by Susan Bliler
Now, standing out in the snow, face lifted to the sky, Maia enjoyed the silence. With her eyes closed, it almost felt like being back home at The Den. Bears were quiet, too, probably less so than Carter and his small pride, but quiet all the same.
The sound of crunching snow shattered her moment. Head jerking down, eyes flying open, her gaze locked on Carter. He was about ten feet from her, a small brown sack held in his fisted hand. For the space of a minute, they just stared at each other. With his ever-present scowl missing, it gave Maia the opportunity to admire the Concolor Apex. Carter Concolor was deflatingly handsome. Unlike Deacon and Zander, who’d worn black Stetsons on their heads as they passed by the barn this morning, Carter wore a black ball cap with a mesh back. The word Ariat in bright red was emblazoned across the front. His piercing, sky-blue eyes were narrowed on her, and just beneath the scruff on his jaw, Maia swore she saw his cheek twitch. Full lips pressed into a grim line, his shoulders rose and fell with the steady breaths he took. Upper body encased in a thick wool coat, the material did little to hide the powerful shoulders that pressed against the material. Rall had the build of a college athlete, Zander and Deacon were more stacked, but Carter . . . Carter was a beast. He was cut from fucking granite. Powerful legs splayed wide, thick thighs bunching beneath the denim covering them, Maia swallowed hard and blinked, dragging herself from her appreciation of the specimen before her.
“Here.”
Carter closed the distance between them, and Maia wondered if he ever even noticed the power he carried so effortlessly.
“Here,” he repeated. It was then that Maia realized he was holding the bag out to her. “Lunch,” he clipped out as she took the bag. “Eat it all. It’ll be a bit before dinner.”
When he turned to walk away, she wanted to throw some taunt at his back for the “eat it all” command. But just as she opened her mouth, her stomach growled. Clamping a hand over her belly, she frowned when Carter shot her a smirk over his shoulder as he walked away.
***
No more fucking tending to her! Carter raged at his inner lion. Stupid animal wouldn’t let him get a goddamn second’s worth of work done until he made sure Maia got lunch. It pissed him off, and just to be a jerk to his lion, he’d made Maia a cheese and ketchup sandwich. Granted, he’d felt guilty and ate that stupid cheese and ketchup sandwich before making Maia a massive roast beef hoagie with provolone and grilled bell peppers, but still, the cheese and ketchup had happened and with bad intentions.
Inside, Carter’s lion lifted his brows and chuffed a “yeah, you’re a real asshole” snort.
Finally, satisfied that Maia was being properly fed, Carter’s lion slunk back, giving the man full reign.
Heaving an explosive sigh, Carter ripped off his hat and scratched a hand through his hair. Staring around his ranch, he was looking for something to take his mind off the way Maia had looked when he’d come out of the house. He’d been internally arguing with his lion, threatening to spit in Maia’s sandwich if the dumb beast didn’t shut up when they’d slammed to a halt.
Maia had been standing out in the snow. Head tilted back, cheeks flushed, a grin ghosting her lips, she looked like a goddamn angel. So much so that both Carter and his lion fell silent and simply watched. It’d been a long time since something beautiful had snared their attention. When it did it was usually the landscape, or the sky, or a wild animal they encountered. But seeing Maia the way they had . . . Well, it had some strange achy feeling squeezing inside Carter’s chest. Too enraptured by Maia’s beauty, his lion didn’t notice the pressure in their chest, but Carter did, and he didn’t like it. What was Maia doing? She’d only been here one damn day and already she was changing everything and everyone. Hell, even the ranch felt different with her on it.
A crystalline snowflake flitted down from the heavens and landed on Maia’s eyelashes, and it had Carter taking a step closer. It was that step that broke the spell. Maia had snapped right out of her statuesque pose. Her head snapped down, eyes shooting open as she turned and looked at him, and Carter had been busted staring.
Now, as Carter tromped away from the barn, he was raging at his lion for making him do stupid shit. His lion didn’t even blink at Carter’s fury, though, because he didn’t think taking care of Maia was stupid. Nope, he didn’t think it was stupid in the least.
Chapter 6
Maia had just finished drawing up plans on where she wanted the dogs moved, when Rall hustled into the barn. Wide grin on his face, eyes wide with excitement, he beamed. “I’m all done!”
“Yay!” Maia cheered, holding up her paper. “Just finished the layout.” Turning, she pointed at the farthest stalls. “We need to put Chance, Ally, and Siksika into quarantine, they’re the worst. Then I figured we’d put Dread and Ruger down in those two stalls since they’re the healthiest, and then . . .”
“That won’t work.”
Maia turned, shocked to find Carter, Zander, and Deacon standing just inside the doors. It was Carter who spoke. “Ruger is the backup lead dog, which means putting him next to the main lead dog isn’t a good idea. They’ll fight.”
Maia felt her face flush. Something about being around Carter put her off balance. It was frustrating. “Okay,” she huffed, trying to seem unfazed at the Apex’s presence as she tried to reorganize in her head. “Well, how about I tell you how each dog is doing and then you can help me figure out where to put ’em.”
Carter nodded and stepped deeper into the barn, followed by Zander and Deacon. “Sounds like a plan.”
It was odd getting the go-ahead from Carter. He’d balked at her presence since the moment she’d set foot in his territory. She figured he was opting to suck back his pride for the sake of his dogs. Good.
Tearing her eyes from him, she looked down at the paper in her hand, and to hide the fact that her hands were shaking, she folded the paper in half and squeezed it hard.
Clearing her throat, Maia peeked up at the dogs. “Like I said, Chance, Ally, and Siksika….”
“They can go over in the empty spaces next to the feed stall,” Carter finished for her.
Glancing at him, she shot him a lopsided grin. “That’s what I was thinking. They’d be further from anyone else and it’s . . .”
At the exact time both she and Carter said, “warmer over there.”
Blushing again, she nodded quietly and dipped her eyes back to her paper, pretending to study it so she’d stop getting lost in Carter’s gaze.
“You heard the woman,” Carter barked. “Get ’em moved.”
Deacon, Rall, and Zander set to work while Carter paced closer to Maia.
“What else you got on there?” he asked.
With him towering over her, Maia kept her attention on the paper, trying to fight the distraction of his nearness.
“So, Dread and Ruger are the healthiest.” She pointed at their names on the paper. “I’d like to separate them from the others too.”
“Okay,” Carter agreed. “We just can’t keep ’em together, and Dread is gonna lose it if Alpine isn’t close to him. How’s she?”
Maia tucked her nose closer to the paper. “Alpine . . . Uhhh . . .”
She was seeking out Alpine’s name when the paper was snatched from her hands. Head jerking up, her eyes collided with Carter’s.
His typically stern expression was surprisingly soft as he lifted a hand and pointed at a dog. “Alpine. How is she?”
Maia followed his finger and smiled at the all-black malamute with pretty blue eyes. Oh! Alpine. With so many dogs, it was hard to keep them straight on paper, but Maia was good at knowing an animal by its face.
“She’s not displaying any symptoms, but that doesn’t mean anything. In fact, all the dogs that aren’t showing any signs of illness aren’t in the clear. I’ve run fecal samples, but a single fecal sample isn’t a good indicator. It’s got only a seventy percent chance of detecting infection, so”—she turned her head to yell at the other guys—“if you could sack up feca
l samples from all the dogs as you move them and label ’em, it’d really help.” She gave her attention back to Carter. “I’ll need to perform as many fecal tests as I can in the next five days to get up to a greater than ninety percent detection.”
“Five days?”
Instantly, her hackles were up. Head jerking up, she frowned at Carter and spoke low. “I know you don’t like me being here, Carter, but this is about the animals.” Angling her face away from his, she stared at the line of stalls. “Can we just call a truce for five stinking days? I’ll be gone as soon as I know they’re good.”
***
Carter studied the side of Maia’s face as she frowned at the dogs. She’d taken his question the wrong way. Yeah, he wanted her gone as soon as possible, but he’d mostly been shocked that it would take so long to determine if the dogs were ill. He didn’t want to admit that, though, so he turned his body to face the dogs. “Why do you wanna quarantine Dread and Ruger? You said they were the healthiest, but you also said that the dogs that aren’t displaying symptoms weren’t in the clear. So which is it?”
By the way Maia’s shoulders tensed, he knew he’d messed up again. She thought he was questioning her abilities, but he wasn’t. He was just curious.
Maia sucked in her lips like she was trying to keep from saying something; then she took a deep breath and looked at Dread. “I meant what I said about the seemingly healthy dogs maybe not being good. But . . .”
She stalled, and Carter could tell she was debating her next words.
“But what?” he prodded.
“I know it’s dumb, but I just have a feeling about Dread and Ruger.”
Carter’s brows speared down. “A feeling?”
“Look!” Maia spun on him, head tilting far back so she could glare up at him. “I’ve been doing this a long time.” Throwing a hand toward the dogs, she clarified, “Working with animals. I’ve been at it as long as I can remember. Even as a kid. And my instincts are pretty good.”
Carter looked from her to Ruger then Dread. “They’re my two most important runners, Maia.”
“I get that. I know all of these dogs are important, and not just to you.” She walked slowly to one of the stalls and dropped to her knees to pet the dog who walked out to meet her and then dropped her furry head onto Maia’s lap. “They help me and my clan too, Carter.” She scratched the dog behind the ears and mumbled quietly, “I wouldn’t risk them.”
But he didn’t like her risking his two lead dogs on a gut instinct.
“Maia,” he took a step toward her, but she shot to her feet and spun on him.
“I know it’s nearly impossible for you to do, but I need you to trust me to do my job, Carter! I would never hurt an animal, and certainly not for the sake of something so stupid as pride. I don’t expect you to get it.” She shook her head and walked away from him. “I just . . . I’m telling you that I know.”
She walked toward Dread and Carter tensed. Even Rall, Deacon, and Zander stopped working, eyes tracking Maia.
“Hey!” Zander called out, lifting a hand, palm side out as if to stay her. “Don’t get too close to him. He’s mean as shit!”
Maia looked at Zander and rolled her eyes. Without hesitation, she walked closer to Dread who shot to his feet, lip peeled back as he unleashed a low, menacing growl.
“He’s not mean,” Maia griped as she walked closer.
Carter was moving now too.
“He’s posturing,” Maia explained, and just as she stepped within range of Dread, Carter was there, hauling her up off her feet and spinning her away from the dog just as Dread lunged.
“Goddamn it!” Carter snapped, carrying Maia quickly away from Dread. “You don’t fucking listen,” he snarled. Setting Maia on her feet, Carter gripped her shoulders and forced her to face him. His hands shook with the barely restrained urge to shake the shit out of her. “What did I tell you?” he fumed. “What did I say about getting yourself killed on my land?” Bending, he went nose-to-nose with Maia, who glared mutinously up at him. “You think that’ll help relations between the Concolors and the Majors? You wanna be the start of a war?” When she didn’t answer, he boomed, “Do you?”
Maia glared up at him for the space of a blink before she kicked him hard in the shin. Eyes bugging, he jerked to the side at the sudden pain that exploded in his leg. It was the opening Maia needed.
Lunging around him, she raced toward Dread, and before Carter could grab her, she was on her knees in front of the snarling lead dog. Zander, Rall, and Deacon all rushed forward too, but Carter threw up a hand to stop them as Dread took the last step between himself and Maia.
Silence filled the barn for just a breath, and Carter called his lion to him, fully prepared to unleash his beast to protect Maia. He didn’t want to. He loved Dread, but if it came down to keeping Dread and going to war or saving Maia and keeping his peace with the bears, there was no choice. It was already made. For the sake of his brothers, he’d have to keep war from ensuing because while he and his brothers were a force to be reckoned with, they were a small force. The four of them wouldn’t survive a war with the ten grizzly shifters of the Major clan.
Swallowing hard, Carter slowly turned, his lion shifting from paw to paw just beneath his skin, ready to leap free.
“See,” Maia breathed, on her knees in front of a growling, narrow-eyed Dread.
She lifted a hand, and before Carter could let his lion free, something shocking happened. Just as a lion exploded from Rall, Dread’s face blanked and he leaned his head into Maia’s hand. In an instant, Deacon and Zander tackled Rall’s lion. Their youngest brother had the hardest time controlling his lion. Carter chalked it up to inexperience, but he couldn’t care about that right now. Right now, he stood in dazed shock as he watched Dread rub his head on Maia’s upraised hands. Dread didn’t even allow Rall or Zander to pet him. No, that honor was reserved for Carter and Deacon alone . . . and apparently for Maia now too.
“Holy shit!”
Carter’s gaze slid to where Rall had shifted back to his human form and lay under the heap of his other two brothers. All three were staring at Maia in awe.
“He acts how you expect him to,” Maia explained, running a hand down Dread’s flank. “You all want him to be a beast, so he is. But that isn’t who he really is.” She leaned forward and giggled when Dread ran a long tongue up her cheek. “He’s a baby.”
Baby? Baby! Had Maia just called Carter’s demon of a lead dog a baby?
The other dogs started whining and bouncing like they wanted affection from Maia too, and it had Carter turning stunned eyes to his brothers, who looked at him.
Zander mouthed a silent, “What the fuck?”
Mouth agape, Carter could only shake his head, his attention going back to Maia when she looked over her shoulder at him.
“I know animals, Carter. You need to trust me.”
Chapter 7
It only took an hour to get all the dogs moved. The guys brought Maia the labeled stool samples, and she studied them at her workstation while Zander and Rall mucked out the stalls. Carter and Deacon laid down fresh hay for the dog beds; then they all took turns filling up individual water bowls after Maia informed them of the importance of the dogs not sharing water. The work went by quickly, and Maia was impressed at how slickly they all worked together, like a well-oiled machine. She was the last to wash up in the restroom, and when she came out, everyone was gone except for Carter. He was pacing in front of the dogs, his eyes intent as he studied each animal.
“Am I gonna lose any of them?”
“No,” Maia breathed, then, thinking better of it, she tagged on, “not if I have anything to say about it.” Slowly walking up to Carter’s side, she crossed her arms over her chest and eyed her coat where she’d left it on the tailgate of her truck when she’d gone to wash up. Even with the heat on, the temperature in the barn was cool if you weren’t working to stay warm. “I’ll do my best to get them all healthy, Carter. And I can’t m
ake any promises, because, well, anything can happen, but right now, things are looking good for all the dogs.” She turned to eye the quarantined stalls. “Even Chance, Ally, and Siksika seem to be doing better already. You’ve got a strong team here, Carter. They’re fighters, and I’m gonna fight right alongside ’em.”
“They are,” he admitted. Then without another word, he turned and walked away.
Keeping her eyes on the dogs, Maia fought to keep from watching Carter as he left. Sucking back the tears that suddenly stung the backs of her eyes, she couldn’t help the bite of hurt that tore through her. After working with the guys, she felt like she was becoming a little more welcome, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Chin jutting forward, she swallowed the emotion clogging her throat and waited for Carter to exit the barn. Once he was gone, she’d snag a saddle blanket from the tack shed and make a bed in the back seat of her truck.
“Hey!”
Head slowly turning, she stared at where Carter stood beside her tailgate, holding out her coat.
“You coming?”
All the air left her in a whoosh, but she tried to mask it by clearing her throat loudly and shooting Carter an appreciative smile. “Yeah.” She hurried toward him, and when she reached for her coat, he simply continued to hold it up.
“Slide your arms in.”
Confusion at his sudden kindness crinkled her brow, but she quickly shoved her arms into her sleeves. When she turned to face Carter, he gripped her zipper and slid it up to just beneath her chin.