Spurred Fate: Book Two: Black Claw Ranch

by Lane, Cecilia

  So it’d been a complete surprise to hear his father was in town. Part of him thought it was a trap, but there he was, in person.

  Noel Shaw took a seat and jerked his thumb at Hunter’s glass. “Whatever he’s having, please and thanks.” He exaggerated a sputter at the first sip. “Boy, we’re living in cultured times. You’re still drinking this piss?”

  “What can I say? Can’t fight my upbringing.” Hunter swallowed a bit of his beer and set down the glass. He toyed with the bottom, dragging his thumbnail in the space between bar top and pint. The noise of the bar gave them a little privacy. “Dad, what are you doing here?” he pressed again.

  Noel pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and flattened it out on the bar. “This is why I’m here.”

  Hunter had seen the same flyers growing up and into adulthood. The advertisement called for rodeo competitors to test their skills for a grand prize. Bull riding, bareback riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing, he grew up around it all. He’d cut his teeth riding sheep with the kids of other regular competitors. If it had four legs and could buck a man off its back, he’d been on it and made it to the final buzzer. There’d been a period where he lived his life eight seconds at a time, just like his father before him.

  He’d left those years behind. The recognition wasn’t worth the risk when he needed to keep himself hidden.

  “You know I can’t,” he protested.

  “Well, son, you can. I’ve been keeping track of your legal troubles,” Noel grimaced, “and you’re clear. Bounty has been canceled. No one is looking for you anymore.”

  Hunter sat back, stunned. “What? Who did that?”

  He’d been honest with Joss when he said he’d left Texas after a failed relationship. The details he’d left out weren’t fit for anyone to know. He hated himself for what he’d done, and he didn’t want to see that reflected back in someone else’s eyes.

  He’d been on the road at the time, but managed to steal back home a night early. He’d barged into the apartment he shared with his girlfriend, arms full of chocolates and flowers and even a little stuffed bear that looked like him. All those tokens of affection scattered across the floor the moment his senses caught up to him.

  Her muffled cries.

  His thick scent.

  Flesh hitting flesh.

  His bear still didn’t like those memories. A growl rattled in his chest as the scene replayed in his mind. That night was his deepest shame.

  The rage of betrayal had narrowed his vision and brought his bear to the forefront. He’d hung there, caught between the edge of human and animal, and let out a savage roar. Control wasn’t even visible in the rearview mirror when his bear saw what he thought of as his tangled together with another.

  Andre was the man’s name. He’d learned that through the screams. There’d been so much blood.

  Human. That dawned on him too late. She knew. She was a bear like him. But she’d cheated with a human in a time before shifters were known to exist.

  He’d run out of necessity. The claw marks he left on the man’s face were just as bad as letting himself get caught in a partial shift. If the humans didn’t hunt him down for a wild, vicious freak, then his own clan would have taken care of the problem. He wouldn’t have his father put his only son in the grave.

  “Don’t know,” Noel said. “Don’t care. You’re free to come home.”

  Home. How many years had it been since he’d been there? Eight? Nine? Ethan found him that very night, still covered in blood. He’d been trying to load up his horse to take to his father’s before he got the hell out of Dodge. There’d been no questions, just an order to get in his truck.

  Bearden had been home since then. He pledged himself to the Black Claw clan and took his place on the ranch. Not long after, Lorne made his appearance. A couple years of peace let them settle before Alex fell into their laps.

  They were his clan, not the men and women he grew up around. The thought of leaving them set his bear pacing through his head, agitation bunching all his muscles. No matter how times changed, he doubted his father’s people would be happy to see him again after the trouble he’d caused.

  “You’re wasting your talents working as a ranch hand. You should be out there in front of the crowd. This is what you’re good at.” Noel tapped his fingers on the flyer.

  “I’m in the only business I know because my old man didn’t teach me anything else,” Hunter taunted with a grin. He couldn’t imagine doing other work. He wouldn’t survive a day in a stuffy office. Even if life had slowed considerably and the only bull he came into contact with was the grumpy one Ethan kept on the ranch, he was living his dream. Wide skies and animals were in his blood.

  “Yeah, yeah. If you’d shown a lick of sense, I’d have booted you to one of those fancy schools instead of letting you hang around in the muck. How you learned your letters is still beyond me. Your mother was a miracle worker.”

  “A saint, for putting up with you for even a minute.” Hunter pressed his lips together and tried to calm the bear ripping him apart from the inside. “I wish I could have been there at the end.”

  “She loved you, boy.” A fond smile lifted Noel’s lips. “Don’t doubt that for a minute. She understood why you had to come up here. We both did.”

  Silence stretched between them as they were caught up into their own memories of a woman special to them both. The relationship he saw between his parents formed the basis of all his dreams. Even after losing his mate, his father clearly loved her. Hunter doubted the old man would ever lose that attachment.

  Joss stepped through the door of the bar and made room for others crowding inside. Tansey and Ethan were behind her, and Alex behind them. Lorne and Jesse must have drawn babysitting duty back on the ranch.

  Hunter snapped to attention. The air sucked out of the room even before he caught Joss’s scent. His bear was on constant alert for her, always watching for a chance to get close and complete their bond.

  She wore her hair down like the first day he met her. The strands were curled in big, bouncy waves and he wondered if she’d done one of those tricks with a hot iron that looked like dangerous magic to an outsider. Skinny jeans clung to her legs like a second skin. She’d layered a checkered shirt over a tank top and tied the ends together in a little knot he wanted to unwrap.

  Or tear in his haste to get to her skin.

  He saw her nostrils flare right before bright green eyes snapped to his face.

  Perfect. He liked that she was giving her other side a little bit more control almost as much as he liked knowing her inner animal had taken notice of him.

  Just her presence calmed and riled up the beast under his skin. The human side of him made promises to take it slow, but the animal side wanted to claim her so thoroughly she forgot every male in her past. Didn’t matter how many people were in the bar, just like he hadn’t cared about the humans on the trail. He wanted to dig his fingers into her hair and imprint himself on her every way possible.

  “Never mind,” his father said into his beer. He folded up the flyer and stuffed it back into his pocket. “I get it now.”

  Hunter tore his eyes away from the vision waggling her fingers at him and scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “There’s a girl.”

  “There is no girl. Woman. Anyone. There’s no one,” he denied smoothly.

  “Don’t lie to me. I know when someone has caught your eye. You go all slack-jawed and your eyes glaze over.”

  Hunter swatted away the finger poking at his cheek and growled. “That’s from listening to you all night.”

  “You’ve been after your one girl ever since puberty. You’ve chosen wrong, but that hasn’t stopped you in the slightest. You’re a romantic like your old man.” Noel buffed his fingers on his shirt. “Which is how I know you’re going to make a great mate to someone special just as soon as you find her.”

  “She’s been hurt. I don’t even know if she wants me the
way I want her.”

  The anger that snapped inside him that haunting night hadn’t disappeared. He brawled it out with the others as often as he needed. Too often. His bear needed regular fights to keep steady. Going too long without drawing blood only pissed him off more.

  But that was exactly the reason why he needed to keep Joss at a safe distance. He was everything she was scared of about her own animal.

  The sudden thud of childhood punishment resonated through his head.

  “Ow, fuck!” Hunter hunched his shoulders and rubbed at the spot where his father flicked him. “The fuck was that for?”

  “Boy, I don’t care how old you get or how big you grow those muscles. I’ll flick you on the back of your damn head if you’re acting a fool.”

  He glared at the older man. “Remember that when you can’t walk anymore.”

  Noel laughed loudly and slapped his thigh. “When I can’t walk, the nurses will be giving me daily sponge baths in my retirement home of choice! Some of us know how to save our winnings.”

  Hunter scrunched his nose up at the thought. “They’re going to kick your wrinkly old balls out of there for harassing the nurses. Then where will you be? I’ll throw you in a horse stall before I let you in my home.”

  His father shrugged. “I better make nice with your missus, then. No one can resist my charm.”

  “Just about everyone can,” he murmured.

  Joss said something to the others, then took a step in his direction.

  “They got those little sheds nowadays all done up like apartments. Grampy’s den, that’s what I’ll convince her you need once my grandcubs come into the picture.”

  “You’re absolutely not living in my backyard.”

  Fuck, he liked the sound of all that. Cubs and a mate and peace in his world. He wouldn’t even mind sharing the enclave with his old man. Noel could teach the little ones all the same dangerous shit that drove Hunter’s mother crazy with protective anger once she caught wind of it.

  His father slung an arm over his shoulder and cupped his head to hold him close. An insistent finger tapped against his chest. “There’s no riding the bull from the sidelines. Only way you’re gonna get that prize is by grabbing on and going till the buzzer sounds.”

  Noel released him just as Joss came near.

  “Hey,” she greeted with a smile. “They didn’t tell me you’d be here tonight. Want to join us? I think they’re debating pool or darts.”

  Hunter felt like the gate just opened on him. His stomach dropped with the first bucking leap of his heart. His father was right. He had to hold on for that wild ride.

  Chapter 11

  “So there he is, naked as the day he was born, covered in mud and muck, holding up this snake like it was no big deal at all. ‘I got the turd, Daddy,’ he said.” Noel slapped his thigh for emphasis before dropping his final words. “‘No more hen-eating shit-weasels to make Momma mad!’“

  Joss’s cheeks hurt from laughing. Noel Shaw was just as irreverent as Hunter claimed.

  At his father’s side, Hunter’s face split into a grin. “And you know what? We were good, too. I saved the day. No more snakes going after our hens.”

  Noel wiped a tear from the corner of his eyes. “We were, boy. We were. You did good that day, but I don’t envy your mother cleaning you up.” He caught Joss’s eye and whispered dramatically, “I told her just to use the hose!”

  Hunter took stories of his childhood in stride. Each one made Joss laugh a little harder. Jealousy panged, too. He’d grown up surrounded by love and acceptance. He still needed to be careful with his inner bear, but he wasn’t forced to repress all his instincts. He had a clan to guide him into controlling the beast under his skin. She had that for only a short time before her father was snatched away from her.

  Joss didn’t blame her mother for not knowing what to do with a grieving child and uncontrollable badger, especially while she mourned herself. Still, she came to a realization while laughing with the Black Claw clan that night. She never wanted to be forced to hide herself again.

  Bearden was magic she didn’t want to give up.

  At the very center of that, tossing pixie dust wildly about with both hands, was Hunter Shaw.

  She flicked her eyes up and caught him staring at her again. Gold churned in his eyes as his lips lifted in a smirk hot enough to melt her panties.

  Good gravy, she would be a pillar of ash by the end of the night if he kept that up. Joss wrapped her fingers around her bottle of hard lemonade and gulped down what she hoped was enough to douse any flames licking in her belly.

  “Joss, you’re up.”

  Joss tore her attention away from the man. Tansey twirled a dart between her fingers and held it out to her.

  She hopped off her stool and squeezed past Hunter. Heat flared through her at the simple touch. She wanted to melt into him and keep the connection active. Being near Hunter made her feel alive.

  Fur brushed against her mind and she sank into that, too. Her badger felt ever present with him around. It was like he opened a door to that part of herself and all she had to do was reach across.

  “Come on, girl. Get that bull’s-eye. Can’t let these cockholes have the win,” Ethan rumbled and brought her back to the task at hand.

  They’d split into two teams of three each. Tansey and Ethan claimed her as their own, which put Alex with the father and son duo. Not wanting to put the attention into subtraction, they decided to play an easy version, with each team hitting the spots on the dartboard from section twenty to the bull’s-eye.

  One spot remained, and they left it up to her.

  No pressure.

  “She’s gonna miss,” Alex unhelpfully commented.

  “Eff you, Alex,” she quipped over her shoulder.

  Hunter’s eyes dared her on. The rest of the group laughed.

  Joss rolled the rough grip between her fingers and concentrated through the fuzz of girly drinks and hot man. One shot was all she needed. One perfect shot.

  The first dart sank into the very edge of the board.

  “You can do it!” Tansey cheered.

  “Joss, Joss, Joss,” Ethan chanted.

  “Miss, miss, miss,” Alex echoed.

  Joss shook her head. Oh, if the Rhodes family could see her now.

  She drew back and sent the dart zipping through the air. It bounced off a wire and clattered to the floor.

  One more. One last chance.

  It was tempting to imagine the faces of those who wronged her and hitting them smack in the forehead. But they were mattering less and less the longer she spent in Bearden. They’d hurt her, sure, and she doubted she would ever forgive them. Moving on and living her life without their influence seemed like the best plan.

  Baby steps. One dart at a time.

  Joss took a deep breath and cast aside a little of the weight she carried. She would nail the next chapter of her life.

  She let the dart go and watched it sink into the center of the board.

  “Yes!” Tansey yelled. She wrapped Joss up in a hug and swung her around to the others. She jabbed a finger at Alex, then Hunter. One scowled, the other looked prouder than a peacock. “In your face, suckers!”

  Joss wiggled out of the embrace. Her cheeks ached again with her wide grin. “Yeah. Suck on that!”

  Ethan stretched his arms wide and landed a hand on Tansey’s shoulder. She leaned back into her mate with a pleased sound rattling in her throat. “We’re going to head out. Need to make sure the others haven’t chased off the guests yet. You guys coming?”

  “Mmm,” Alex purred around the mouth of his bottle. He set it down with a clink and fixed his eyes on someone in the crowd. “There’s someone I want to meet.”

  “That my cue.” Noel stood and slapped Hunter’s back. “Get at me tomorrow, boy.”

  “I will,” Hunter promised to his father’s retreating back.

  “Joss? You need a ride?” Tansey asked.

  Joss arched an ey
ebrow at Hunter.

  He matched her look, arch for arch. “I think we’ll figure out our own way back.”

  “Have fun,” Tansey whispered with a nudge of her elbow.

  Then they were alone. The bar swirled around them, but the noise and activity faded away to nothing. The man staring down at her, close enough to touch, held her entire attention.

  “Did you want to get a drink?” he asked.

  Over top of him, she questioned, “What’s next?”

  “We have to stop doing that,” he drawled. Gold eyes danced at her.

  Warmth spread across her cheeks. “I like to think it means we’re on the same wavelength.”

  “Mmm. I like that.” Hunter crooked his elbow and tilted his head. “Can I escort you home?”

  Joss took his offered arm with a gracious nod. “I accept your offer.”

  Hunter made way for them through other patrons and led her outside and to his truck. Like a gentleman, he opened the door for her and helped her inside. Like a man with a libido, his hands lingered on her for longer than strictly necessary.

  He climbed into the driver’s seat and jammed the keys in the ignition. His head swiveled and his eyes caught hers. That gaze... she could have died on the spot. He looked at her like no one else existed. Heat spiraled through her and pounded her heart against her breastbone.

  With another heavy look, Hunter turned the engine over and started them on the road back to the ranch.

  Somewhere between a sad, crooning country song and a tale of rebirth and second chances, Hunter’s hand fell onto her thigh. He didn’t say a word, and she didn’t push him away. The weight of his grip felt right. Her badger brushed up against her, then settled right down, feeling pleased.

  Joss rolled down the window and stuck her hand into the night. Air currents whipping off the front of the truck lifted her hand. She twisted and cut through, diving and soaring her hand through the wind.