Steal Her Heart (Kaid Ranch Shifters #1)(16)

Before she could change her mind, she yelled after him, “Be careful of the bear!”

The door opened immediately, startling her again. Now, she didn’t know what instinct possessed her to grab her tits when she was frightened, but that happened, and she didn’t release the girls the whole time he was telling her, “I can’t leave until I know you’re going to take care of your feet, woman!”

“Okay!” she yelled back, because she was having all these emotions—he was yelling, everything was terrible, she was confused, and yelling made her feel better.

He just stood there in the doorway for a few seconds before he barged back in, made his way directly to the kitchen, pulled down her favorite oversize popcorn bowl, a few clean dishrags, and some peroxide. He stood in her kitchen, glaring at her as he ran the water to warm it up. And she didn’t know what to do but stay twisted around, staring at him back.

“Why are you grabbing your tits?” he asked.

She released herself and shrugged. Her voice broke when she explained, “I apparently do that when I’m scared.”

“Yeah, well…” He dipped his attention to the bowl he was filling with steaming water. “You didn’t do that outside. You did what needed to be done.” A quick gold glance and, “You done good, Maris.”

And just like that, all her anger and fear and confusion melted into one emotion—awe. He’d struck her dumb. She’d done…good? Why did it feel so good to hear that? From him, of all people?

She cleared her throat. “Th-thank you.”

“For what?” he muttered as he made his way to her with the bowl and first-aid supplies.

“For saying something nice to me. It’s… Well, that doesn’t happen a lot.”

He sat on the table beside her, settled the water bowl on the floor, and pulled her feet gently until they settled into the hot water. “You were wrong, you know.”

“About what?”

Another hard swallow, and he ran his hand through his dark hair. He didn’t meet her eyes when he said, “Not all men are built to hurt women.” He stood and made his way to the door. “I’ll be back to check on you when I’m done cleanin’ the death off your yard.”

For the last year, she’d fed her bitterness. She’d accepted and grown to believe men existed to drain women. Or, at least, they existed to drain her. She’d swallowed the ache of love lost and let it turn her dark from the inside out.

But tonight, this almost-stranger had showed her something different.

Oh, he wasn’t a complete stranger anymore. She knew he couldn’t leave until he knew she was okay. It might’ve seemed little to someone accustomed to a caring man, but for her, it had turned her world on its axis. It wasn’t just the compliment about her instincts during an attack, or the fact that he’d left his horse to check if she was okay. It was him going back out into a night full of predators and cleaning up for her so she didn’t have to mess with it in the morning. It was no complaints about his own injuries, only care for hers. It was the promise to check on her again, even in the face of her anger. She’d stormed, and he’d stood steady. It was so many things that had happened in a matter of minutes that had given her a peek at his character. And character, for a rancher like her, was everything.

She didn’t trust him yet…but perhaps he wasn’t the thief and coward she’d thought.





Chapter Seven


He’d never been scared before tonight.

Not once in his life. Bryson’s animal didn’t allow fear. Fear was weakness, but tonight, as he’d watched that wolf snapping at her face, Maris on her back, bracing that rifle against the wolf’s throat, he thought he wouldn’t make it to her in time.

If fear was weakness, Bryson had a sneaking suspicion that meant Maris was his weakness, too. Animals like him didn’t do well with this stuff. He was supposed to be protective over the herd. That was his job, that was where his income came from, but in the span of a day, he’d latched onto a woman who didn’t want nothin’ to do with him.

“Idiot,” he murmured to himself as he dragged the dead wolf by the back legs toward the woods. The wolf wouldn’t ever Change back to his human form. If a shifter died as an animal? He stayed animal.

Assholes tried to kill her. Or bite her? Same difference. Females didn’t do well with the bite. Almost none of them survived. He didn’t know why, only that females didn’t good monsters make. Men, though. Oooooh, the men did just fine with a bite. Hardly any of them died after Turning.

He’d thought she was limping because one of those assholes had bitten her. He could imagine it. The animal growing inside of her, poisoning her. The bite getting infected and turning black. Streams of dark blue weaving up her leg until her body was covered with the infection.

He could imagine it because he’d seen it before.

Fuck.

Bryson dropped the wolf and lifted his hands over his head, inhaled deep through his nose, trying not to wretch at the awful memories that plagued him.

Maris shouldn’t be in this world. She shouldn’t be exposed to it at all, and this pack was hunting her land, hunting her. Why?

He’d watched them time and time again try to get around him to her. Why? What had she done to attract the attention of a man-eating pack of werewolves? What did they want with her?