park the fuck over there!” he told the driver. Damn tint on the truck was so dark, he couldn’t see inside. He jammed his finger toward the circle drive in front of the house. “Get it away from my horse!”

  He strode right for the asshole who had come here without a warning, pissing off his horse after he’d just got him settled. Oh, this dude was gonna get it.

  Tuff closed the space as the driver’s side door swung open. “Are you deaf, or are you just—”

  A woman stepped out of the truck, and the word “stupid” died right off in Tuff’s throat.

  The girl looked scared and confused. Her dark brown eyes were wide, and under the brim of her feed store baseball cap, her dark eyebrows were arched high. Her full lips were parted like she wanted to say something, but no words came from her. And here he stood, like an asshole, just staring right back. She wore boot cut jeans over scuffed boots and a belt buckle with a longhorn on it. Her light blue and maroon plaid shirt was fitted and tucked in just above her belt. The top button of her shirt was open, exposing the tops of her perky little tits. She didn’t wear much make-up, but she didn’t need to. Her dark hair was gathered in a messy bun right at her shoulder under that cap.

  “I’m deaf,” she said in a thick accen
t that said she wasn’t lying.

  “Fuck, I’m so sorry,” he yelled. “I didn’t mean that deaf comment—”

  She pointed to her ear and shook her head. “You don’t have to yell. I can read your lips.”

  He froze, his mind racing fast, but his inner wolf went completely quiet. “You talk good for someone who can’t hear.” He hoped that was a compliment. He’d never met anyone who was hearing impaired.

  “I could hear when I was younger.”

  “Oh.” He didn’t know what that meant. She learned to talk before she’d lost her hearing maybe? “Ummmm…” What the fuck do you want? His parents had taught him to be good to women, but he was confused as hell right now.

  The girl looked back at her trailer, and then to Tuff again. “I brought a horse, but he’s just an excuse to meet you.”

  Tuff frowned. She must follow rodeos. He was number one Bronc rider in the world right now. “Are you a fan?”

  “A fan?” She shook her head and confusion swam in her eyes.

  He cleared his throat and spoke louder, like it would help. “You want an autograph?”

  “Oh.” She laughed this cute nervous sound. “I’m…” She shook her head and stared at the ground, like she was searching for what to say. “Your dad did something good for me.”

  “My dad? Quickdraw?”

  She nodded, swallowed hard, and lifted her chin higher in the air. “When I was a little kid, he helped me. He and Train Wreck and Dead and Two Shots. And Hagan’s Lace.” She said his auntie Raven’s animal’s name with such reverence. “Your people saved me.”

  Realization chilled his blood. Couldn’t be. Couldn’t.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  The woman’s smile was slow and soft, only lifting the corners of her full lips. “I’m Luna Hagan.”

  Chapter Two

  He recognized her name. She could tell by the way his eyes widened when she said it.

  Tuff Enough might not know who she was, but he sure knew her people. He’d been raised in a herd with Hagan’s Lace, the most famous Hagan bucking shifter in existence. And she was a cow!

  Luna had a special connection to Raven, but that was a story for another time. Right now, she had business, so Tuff wouldn’t think she was some sort of stalker, even if she kind of was.

  “This is Duke,” she told him, leading him to the back of the trailer.

  Luna opened the door and climbed inside, untied her buckskin horse and backed him out of the trailer. “Back…back…back…” she murmured, hand gently on his neck. When his back hooves reached the edge, she said, “Down.” And Duke stepped down.

  She looked up at Tuff’s face fast so she wouldn’t miss his reaction.

  He stood there with his hands on his hips, his baseball cap pulled low over his now glowing blue eyes. The wolf should make her nervous, but maybe she was too excited or had too much adrenaline running through her or something.

  “Well, he trailers decent,” Tuff said. God, she wished she could hear the tone of his voice. Was it deep? Was it growly? He was one of those men who had a closed-off face. Tuff was tough. He probably kept his emotions very close to the chest. Well, all emotions but anger. That he showed easily enough on TV when he was riding those bucking horses. That man would fight anyone, anywhere. He was the bad boy of the circuit and had been suspended twice already for fighting other riders, but he kept coming back and putting up the numbers. Love him or hate him, the fans went nuts for him.

  He wasn’t in his sponsor chaps today. Just a pair of mud-splattered work Wranglers, worn boots, and a tight black shirt under a cowboy-brown unzipped Carhart jacket with wool lining. Even with the layers, she could see the definition of his chest and abs against that tight shirt. God had broken the cowboy mold when he made Tuff Enough. He walked around Duke, who was moving skittish.

  “He doesn’t usually do this,” she said defensively. “He’s my good boy.”

  Tuff angled his face to her and locked eyes with her. “It’s the wolf. It makes them all nervous until they get used to me.” His eyes were blazing such a bright blue, it looked almost like the color of snow.

  “I-I’m like you,” she blurted out. Heat rippled through her cheeks and she dropped her gaze to Duke’s front hoof.

  Tuff was studying her. She could tell. She could feel his attention on her as he ran his hand down Duke’s back.

  When she looked up at him, his eyes were completely white. It should’ve unsettled her, but the contrast with his olive toned skin and short dark beard just made him look otherworldly. Someone had broken his nose somewhere along the way and it was a little crooked. Wild boy had probably healed it before he could even get to a doctor. Wolves were a different kind of shifter.

  “I suppose you would be a little bit like me with a last name like Hagan. We both come from some strong-minded stock.”

  She laughed. “You mean crazy stock for me. You come from strong. I come from wild.”

  “Are you wild?” he asked, his eyes boring straight into her soul.

  Luna swallowed hard. “I probably should’ve been.”

  His attention drifted to her hair, all bunched up on her left side. Best to get it over with. She angled her face to the side and pulled her hair away from the scars. She didn’t have an ear there. That had happened before Quickdraw and his herd had been able to get in and save her.

  “It hurt?” he asked.

  Luna shook her head and put her hair back into place. “I don’t even remember it happening. I’m very tough,” she teased.

  Tuff lifted his chin and looked down his crooked nose at her, looked her up and down and said, “I suppose you are. What do you want me to do with this colt?”

  Luna settled in front of Duke and ran her hands down both sides of his neck while he rested his chin on her back. “Teach him if you have time. I can pay. I know plenty about riding, but I don’t know anything about training.”

  “You’ve made him gentle and trusting.”

  “I like horses more than people.”

  His smile was great. She wished she could hear the baritone in his laugh. “Me, too.”

  Luna backed off of Duke and fiddled with his lead rope. “Can I ask you something?”

  “You already missed your chance at an autograph.”

  She laughed and her cheeks caught fire again. “No, I always wondered something.”

  He nodded. “Wondered what?”

  “Well, I followed your parents and your herd, and I guess I kind of feel like I grew up with you. I was grateful for what they did for me, so I watched all their bucks when they were in their prime, all their rodeos. I would wait for any glimpse of you, sitting with your momma in the stands, or riding on your dad’s shoulders during interviews. I was only a few years older than you. My parents…well, the people who took me in after…you know…they let me watch everything about y’all. So I could feel connected I guess, and focus on the good that came from that time in the medical lab, not the bad.” She gestured to her missing ear as she said ‘bad’. “When you got older and became a bronc rider, I thought you would just train bucking broncs. Teach them to be mad so you could practice riding them.” She looked out over the corrals and pens of ponies probably waiting for breakfast. “Why don’t you?”

  “If you train bucking broncs, you have to put a fire in them. I got enough fire to last me four lifetimes. I want to take it out of them.” He dragged his attention to Duke and ran his hand down his back again. It was harder to read his lips when he was standing profile like this, but she was pretty sure he said, “I want to give them peace instead.”

  She smiled and nodded. He was the person she’d imagined. She’d been afraid of being disappointed if she finally talked to him. Afraid he would be a jerk in real life, but he wasn’t. A man who lived in fire but wanted to give horses peace? That was a good-souled man. Horses were angels on earth.

  “I like that,” she said.

  Tuff slid a white-eyed glance to her and his dark eyebro
ws drew down. “It’s going to snow tonight. It’ll be cold for the horses out here for the next few days.”

  “I have Duke’s blanket in my truck.”

  He took the lead rope from her hand and walked away. Just…left.

  “What do I owe you?” she called out.

  He turned and said something she couldn’t read on his lips.

  “What?” she asked, striding closer.

  He was slower when he answered, “Dinner.”

  A more shocked woman had never existed on this planet or any other. “You want me to buy you dinner?”

  He looked so handsome in the early morning light, smiling like that. Smiling at a girl like her. Smiling even though he’d seen the damage done to her face. “You’re interesting.”

  “Thank you for saying ‘interesting’ and not ‘weird’.”

  His lips parted in a laugh and she thought this would always be her regret. He’d asked if the damaged ear hurt? Not until today. Not until she missed hearing his laugh.

  “Pick me up at six,” he said, careful to form the words. “Weather man said the snow is going to get here at ten. We’ll get a burger before the storm hits.”

  She didn’t understand. A boy like him had asked her to dinner? He wanted to sit down with her for a meal? Tuff Enough Fast Burn wanted to see her again?

  She couldn’t speak over the lump in her throat so she just nodded, then watched him walk away with her horse.

  That man could cut one hell of a silhouette. But bigger than that was the admission that he wanted to give peace.

  Tuff Enough was a monster, in a way. She could feel how heavy his animal was. How dominant he was, but it didn’t suffocate her. He was fire and brimstone and fury when he was in crowds and on television. In every interview, her adoptive parents had told her he was growling every word. Hell, maybe he’d been growling the whole time she’d talked to him, she didn’t know. Maybe because she had watched him for so long, he just wasn’t scary to her.