Karis stared at the small cabin illuminated by the headlights of Colt’s truck. It was everything and nothing like she expected all at once. There was a small front porch with just enough room for a single rocking chair and a small stack of logs. More cut wood lined the side of the house. The door was on the righthand side and looked to be rust-colored, reinforced steel. There was a single front porch light in the form of a lantern that glowed attractively, casting a halo of gold light on the snowy front yard. The roof was comprised of wooden shingles, from what she could tell through the frozen white stuff, and an inside light shone through the single old-fashioned, six-pane, warped window beside the door. And in that window, there sat a sign that said Beware of Dog. Only Dog had been marked out and replaced with the hand-painted word, Squirrel. Beware of Squirrel. Huh. That was kind of funny.

“It ain’t much. I should’ve sent you a picture. Truth be told, I meant to, but I thought if I did, you wouldn’t come.”

Karis looked out her window at the bigger cabin a hundred yards off, lit from inside.

“I know it’s small,” he rambled, “but its bones are sturdy. If you want cubs quick, I could add onto it. I can build good. I used to work for a construction company. Well…I worked for a lot of companies. Anyone who was hiring, I worked for them. And I know she don’t look like much, but it’s home.” He sighed, and she could feel him watching her. “It’s called a cattleman’s cabin. Old Man Massey, Trigger’s dad, he used to hire someone to help work the cattle in the summers, and they would bunk in this place. I fixed it up, but…well…it’s small. I know a girl like you deserves better, it’s just—”

“I love it.”

“What?” Colt blinked hard and shook his head. “I’m sorry, I thought you just said you love it.”

“I did. It’s beautiful. Little homey cabin surrounded by snow. Look at all those evergreens, Colt! It looks like a postcard.” She squinted at a snow-covered pink plastic bird. “Well, except for the flamingo in the yard. In a way, it reminds me of the place where I grew up.”

“You lived in a cabin?”

“No, but I lived in a small house, with eight step-siblings and two parents, and it was cramped, but fine. It’s really cute.”

He was looking at her like she’d lost her mind. “Did you read the text where I told you I live with a wishing squirrel?”

Karis laughed. “Yes, but I didn’t respond because, honestly, I didn’t know how.”

“Okay, let me set up the backstory. Imagine a stormy summer evening, about two hours of daylight left. I was out bringing in a first-time heifer—”

“Wait, what is a first-time heifer?”

“A heifer having her first baby.”

“But after she has a baby, she’s a cow…right? Not a heifer anymore?”

“Goddammit, Karis, you sound like Trigger giving me crap over calling them that. Shhh.”

Karis bit back a smile and zipped her lips.

“Anyway, I was bringing in this cow and her new little calf before predators got to it, and I have these senses that are just…fucking with me. I was three years Turned and still had barely a lick of control, and sometimes I would have moments where I could hear and see everything. Every single thing around me. It was overwhelming. I was up on my horse, a bay gelding, well-mannered because I was determined he would not be an asshole like Trigger’s horse, and I’m watching the south end of this cow, meandering toward the barn with her calf, and I hear this tiny squeak. I mean…it’s so little I think a mouse had babies somewhere. But it sounds distressed, and it was grating on me. As I followed this cow I couldn’t hear the hoofbeats against the ground or the bird sounds in the tree. It was this little squeak. Squeak! And I was irritated because the little bugger was giving me a headache. I wanted to Change and end its life. That was the plan when I started seeing red. I was gonna eat that little mouse, just for reminding me I was a monster. So I went hunting. I was losing daylight, but I followed those little cries for help, planning on how fast I was gonna Change and snuff it out of existence just for annoying me. And then I saw her.”

“The wishing squirrel?”

“Yep. Little Genie was barely old enough to have hair, and her eyes were still closed. Her tail was juuuust getting those longer hairs on it, and I knew her for a squirrel right away. She had fallen out of a tree, and the mom wasn’t nowhere around. I was gonna step on her with my boot and put her out of her misery. Little pitiful thing, writhing around, couldn’t even walk, and what chance did she have of survival? None. I was gonna do her a service and not even eat her. But as I positioned my worn-out boot over that little baby squirrel, she stopped squeaking and went still, like she was waiting on me to make a decision—end her life or save her.”

“And you saved her,” she murmured.

“Yep. I couldn’t squish her, and when I squatted down and picked her up, she was cold to the touch, but she curled up in my palm, and I could feel the scratch of her tiny nails clawing at my skin like she didn’t want me to put her down. So I put her in the front pocket of my hoodie and drove that cow and her calf to the barn. Then I went straight to town and rented a book about raising a baby squirrel. The feed store was closed, but I called Marley who owned it at the time and begged him, said it was life or death, and he came up to the shop and let me grab what I needed to keep Genie alive through the night. I stayed up with her, kept her warm, fed her milk replacement out of this tiny little bottle, didn’t sleep a wink, just scared that all this effort would be wasted and she would die anyway. As I was holding her in a little washrag against my chest, I was stroking my finger against her head, saying over and over how I sure wished this little critter lived, and guess what?”

“She lived.”

“She lived. And time after time, over the last couple years, when we’ve hit a drought, or a predator mauled the herd, or the lights got shut off, or we got right on the verge of war with the Darby Clan, I’ve held Genie and wished for a different outcome than where we were headed. It happened, so…she’s my wishing squirrel. I even wished I got to bang Frieda Thompson, the weather girl on channel nine, and last year, guess who showed up in the GutShot when I happened to be there on a bender?”

“Frieda Thompson? Wait…” Something green and angry snaked through Karis’s middle. “Did you actually bang Frieda Thompson?”

“Hell no, have you seen my face? Girls dig scars, for sure, but not when they ruin a face. I did jack off to her though, like four times after I saw her at the GutShot, and that was close enough.”

Karis cracked up as a wave of potent relief washed through her. “I would love to meet Genie.”

“I think you mean you would love to eat her. Genie isn’t that polite. In fact, she might have actually come from Hell instead of the tree branches like I initially thought.”

Karis snorted. “She can’t be that bad. She’s just a squirrel.”

“Yeees,” Colt drawled out. “She will probably adore you coming into her home.” He cleared his throat. “Genie is about four-hundred-eighty percent territorial.”

“Of your house?”

“No. Of me.”

“Oh.” Okay, that was a little weird.

“Giddyup, let’s go,” Colt said, shoving his door open.

Frigid wind blasted her in the face for a moment before he shut the creaking door to his truck. She smiled a little because he’d really just said “Giddyup let’s go,” which reminded her of the way her step-dad used to talk when he wanted her and her brothers to get a move on. She got out of the truck just in time to watch Colt punt the snow-covered pink flaming out of his front yard and into the woods behind the house.

He was muttering something under his breath, but even with her shifter hearing, Karis couldn’t make out what he was saying. He inhaled deeply, stomped his boots on a welcome mat that said Fuck Off, and then he pushed open the door with the side of her suitcase.

The first thing Karis saw as she stepped inside was Genie. The adorable little squirrel was running across the back of the couch right toward her. And for a split second, Karis thought, Oh my gosh, she is so cute. She wants to hug me! But then she leapt through the air, and as Karis held her arms out to catch her, the fury in that little critter’s eyes filled her instantly with regret. And then she felt the teeth, little needle-sharp fuckers that dug straight into her wrist.

“Aaah!” she screeched as she flung the little hellion off her.

Genie landed on her feet on the floor, turned around, and came right back at her.

“Nope,” Colt growled, plucking the hairy little demon from the air as she leapt for a second attack.

He cradled her to his chest with an apologetic smile on his face for Karis, who was holding her wrist against her left tit, hoping it would make the bite less painful. Or alleviate the damage to her pride.

“She really bit me.”

“She don’t love easy.”

“Or at all, because she’s a rabid squirrel!”

“She ain’t rabid!”

Karis felt slapped. “Are you seriously defending her behavior right now?”

“No.”

Karis narrowed her eyes at where he was soothingly stroking the overgrown hamster, who was currently trying to scramble out of his grasp for a second go at Karis. “Let her go.”

“What? No, she’ll get angry again.”

“Let. Her. Go.”

Colt’s blond brows lowered and his eyes narrowed to stubborn little slits. “No. You look violent. Your eyes are silver. I don’t want you to squish my wishing squirrel.”

“I’m not going to squish her. You can let us hash this shit out, or she sleeps outside with the other fucking wild squirrels!”

“She doesn’t like it outside so that’s not—”

“Colton!”

He looked from Karis to Genie, who obviously wanted him to release her since she was making claw marks on his arms to escape. Both of the females in Colton’s life wanted him to let his hairy-tailed little monster go. “Fine!”

When he opened his arms, Genie used his chest to jump off. Only this time, Karis was prepared and was the one who snatched her mid-air by the scruff of her little neck. “No!” she roared into the hellion’s face.

Genie went still, her little hands balled up in fists. Oh, there was still fire in her eyes, but Karis had scared her. Or at the very least shocked her into stillness. They glared at each other until the squirrel blinked and looked away. The second Karis went to put her down though, Genie turned and bit her again.

Fine. Karis marched right to the door and opened it, letting the snow blow in. She yanked Genie by the scruff of her neck right up to her face so they could look each other in the eye. “If you can’t be nice and share this place, you can sleep outside.”

“She don’t like sleeping outside,” Colt said, stepping closer.

“Stay there,” Karis snarled. She glared at Genie again. “What’ll it be, Squirrel? Share the house or sleep outside? I’m a scarier animal than you, and you’re pushing my fuckin’ buttons.”

“She probably don’t even understand you,” Colt muttered.

“I bet you talk to her all the time like she’s a human. She understands just fine.” This was a dominance issue, plain and simple. Genie liked being queen, and clearly Colt had let her get away with bad behavior for her whole life, but as long as Karis was here, that heathen squirrel was dethroned.

She eased up her grip on the critters neck skin, and Genie bit her a third time, right on the inside of her pointer finger. With the flick of her fingers, Karis tossed her out into a snow drift. Poof!

“Hey!” Colt said.

Genie exploded from the drift and ran up the porch stairs just in time for Karis to slam the door in her face.

When she turned around, Colt’s eyes were bright gold and red crept up his neck. “You had no right to—”

“I had a man who wouldn’t stick up for me ever. I’m here because of that.” Karis jammed her finger at the door. “You just watched her bite your mate, but you pet her. You pet her, Colt. She’s spoiled, and what good has that done you?” Karis ripped the Beware of Squirrel sign out of the window, and there was Genie, sitting outside on the ledge, glaring at her through the glass. With a sign of frustration, Karis turned around and shook her head at Colt. “We’re fighting. I have three bites on me from your pet, I’m bleeding in three places, and you didn’t stick up for me once. You stuck up for her. She is the way she is because you allow her to be this way. You trained her that it’s okay to attack people.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You did! You didn’t reprimand her for hurting me. You just stood there, petting her. I’m not sleeping in the same house as her until she can be nice. I can leave tomorrow if you’d like, and you can go back to your life with Genie.” Tears burned her eyes, and she blinked hard to keep them in place. She parted her lips to say more, but her voice would crack, so she set the sign on the small, two-seat dining table, grabbed the handle of her suitcase, and made her way to the set of stairs that led upward to a loft bedroom. She muscled her luggage up to the space, set it down, then turned to watch Colt through the rails.

He stood there, watching Genie through the window. If he let her back in, Karis was done. She’d gone through this with Jackson. He let others say bad things about her. Let others hurt her and never said a thing against anyone. In fact, more times than not, he actually agreed with them, and it had destroyed her self-worth. She wasn’t doing that again.

Colt sighed out the word, “Shhhit,” ran his hands roughly over his hair, and gave Genie his back. And then he made his way to the stairs and started climbing them.

Well, crap, what did she do now? She was still on the verge of tears, and he was going to fight with her more? She plopped down on the bed.

Without meeting her eyes, Colt sat on the edge of the bed beside her and clasped his hands on his bent knees. Here it came. He would tell her to leave, just like Jackson did. Karis closed her eyes and braced herself.

“You’re right,” Colt said in a deep, rumbling voice.

“Wait…what?”

“She hurt you, and I didn’t have my protective instincts in the right place. That was fucked up of me. You called her a pet.” Colt arched that bright gold gaze to her. “And it’s true. But you’re more. You’re a potential mate, and it’s up to me to take care of the things that are important. It won’t hurt Genie to sleep outside. Especially not after what she did. Now, let me see.”

“See what?”

Colt reached over and gently pried her hand off her wrist. She hadn’t even realized she’d been clutching it to her stomach. Shifters healed a little faster than humans, but it still took time, and Karis was still bleeding from the worst bite on her wrist.

Scooting closer, Colt slid his arm around her shoulders and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I…” How should she answer? No one ever asked her if she was okay—not when she was hurt, not when she was offended, and not when she had a bad day. “I’m okay. It only stings a little.”

He stared down at her wrist, lifted it gently to his lips, and then did something that stunned her. He licked the bite. Not just once either. He stroked his tongue against it until it stopped bleeding completely, and then he pressed his lips gently to the tiny puncture wounds and let them linger there. She felt better. And after he did the same to her other bites, she had this drunk, happy sensation that had expanded from her middle outward.

“I like you,” she whispered, scared of the admission. Scared of the words, scared of opening up, scared of rejection, scared of his reaction. The more she learned of him and let him touch her, the harder she fell.

Her hands were shaking. He slid his palm to hers and intertwined their fingers. “I like you back.” A crooked smile stretched his lips, and the scarred half of his face lifted. “Even if you kicked my squirrel out of our house.”

Now, she didn’t know if he’d said our house to mean his and Genie’s house or not, but she couldn’t help her smile as she pretended he’d meant his and Karis’s house. Oh, she’d turned mushy, just imagining a life here, imagining him keeping her. And now, with every touch he gave her, she wanted this life a little more.

She should run. She should shut down on him and run away, run back to her life, and find someone who didn’t test her, push her, and ask too much of her heart.

But look at her? Karis leaned against his side and rested her cheek against his shoulder for comfort. Comfort? She shouldn’t need comfort from a man, and here she wasn’t even fighting this. God, how much of herself had she lost since this morning? Since she’d left home? Since she’d become a breeder? Since she’d hung on every word Colt had texted her over the past week?

Stupid hope was making her sentimental and now, when Colt left or pushed her out, she would get hurt again.

“Why are you crying?” Colt asked.

With a sniff, she composed herself. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s okay to feel, Karis. I mean, your tears are terrifying. When my sister cries, I just want to leave, but with you…I think you need to teach me what your tears mean. I don’t understand. Am I doing something wrong?”

“No. You’re doing something right. I think. I just had this plan, and you’re ruining it.”

Colt pulled her gently back to the mattress, then hugged her to his side, staring up at the exposed rafters above. “What plan?”

“This isn’t what I wanted. Or what I thought I wanted.” She swallowed hard, digging deep to find that bravery. “I wanted a friend who would raise cubs with me.”

“And that’s not what I am?”

“You’re making me feel more. You’re making us into more. You feel…risky.”

“Why risky?”

“Because you could leave.”

“Like your last man?”

“Yes.”

Colt blew out a sigh and stroked his fingers up and down her arm. “How about we make a deal?”

“What kind of deal?”

“You don’t make me pay for his mistakes, and I won’t leave. I’ll keep trying, even when you drive me nuts, or you kick my squirrel out of the house, or you leave the toilet lid down, or you overpack your suitcases on trips, or you suck at riding horses, or you and my sister fight over I dunno, make-up and hair curlers and shit, or when you make me listen to lovey-dovey songs in the truck, or any of it. I’ll keep trying to make this work, and you keep trying too, and that’s as good as it gets, right? When both people decide they want to be in it. When both people try. Then we’re like halves of this machine we’re building. If we both keep doing our job, we work. Can I tell you something?”

Her eyes were trying to leak again, and her voice cracked when she murmured, “You can tell me anything.”

“I wish I would’ve met you differently.”

Karis looked over at him and frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I wish I would’ve run into you at a coffee shop, and you would’ve spilled whatever frou-frou drink you ordered down the front of my jacket, and I would’ve laughed as you patted my chest with a pathetically small number of napkins, and then I would’ve thought, damn she’s so cute with her face all scrunched up and worried like that, and I would’ve asked for your number. And I wish I would’ve been able to take you out on a normal first date. I wish we hadn’t met as breeders because I have fears, too. I’m scared you’ll always see yourself as a breeder and wonder why I’m still here. Wonder if I’m in this because we signed a contract or because I really like you.” He rolled his head toward her, showing her his whole scarred cheek. “But when I said I liked you back? I meant it. You aren’t a breeder to me. That changed the second I saw you sitting in that plane, fire in your eyes, back straight, looking so different from any girl I’ve ever seen. Looking so damn beautiful. It changed when I got to touch your body in that old house, and you made me feel like I didn’t want to burn the place to the ground anymore. Now when I drive past it, I’ll see it as something different. That’s the first place I touched you, not just the Hell I grew up in. You come in and you fix things, Karis. You stuck up for yourself with Genie, and you told me exactly what you needed and you told me exactly what your tears are from, and that’s what I need. That’s what I like. I don’t want hints on how I’m supposed to behave, because I won’t understand them. You fit me. You’re scared I’ll leave and this will end. Well…I’m scared of that, too. I don’t want you to go, you terrifying woman. You said it down there, that I can make you leave in the morning. Hell, Karis, that was a knife in the gut. Those words? I wanted to be stubborn and let Genie back in on principle, but I couldn’t even get my boots to move toward the door.”

Karis giggled in relief and slid her hand over his chest and into the opening of his unzipped jacket. His heart was racing a million miles a minute.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Karis lifted her head up and listened harder.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

“What is that?” she asked.

“That would be the wishing squirrel wishing she was back inside the house. I do spoil her. I know I do. She’s a little cretin because I allowed her to be however she wanted to be.”

“Do you spoil her because you weren’t spoiled growing up?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. A full minute passed before he answered. “Maybe. I never thought about it before.”

“Don’t turn our cubs into spoiled brats,” she teased.

“Don’t worry, even if I did, you would just throw them out into a snow bank if they misbehave.”

Karis snorted and lobbed her leg over his hips. “You can be the yes parent, and I’ll be the no parent.”

“God, I’m going to suck at this.”

“You will not. You practically raised Ava, right? And she turned out okay.”

“She’s a mouthy human who chose to pair up with the gnarliest bear shifter in the known universe. She cusses too much and bullies everyone into doing whatever she wants us to do.”

“Like what?”

“Like holiday shit at holidays. We had to do the whole nine yards at Christmas. It was traumatizing.”

“Oh my gosh, don’t be a baby. She sounds amazing.”

“She has a pet reindeer. His name is Norman. He stabs me with his little nub antlers, and I’m pretty sure she trained him to do that.”

Karis had to bite back her laughter because he really did look serious and grumpy right now.

Had she ever been this instantly comfortable with a person before? She couldn’t recall anyone else who made her laugh this easily. Who she understood so well without really knowing them. Or maybe she did know him. Perhaps this was instinct, or perhaps she was just ready to settle down and he was the right place, right time. Or maybe…just maybe…it was more.

He began talking about all the chores he had to take care of around the ranch in the morning, and as she watched his lips move, she was struck by how normal this all felt. Lying in an unfamiliar bed with a stranger in an unfamiliar house shouldn’t be like this. She shouldn’t be okay with him absently stroking his thumb against the sleeve of her sweater. She shouldn’t be kicking off her shoes like this was her bedroom. She shouldn’t have already memorized the exact tenor of his voice when he was happy, or upset.

Colton Dorset was single-handedly the most interesting and most terrifying man she’d ever met.