Hunter pushed through the door of The Roost and let the sounds of the bar roll over him. A handful of firefighters squared off across the pool table from an equal number of police officers. From the deep scowls on both sides, Hunter thought they were evenly matched.

He pushed his way to an empty stool at the end of the bar and signaled Gideon, the owner.

While waiting, he turned back to watch the rivalry unfold. Cole, the Strathorn second, kicked the ankle of Judah Hawkins to urge the Chief of Police to give him room to take his shot. Grumbles were met with growls, and the glares deepened.

Another face nearby made him grimace and turn away. Joyce made eyes at him over the shoulder of her latest beau. Not a single jealous thread was plucked by the display.

“You working alone?” Hunter asked the surly dragon once he made his way down the crowded line. “I’ll take whatever cheap swill you got on draft.”

“Leah went into labor a couple days ago,” Gideon called as he snatched up a pint glass and tugged a lever. “I hear the Strathorn clan has a new prince.” Instead of a scowl, Gideon smiled broadly.

Hunter echoed the smile. New babies always made him happy, if a little jealous. They were a sign of people moving on with their lives and carving out their places in the world. He wasn’t there yet, but he hoped his days as a bachelor were numbered. A mate, cubs, he wanted it all if a certain redhead would have him.

“No, shit? I’ll have to send along my condolences once the cops finish whooping their asses at the table. When is Leah coming back? I’ll wrangle the rest of the clan down here and let her earn a big tip.”

Gideon snorted. “We’ll see. One of their mates is working overtime, from what I hear. Big push from the feds to track a resurgence in shifter kidnappings. Callum’s liable to not let his mate or his cub out of sight until the kid is out of diapers.”

That killed Hunter’s mood. The Supernatural Enforcement Agency was supposed to have turned a new leaf. No longer were they the fuckheads that just want to bash in shifter skulls. They even had their own shifter-staffed unit outside of Bearden. And yet, shifters and other supes were still going missing. Those on the damn registration list even had higher numbers of crimes committed against them, for all the good it was supposed to do. Then again, that list was purely for humans.

A strong arm landed across his shoulder and dragged him into a side-hug. “You missed your old man?”

Hunter grinned at his father’s booming voice and wrapped his arm around him, too. His bear rumbled with pleased familiarity. Seeing him always lifted a weight off his shoulders and eased a little of his guilt. It was another moment to savor as the years grew uncertain. He collected them and kept them close to his heart for the rough days of missing home.

He released his father and shook his head. “So you weren’t playing a prank. What brings you up here?”

The message he’d received had confused the hell out of him. Montana was his hiding spot from the troubles of his past. His father made it up once a year, whenever he could find an excuse to put himself near Bearden and not look suspicious. Neither wanted to draw the attention of a bounty hunter.

So it’d been a complete surprise to hear his father was in town. Part of him thought it was a trap, but there he was, in person.

Noel Shaw took a seat and jerked his thumb at Hunter’s glass. “Whatever he’s having, please and thanks.” He exaggerated a sputter at the first sip. “Boy, we’re living in cultured times. You’re still drinking this piss?”

“What can I say? Can’t fight my upbringing.” Hunter swallowed a bit of his beer and set down the glass. He toyed with the bottom, dragging his thumbnail in the space between bar top and pint. The noise of the bar gave them a little privacy. “Dad, what are you doing here?” he pressed again.

Noel pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and flattened it out on the bar. “This is why I’m here.”

Hunter had seen the same flyers growing up and into adulthood. The advertisement called for rodeo competitors to test their skills for a grand prize. Bull riding, bareback riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing, he grew up around it all. He’d cut his teeth riding sheep with the kids of other regular competitors. If it had four legs and could buck a man off its back, he’d been on it and made it to the final buzzer. There’d been a period where he lived his life eight seconds at a time, just like his father before him.

He’d left those years behind. The recognition wasn’t worth the risk when he needed to keep himself hidden.

“You know I can’t,” he protested.

“Well, son, you can. I’ve been keeping track of your legal troubles,” Noel grimaced, “and you’re clear. Bounty has been canceled. No one is looking for you anymore.”

Hunter sat back, stunned. “What? Who did that?”

He’d been honest with Joss when he said he’d left Texas after a failed relationship. The details he’d left out weren’t fit for anyone to know. He hated himself for what he’d done, and he didn’t want to see that reflected back in someone else’s eyes.

He’d been on the road at the time, but managed to steal back home a night early. He’d barged into the apartment he shared with his girlfriend, arms full of chocolates and flowers and even a little stuffed bear that looked like him. All those tokens of affection scattered across the floor the moment his senses caught up to him.

Her muffled cries.

His thick scent.

Flesh hitting flesh.

His bear still didn’t like those memories. A growl rattled in his chest as the scene replayed in his mind. That night was his deepest shame.

The rage of betrayal had narrowed his vision and brought his bear to the forefront. He’d hung there, caught between the edge of human and animal, and let out a savage roar. Control wasn’t even visible in the rearview mirror when his bear saw what he thought of as his tangled together with another.

Andre was the man’s name. He’d learned that through the screams. There’d been so much blood.

Human. That dawned on him too late. She knew. She was a bear like him. But she’d cheated with a human in a time before shifters were known to exist.

He’d run out of necessity. The claw marks he left on the man’s face were just as bad as letting himself get caught in a partial shift. If the humans didn’t hunt him down for a wild, vicious freak, then his own clan would have taken care of the problem. He wouldn’t have his father put his only son in the grave.

“Don’t know,” Noel said. “Don’t care. You’re free to come home.”

Home. How many years had it been since he’d been there? Eight? Nine? Ethan found him that very night, still covered in blood. He’d been trying to load up his horse to take to his father’s before he got the hell out of Dodge. There’d been no questions, just an order to get in his truck.

Bearden had been home since then. He pledged himself to the Black Claw clan and took his place on the ranch. Not long after, Lorne made his appearance. A couple years of peace let them settle before Alex fell into their laps.

They were his clan, not the men and women he grew up around. The thought of leaving them set his bear pacing through his head, agitation bunching all his muscles. No matter how times changed, he doubted his father’s people would be happy to see him again after the trouble he’d caused.

“You’re wasting your talents working as a ranch hand. You should be out there in front of the crowd. This is what you’re good at.” Noel tapped his fingers on the flyer.

“I’m in the only business I know because my old man didn’t teach me anything else,” Hunter taunted with a grin. He couldn’t imagine doing other work. He wouldn’t survive a day in a stuffy office. Even if life had slowed considerably and the only bull he came into contact with was the grumpy one Ethan kept on the ranch, he was living his dream. Wide skies and animals were in his blood.

“Yeah, yeah. If you’d shown a lick of sense, I’d have booted you to one of those fancy schools instead of letting you hang around in the muck. How you learned your letters is still beyond me. Your mother was a miracle worker.”

“A saint, for putting up with you for even a minute.” Hunter pressed his lips together and tried to calm the bear ripping him apart from the inside. “I wish I could have been there at the end.”

“She loved you, boy.” A fond smile lifted Noel’s lips. “Don’t doubt that for a minute. She understood why you had to come up here. We both did.”

Silence stretched between them as they were caught up into their own memories of a woman special to them both. The relationship he saw between his parents formed the basis of all his dreams. Even after losing his mate, his father clearly loved her. Hunter doubted the old man would ever lose that attachment.

Joss stepped through the door of the bar and made room for others crowding inside. Tansey and Ethan were behind her, and Alex behind them. Lorne and Jesse must have drawn babysitting duty back on the ranch.

Hunter snapped to attention. The air sucked out of the room even before he caught Joss’s scent. His bear was on constant alert for her, always watching for a chance to get close and complete their bond.

She wore her hair down like the first day he met her. The strands were curled in big, bouncy waves and he wondered if she’d done one of those tricks with a hot iron that looked like dangerous magic to an outsider. Skinny jeans clung to her legs like a second skin. She’d layered a checkered shirt over a tank top and tied the ends together in a little knot he wanted to unwrap.

Or tear in his haste to get to her skin.

He saw her nostrils flare right before bright green eyes snapped to his face.

Perfect. He liked that she was giving her other side a little bit more control almost as much as he liked knowing her inner animal had taken notice of him.

Just her presence calmed and riled up the beast under his skin. The human side of him made promises to take it slow, but the animal side wanted to claim her so thoroughly she forgot every male in her past. Didn’t matter how many people were in the bar, just like he hadn’t cared about the humans on the trail. He wanted to dig his fingers into her hair and imprint himself on her every way possible.

“Never mind,” his father said into his beer. He folded up the flyer and stuffed it back into his pocket. “I get it now.”

Hunter tore his eyes away from the vision waggling her fingers at him and scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“There’s a girl.”

“There is no girl. Woman. Anyone. There’s no one,” he denied smoothly.

“Don’t lie to me. I know when someone has caught your eye. You go all slack-jawed and your eyes glaze over.”

Hunter swatted away the finger poking at his cheek and growled. “That’s from listening to you all night.”

“You’ve been after your one girl ever since puberty. You’ve chosen wrong, but that hasn’t stopped you in the slightest. You’re a romantic like your old man.” Noel buffed his fingers on his shirt. “Which is how I know you’re going to make a great mate to someone special just as soon as you find her.”

“She’s been hurt. I don’t even know if she wants me the way I want her.”

The anger that snapped inside him that haunting night hadn’t disappeared. He brawled it out with the others as often as he needed. Too often. His bear needed regular fights to keep steady. Going too long without drawing blood only pissed him off more.

But that was exactly the reason why he needed to keep Joss at a safe distance. He was everything she was scared of about her own animal.

The sudden thud of childhood punishment resonated through his head.

“Ow, fuck!” Hunter hunched his shoulders and rubbed at the spot where his father flicked him. “The fuck was that for?”

“Boy, I don’t care how old you get or how big you grow those muscles. I’ll flick you on the back of your damn head if you’re acting a fool.”

He glared at the older man. “Remember that when you can’t walk anymore.”

Noel laughed loudly and slapped his thigh. “When I can’t walk, the nurses will be giving me daily sponge baths in my retirement home of choice! Some of us know how to save our winnings.”

Hunter scrunched his nose up at the thought. “They’re going to kick your wrinkly old balls out of there for harassing the nurses. Then where will you be? I’ll throw you in a horse stall before I let you in my home.”

His father shrugged. “I better make nice with your missus, then. No one can resist my charm.”

“Just about everyone can,” he murmured.

Joss said something to the others, then took a step in his direction.

“They got those little sheds nowadays all done up like apartments. Grampy’s den, that’s what I’ll convince her you need once my grandcubs come into the picture.”

“You’re absolutely not living in my backyard.”

Fuck, he liked the sound of all that. Cubs and a mate and peace in his world. He wouldn’t even mind sharing the enclave with his old man. Noel could teach the little ones all the same dangerous shit that drove Hunter’s mother crazy with protective anger once she caught wind of it.

His father slung an arm over his shoulder and cupped his head to hold him close. An insistent finger tapped against his chest. “There’s no riding the bull from the sidelines. Only way you’re gonna get that prize is by grabbing on and going till the buzzer sounds.”

Noel released him just as Joss came near.

“Hey,” she greeted with a smile. “They didn’t tell me you’d be here tonight. Want to join us? I think they’re debating pool or darts.”

Hunter felt like the gate just opened on him. His stomach dropped with the first bucking leap of his heart. His father was right. He had to hold on for that wild ride.