by T. S. Joyce
He was being gentle, and sensitive, this man who had probably not lived a gentle day in his life—he was doing it because he cared for her and wanted to meet her needs. And from the awed expression on his face, maybe he’d needed this too, without realizing it.
He leaned down and kissed her lips gently as he pushed into her again. He quickened their pace but kept it smooth, and now the pressure was building fast in her middle. Clawing the nails of her free hand up his flexing back, she bit his bottom lip gently. The soft growl that rumbled up his throat was nothing short of sexy, and his skin under her hand was now covered in goosebumps. He squeezed her hand where he held it above her head and dipped his tongue into her mouth in rhythm with his stroking inside her.
She was so close. Soooo close, and from the way he was speeding up, thrusting instead of easing, Nox seemed close, too.
Nevada wanted to…do something. Something more. Something that would make them even closer. Something that would bind them. It was an instinct, and in her throat a tiny snarl rattled. Hello, Fox. Where have you been all these years? Apparently Nox was the only one who could call her out.
Bite.
Nevada kissed down his jaw and then tested him by clamping her teeth gently at the base of his neck. Big, dominant, brawling grizzly let her have his throat. She was shocked. Foxes never gave their throats, but he trusted her.
Bite him.
What, Fox? Bite him? He will bleed. He will hurt.
For a moment, but he won’t mind.
So close, the pleasure was blinding.
“Do it,” he dared her in a deep, gravelly, inhuman voice. His eyes were silver now. Beautiful brawler. Beautiful loner. Beautiful match.
He bucked into her harder and faster, and she was gone. With the first pulse of ecstasy, she bit down as hard as she could, determined to make it fast for him, and then she released him. He groaned the sexiest sound and covered her lips with his as he slammed into her again. As the first deep throb of his release shot warmth into her, he gripped her hair in the back and locked his eyes on hers like she’d asked.
Her body was floating with the intensity of her orgasm, and his release only spurred hers on, making her body so sensitive. He felt so good filling her up, so good pressed against her, so good with his one hand in her hair, the other pinning her hand above her head.
Nox, Son of the Cursed Bear, the man who thought he was incapable of anything but fucking, had just made love to her.
And as their aftershocks slowly faded away, she leaned up and kissed him in a silent thank you. “Does it hurt?” she whispered, unable to ignore the red streaming down his neck.
The corner of his lips twisted up in a smile. “I think love is the best kind of pain.”
With anyone else, that would have been a strange sentiment. But with Nox, it made perfect sense. He didn’t love like other people, and he didn’t feel love like other people. He was different from the bones out, and that was more than okay with her. Because she was different from the bones out too, and they could love however they wanted.
“Thank you for the dandelions,” she whispered on a breath. “Now I’ll always think of you when I see them.”
The smile dipped from his face for a moment and was replaced by shock. “You’ll look for me in the dandelions?”
Nevada nodded. “I think you should look for me in them, too.”
His blond brows furrowed in question. “Say what you mean.”
Slowly, she ran her nails up his spine, raising gooseflesh where she touched him. “L-word. Don’t run.”
The beaming smile on his face was instant, and his eyes were so silver they were almost white. Beautiful beast. He leaned down and kissed her again. It was a steady kind of kiss, one where they just laid there pressed against each other, their mouths soft but unmoving. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye. She’d always thought a beautiful moment like this wasn’t made for a girl like her.
Nox eased back with a soft smack of his lips and rested his forehead against hers. “You’re terrifying…but I’m not running anymore. Fuck your den, Nevada. They can shun you, but you won’t be rogue and you won’t be unprotected. I’ll take care of you.”
There was honesty infused in every syllable he spoke. And utterly stunned by his oath, she cupped his cheek, his rough beard scratchy against her soft palm, and whispered, “Truth.”
“I’ll do everything in my power to keep you from having to register with the government.”
“Truth.” Another tear slid from the corner of her eye.
“My body will be between you and anyone who ever tries to hurt you.”
“Truth.”
“I’ll fuck this up.”
She laughed thickly. “Also truth.”
His voice dipped to a whisper. “But I’ll try for you.”
She sighed happily and slid her arms around his neck, hugged him tightly. She’d never had a connection with anyone like this. She’d never understood someone so easily. She’d never felt so free to be just as she was.
“Nevada?” he asked, hugging her tight.
“Yeah?”
“L-word.”
She smiled up at the ceiling, her eyes burning with happy tears because this was one of those moments a girl dreamed about.
One of those moments where everything changed.
One of those moments where she knew from here on someone would be at her back, and she wouldn’t be alone anymore.
L-word. He’d said it with such confidence.
She rubbed her face against his in a sign of complete devotion. And then she whispered, “Truth.”
Chapter Eleven
“What does Bone Ripper mean?” Nevada asked, tracing the logo on Nox’s black T-shirt.
He leaned forward and, pulling on his boot, he explained, “It’s the name of my company. Bone Ripper Bounty Hunters.”
“You own a company?” she said, sitting straight up on the couch.
He chuckled as he laced his boot. “Are you surprised?”
“A little. What does your company do?”
“I’m a bounty hunter. I did all the jobs for the first five years I was in business, but I got too overloaded and had to hire help.”
“You’re someone’s boss?”
“Kind of. I hate talking to the guys I hired. There are three of them who live around the country. I give them the jobs that are closest to them, and they’re paid on commission. All shifters. I’ve got two tigers and a boar. All loaners who work well in this kind of environment.”
“What kind of environment?”
“Hunting. Fighting. Not having to deal with people.”
Nevada drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. “So the people you bounty hunt…they’re shifters?”
“Most of them. Or sometimes I get really bad humans. The dangerous ones who ran, or escaped. I like a challenge, and so do the others on my team. If a job’s too easy, the hunt isn’t as fun, and we get bored.”
As he spoke, he kept his profile to her, lacing up his other boot. It wasn’t lost on her that he hadn’t met her eyes for even a moment while he was explaining, and a little alarm went off in her head.
It was best to ease into serious conversations with a man like Nox. “Do you like it in Damon’s Mountains?”
“It’s okay. It’s a place to stay. I live off in the woods, though. Alone. There’s no pros and cons to living there. It’s just a place to rest my head between jobs.”
“Huh.” Just ask him if he’s here bounty hunting one of your people. “Are you in Foxburg on a job?”
Nox’s lips flickered into an empty smile. “You don’t even want to know.”
Nevada tensed. Uh oh. “Nox, you can’t bring one of my people in. They’ll be found out, and foxes will be exposed. I’ll be exposed.”
“It’s not a fox hunt, Nevada.”
“Foxes are the only ones in Foxburg.”
“False statement, and trust me when I tell you, you don’t want to
know.”
“Is this a shut-down? Is this how it’ll be? I can’t ask about your jobs? Is it dangerous what you do?”
“Yes.”
“How dangerous?”
Nox growled and narrowed his eyes at the front door like he wanted to run. He didn’t, though. Instead, he turned to face her, pulled the backs of her knees until her legs were bent against his chest, cupped her face, and then uttered, “It’s very dangerous, but I’m good at my job and don’t take unnecessary risks. I was telling you the truth. You can hear it in my voice. I’m not here to hunt one of your people. I’m hunting something much scarier than anything your den could produce.”
“What are you hunting?” she whispered, her blood chilling.
Nox scratched his beard in an agitated gesture and muttered a curse. “The Red Dragon.”
Completely stunned, Nevada’s mouth plopped open. The Red Dragon? Here in Foxburg? Oh wait, this was Nox. This was a joke. She offered him a slow smile. “Ha, ha. Very funny.”
Nox pursed his lips and arched his eyebrows. He definitely wasn’t mirroring her smile.
“Wait, are you serious? The Red Dragon?” Panic filled her veins. “You think Vyr is here?”
“I know he is.”
“No, no, no! This is Foxburg, population like…zero. There’re foxes here, but no dragons. No scary, fire-breathing, people-eating dragons!”
“That invitation you got? That’s from Vyr.”
Nevada flinched like she’d been slapped. “The Red Dragon sent me an invitation to his lair?” she asked in a squeaky voice.
“Yep.” He popped the p at the end. “That’s why I told you not to go to that address.”
“Why does he want dinner with me?” Yep, her voice was an octave too high, and Nox winced at the pitch.
“Because, apparently, he’s a fucking magical mind-reading dragon, and he pulled your name out of my head when I tried to bring him in.”
“Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh! We should call human law enforcement. The army. SWAT. The coast guard, the navy, special forces, the army reserves, the president, and also aliens. If there are aliens out there, we need their help and their technologically-advanced weapons. I saw the video, Nox! Of Covington? He burned everything. He ate people!”
“Well…he ate asshole gorilla shifters and like…two lions.”
Nevada waved her hands around in the air. “Wait! Are you defending him? He’s evil.”
“Wooooould we call him evil?” he asked in a sing-songy voice. “I’ve seen evil, Nevada. Vyr has an out of control animal, but he’s not evil per se.”
“I can’t hear you sticking up for a man-eater because I’m too busy Googling video footage that you must not have seen of him tossing a gorilla into the air like a goldfish snack and catching it in his mouth and eating it,” she rushed out as she clicked on the video link. Why on God’s green and blue planet was this still available to watch?
She shoved the phone at Nox, but he only rolled his eyes. “I know what happened. I was there.”
“What?” she yelled.
With a sigh, Nox yanked the phone out of her hand, fast forwarded the video, and then shoved it back at her. “Look familiar?” He jammed a finger at a mass of gorillas and lions brawling with a green-eyed silverback and a…yep, that was a silver-eyed grizzly bear. Horror flooded her. “You were fighting?”
“Well, it was that or the Red Havoc crew was going to be murdered. We weren’t just fighting for the hell of it, Nevada. I know that’s how the humans spin it—that we were all just mindlessly at war? But that’s not actually what happened. The Dunn lions teamed up with not just one family group of gorilla shifters, but all of them. It was a massive pride and the gorillas against one small crew of mostly panther shifters. And some of my people were in there.”
“Who?”
“People from Damon’s Mountains who didn’t do anything wrong. That crew had cubs, Nevada. Torren’s sister was in that crew and she— Fuck! What was I supposed to do? Damon called on us all to go help Red Havoc. We were supposed to wait in the woods so the humans wouldn’t see the war, but Torren’s sister, Genevieve, was being torn to shreds by the lions, and Torren charged before Damon gave the signal. And I don’t give a fuck about anyone, Nevada! Before you? I cared for my parents and…fuck! I cared for my parents and for Torren because I’d always wanted to be his friend. He was going to die if he charged in there to save his sister alone. So I went with him. And yeah, Vyr lit up the town. But he helped save Red Havoc. Those cubs have their crew still because we made quick decisions.”
Nevada shook her head, completely shocked. “That’s not how the story is told at all,” she murmured.
“The humans control the press, which is why that video is still available for anyone to see. Because in that video, it shows Vyr as a monster man-eater, not that he’s saving a crew. Human law enforcement took all our statements after the battle, and they deemed it self-defense because there was so much proof that the Dunns and gorillas came in to wipe out Red Havoc. But the press still spins the story however they want to. Everyone kept out of shifter prison. Except Vyr, apparently. I’m supposed to bring him in. No humans were hurt, just the assholes who were killing Genevieve’s crew. But the Red Dragon will be made an example of.”
“And he’s hiding out here?”
Nox dipped his chin to his chest once.
“Geez. Why you? Why are you supposed to bring him in?”
“Because I’m good at my job, but I’m also expendable to Damon Daye.”
“Fuck that!” she cried, uncaring about her foul mouth. “You aren’t expendable to me!” She wanted to cry she was so angry. “Tell Damon no. Tell him you don’t want to do this.”
“I tried. Damon’s not a man you say no to. He’ll eat me with no regrets if I push him. He’s already pissed that we didn’t wait for the signal in Covington. I think he blames me and Torren for Vyr being in the position he’s in. If we wouldn’t have broken that line and charged the fight? Vyr would’ve stayed human behind the trees. There would be no video of him going bitey bitey chomp chomp on everyone. Vyr and Torren are friends though, and he wasn’t going to let anything happen to Torren, or to Genevieve. And by the way, just because I’m explaining his actions, doesn’t mean I still don’t fucking hate him. Dragons are all scaly fire dicks. Can’t be trusted. I won’t miss him when he’s in shifter prison.”
“Lie,” she called him out.
Nox made an angry tick sound behind his teeth and pushed up off the couch. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“Because you care about them.”
“I don’t care about anyone but you.”
“And your parents. And Torren. And Vyr.”
“Fuck Vyr,” Nox snarled as he strode for the door.
“You’re running, and you said you wouldn’t do that.”
Nox slapped the side of his head and rounded on her. He stood there like a bull getting ready to destroy a china shop, eyes the color of churning mercury. “You know how many times I tried to be friends with those assholes? Huh? It was always Torren and Vyr, and fuck everyone else. Fuck me!”
“Why them? Why did you choose them to be friends with?”
“Because they’re just as fucked up as me! I could’ve felt…”
“Could’ve felt what?”
“Normal! Okay? I could’ve felt normal if I could’ve just made one or two stupid friends. But I couldn’t. They had each other, and I’m just the asshole hermit shifter in Damon’s Mountains who can’t connect with anyone. Who can’t stop fighting other males. The crazy one. The cursed one. The one who screws everything up!”
“Because you speak a different language, remember?”
“Fuck languages. I never adapted.” Nox’s shoulders sagged, and he rested his back against the door. In a softer voice, he repeated, “I never adapted. And now I have to bring Vyr in, and Torren will hate me even more.” His eyes went vacant as he stared at something over her head. “Everything’s
fine.”
He was throwing his real feelings away. With those last two words and the forced, empty smile on his face as he opened the door, he was throwing away his feelings because he didn’t like to show what he perceived as weakness. Even with her.
As the door clicked closed, her heart broke for him. Her chest physically ached. He’d picked his friends as a child and had watched them from a distance because he couldn’t figure out a way to fit into their lives.
There was chronic tragedy in that.
Chapter Twelve
Nox was so angry.
So full of rage.
Fury.
Blood boiling like water on a stove.
Like lava was blazing through his veins.
Not at Nevada, never at her.
She should be able to say what she wanted, and she saw him.
Maybe she saw too much, he didn’t know. Letting anyone in was fucking terrifying, and now she was dredging up these feelings of not being enough in his youth, and it was Torren’s fault. No…it was Vyr’s fault for taking Torren under his ugly, tattered, blood-red wings and shielding him from ever making friends with anyone else. Nox had never stood a chance because of that stupid dragon. His fault. His fault. Fucking Vyr’s fault.
Nox slid in behind the wheel and slammed the door beside him so hard the truck rocked.
He needed a fight. Yeah, a fight would settle the beast in his middle. Already the grizzly was snarling in agreement. And the only ones who could match him were the two assholes sitting up in that mansion in the mountains.
Can’t think straight, can’t think.
Nevada had seen him weak. Weak, weak, weak and it was because of the dragon and the silverback. He needed an outlet so he didn’t burn up from the inside out. Dad had struggled with the same his whole life. Looking for outlets to tame the savage animal inside of him. Thanks for the cursed genetics, Dad.
He could feel her watching before he saw her. His mate. Mine. My Nevada. He slid her a glance from where he sat gripping the wheel in a stranglehold. She stood in the open doorway of her apartment, spine straight, long dark hair whipping in the wind, eyes blazing gold as the snow fell in front of her. She looked like a fucking warrior. “Everything is not okay,” she said. The window muffled her voice, but he didn’t miss the steel there. “Don’t do it.”