by Kim Fox
Contents
Copyright
About
Full Hearts Romance
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Bonus Chapter
More Books by Kim Fox
More Books by Kim Fox
More Books by Kim Fox
More Books by Kim Fox
More Books by Kim Fox
More Books by Kim Fox
More Books by Kim Fox
Full Hearts Romance
The Clawed Squad:
Tyler
The Bear Shifters of Clawed Ranch Book Four
By KIM FOX
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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Contains explicit love scenes and adult language.
18+
www.AuthorKimFox.com
Copyright © 2016 by Kim Fox
Skin shifter, Tyler Jones, hasn’t been home in almost a decade. Why would he? His community of skin shifters excommunicated him, Jacob, the ruler who happens to be his older brother, is a psychopath, and the girl who he spent his whole youth loving broke his heart when she turned him away. So yeah, he’s just fine staying on Clawed Ranch.
Skin shifter, Isabelle Lexington, is desperate. Years ago, out of fear, she chose Jacob to be her husband over the true love of her life, Tyler. It was the biggest mistake of her life and now she’s paying the terrible consequences. If only she could turn back time, but she just may be able to; If she can only make Tyler see…
After taking one look at Isabelle, Tyler is doing something that he vowed never to do: return home. But things have changed since he left. His brother Jacob is more powerful than ever; a rare master skin shifter. Tyler is hopelessly outmatched but hopelessly in love. A dangerous combination that will launch both Isabelle and Tyler into the true face of evil.
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one
“Leave me alone,” Tyler warned. “Or I’ll channel your bear and make him volunteer in a circus. How would you like to wear a pink tutu for the rest of your life?”
Slate grinned. “You’re a mind reader now too? I would love that!”
“Then keep it up,” Tyler said with his muscles quivering. “I told you. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Tyler took a deep breath, trying to flush out the anger creeping into his tense body, and walked away.
But stubborn Slate was never one to give up so easily. “Come on, Tyler,” he called out as the skin shifter marched off towards the forest. “We don’t want to lose the ranch. Look at it from our point of view.”
“I would look at it from your point of view,” Tyler called back, “but I can’t stick my head that far up my ass.”
Of course Slate had a comeback for that but Tyler just ignored him and ran into the forest. The boys had been getting worse lately, now that the majority of them had mates. They kept pressuring him and Thorn to mate up and get married. Everyone loved the ranch, including Tyler, but it was asking a lot.
There was only one woman who he could see himself mating with and she was a lost cause.
He pushed forward, taking long breaths of the cool autumn air as he sprinted through the forest, leaping over roots and rocks, and ducking under branches. Tyler loved to run. It was his time to clear his head and think of nothing but the leaves changing colors to the gorgeous red, yellow, and orange hues that they were now.
The rest of the Clawed Squad phased into their bears and roamed around the forests but Tyler had no inner animal. He was a skin shifter, the rare breed of people who could slide into the skin of animals and guide them from within.
He had been running for over an hour when he came up to a river. It was a river he hadn’t seen before. I must be off of our property.
It sure was beautiful out here. He stopped for a moment to enjoy the spectacular autumn colors. There was no place like Montana in the fall. Cool, crisp, with every color present in the scenery. Pinks, purples, and blues lit up the sky as the sun rose overhead, the fierce reds, festive oranges, and serene yellows of the trees, and the bright browns and gorgeous greens of the bush. This place had it all.
Tyler knelt down to the river and dunked his hands into the cool fresh water. It was so clean and clear that he could see the old, fallen trees on the bottom perfectly. He cupped his hands and took a drink before splashing the rest of the water onto his face.
I love this place.
It was only missing one thing to make it perfect. Or one person to be exact.
Just enjoy the morning. Don’t think about her.
But Tyler had been thinking about her a lot lately. Three weddings in just as many months was bringing up all of these old forgotten feelings. Seeing his squad so happy was bittersweet. He loved to see his boys with their mates, but at the same time, it served as a reminder of what could have been.
Not could have been. She never wanted you. Remember that.
Tyler took a deep, calming breath as he pushed her image out of his mind where it had been lingering for days. He closed his eyes and focused on the sounds around him; the gentle water trickling over rocks in the river, the chattering of squirrels, the sweet songs of the birds overhead, and whimpering. It was subtle and faint, but it was there. An animal was in pain.
Tyler took off running in the direction. He was a fast runner and got there in less than a minute.
The sight waiting for him nearly broke his heart.
A lone wolf was trapped in an old-fashioned bear trap. The grisly iron trap with the long sharp spikes had slammed shut on the wolf’s hind leg. She was lying in agony, whimpering softly as she licked the blood trickling down from her nasty wound.
Tyler’s sympathy quickly turned to anger at seeing the helpless wolf lying there. She had probably been there all night, if not for days. Who the hell still uses those barbaric things?
It didn’t matter. Not right now. He had to help out the wolf.
“Easy,” Tyler whispered with his palms out as he stepped into the wolf’s view. She arched her back and growled fiercely, barring her mouthful of razor-sharp teeth at him.
“I’m just here to help,” he whispered as he stepped forward. The wolf snapped as she tried to ta
ke a step back, collapsing on her wounded hind leg that was still stuck in the trap. The poor girl was terrified and lashing out at anything that came close.
Tyler wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near her to remove the trap without getting bitten. Luckily, he was a skin shifter with a few tricks up his sleeve.
He took a deep breath as he pulled his energy up into a ball and then he just let it flow out of him. It was beautiful out here in the energy field, his soul detached from his body. The dull muted colors of the forest were punctuated by golden beams of pure energy; the squirrel in the tree, the tiny birds darting in and out of the branches, a family of sleeping raccoons in an old rotting trunk, and of course, the snarling wolf in front of him.
He glided forward sliding his energy pattern into the wolf’s as easily as a key sliding into a lock.
When he opened his eyes, the gorgeous colors of the forest were back, but he was looking at them from a different angle. He was in the wolf, what the skin shifters called channeling, or what his squad called controlling. He was looking at his own frozen body standing a few feet away with his eyes glowing a bright white, through the wolf’s eyes. He was always amazed how a wolf could smell even better than he could. The forest erupted in lively scents: the moist smell of decomposing leaves, the sweetness of the cedar trees, the iron smell of blood.
He could see, hear, taste, and smell through the wolf’s senses, but he could also feel. And what he was feeling now was excruciating pain.
Tyler let out a whimper as he flinched, and searing jolts of pain shot through the animal’s body like lightning. No wonder she had been in a bad mood. It was unbearable.
At least the wolf wasn’t feeling anything now. It was all Tyler. He gritted his teeth as he took rough, ragged breaths of air, staring at his human body through the wolf’s eyes.
The longer he stayed in the wolf’s body, syncing their energy patterns, the stronger the bond would be between them. If a skin shifter stayed in an animal’s body for too long they would link-up, which meant that their energies would sync together and the animal would become attached, following the skin shifter everywhere. Usually for the rest of their lives. It wasn’t uncommon for skin shifters to have an entourage of loyal animals following them around.
But Tyler wasn’t trying to link-up with the wolf, he was just trying to form a light bond so that he could get closer to remove the trap without getting attacked.
Alright, girl. Sorry, but I have to leave you now.
Tyler balled his energy up and slid back out of the wild animal’s body. The horrible whimpers and cries rang out as the wolf woke back up only to find herself still trapped and in pain once again.
Tyler slid back into his own body and stepped forward towards her. There were no more growls, no more snarls, and no more snaps of her jaw. The wolf just whimpered as she watched him with a lowered head and pleading eyes.
“It won’t take long, I promise.” He knelt down beside her and the wolf gave Tyler a quick lick on his forearm.
“This might hurt a bit,” Tyler whispered as he grabbed a hold of each side of the barbaric iron trap. “But it’s for the best.” He grunted with his neck straining as he pulled the trap apart, inch by inch. His muscular arms flexed as he pried it open.
The wolf burst free from the trap and tried to run away, taking only a few steps before collapsing in a fit of whimpers and cries. Tyler pulled the iron spike out of the ground that was holding the trap in place and hooked it to his belt. No one would be able to use that again.
“You’re going to come with me,” he said, walking over to her. The light gray fur on her wounded leg was matted with thick red blood.
“It’s okay,” he whispered as he scooped her up in his powerful arms. “I’ll fix you up, good as new.” He held her tight to his chest and ran back home, singing softly to her the entire time.
“What the hell?” Stetson said as Tyler arrived back at the ranch, still holding his new furry friend.
“Is that a wolf?” Layla asked, jumping out of her seat in shock and spilling her bowl of cereal all over her flannel pajamas. “Why is there a wolf here?”
Tyler just ignored them all, running straight to his cabin. Thorn didn’t ask any questions. He just followed him in.
“Bear trap?” Thorn asked, closing the door behind him as Tyler placed the wolf on his bed.
“Yeah,” Tyler said. “I felt it. It’s bad.”
Thorn took a step closer to see the wounded leg but the wolf growled and snapped at him. “The bone doesn’t look broken.”
“I don’t think it is,” Tyler said. “Can you stitch her up?”
Thorn rubbed his chin as he took a sharp intake of breath. “Not if she’s snapping at me like that.”
Tyler sat next to the wolf on the bed, petting her head as she whimpered. The poor girl had suffered enough. Tyler had felt the intensity of the pain and he was going to take the rest of it for her.
“I’ll channel her,” Tyler said. “Just go get the first aid kit.”
“You sure?” Thorn asked with his hand on the doorknob. “It’s going to hurt. A lot.”
Tyler nodded. “I can handle it.”
Thorn flashed him a look of admiration before bursting out the door. Tyler closed his eyes, not wanting the wolf to experience one more second of pain. It would take time and chances were they would link-up. The wolf was already lightly bonded to him and spending more time in her skin was likely to pair them forever.
“I hope the boys don’t mind having a wolf around,” he whispered as he drew his energy forth and slid it into the animal.
The pain was intense. Searing and burning like a smoldering flame was charring his leg from within. At least she wasn’t feeling it anymore. Tyler was taking it all for her.
The door swung open and Thorn burst in, glancing at Tyler’s frozen human body sitting on the bed with glowing white eyes. “This first part is going to hurt the worst, Tyler,” he said, pulling bottles and gauze pads out of the kit. He slipped on some plastic gloves as Tyler bit down, swallowing the whimpers that were creeping up the wolf’s throat.
“I have to clean it,” Thorn said, twisting the cap off of a brown bottle. “Now might be a good time to bite down on something.”
Tyler barely had time to react as Thorn splashed the liquid fire onto the wolf’s wound. FUCK! It felt like Thorn was holding a flame to her skin.
Shifters and skin shifters didn’t feel pain like humans and animals did. They were stronger, tougher, and less sensitive to pain. But Tyler could feel every cell blistering in a fiery blaze through the wolf’s senses. He was always shocked at how delicate humans and animals actually were.
The worst part was over but he wasn’t out of the woods yet. Thorn quickly and skillfully sewed up the wound while Tyler laid on the bed watching through the wolf’s eyes with quick pants of breath.
“All done,” Thorn said, pulling off the latex gloves with a snap and running his hands through his hair. “I guess we have a new wolf in the squad.”
Yup.
“You’ve been in there way too long,” Thorn said, exhaling hard. “You must have linked-up.”
Yup.
At least it was a lone wolf. She hadn’t been attached to a pack.
If she had been, Tyler would have linked-up to the whole pack. Any animal with a shared mind, in a pack, herd, or flock, shared energies and minds, and if a skin shifter linked-up with one, they would link-up with the whole pack.
Tyler slid out of the wolf’s skin and back into his own. The wolf whimpered as she inched forward and dropped her head onto Tyler’s leg, looking up at him with a sad gratitude in her eyes.
Thorn crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall as he watched them. The wolf wouldn’t be a threat to any of Tyler’s friends now. A part of Tyler’s energy pattern had imprinted on hers, which would calm her from now on.
“You have to give her a name,” Thorn said.
Tyler looked down into the wolf’s beautiful brown eyes
and sighed. There was only one name that seemed right. The prettiest name. The best name.
“Isabelle.”
two
Isabelle rushed across her room to the window. There were three large ravens on the windowsill, the telltale sign that Rhett had arrived.
“Anything?” she asked as she slid the heavy window open. The large black birds flew away, cawing a little too loudly. That flock of ravens followed Rhett wherever he went. He had linked-up with one of the birds by accident when he was a child and the whole flock had been following him ever since.
“I found him,” Rhett said as he climbed through the window into Isabelle’s room.
“Where is he?” Isabelle’s father asked, jumping up from his seat and hurrying across the room towards them.
“About an hour and a half from here,” Rhett whispered, closing the window behind him so that his birds wouldn’t follow him into the room. “He’s living with a bunch of bear shifters near a small town of Colwood, Montana.”
“Bear shifters?” Isabelle’s father, Quinton, said. “Are you sure?”
Isabelle smiled as heat flushed to her face. Tyler always had a soft spot for bear shifters, unlike his brother.
“I’m sure,” Rhett said with a nod. “I found his name on the deed of a ranch. Tyler Jones. It’s him.”
“Great job,” her father said, slapping his big hand onto Rhett’s shoulder. “I’ll go talk to him.”
Isabelle and Rhett shot each other a quick glance. Her husband’s cousin, Rhett, was a handsome man with jet black hair and a dark goatee that matched the color of his entourage of birds. He took in a sharp breath as his dark eyes lowered to the floor.
“I don’t think that’s wise,” Rhett said in a low voice.