I woke up Katie twice that night—once with my mouth latched on to her pussy and once with my fingers buried inside her. Both times ended with me balls deep and her coming on my cock, so if she minded me pulling her from sleep, she didn’t show it. In fact, if the happy sighs and the way she clung to me were any indication, she didn’t mind a bit.

The third time I woke up wasn’t so pleasurable.

I couldn’t have said what pulled me from sleep just before dawn. A noise, a feeling, a sense of something off. A disturbance of some sort, for sure, just nothing distinct. And nothing big enough to wake my princess. Katie slept peacefully, her head on my chest and her one leg hitched up over my hip. As I lay in the dark, feeling her weight on me, I had a quick thought of going for round three—of seeing if I could actually have my cock inside her before she woke up—but something about the way I’d woken up felt off.

My cock would not override my instincts, which were screaming at me to get up. To investigate. To protect.

Instead of rolling my girl underneath me, I carefully slid from her hold and crept out of bed. I pulled on my jeans as quietly as possible, grabbed my gun from the nightstand, then headed for the living room. Rex stood just outside the bedroom door, his ears up, his back straight, and a low growl rumbling in his throat. Looked like I wasn’t the only one who thought something felt off.

The two of us moved through the dark house, sticking to the deepest shadows until we made it to the front door. Everything seemed right—house secure and quiet. Looking outside, everything again seemed fine. There was nothing but darkness blanketing the hillside, the sky to the east just barely lightening with the coming dawn. But as I’d learned early on in my career with the SEALs, everything could seem fine and go straight to shit in about two-point-five seconds. I needed to go out there.

I hated leaving Katie alone, but I couldn’t ignore this, couldn’t pretend Rex wasn’t hearing something out there as well. But instead of rushing outside, I waited, letting my eyes adjust to the low light. Giving myself time to get my bearings before cracking open the front door. Rex came with me, sticking right to my side, silent just like me. On guard and prepared for just about anything.

Once across the porch, I tucked myself into a corner and waited, listening, watching the tree line as the sky began to glow. Sticking to the shadows again to hide myself away. Off to the west, a crashing sound came from the woods. Too loud to be a human unless it was a really stupid human. I couldn’t count that possibility out, but I had a feeling it was something other than a dumbass human. More than likely, a bear had gotten a little too close to my house—that was probably what Rex sensed and I heard. Probably.

I hated not knowing for sure.

About ten minutes after the sky turned a deep golden red color, after the sun finally peeked over the treetops, a pulsing sort of growl broke the stillness of the morning. A bear threatening something out in the woods. Perhaps another bear had moved too close to a food source, or a mother was warning off something she saw as a danger to her cub. They’d be fattening themselves up this time of year, readying themselves to spend the winter in their dens hibernating. Hearing them thrashing through the woods in search of food or fighting off other animals wasn’t unusual or something to worry about.

Didn’t stop me from worrying, though.

But after another ten minutes without hearing or seeing anything to make me think the bears weren’t the most dangerous things in these woods, I figured it was okay to relax. A little.

“Stand down,” I whispered, waiting for Rex to follow my order before stepping out of the corner. I kept my gun up, kept it aimed into the woods. Just in case. And yet, nothing. No sign of anything wrong, no sense of anyone watching me. So I signaled to Rex to follow me back inside. Just a bear. Definitely a bear.

But as I stood in the bedroom looking over a sleeping Katie, I couldn’t rid myself of the feeling that something was wrong. It was likely the noise of the bear outside that had woken me or the sound of Rex growling. Nothing more. And yet…

Yeah, there was no fucking way I was falling asleep again, no matter how inviting Katie’s warm body tangled up in my sheets was.

I headed out to the living room again, thinking about coffee and noises and how many guns I had in the house. Not enough, that was for sure. I’d brought my jump bag and some extra ammunition with me, even a few small grenades to make a statement if I needed to. It didn’t feel like I was ready, though. Something I wasn’t used to feeling. I didn’t normally worry about being unprepared, but I’d never had someone as special to protect. I’d never had something as important as Katie to lose.

Every bit of my unease came from having her with me. Not her, really, but the knowledge that I needed to keep her safe. That her life was in my hands. That I still needed to get information from her, but that I’d waited too damn long and now would need to deal with the fact that I’d likely piss her off when I told her about her uncle. Katie didn’t trust me completely—her nervousness around me had made that clear. I’d been careful with her, not pushing, but holding back would likely come around to bite me in the ass. Me not telling her what I knew about her uncle would likely be seen as a breach of that fragile trust between us.

Fuck, I couldn’t even think about what that would bring. The thought of her being mad, of her possibly walking away, made my lungs feel tight.

I needed a distraction. One that didn’t involve my dick.

I grabbed my phone and pulled up my messaging app instead of waking Katie again. I needed to check in with Bishop, make sure he and Anabeth were settled. I sent him a quick note telling him to give me a call when he got up and hoping Anabeth was feeling better, then I pulled up Deacon’s name. He’d been on a date—a second date—a few days back, and I hadn’t heard how it went. Not that we needed to gossip about details, but if he was starting up something with Felicia, my personal meteorologist, I’d make sure to back off on my daily texts to her.

Surprisingly, ten seconds after I sent off a How’d the date go? message, my phone rang.

“Good morning, sunshine,” Deacon said when I accepted his call.

“What the fuck are you doing up so early?”

“I could ask you the same thing. Alder said you were taking Katie to your cabin for a few days. I figured you’d be too busy to even think about your old friend Deacon.”

“I am. Way too busy. But Rex started licking his asshole, and that made me think of you. So here we are.”

Deacon laughed, making me smile in return. “What’s really up, kid? You can’t have trouble, or you wouldn’t be busting my balls.”

“I can multitask. Honestly, though, I’m awake and thought I’d check in on you and Bishop. Make sure everything was good.”

“I’m cool. I heard Bishop’s been home with Anabeth—I guess she hasn’t been feeling too well, so he’s in protective man-bear mode.”

“Protective man-bear? You need to get out more.”

“I have been.”

He sounded damn near chipper. “With Felicia?”

“Yeah. Got two more dates under me.”

Fuck. There went my personalized weather reports. “Good news, man. Glad that’s working out for you.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself there. It’s just a few dates.”

Sure it was. I’d never known the man to talk about a woman before, so I had a feeling it was more than the casual fling he seemed to want me to think it was. Not that I was going to push him.

“No getting ahead of myself. Seriously, though. What are you doing up so early?”

“I own a bar, Gage. I haven’t gone to bed yet.”

“Right. That place.” That actually made sense. I sat on the floor, my back to a wall, my long legs crossed at the ankles in front of me. Too tired to stand or pace. Keeping an eye on Rex as he paced in the kitchen. His focus stayed outside, on the woods, as the sun brightened the world outside. The bears would be heading back to their dens already, so that shouldn’t be bothering the dog. Or maybe they’d gotten into more of a fight than I was aware of, and he was responding to that. Or maybe the dog was getting old. “C’mere, Rex.”

“What about you?” Deacon asked just as Rex ran for me and crawled into my lap. “What’s got your panties in a twist before seven in the morning.”

The fear that someone would take Katie away from me, or that she’d just fucking leave on her own. I ran a hand over Rex’s scruff, using him to keep from worrying down a path not yet needed. “Heard something outside. Adrenaline is a bitch.”

Deacon’s teasing tone dropped immediately. “You all good up there?”

“Yeah. Seemed to be a bear.”

“Seemed to be or was?”

Hard question to answer. “There’s nothing to say it wasn’t just a bear I heard—damn thing was tromping through the woods looking for a fight.”

“But…”

Yeah. That. “But I had a bad feeling, that’s all.”

“You need backup?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, call me if you do. And you two can come stay with me if you need another set of eyes on Katie.”

Fuck, my Justice brothers were the best. “You keep your eyes off my girl, old man.”

Another laugh from Deacon. “You afraid of a little competition?”

“There’d be no competition. I’d win by default.”

“Cocky.”

“That’s what she said.”

His snorted laugh was about all I could expect in response to that one. “All right, man. I think I’m going to make some coffee and get my day started. You should get some sleep. You’re too old for these late hours.”

“And you can fuck right off, sir. Good night.”

He hung up without waiting for my response, always needing the last word. I was okay with that, though. I didn’t need a last word; I just needed Katie safe. Something that was growing increasingly more difficult, at least in my head. I sat on the floor, petting Rex, for a good long time. Seeking a path through the brambles I’d created. Trying to figure out the best way to handle everything. Unable to see the forest for the trees, as they said.

Eventually, I rose from the floor, made a pot of coffee, and stared out at Widow’s Ridge as the sun turned the trees a thousand different shades of gold and green. I thought about how to go about getting Katie to talk about her family without giving myself away, pinning down a small plan as I drank my first cup of wake-up juice. It would be sneaky, not being up front with her, but I’d deal with that when I needed to. Katie’s safety came first.

It would always come first.