Steal Her Heart (Kaid Ranch Shifters #1)(19)

And this was the moment Bryson realized Hunter wasn’t a dumb man at all. He was very intelligent about the heart stuff. Intelligent about his brother. Intelligent about his place in the world.

“Why didn’t I know any of this?” Bryson asked. “I’ve been here three years, and I’m just finding this out? Why haven’t we talked about anything real?”

Hunter shook his head. “Because if we talked about the real stuff, we would’ve gotten to know you. And then you’d be Bryson. Not Sam. What kinda hole you gonna fill as Bryson, Bryson?” He arched his eyebrows and walked away, following Wes, and leaving Bryson to stare after him in shock.

In a few sentences of admission, Hunter had filled in a lot of blanks about Wes. Now that old, pissed-off wolf wasn’t just a shell. Hunter had humanized him.

Fuckin’ Hunter.

Bryson growled and rubbed his throbbing knuckles. Boy could take a punch. Bryson Probably broke his hand on that wolf’s jaw, and Wes only laughed after.

What was happening? He wasn’t supposed to care about any of this. But now there was Maris teaching him he had a heart after all, Wes didn’t seem like such a piece of shit now, and Hunter had just surprised the hell out of him. And all around them was a war he didn’t understand.

His protective instincts were stretching like a shield. It wasn’t just over one herd now. Or two. It was turning into an umbrella over people, and that growth hurt.

He didn’t want it. He’d never wanted it. All he needed to do was keep his animal steady. To give him a job and go from one meaningless day to the next until he settled into a grave, because he’d known about the beating of hearts before. He’d felt before, and it had destroyed the man he was.

Feeling was terrifying.

And suddenly, he wanted to tell someone. He wanted to unload. He wanted to voice his fears so he could go back to being the quiet, invisible man he’d worked so hard to be.

He wanted to tell Maris so she could look at him like he was damaged to remind him of why it was important not to feel.

So he could watch her run to be reminded why he didn’t open up to people.

So he could sew up the cut she’d made in his heart and stop the bleeding, so he could go back to numbness.

Maris had that power. She could give him himself back.

All she had to do was what everyone else had always done.

All she had to do was look at him like the monster he was.





Chapter Nine


It was time.

Maris pushed open the door to the bedroom she’d avoided this past year. It was the bedroom of memories, the one she’d shared with Dallas. The place where she’d shoved all their shit when he left for Sadey’s place.

They’d been together five years total, married only one. Half a decade is a long time to collect memories. Boxes were stacked with his old clothes, bowling trophies, and scrapbooks.

She frowned at the plastic bin that had Wedding Stuff scribbled across the top in permanent marker.

She took a swig of her beer, but coughed on it when the front door creaked open and Bryson hollered out, “I have something to say!”

Nearly choking to death, she hacked and sputtered and then she did her signature tit-grab when the man barged in, looking like a tall and sturdy glass of lemonade on a hot southern day.

Barely recovered from death-by-beer, she asked, “Bryson Locke, why is your shirt open?”

He looked down at his stomach like he hadn’t realized his head was attached to a body. “I don’t know.”

He was tall as hell, but he wasn’t a skinny man. He was packed chock full of muscle, and the tattoos she’d seen on his neck extended down to cover his chest. His very thick, perfectly defined, muscular chest. He manscaped. Holy shit, he was a manscaper. “Look…I know you probably get girls, lots of—”

“What?”

“Lots of girls. You get them.”

“Why would I want lots of them? That sounds awful.”

Okay, perfect man, that’s enough, I’m trying to insult you. “But you can’t go around half naked all the time. You’re making me…”

Bryson arched one dark eyebrow and a smile ghosted the corner of his lips. “Making you what?”

“Frazzled.”

“Say horny.”

Her cheeks were on fire. That’s the only thing that could explain the severe heat that crept down her neck. “I’m having a moment, and you’re ruining it.”

That wicked smile drifted from his face, and he looked around the room stacked with boxes of Dallas’s things. “What’s happening? Why are you drinking beer this early in the morning? Are you okay?”

“I’m trying to be.”

“I came in here to have a moment, too, but I think we should have your moment first.”

“We? There is no ‘we.’ I have big plans to get a six pack in and deal with my emotional constipation.”

“Over men?”

She nodded once. “Over one man.”

“Dallas Fuckface Whateverhislastnameis?”

She pursed her lips. “That would be the one.”

He rested his hands on his hips and looked around the room, nodding slowly.

“Aaaare you okay?” she asked.

“The wolves went right next door and killed eighteen of the Kaid’s cattle and I wasn’t there to protect them and they fired me and I just realized the two men I’ve been working with for the last three years aren’t the shitheads I thought they were and they only hired me because I look like their brother. Who died. And I was married before, too. Only she didn’t leave me like your dipshit ex did. She died because of me. She died because...fuck. She died because of an accident, but I’ll never forgive myself for not being able to save her.” He swallowed hard and looked away from her. “I can’t even look a person in the face when I say that. Never said it out loud before.”