Steal Her Heart (Kaid Ranch Shifters #1)(42)

Bryson came and put his arm around her. Glue.

Hunter and Wes came to stand on her other side. Perhaps in a way, they were glue, too.

“That was my home,” she said in a shaking voice. “Everything I owned was in there.”

“We talked to the police already,” Wes murmured low. “We told them you were out of town, and they investigated the fire. Deemed it arson. Asked for you to contact them as soon as you can. There’s some wolf bones buried in there somewhere, but they fuckin deserved that and worse.” A snarl ripped through his torso.

“Insurance will cover the rebuild, Maris,” Bryson said, hugging her tighter against his side. “I know it don’t feel like it right now, but everything will be okay.”

“You ain’t alone, no more,” Hunter said. He squeezed the back of her neck and limped off.

Wes mussed the top of her hair and followed his brother.

“You won’t handle any of this without help,” Bryson told her. And she knew it to be true. He was a fixer for the people he cared about. This man would be there every step of the way as she built her new life, but it was overwhelming in this moment.

She’d already lost everything and had to figure out how to stand up again. And now she had to learn how to be this new…new…creature, rebuild her house, and cope with everything she’d lost. Pictures, boxes of memories, and trinkets from her old life.

Bryson kissed the side of her head and made his way to the stacks of charred lumber. He picked his way carefully through the porch mess.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Lookin’ for something.” He lifted charred debris out of the way and tossed the ruins to the side. He hesitated, then leaned down and pulled out something familiar—the old horseshoe he’d nailed above her door.

“Oh, my gosh,” she said, stepping forward. It was warm to the touch as he settled it onto the palm of her hands.

“What do you want me to do with it?” he asked. “I can chuck it in the woods somewhere. Get rid of it. This thing didn’t bring us too much luck.”

But she had a moment as she stared down at that old burned, rusted, misshapen piece of metal.

“But didn’t it?” she asked, looking up at him. The sunlight hit one side of his face just right, illuminating that side and brightening the gold in his eye, while the other side stayed in shadow. Handsome man. Handsome mate.

“You got Turned that night, and your home was burned.”

Nodding, she looked across the sad landscape of her destroyed house. But then she looked at the herd, and they seemed fine. Marshmallow Face was chewing her cud and staring at Maris like, “Where’s my food, peasant?” As usual.

She turned and looked back at Wes and Hunter, who were sitting next to each other in the grass, watching her and Bryson with somber looks. They were here. “Wes and Hunter survived an attack from an entire Pack,” she pointed out.

Bryson’s lip twitched up at the corner. “Mmm hmm.”

“Cows are good.”

“Yep. I did a head count. No losses that night.”

“Wolf problem is solved on account of you and the boys killing them all.”

“Uh huh.”

“The house burned, though,” she uttered. “That’s bad.”

“Very bad.”

“But insurance will cover it.”

“Sure will.” His smile was growing juuuuust a little with every agreeance, and there it was. That pride in his eyes. “Go on then, count the good stuff.”

She traced the outside of the horseshoe. “I got superpowers now.”

Wes snorted from behind her. “Your wolf ain’t a superpower. She’s a heathen.”

“My wolf annoys Wes,” she said to Bryson without missing a beat.

“That’s actually one of my favorite bright sides,” Hunter called out.

“You lived,” Bryson rumbled, squaring up to her. “The best part was you lived.”

Okay, first time tearing up as a werewolf. Yeah, shit was bad, but it wasn’t like before, where her heart was broken and she was alone. Now she had the boys, and even more importantly…she had Bryson.

“I’m not gonna let you fall,” he whispered.

She was different now. Her life would be very different, but she still had the ranch. She still had the herd. She had a man who she trusted with her heart, and that was no small thing. And their story was just beginning. So she was going to have to rebuild parts of her life and maybe when she did, it wouldn’t look the same as it had before.

But who cared if it looked different? She was different. She’d have to break into this new woman to fit into the world she’d been fated for. And that’s what this was, right? Fate? Meeting Bryson, the Kaids, and forming that bond with people who were worth a damn.

She was right in the middle of a complete rebuild, not only of her home, but of herself. And because of Bryson, she was confident enough that rebuilding didn’t scare her. The work didn’t scare her. It excited her instead.

The pain would be worth the triumph.

Maris had lost herself a year ago, but that was okay.

Sometimes a person had to get lost to really find themselves.

And now she was ready to find herself completely, with this crazy circle of rough-and-tumble shifter cowboys in the shittiest pack that existed.