The Clawed Squad: Stetson (The Bear Shifters of Clawed Ranch Book 1)

by Kim Fox

  All of a sudden Kylee didn’t care about jogging. All she cared about was shoving as much of these desserts into her mouth as she could.

  They were laughing as they tried each dessert and she was having such a great time that she hadn’t noticed who walked in. Andrew, the mayor, was sitting at the bar watching them as he sipped on a scotch. He had a look of disgust on his face when their eyes met.

  She sighed as she lowered her eyes to her lap, the smile gone from her face. Andrew always had that effect on her. When she looked up, Stetson was staring at him with a heated gaze.

  “Who is that?” he asked in a tight voice.

  “The mayor,” she whispered. She should have dropped it there but she wanted to tell him more. Maybe it was the beers that she drank over dinner or maybe she was starting to like Stetson but the words came flying out. “He doesn’t like shifters. He hates them.”

  Stetson’s green eyes narrowed on him, darkening as he glared. He lifted his nose and took a subtle sniff of the air. He shook his head and snorted a laugh. “He shouldn’t talk.”

  Kylee looked at him curiously, waiting for him to elaborate but he never did. He just excused himself and walked to the bathroom, staring Andrew down as he passed him.

  As soon as the bathroom door closed, Andrew was hurrying over. He slipped into Stetson’s chair and leaned over the table. “Did you get any dirt?”

  Kylee fidgeted with her napkin as she sat up straight and rigid. “These are nice guys,” she said. “We should leave them alone.”

  Andrew grabbed a fistful of his dark hair and squeezed his hand into a fist. “Shifters aren’t nice guys,” he said angrily. “They’re dangerous animals that should be eliminated. I need them gone if I hope to become Governor, which I will.”

  Kylee didn’t like Andrew calling Stetson a dangerous animal. It made her want to jump over the table and pistol whip his pretty boy face. “What do shifters have to do with you becoming Governor?” she asked with a hint of anger in her voice.

  Andrew sneered as he shook his head. “They know things that others can’t possibly know.” He crushed his hand into a fist as his neck tightened.

  Kylee glanced at the door of the bathroom, hoping that Stetson would come out. She felt much safer with the big guy sitting in front of her.

  “What are you talking about?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. “What can shifters possibly know that can stop you from becoming the Governor of Montana?”

  The door of the bathroom swung open and Kylee took a breath of relief as Stetson marched over, looking bigger than ever. His mouth was pinched closed and his face reddened when he saw who was sitting at their table with her.

  “You’re in my seat,” he said, his voice sounding like a growl. It was enough to make the hair on Kylee’s arms stand straight up.

  “I’m sorry,” Andrew said with an innocent look on his face. “Andrew Carter. Mayor of Colwood, Montana.” He stuck his hand out and Kylee grimaced as Stetson swallowed his hand in his. His thick forearm flexed and Kylee looked at Andrew expecting him to be wincing in pain. He wasn’t. He was staring back at Stetson with a perfect politician smile on his handsome face.

  “I’m Stetson.”

  “Yes,” Andrew said, sliding his hand out of the big guy’s grip. “Stetson Evans. Convicted and imprisoned for assault, am I right?”

  Stetson didn’t respond. He just glared down at him.

  “That poor guy you beat up was in a coma for three weeks,” Andrew said. He turned to Kylee and grinned. “Broken jaw, two broken ribs. Nasty stuff.”

  Kylee’s heart began pounding in her chest.

  “I hope you don’t plan on participating in any more street fights in our cozy little town, Mr. Evans.”

  A low growl rumbled from Stetson’s throat as he leaned down over the mayor. “I kind of feel like having a street fight right now,” he snarled.

  Andrew smiled, not looking intimidated at all. “I think we’d both know what would happen.”

  Stetson stood back up and crossed his arms over his chest.

  What the hell is going on?

  Andrew wished them both a good night and stood back up. He walked over to the bar, slammed the rest of his scotch, threw a crumpled up bill on the bar, and left.

  Stetson sat back down looking shaken. A coma? Broken bones? Maybe Stetson wasn’t as gentle of a giant as she initially thought. Maybe her father had been right about shifters.

  He looked at her with his brilliant green eyes and she shuddered. She was sure of something now.

  Those were the eyes from her vision.

  six

  It had been going so well. Stetson was having a great time and he could tell that Kylee was too by the way she kept smiling when he spoke and stealing looks at him whenever he turned his eyes away from her.

  Until that fucking hypocrite, Andrew showed up.

  Kylee had been tense ever since and he had no idea what to say to calm her back down and make her smile again. They drove back home in silence as Stetson told himself that it was better this way. He wasn’t mate material after all. But still, there was one thing that he wanted to explain.

  “Here you are,” she said, pulling into the Clawed Squad’s camp. It was dark out and the boys were all probably sleeping. He could hear a few of them snoring from inside of their cabins.

  “Look,” he said, running his palms down his thighs. “I want to explain about my jail sentence.” Kylee turned off the car and listened as he told her about his youth. Stetson had spent most of his teenage years living on the streets by himself. His parents were convinced that he was possessed by the devil when he first phased into a bear at the age of ten so they brought him to Detroit on vacation and abandoned him on the sidewalk with no money and no ID. He made his way in the world by getting paid for street fighting. He was a big teenager and tough as shit, slicing through every thug, brawler, and mafia enforcer that they threw in front of him. The day that he got arrested was the day that he was fighting Brick, the top enforcer for a gang of skinheads. Stetson teed off on him, laying him out easily. He could feel the white supremacist’s jaw crack into several pieces as he landed an uppercut that sent him flying off of his feet. It would have been just another street fight under an overpass in Detroit’s seedy inner city if the back of Brick’s head hadn’t landed on a cement block.

  Stetson had been arrested for assault and since he had no money for a lawyer and the one provided to him was a joke, he ended up with a jail sentence of seven years. One day, when another inmate tried to steal his lunch, he got angry and phased into his bear by mistake.

  That night they came for him. He didn’t know who they were but they shot him with a tranquilizer dart, five darts actually, and threw him in an armored truck. He never saw another day of jail in his life. What he saw was far worse. The men in the lab suits called it ‘experimentation’ but it felt more like torture. They did test after test, shocking him until he passed out, making him run on a treadmill for days without food, water or sleep. One time they had wanted to test how long he could run before he collapsed. The experimenter, a skinny guy with thick framed glasses, had started him on a Thursday afternoon. The researchers came and went all the while, Stetson was running. He would get a searing shock every time that he slowed down so he didn’t. He ran for days. He finally collapsed when that original experimenter with the big glasses came back into the lab Monday morning telling the other guy all about his wonderful weekend. He took his boat out with the kids and wife on Saturday before going to a barbecue at his parent’s house and then went golfing on the Sunday, all while Stetson was running. And running. And running.

  It was hard for him to say how long he was a guinea pig for the cattle prod happy psychos but he guessed about two years. Two years of pain. Two years without seeing the sunshine.

  Then one day a General of the US military collected him and made him fight for the country that did nothing but use and abuse him. General Samson was the man who took him when he was f
orming the Clawed Squad.

  The Vega brothers had gone toe to claw with General Samson weeks earlier, resulting in the oldest brother, Khan, snapping Samson’s neck while Stetson and the rest of the Clawed Squad burned down his secret government building, destroying General Samson’s Special Shifter Unit program for good.

  “Wow,” Kylee said, staring at the steering wheel with sad eyes. “I never realized how bad shifters have it.”

  Stetson placed his hand on the back of hers. “Don’t feel bad,” he said in a low voice. “We’re a tough breed.”

  “My father wasn’t the biggest shifter fan,” she said, unclipping her seatbelt and turning towards him. Stetson turned towards her, watching her lips as she spoke. He loved the soft sound of her voice and the way that her small, feminine jaw moved with every word. He could listen to her talk for hours.

  “A lot of people fear what they don’t understand,” Stetson said, nodding. A lot of people who hated shifters had no idea that Dave, their friendly car mechanic, or Debra, the lovely lady who worked at the florist shop, were actually shifters.

  Kylee tucked a strand of her auburn hair behind her cute little ear and Stetson’s bear grumbled at the beautiful sight. She pretended not to notice. “He was the Sheriff of Colwood before me,” she continued. “Twenty-three years of service. My grandmother, his mom, married a lion shifter after my grandfather died at an early age. My father’s stepfather was abusive and made my dad’s life a living hell. He hated his stepfather for what he was doing to his mother; beating her and crushing her spirit. When my dad turned eighteen he became a cop and arrested his stepfather, throwing him in jail until the day that he died. He got his revenge but he hated shifters ever since.”

  Stetson studied her beautiful face lit up by the blue lights of the dashboard. Her eyes were downcast as she looked at her fidgeting hands. She’s the most beautiful thing that I’ve ever seen.

  “That’s all I heard growing up,” she whispered, looking ashamed. “He constantly told me that shifters were evil. That they had to be rooted out and destroyed.” She shook her head. “And I believed him. Until now.”

  Stetson’s heart raced as she looked up at him with her enchanting eyes. There was a real connection between them. He had felt it since he first saw her in the bar that night but he didn’t think she had felt it too. But there was no mistaking that warm look in her eyes. She was feeling it as strong as he was.

  Kylee leaned forward, placing her hand in his. “You’re a great guy,” she said, rubbing little circles on his hand with her thumb. “And I had a great time with you tonight.”

  Stetson swallowed hard as his nerve endings tingled. He wanted her. Badly.

  It was all that he could focus on, all that he could think about. He leaned forward wanting to erase any distance between them. Her peachy perfume was making his breath quicken. The tantalizing proximity of her mouth was making his chest flutter.

  Without thinking Stetson leaned forward, shutting his eyes as he closed the distance between them. Their lips met in a wet and hungry kiss. He moaned as he tasted the lush sweetness of her mouth. Kylee squirmed closer, pressing her breasts against his chest as they kissed.

  Stetson was in heaven as he wrapped his tattooed arms around her thick body, getting a taste of her tempting curves as he explored her delicious mouth with his tongue. It had been a long time since he had been with a girl. Those two years being experimented on and then the years off in war zones, killing all of the many enemies of the US. They were lonely years and he hadn’t felt the touch of a woman throughout them. It was better than he remembered.

  Their lips parted and Kylee leaned back on her seat, staring at him with glazed over eyes as she licked her lips. “Mmmm,” she moaned. “That was the best dessert of them all.”

  Stetson smiled, but there was a sadness to it. Dates usually ended after the kiss but he didn’t want her to go. He wanted her by his side forever. “I have a nice bottle of red wine lying around somewhere,” he said, stroking her arm. “Want to crack it open with me?”

  Kylee smiled shyly. “I do, but just because I’m the Sheriff doesn’t mean I can drink and drive.”

  Stetson leaned in and kissed her softly on her lush swollen lips. “So don’t drive.”

  She was breathing heavily, looking conflicted as she debated it in her mind. She smiled as she finally looked up at him. “What kind of wine?”

  Stetson grinned. “Come,” he said, opening the door. “It’s a surprise.”

  He couldn’t believe his luck as Kylee got out of the car and walked with him into the dark camp. This amazing woman actually liked him. Don’t fuck it up.

  He ran into his cabin and got the wine, some glasses, and a blanket while she sat down beside the fire. He opened the bottle and poured two glasses as she looked up at the night sky, admiring the blanket of stars.

  “I can’t get over the stars out here,” Stetson said as he restarted the campfire, throwing sticks and kindling inside the circle of stones. “I’ve been all over the world and I’ve never seen a night sky like here in Montana. It’s incredible.”

  Kylee smiled as she took a sip of wine. “Big Sky Country,” she said. “Gotta love it.”

  Stetson started the fire and placed the blanket over her as she sat down in the big Adirondack chair. He sat in the chair beside her and moaned as he took a sip of the wine. It almost tasted as good as the beauty beside him.

  “Hold on,” Kylee said, pulling the blanket off of her as she stood up. She moved her chair and spread the blanket out on the ground. “Come,” she said, sitting down on the blanket and patting the spot beside her. “It’s not every day that I have a big burly bear shifter to warm me up.”

  Stetson chuckled as he got up and sat behind her, wrapping his muscular arms around her beautiful body. They stared at the fire as he breathed in the peachy smell of her shampoo.

  “This is nice,” she whispered.

  “This is perfect,” Stetson answered.

  They sat like that, close together and cuddled up on the blanket while they stared at the fire and talked. They were both enjoying the wine and enjoying each other’s company under the stars. It really was perfect.

  “I want another,” Kylee whispered, looking back at him over her shoulder.

  Stetson glanced down at her empty wine glass and reached for the bottle. She grabbed his wrist and stopped him. “Not another glass of wine,” she said, biting her bottom lip. “I want another kiss.”

  “You can have a million of them,” Stetson answered, his voice coming out deep and raspy. She turned in his arms and they kissed again, more passionate and fierce this time. He ran his big hands up her back and through the waves of her silky hair as she moaned into his mouth.

  Stetson leaned over her as she lowered her back onto the blanket, lying down under him. He slid his hand up her shirt cupping her voluptuous breast with his powerful hand as he devoured her mouth with deep passionate strokes of his tongue.

  “Oh, Stetson,” she moaned in a throaty voice when he finally pulled away. The blazing light of the scorching fire beside them was casting dancing shadows over her gorgeous face and wet lips. He couldn’t control himself.

  He surged forward claiming her mouth with a hungry possession once again. Kylee’s wide hips were grinding under him as their lips parted and he trailed open-mouthed kisses along the smooth skin of her neck.

  He slid his hands up her soft belly and over her bra as she grinned at him with a wicked grin on her wet lips. “This is turning out to be a good date,” she said with a smile.

  “The best,” Stetson grunted as he pressed his hard cock against her inner thigh. He was so hard that it was burning.

  “Ooh,” she moaned, jerking her body in surprise when she felt his hardness against her leg. “It looks like it’s about to get even better.”

  She leaned up and slid off her shirt, tossing it off the blanket onto the grass. Stetson groaned as he stared at her luscious breasts, spilling out of her lacy bra. He d
idn’t think that it was possible but he was getting even harder.

  She reached around her back, unfastened her bra, and let it slide down her arms. Stetson licked his lips as her heaving breasts spilled out, bouncing free.

  “Fuck,” he groaned under his breath as he surged forward ready to take her hard nipples into his mouth. She thrust her palm out, slamming it into his chest and stopping him.

  “Not yet,” she said with a smirk on her sexy lips. “Your shirt has to go first. Fair is fair.”

  Stetson took one last quick glance at her mouth-watering breasts illuminated by the smoldering flames of the fire and yanked off his shirt. Her hungry eyes widened as she dragged her warm fingertips down his hard abs, settling on his belt buckle.

  “Happy now?” he asked with a grin.

  “Very,” she said, lying down on the blanket. Her large fleshy breasts spilled to her sides and Stetson was on them at once, kissing her hard nipples and flicking them with his excited tongue.

  He worked his way down, his tongue leaving wet trails over her soft stomach as she writhed under him. He slowly undid the belt buckle of her jeans and lowered her zipper as his heart raced with anticipation.

  His inner bear grumbled, enjoying the sweet smell of her arousal. Kylee raised her hips off the blanket and he slid down her jeans with his eyes on her bare breasts the entire time.

  Stetson tossed them over his shoulder and went for her moist panties next. Her hand was back, holding him at a distance. “Uh, uh, uh,” she said, with that sexy grin back on her lips. “Fair is fair.”

  Stetson grinned as he took off his jeans faster than humanly possible. He didn’t want any more delays so he slid off his boxer briefs as well. His cock was rock hard, standing straight up with its impressive length.

  Kylee licked her lips as she stared at it. “Okay,” she said, lowering her hand. “You can proceed.”

  Stetson hooked his fingers into the sides of her panties and gently slid them down her round thighs, holding his breath as her glistening pussy came into view. It looked slick and succulent and beautiful and Stetson paused, taking a moment to enjoy the view as she spread her legs for him.