Stunned, he called after her, “Are we fighting?”
“Yes!”
Fuck yes. They never fought, and now he was going to get an anger-bang. Colt wasn’t even growling anymore by the time he pried Genie off his neck, set her on Ranger’s saddle, and jogged after his mate. “Watch my horse!” he called over his shoulder.
“Good luck with that one,” Trig called.
“Oh, don’t you worry, I can handle this little wildcat.”
“Polar bear, man. Polar. Bear. With teeth, claws, and rage at your idiot ass. Guard your nethers!”
Whatever. Colt wound through the trees, following her scent. Karis was a pussy cat for hi—
Something hit him like a cannonball from the right. He grunted with the force, and his back hit a tree so hard it rocked snow from the branches. And that little cannonball was none other than his sweet, funny, well-mannered mate…who currently was looking at him like she wanted to kiss him or kill him, but hadn’t decided which one yet.
****
“You’ve kept my bear riled up for four straight hours, and I spent that whole time rubbing your back and trying to soothe you, being a good mate, all while my ass was getting sore on the butt of that bouncing horse. And then you talk mean to me? This is hard for me too, Colt!”
Crap, she wanted to cry. He stood leaned against the tree, his face angled to the side, exposing his neck. It was pretend. He was more dominant than her, but he was giving her space to rampage. Good man. She gripped his jacket with clenched fists and admitted something big. Something that made her voice go emotional because she hated exposing her weaknesses. “I’m scared, too.”
“You don’t have to be. I ain’t scared.”
“You are. You’re scared of losing me. I can see it. You don’t get scared for yourself ever. I knew that from the second you burst into that barn and went to war with the mountain lions and crows to protect me. You gave them your back and your neck over and over just to shorten that fight. But I’m scared, too. Scared of what the crows are building, scared of not being in control of our lives, scared for our Clan, scared I won’t be able to give you a cub, scared because Genie is sick, scared of losing the ranch and not having this place. Scared of losing everything that means home. You have to settle down, Colt. Your bear is riling everyone up. Did you see Ava’s eyes? She’s still new to this life. She has to duck her gaze constantly from the Ives family until she can pass for human again. That’s on you, babe. You’re calling out everyone’s animals. We aren’t at war right now, Warmaker. Let us have peace until we get back.”
Colt’s chest was heaving now, his lips thinned to a grim line, and his eyes, which had stayed gold the entire trip, were now so bright they were hard to look at. Red crept up his neck and made his scars on his face look even more stark. His attention twitched to the woods in the direction of Mine Camp, but they were deep in the forest. The only thing they could see from here were trees.
“Let you have peace,” he murmured.
“Yes.”
“You’ll understand someday, Karis. That’s what I’m going to do. I have everything to lose now.”
“The whole Clan has everything to lose now, Colt. We have to make things easier on each other, not harder.”
His face morphed into something terrifying. For one moment, fury lived in the snarl of his lips and the intensity of his eyes. There was an oath there that Karis didn’t understand.
And then he was Colt again. The Warmaker disappeared like he’d never existed at all. Tricky boy. Protective boy. War boy. Secret-keeper boy. She could practically see him closing a door between them so he could hide the dark deeds on his mind. Outlaw. This man would never be tamed. Sure, he would laugh, work hard, and look steady to people from the outside. But to the ones he was closest to, he couldn’t hide the beast, no matter how he tried. The Warmaker would always be there now, ready to defend what was his, ready to aim his scarred-up knuckles at an enemy before they could even make a fist.
He’d talked about Trigger being a monster, but Colt was just as scary.
Beautiful damage.
And Karis didn’t know what this said about her, but… “I love the Warmaker in you. You know that, right? You don’t have to keep him from me.”
Colt lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes. The corner of his lip turned up on his unscarred side. It was a dark smile that promised wicked things. Roughly, he gripped the back of her hair and leaned down, kissed her lips hard. “Good,” he growled against her lips, “because you belong to him.”
When his touch went to her breast, massaged hard, she gasped and gripped his hand to keep him there. Colt walked her backward until her shoulder blades hit the large trunk of a pine. She thought he would take her fast and hard, but he didn’t. Instead, he dropped down to his knees and dragged her leggings and panties down to her ankles. Before she could react, he shoved his cowboy hat off his head, tossed it in the snow, and buried his face between her legs. And there was his tongue, sliding up her entrance, teasing. Whoa. Karis’s legs buckled, but he gripped her hips and kept her pinned upright against the tree. Lick, lick, lick, and Karis’s breath came in short pants now. When he sucked gently on her clit, she moaned and gripped a low hanging branch above her just to have something to dig her nails into. She rocked her hips to the pace he set, desperate for him to keep going since the building pressure felt so good. As he flicked his tongue against her clit a few times, she murmured his name, rolled her eyes closed. And then he was there, right at her entrance, tongue thrusting in as she rocked. Sooo much pressure. Her entire body was tingling now as he yanked her snow boots off, and her leggings off the rest of the way, then pulled her down. She released the branch and went to her knees right over his face. His fingers dug into her hips as he forced her to rock back and forth. Karis locked her arms on the ground as he pushed her closer and closer to the edge. His tongue was stroking so deep into her now, and he was growling this sexy sound as if he couldn’t get enough of her. She could feel the vibration of that snarl rattling through her middle, and it made her clit even more sensitive. Deep, deep, rock, rock, and when he sucked on her and laved his tongue against her, her orgasm blasted through her. She rolled her hips against his face until she was completely sated and her body was twitching.
“That feels so good,” she whispered, breath hitching. Knees in the snow, legs spread over her mate’s face, she stared down at him as he continued to lick her slowly, pulling every small, throbbing aftershock from her body. Oh, that man knew exactly how to please her. He knew the exact medicine she needed for her restless soul.
And from the way his eyes faded from fiery gold to a calm green, she thought perhaps she was medicine for his restless soul, too.
Chapter Eight
“I’m just saying,” Damien murmured, staring at his vial of nearly-microscopic gold flakes. “I might skip college to be a gold miner.”
“A heart attack,” Thomas groused. “That’s what you’re trying to do to me. Give me a heart attack.”
“I’m probably rich,” Damien continued, but his poker face was slipping and his smile was peeking through.
Karis giggled and shook her head. “Maybe I don’t want to have kids after all,” she teased.
Colt snorted from his place by the fire. “With that attitude, we’re gonna have fourteen cubs. Kids. Fourteen kids.” He frowned at the fire, and Trig looked like he wanted to kick Colt’s boot. He’d been slipping up all night.
Karis scooted closer to him and rested her cheek on his shoulder to soothe him. Colt leaned back against the log behind him, draped his arm across her back, and rubbed his thumb along her shoulder. It was a silent thank you. He was really good with those.
“I wanted fourteen kids once,” Leonora said as she scraped the last of her hearty stew off her metal camp plate and onto the spoon.
“Yeah? And what happened to that plan?” Trig asked.
“I had Damien, and he traumatized me into being fine with one.”
“Ha
!” Colt bellowed.
Everyone was laughing at that one, and Damien only shrugged his shoulders. “I won. No competition. And what she really meant was I was so awesome she knew she couldn’t have a better kid than me. Why mess with perfection?”
Leonora rolled her eyes, and Karis leaned back onto Colt’s arm, relaxing against the log behind them. Her stomach was full and happy, and the fire was keeping everyone nice and warm. They’d sat here for an hour just eating and talking. Life was good right now. No worries.
Sure, she still felt the edge of that storm. That instinct never left her, but that was the life she led. What mattered was their ability to appreciate the moments of peace in between the chaos. Those were the important ones that made a life great, but if a person never learned to appreciate them, they wouldn’t even know their existence was special. That’s what her step-dad had taught her when he first Turned her. He’d mentally prepared her for a shifter life. Colt hadn’t been so lucky with his dad and was self-taught on everything, but she had a feeling he was going to figure out a way to appreciate the peaceful moments someday, too. Right now, he had to be the Warmaker, but someday, she hoped he could find the Peacemaker in him again.
“What time is it?” Leanora asked to no one in particular.
Trig squinted up at the moon and murmured, “Looks like it’s about half past ten.”
“Whoa!” Damien exclaimed. “You can tell the time from the moon?”
Colt snorted. “That, and I just saw him check his phone a minute ago.”
Trig lashed his leg out and kicked Colt’s boot from his place on Colt’s other side. But when Trig did, he dislodged Ava, who had been resting her cheek on his knee as she stared into the fire.
“Boys,” she reprimanded them. “Quit it.”
“I’m gonna head in,” Thomas said. “I need two Advil for my sore saddle-butt and about ten hours of sleep.”
“We head out at six a.m.,” Trig enlightened him.
Thomas stood up and sighed, then shoved his cell phone in his back pocket. “Faaantastic. Next vacation, I get to pick. It’ll be on a beach somewhere, and I’m sleeping in every day.”
Leanora giggled and shook her head. “Deal, Grumpy.” She lifted up her phone and clicked a picture of him walking away.
“I heard that,” Thomas called over his shoulder.
“Just getting pictures of you having so much fun!”
“Take a picture of me and my riches,” Damien said, holding up his little vial.
While they were entertaining themselves, Trig and Colt got up, collected dishes, and took them to the river to wash. Karis and Ava made sure the animals were taken care of, and after Leonora and Damien disappeared into the little cattleman’s cabin for the night, they made their way back to the tents they’d set up earlier.
“It’s taking the boys a while,” Ava said, frowning into the dark just beyond the halo of firelight. “And I smell smoke.” She sniffed again, and her frown deepened.
“I bet Trig is giving Colt a talk to settle him down,” Karis guessed. “Or an order. And the smoke from the campfire will probably linger for a while. Nothing to worry about.” The boys had great night vision and didn’t have flashlights on them, so there was no way to tell where they were. And she didn’t hear the soft murmur of them talking either. Truth be told, Karis didn’t feel right about them being gone so long either.
Ava’s instincts were all kicked up from being a newly Turned shifter though, so that’s probably all this was. Paranoia. But instead of saying goodnight and disappearing into the tent, Ava just stood there, silver eyes aimed at the dark in the direction of the river.
“Do you want me to check on them?” Karis asked.
Ava nodded. “I’ll grab Colt’s old Peacemaker and watch the cabin. Keep the Ives safe. Ten minutes, Karis. If you aren’t back, I’m giving into the bear and coming after y’all. The animal has put an ache in my bones all day.”
Karis puffed out a breath and nodded. “Ten minutes. I’ll be back. Post up at the cabin.” Karis turned to the little squirrel, who had been quietly watching them talk from a branch right near the tents. “Come on, Genie. Let’s go check on the boys.”
But the little critter didn’t follow. Instead, she climbed somberly down the tree and disappeared into the tent where Karis and Colt’s sleeping bags were. Okay then.
“She’s fine.” But Ava’s tone sounded just as uncertain as Karis felt.
Karis made her way to the tree line, but as she stepped out of the firelight and into the shadows, she tried to summon her bear. The animal had been quiet. And not just normal sleeping quiet, but the kind where some moments, like right now, Karis felt human. That didn’t make any sense. Usually, she would be so irritated she would be asking for a Change. She had been earlier when Colt was close to his own, but now…there was nothing. She felt empty.
She blinked hard, focusing on not rolling an ankle on the uneven terrain illuminated by the dim, blue moonlight, that kept disappearing behind the clouds. Why was her night vision so horrid tonight? And now it was snowing. Great.
She didn’t even sense the solid-brick wall-of-a-man in front of her until she ran right into him. Rough hands gripped her shoulders as she went off-balance and lurched away. A scream clawed its way out of her throat, but a big, meaty, calloused hand clamped over her mouth, halting the sound.
“Dammit, Karis, it’s me. It’s Trig! Stop your screamin’, or you’ll have Colt’s grizzly charging up here in two seconds flat.”
“T-Trigger? What the hell!” she whisper-screamed, prying his hand from her mouth. She shoved him back. “Make a little noise and stop creeping around the woods in the dark scaring people!”
“I did make noise! I sounded like an elephant crashing through the brush, and I said your name twice.”
Karis frowned. “You did?”
“Yeah, how did you not hear me?”
She shook her head, utterly confused. “I…I don’t know.” Where was her bear? She felt all alone in this body. A wave of dizziness took her, and she swayed forward. Trig caught her and yanked her back to arm’s length. “Karis, are you okay?” he asked, his flashing gold eyes the only thing visible under the brim of his hat.
“Genie is sick,” she murmured. Maybe she was catching what Genie had. Some animal sickness that made her bear weak. Or maybe the crows put something in their food or water source. Colt had always worried about her being drugged when she went into town. But other than a quiet bear, she felt okay. Trig had enough to worry about without her panicking about a sleepy bear on him. Clearing her throat, she straightened her spine and lifted her chin. “I’m fine. It’s just so damn dark out here, and I wasn’t paying attention.”
Trig’s eyes narrowed, but after a few moments, he nodded and said, “Okay. Your man is by the river. Eyes up, Karis. He’s calling a meeting.”
“A meeting with who?” she asked as he passed her by.
Without turning around, her Alpha said, “With the crows.”
Chapter Nine
The fire didn’t make sense. Not when it had just begun to lightly snow.
The smoke, smog, and flames were so displaced and unexpected out here on the bank of the river. But even more strange was what the fire looked like.
It was in the shape of a crow.
Its head was turned to the side, beak open like it was cawing, wings outstretched…the flames were twenty feet long from wing-tip to wing-tip.
And under the left wing stood her mate. Colt’s head was arched back, his attention on the sky.
Karis was on a hill above but made her way down to him, careful to take a wide berth around the fire. It reeked of lighter fluid down here, and she nearly gagged on the stench. Colt turned around as her shoes hit the riverbank. “Stay close,” he murmured.
Coming to a stop beside him, she whispered, “Why?”
“Because they’re here.”
He lifted his gaze back to the sky just in time for three ravens to stretch their wings to slow
their momentum. All three dropped to the bank and Changed just before their black talons hit the snow. Three musclebound, tall, dark-eyed men stood to their full heights. The one in front had short, dirty-blond hair and a scar from the corner of his mouth down to his jawline. Another scar-face like Colt. A warrior perhaps. The one behind him to the left had long brown hair that whipped in the wind, and the other had short, jet-black hair. And all three were naked as the day they were born. Politely, Karis kept her eyes up, and not on their big swinging dicks.
“Ramsey,” Colt greeted the one in front.
“Warmaker.” The leader twitched his face like it was a tick, like a bird did when it was curious. “Pretty lady. More to lose, and yet here you are burning a death oath into the ground.”
“And I’ll back that death oath up if you push me, Crow. I would’ve been burning your fuckin’ Clan to the ground already if I didn’t have shit to do. Your Clan is a thorn right now. You keep testing us, and I can’t figure out why. What do you want?”
“You shot three of my crows today.”
“Three of your crows were trespassing and don’t make me remind you your fuckin’ Clan tried to draw my mate out into the open for an attack, also in our territory. You’re lucky you’re breathing right now, Ramsey.” In a tone as hard as steel, Colt repeated, “What do you want?”
“The wishing squirrel,” the Alpha said coolly.
Colt’s head snapped back like he’d been slapped. “What?”
“We want the squirrel.”
“Why?”
It was the man with the long hair who took a step forward and spoke up, “Because she’s—”
“Enough,” Ramsey demanded, giving the man a warning look that chilled Karis’s blood. There was evil in a look like that. Or perhaps it was just his raven-black eyes that made him appear wicked.
With an irritated sigh, Ramsey dragged his attention back to Colt. “That squirrel ain’t what you think. You want peace? You can have it. Red Dead Mayhem will never bother you again, will never attack, with never even breathe your Clan’s name again if you give us the wishing squirrel.”