Joyce grabbed his hand and tried to pull him off. “You’re mine until I say I’m done. That little redhead doesn’t know who she’s messing with.”
Hunter shook his head with a growl. He didn’t like the notes of triumph in her scent. She was up to some shit, too.
Cal. Joyce. He’d rip them both apart if they stepped between him and his mate.
“I let you walk all over me for too long. I’m done with that. I’m done with you. If you doubt me, you better look up exactly what James Shaw did the night he left Texas.”
Blood. So much blood. He’d nearly slipped in it.
And the screams. From him, from her.
Andre never stood a chance. Shifter strength, shifter rage, against a human?
James Shaw died the night he left Texas.
Hunter released Joyce with a noise of disgust. For her, for himself, for letting his anger get away from him all over again.
No good. His skin stretched tight over his frame and his bear roared a constant chorus in his head.
Fuck. Fuck. He never should have let his old man come visit. He should have changed every part of his name. He should have hidden on the other side of the damn world, or maybe six feet under the dirt.
That name meant trouble. Even if no one wanted his hide, he’d done the thing Joss feared the most. He’d lost control and hurt someone in the process.
He’d nearly done it again with Joyce. His bear overwhelmed all his good sense and pushed him down a destructive path.
If he couldn’t keep his shit together, how could he be a good mate?
His bear roared and slashed his insides.
He needed a fight. Or a fuck. Or a run until the sun was high overhead and everyone he knew was far behind. Anger and shame and unease gnawed at his insides until he shook so hard he could barely fit his keys to the lock of his truck.
Home. He had to get the fuck away from everyone and get home.
* * *
Headlights slashed across a lone figure perched on the top step of his porch. Joss’s head shot up and green eyes pierced him through the windshield. Her feet poked out from the hem of her skirt and if he wasn’t mistaken, she’d donned cowboy boots. Two braids hung over her shoulders to complete her prairie look.
A hint of his rage faded away. Not enough to ease the rattle of his bear’s snarls, but enough to let him form words when he dropped out of his truck and shut the door with a heavy click.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, voice low and gravelly and full of his bear. Fuck, he still wanted to shift and fight.
Or fuck.
Her sweet scent clogged up his nose and nearly sent him to his knees. Perfection, that was what she smelled like. His fingers itched to touch her, even as he resisted. She deserved so much more than a fucked up bear with blood on his hands.
She ducked her head, then brought it right back up to stare glowing green eyes at him. Fierce. Brave. It was the look of a woman who knew what she wanted.
He felt so fucking proud of her for that look.
“I didn’t want to sleep alone,” she said quietly. “If you’re not okay with that, I can go. Are you okay?”
No. Yes. He didn’t know. He clung to steadiness by a fingernail, but that wasn’t the only thing holding him to this side of sanity. Another tether appeared somewhere over the last few days, and it led straight back to the woman with narrowed, concerned eyes directed at him.
Hunter closed the space between them and pulled her to her feet. His shaky breath evened out the moment he touched her, then a dam broke inside him. That wasn’t going to be enough. He needed more from her. He needed to feed the dark parts of himself with her goodness.
His lips crashed against hers in a violent, needy collision. Rough kisses, with his tongue plunging into her mouth, and his fingers digging into her hips. A wild growl worked in his chest. The bite of her fingernails against his skin only surged more desire. He wanted her mark, no matter how temporary.
He wrapped her around his waist and held her against the door while he fumbled with his keys. Fuck, she was hot. He could feel her through the layers of their clothes. The jerks of her hips rubbed herself against him and urged him on.
Hunter stumbled inside, still holding Joss against him, and kicked the door shut. He aimed for the couch and set her on the back. Fuck the extra steps to the bedroom. He needed her now.
“Do you know what this skirt does to me?” he murmured against her throat. His fingers bunched in the fabric to draw it higher up her legs. He’d wanted to do the same when he first caught sight of her outside the newspaper office. “If I had my way, you’d wear nothing else.”
A shudder worked through her body. In the darkness, lust-filled eyes watched him.
His bear wanted to lay claim to her right then and there. His gums ached with the need to drag her shirt over her head and mark her shoulder, or drop to his knees and pierce the skin of her thigh.
At the apex of her legs, he slid a hand over her panties. Damp heat greeted him. His eyes rolled to the back of his damn head and a growl worked out of his chest. “Fuck, Joss, you’re already wet for me, aren’t you?”
She rocked against his hand and made a tiny, needy sound.
Hunter shoved her panties to the side and speared her. The noise that bubbled out of her throat had his cock throbbing in time to every warble.
He panted when she flattened her palm against his erection. Sweet skies above, he couldn’t help but buck against her squeezing, rubbing hand. Her breath hitched in her throat and fuck, he couldn’t stop.
Hunter unbuttoned his jeans and shoved them down his hips. Need. He needed to be inside her. He could get lost in her arms. Forget all the bad he’d done. Keep up the illusion just a little while longer.
He ripped away her panties and lined himself up against her entrance. He pushed an inch inside her, then eased out. So tight. Even after almost making her come on his fingers. Joss gasped with pleasure, and Hunter lost control. He pushed into her deep.
Fuck. He needed to slow down. She deserved more than a fast fuck to calm his riled bear.
She chased his kiss when he tried to pull away. Her arms wrapped around his neck and held him closer.
“Hunter. Hunter, move.”
Bossy girl. He’d gotten a taste of it when she locked the stall door on him and forced him to hear her out. She’d called him out on not listening to what she needed like everyone else in her life. He swore he’d never do it again.
He listened to her words and her body. Hunter bucked his hips hard into her, slamming every inch of himself into her silky heat.
Joss burrowed her fingers into his hair and moaned against his lips.
He pulled back slow, so slow, monstrously slow, and watched need flare in her eyes. Her teeth caught her lower lip. The thud of her heart sounded so loud to his ears.
His.
Savior. Sexy redhead with the messy life made him want to figure out how to be the best damn man in existence. He didn’t need to run with her at his side. He didn’t need to fight. She soothed his beast and the rough edges of his soul.
Hunter buried himself inside her. He dragged her to the very edge of the couch and pummeled into her until she was screaming his name between incoherent babble.
“Yes,” she chanted. “Hunter, yes.”
He pushed deep and stayed there, thrusting shallow and hard. She fluttered against him and red spread over her cheeks and down her neck. Her chest heaved with shallow gulps of air. All of it worked to let him know how close she was with him.
She came hard, clenching his dick in quick pulses. One final, roaring thrust seated him firmly inside her to throb his release.
He pressed his forehead to hers as their ragged breaths found their natural patterns. He didn’t know what to say. Couldn’t imagine how to explain what she’d done for him, or the places inside him she’d unlocked. His world shifted in her arms.
Later, with Joss curled up next to him and her soft breath against his neck, Hunter stared at h
is ceiling. She gave him hope and a dream when he had no right to either.
He stretched his fingers out until he found his phone. Trying not to disturb her, he held it up and snapped a picture.
Perfect. He traced her hair spread out against his pillow. The tightness around her eyes had disappeared, and she even wore a tiny little smile.
She looked content. He wanted to keep her as peaceful and happy as she looked in that moment.
The past mattered, but the future mattered more. He had to be better. He had to do better. No more outbursts, no letting anyone get under his skin.
Okay, the last was a pipe dream. He lived with crazy bears who’d eat him at the first sign of weakness. But a brawl now and then—or every day—was different than letting his bear run away with him.
Joss deserved the world, and he’d give it to her.
Chapter 16
Hunter leaned against the shopping cart and watched Joss move between bins of produce. He’d willingly volunteered to take her on a supply run into town just to have some extra time with her, and he was glad he’d done so.
He was struck by something his father once told him. No matter how small the moment, he needed to cherish them. Doing dishes together was as important as making the big memories. Hunter wanted to collect moments with Joss. Each one felt as precious to him as the others.
He fished his phone from his pocket and pulled up the picture he’d taken the night before. Three Josses existed in his head—the tense and reserved woman he’d met in front of the newspaper office, the content woman sleeping on his shoulder, and the Joss moving between bins of produce with purpose.
He couldn’t believe how much her time in Bearden had changed her. He’d seen her in the kitchen at the ranch, and out on the trail, but everything clicked while he watched her sift through tomatoes to find the perfect bunch. Joss could do anything, and she believed it, too. He was sure that confident and capable woman had always existed, but she wasn’t weighed down by anyone else’s shitty opinions. She could just be herself.
He didn’t want her to lose that belief.
Joss glanced up, a slow smile lifting her lips. She tucked her hair behind her ears and jerked her chin to his phone. “What do you have there?”
“Nothing,” he answered in complete innocence.
Her eyes crinkled with a laugh. “Nothing, huh? Then why won’t you let me see?”
Hunter lifted his phone high to keep her from reaching. “Because it’s mine. My moment. I’m going to treasure this for the rest of my life.”
She blinked at him in a mental stumble. “Now I need to know what you have.”
Reluctance and pride mingling together, Hunter lowered his arm and angled the screen to show her the picture.
Joss dropped her eyes to the phone, then flicked her bright green gaze up at him. “You took this of me?”
“No, a little photo fairy snuck in and did it.” He bent low and pecked her lips. “Yes, I took it. You looked beautiful. I didn’t want to lose that ever.”
“Besides.” He cleared his throat of sentimentality and grabbed the prop he needed, holding the fruit between them. “You’re the apple of my eye.”
“Oh my god. Moment ruined,” she muttered, amusement coloring her voice and scent even as she tried to pretend at being offended. She shook her head and pushed the cart past him.
“Hey. Don’t turn away like that.”
“If I’d known you’d be doing food puns, I’d have locked you in the truck.” Her lips twitched at the sides.
“You wouldn’t do that. I know hummus you’d miss me.”
She snorted as she scanned her shopping list. Her shoulders shook with tiny quakes that challenged him to hear her full giggle.
He eyed the food in the cart and within arm’s reach and tried to pair them with any food jokes. Hah, pear.
“Joss. Joss.” Hunter tried to keep the excitement from his voice and failed.
She turned to him and sighed expectantly.
He held up an orange. “Orange you glad I came today?”
He’d stop if she didn’t smell so amused.
“Just admit you want my meat.” Hunter dropped his eyes to a package of steaks he held near his crotch.
Joss muttered under her breath, then darted around him. “I’ll beet you up if you don’t stop,” she said with a laughing growl. She held aloft a trio of beets by the leaves.
Hunter snatched up the bottle of whiskey he’d put in earlier. “That’s the spirit.”
She put the beets down and skipped around him. Her eyes danced and a pleased hum vibrated in her throat. “You’re bananas.”
Perfect woman. He loved how easily she’d been lured into playing.
He swung down the next aisle to find more food for jokes and pulled to a sudden stop.
There, at the other end with his hands resting on his hips, stood a familiar face. Andre.
Fuck.
The man had added a ton of muscle to his frame over the years. Lots of unrest, too. His eyes roved constantly, but always settled back on Hunter.
Scars ran down one side of his face and twisted up his mouth to make him look like he had a permanent smirk. Nothing in his eyes matched the expression. Those were cold and dead.
Hunter tried to back out of the aisle and bumped into Joss adding more vegetables to the cart.
His breath caught in the back of his throat. No escape. His bear raised his hackles at being caught in a trap.
“No greeting for an old friend, Hunter Shaw?”
Hunter stopped in his tracks and turned. The inflection in Andre’s voice raised the hair along his arms. Danger clung to the man like a second skin. He resisted the urge to throw his arms wide and shove Joss behind him.
He dipped the brim of his Stetson. “Andre. What brings you to Bearden?”
“Here to see about a bounty that’s long overdue to be bagged.”
A muscle jumped along Hunter’s jaw. “Clear on out of here. There’s no bounty on my head.”
Joss’s attention jerked to him, then to Andre. Her eyes narrowed with unspoken questions, but she didn’t say a word.
“I know. Who do you think canceled it? Wanted to shove you old man into action. He scurried faster than I thought. Losing his touch, I reckon. Getting careless in his old age.”
Joss straightened, her full attention on the tension arcing between the two men. Hunter’s bear pushed at him to end her discomfort.
Fuck. Fucking fuck fuck. Shitstain cockweasel was fucking everything up. Andre had followed his dad straight to him. He should have known something was off with the unexpected news. Not needing to hide was too good to be true.
Andre flicked his eyes to Joss and Hunter wanted to rip him open all over again. “This your new girl? She know what you did?”
“Hunter?” Joss asked, a small tremor in her voice.
Andre slashed his eyes back to Hunter and grinned maliciously. Pleasure entered his scent, all oily and foul with the sickness from it.
“I swore I’d hunt down the fucker that gave me these.” Andre traced the furrowed rows on his cheek, gaze still boring into Hunter.
“Hunter?” Joss asked again.
“James, more like. That’s who I knew him as, at least in the short time it took for him to maul me like some animal.”
Joss sucked in a sharp breath and Andre cracked another hideous smile. “So he hasn’t told you? How about that. The animal can feel shame. Or is it self-preservation? You know all about that, don’t you Hunter?”
“You need to leave,” Hunter ordered in a gravelly voice.
Andre stepped close to him. His scent was sour and prickly, years of hurt layered over the identifying notes that still haunted Hunter whenever he strayed too close to those shameful memories.
“I’ve found you. You might think you’re in the clear, but you’re not. You won’t have a day of peace for as long as you live. Look over your shoulder, glance at the people all around you. Can you feel them staring? Because I
do. They look at me like I’m a monster. I want you to feel the exact same. And if I can get to you in the middle of bum fuck nowhere, what else do you think I’m capable of doing?”
Andre slid his glance to Joss, then back to Hunter.
His bear roared to life with protectiveness. Hunter’s lips raised in a snarl. “She has no place in this.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’d hate to see such a pretty face get marked up, wouldn’t you?” Andre reached forward and dragged a knuckle down Joss’s face.
She jerked back with disgust.
Hunter reacted immediately. His warning growl erupted out of him in a feral sound. He grabbed a handful of Andre’s shirt and shoved him away from his mate.
Andre threw a punch into his middle, then another at his face.
Blood tanged Hunter’s tongue from his split lip. The wound didn’t slow him in the slightest. He threw Andre into the crate of oranges. The thin wood legs buckled under Andre’s weight and sent fruit scattering across the floor.
Andre picked one up and chucked it at his head.
Hunter growled annoyance. He dodged another projectile before he reached Andre again. Hurt his mate? Never. Blood pounded in his ears and his bear roared a demand for painful lessons.
“Hunter, no!” Joss yelled.
A faint noise, that. Far away in the distance. Somewhere that allowed past and present to collide. Words then, words now, and he didn’t stop.
He could already smell the blood. The man deserved it. He took what belonged to Hunter. He threatened Hunter’s mate.
He grabbed Andre’s collar and yanked him close.
“No, no please!” Andre screamed.
The fake notes in his voice tightened Hunter’s fist. He’d make him beg for real. Joss was precious. Sacred. Not a single hair on her head would be touched.
Hunter pulled back his fist and Andre grinned.
“Hunter, stop!” Joss tugged at him.
He shook his head to clear the haze that clouded his judgment. Oranges continued to roll across the floor. A steady murmuring of the crowd buzzed in his ears. In the distance, he was sure he could hear a police siren firing up.
Spurred Fate: Book Two: Black Claw Ranch Page 12
