Ramsey was here.

Tenlee could feel his presence. As she slowly crossed the room toward the front window of Colt’s cabin, she knew without the shadow of a doubt that she reached that window sill, she would find a crow in the trees just outside, staring back at her. She shook as she crawled up the logs of his cabin to reach the sill. Be brave, little squirrel.

Trig, Colt, Ava, and Karis had taken a group out for a trail ride this morning on a last-minute booking, and the only ones left at Two Claws Ranch were her, Kurt, little Gunner, and the livestock.

And the crow.

Her heart pounded against her ribcage as she reached the window and saw him.

Even if she hadn’t felt him, she would’ve recognized that crow anywhere. How? Because he had a white mark on his chest in the shape of a diamond. Sometimes crows had white markings, but none like Ramsey’s.

He wasn’t in the tree she’d expected though. Instead, he was across the clearing in a tree near the barn. And when she followed his gaze and saw what the crow was staring at, terror seized her. And then rage.

Ramsey was watching Gunner play with a yellow toy truck by the corral.

She would fucking kill that rat bastard if he touched a hair on Gunner’s head. Fueled by fury, Genie moved to blast off the window and out the little squirrel door Karis had made, but she skidded to a stop when she saw Kurt. He came out of the barn with long, confident strides, old pistol at his side, and smooth-as-you-like, he came to a stop beside his son, lifted that gun, aimed it at the crow, and said something too soft for her to hear through the window glass.

And then he pulled the hammer back on that old pistol and waited.

Ramsey spread his huge wings and lifted into the air, but Kurt didn’t ease the hammer back into a safe position until Ramsey was a black speck on the horizon. Kurt looked down at Gunner, and then his bright silver eyes landed on Colt’s cabin. Tenlee swore he was looking right at her. Right at her. He sees me.

With a twitch of his head, Kurt gestured for Gunner to follow him to the barn. The little boy bolted upright, toting his yellow truck, and he slipped his hand into Kurt’s. He was so small next to his dad. So cute. A perfect miniature of him.

Those boys didn’t know it, but they were Tenlee’s. Even if Kurt had seen her ugly, hairless skin and hated her now, in her heart, they would always be hers.

She was being a chicken. It had been three days since Kurt had seen her Changed, and she’d avoided him like the plague. But now it was just them on the ranch. Ramsey laying eyes on Gunner had scared and enraged her, and she wanted to sneak over to the barn to make sure they were okay. That was all. She would go in through the hole in the back wall, climb up to the rafters unseen, and then watch them for a while. Like a creepy stalker. God, what was wrong with her? Ew, never mind that thought. There was a list a mile long of what was wrong with her. Basically, everything.

Quick as lightning, she bounded over to the barn and, quiet as a mouse, she snuck through the back hole.

“Been waitin’ on you to show up again,” Kurt said.

With a tiny banshee screech, Tenlee startled hard and spun on him. He was sitting in a chair, his cowboy hat over his eyes, his boot positioned in front of the hole she’d just come through, blocking an easy escape. Son of a biscuit eater.

Heart pounding a mile a minute, Tenlee couldn’t decide whether to run or bite him. The instincts to do both were warring with each other.

“Change,” he demanded, pushing his cowboy hat back from his face and leaning forward until his elbows rested on his knees. He cocked one dark eyebrow. “I wished for it, so make it happen, Wishing Squirrel.”

Tenlee looked around for Gunner.

“Gunner’s watching his favorite cartoon and won’t move off the couch for the next half an hour. Three days, Genie.” Kurt held up three fingers. “Three days I waited for you to come to me on your own accord, but you chickened out, and I’m tired of waiting. Change!”

There was force behind his command, one like Trigger had when he was riled up and giving Alpha orders to the Clan. The word brushed across her skin and made her want to obey him.

Fuck that. She wasn’t just some submissive—squeeeaaak! Her body revolted against itself, and she broke, bone by bone, muscle by muscle, until she was panting on hands and knees in her ugly human skin.

Shoulders heaving, she looked up slowly. Kurt was staring at her tits with wide eyes. “Oops,” he murmured. The jackass didn’t sound sorry at all.

Rage fueling her, Tenlee stumbled upward and moved to strangle him, but her body wasn’t working right, probably because she barely used this one, and she stumbled and fell right onto him.

She went to swatting him, but Kurt was quick and, injured or not, was real strong. “Stop it. Stop!”

A feral snarl was all she gave him as she struggled in his anaconda grip. She was facing away from him, sitting in his lap, stuck in his hug. A hug she’d dreamed about a hundred billion times, but she was so mad right now, all she wanted to do was learn how to swivel her head all the way around and bite his stupid face.

His embrace tightened, and he gripped her wrists hard, pinning them to her chest. “I didn’t mean to force that. Genie, stop struggling. I didn’t mean to,” he murmured right against her ear. And damn her body. It was betraying her as she leaned into his sexy, velvet words.

Panting hard, she forced herself to stay still. “I was coming to check on you,” she gritted out in a hoarse voice. She’d rarely spoken as a human since she’d come to the Two Claws Ranch a year ago. “I saw Ramsey… I was just going to check.”

“Ramsey was the crow?” he asked, his lips so close to her ear. So close. Was she melting?

“Yes,” she whispered. “Crow. White patch on his chest. I know him. I know him. He’s bad. Don’t like him looking at Gunner, don’t like him looking at you. Why didn’t you pull that trigger, you stupid cat?”

“I ain’t stupid, Genie. I just don’t kill easy. I ain’t Hairpin Trigger, and I sure as fuck ain’t the Warmaker. I’ve killed enough—.” Kurt grunted in pain as she jabbed him with an elbow. “Stop squirming.”

Well, she didn’t mean to squirm, but she was sitting in Kurt’s lap with his sexy voice in her ear, and this body was apparently a hornball. “I’m not Genie.”

“What? Wait, I’m going to let you go, okay? Don’t run. Just talk to me. I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

To her eternal dismay, Kurt made good on that threat and released her, and now she had to make her body leave his lap, and everything was stupid. Grumbling in her head, she stood on shaky legs and knelt down in front of him, facing Kurt and covering her breasts. “I ain’t Genie. Colt’s squirrel ran off the second he released her outside. I just…took her place. I’m Tenlee.”

“Tenlee,” he rumbled, his eyes lightening to a soft silver color. There was a slight smile at the corner of his mouth. “Pretty. What’s your last name?”

“Don’t got one of those. Last names are for humans.”

“You’re half human.”

“No, I’m a squirrel. This,” she said, waving at her body, “is only for sometimes. I can go weeks without being this part of me. I’m a squirrel.”

Kurt frowned. He parted his lips, but nothing came out. He waited a few seconds and then tried again. “Tenlee, who are your people?”

“You. Gunner. Colt. Karis. Trigger. Ava.”

“No, I mean, where do you come from?”

“A tree in the woods.”

Kurt blinked slowly, then dragged his hands down his face. “Okay…who were your parents?”

“Not who, what.”

“Your mom?”

“A squirrel.”

“Okay, and your dad?” Kurt asked, looking like he didn’t believe her at all.

“Also a squirrel.” She thumped her chest. “Squirrel.”

Kurt stared at her for the span of a few breathes, his dark eyebrows arched up high. “But you have boobs. Perfect, perky, human boobs. And brown human eyes, wild human hair, and fingers and toes and a belly button and lips. You are a person.”

Tenlee’s disappointment was bottomless. She made a clicking sound behind her teeth and stood. She hated this. Hated herself. Shifting her weight from side to side, she ducked her gaze to his scuffed-up boots. “You’re like him.”

“Like who?”

“Like Ramsey. You want to convince me I’m something I’m not. You want to change me. You want me to be like you. Well, I’m not. I don’t fit into your box. The only box I’ll ever fit into that someone else makes is a coffin. I don’t like talking to you anymore. I want to go.”

“You’ve been watching over us.”

She backed away a couple of steps. “Don’t want to talk.”

“Are you the reason the crows are after the Two Claws Clan?”

Her face crumpled. Stupid weak face and stupid tears. “Yes.” Her voice broke on the word. “But you don’t have to worry. I’m going to fix everything.”

“Fix everything how?” he asked, standing slowly to his full height. Whoa, Kurt was tall. Sure, he had felt tall when she was a squirrel, but even now he towered over her by a foot. “What does Ramsey want with you?”

“Sex. Companionship. He wants me to be like him.”

“Be like him how?”

“Bonded.”

“Holy fuck.” Kurt hooked his hands on his hips and shook his head, and now his eyes were bright silver. “You’re Ramsey’s mate? You’re the Alpha of Red Dead Mayhem’s mate?”

“Yes.”

“Well, what are you doing here?”

“Hiding.”

“You don’t want to be his mate?” Kurt asked.

Tenlee shook her head slowly. “I never did, but he said I was. I didn’t understand what that meant for a long time, and I got stuck. I didn’t want to be stuck anymore, so I ran. To here.” And now they were all in danger because of her. Or more specifically, because of Ramsey’s obsession with her. “You didn’t tell Trigger or Colt. You didn’t tell anyone about me.”

“Nope,” he said, shoving his hands in his front pockets.

“Why not? I waited for you to. I waited for them to be mad.”

“Because it’s not my secret to tell, Tenlee. It’s yours.”

Before she could stop herself, Tenlee blurted out, “I like when you say my real name.” She squeaked and clapped her hand over her mouth.

Kurt’s smile turned breathtaking. It was a slow one with just a hint of teeth. It wasn’t a grimace, like when she displeased Ramsey. It was a happy look. And he was giving it to her. Even while she was in her ugly human skin.

“What else do you like?” he asked low.

Slowly, she pulled her hands away from her mouth. “I like watching you and Gunner play. I like thinking about what your barn-house looks like. I like the way your voice is deep, but you don’t talk much, only when you have something big to say. I like that you killed Chase to save Ava. And I like this place, but when you went away, I didn’t like this place.”

Kurt’s face stayed soft, and the smile remained. “What else?”

“Grapes. The green ones. And Colt. And sometimes even Karis.”

“What about other squirrels?”

“I like them, but they don’t like me.” She blinked hard and forced her lips to make a smile like Kurt had worn.

“Why not? You seem like a very nice girl.”

Tenlee growled.

“Squirrel,” Kurt corrected himself quickly. “You seem like a nice squirrel.”

She made a smile again, but Kurt’s eyebrows went down, so she probably wasn’t doing it right. “I scare squirrels. I smell different or something. And I didn’t have my first Change until I looked like this.” She wiggled her fingers at her body.

“You had your first shift when you were an adult?” Kurt asked. Whoa, his voice sounded concerned.

“I’m different. I already told you I don’t fit into boxes. I don’t like when people look at me. I don’t like the way you are looking at me, like I’m something wrong.”

“No, no, Tenlee, that’s not what this look is for. I’ve just never heard of this happening to someone.”

“Well, I like the way I am, so I don’t care.” She lifted her chin up high. “I don’t care about anything or anyone.”

Kurt’s eyes narrowed to sexy little silver slits, and he murmured, “I have a theory about that.” And then he did something awful. Something awful and wonderful and awful and wonderful. Fast as a lightning strike, he stepped forward, yanked her to him, and his mouth pressed to hers.

Her first instinct was to bite his lip like she’d done to Ramsey sometimes, but Kurt’s hands went gentle. He released her arms, slid his hand up her spine, and gripped the back of her neck softly. And his lips tasted so good. He moved his mouth against hers and made her want to stay.

An embarrassing noise came from her throat as she leaned into him, but she could feel his smile against her mouth. And then he did something wonderful again and pushed his tongue past her lips so she could taste that, too.

She never wanted him to stop. Her whole body shook like a dried winter leaf, but she still didn’t want to run. Not from him. So she got brave and gripped his shirt in hopes he wouldn’t run away either. And they stayed like that for days. Or maybe minutes, she didn’t know. As his hands brushed her human body, it made her feel not-so-hideous. He let off a soft growl in his throat when she pressed herself against him tighter, and it lifted chills onto her arms. The gooseflesh tingled, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. When she brushed her tongue into his mouth just to see what it was like, his grip on the back of her neck tightened. He pulled her with him to the barn wall and let her press against him as hard as she wanted.

He was ready for sex. She could tell from how hard he was when she rubbed against him, but he didn’t push for more. He let her do whatever she wanted. This was fun. Her stomach got flutters, and she was getting wetter and wetter between her legs. His hands, his touch, they felt like nothing she’d ever known before. Her whole body was on fire, but in a good way.

She wanted more and more and more and more, and she never wanted him to stop touching her, because for the first time in her whole life, she felt safe.

The door to the barn apartment clicked open, and Tenlee lurched back. Gunner was coming out, and she wasn’t ready for him to see her skin yet. She wasn’t ready for anyone to see her but Kurt. Her Kurt.

Her Change was instant and pushed by her panic. She sat there, so much smaller than Kurt now, looking up at his stunned face. His pupils were big, and he wore a lopsided grin like the ones Trig and Colt got when they’d had too many beers.

Gunner was saying something to Kurt, but everything was muffled. All she could hear, or focus on, was the fast drumming of her heart. No…not her heart…Kurt’s. She could hear his heartbeat, and it was racing. She’d done that.

She bounded over to his leg and clutched it in her little paws, nuzzled his shin with her cheek, and then twitched her tail at Gunner, because he always liked when she did that. It made him giggle.

Mine and Mine. Bye-bye, Mines.

Practically floating, Tenlee staggered out of the hole no longer blocked by Kurt’s boot and into the saturated sunlight. She paused outside just to take it all in. Even the mud looked pretty right now. The mud and the pile of leftover lumber and the old lazy one-eyed barn cat with the missing tail, the chopping log, the ax, the trees, and…

Ramsey.

He wasn’t pretty.

He sat up in the branches of a nearby tree, his glossy black beak lifted high, his unblinking eyes on her. Brave crow to come back here after nearly having a trigger pulled on him. Brave or stupid.

She didn’t feel afraid anymore.

Now, she felt sad, because inside that barn behind her was what she wished her future looked like.

But what it really looked like was the massive crow in the tree and a lifetime of fitting into a box built by crows.