“Hunter,” Joss gasped. Her fingers tightened in his hair. “Hunter, please.”

By the Broken, he loved it when she begged. Those were the sweetest sounds in the world.

He slid his fingers deep and curled them just as he caught her clit between his lips. Her back arched off the bed and her hips bucked against his mouth. He growled, hands clasping around her thighs to hold her open for his ministrations.

Punishment, maybe? Pleasure, surely. He’d woken her from a deep sleep with his head between her legs, and she’d turned it right around on him. This was what she got for swallowing him down without complaint.

Her cry echoed through his home. “No more,” she gasped. “Let me catch my breath, at least.”

He pressed a kiss to her hip, then crawled up her body. Her stomach hollowed with each heavy breath she dragged into her lungs. Wild eyes and wild hair completed the well-loved look he couldn’t resist the moment his eyes shot open and realized he shared a bed with his mate.

His.

Not marked—yet—but she stayed the night. They’d run for hours before he finally turned them back to his hut. Loft, she insisted. Hut, he countered. By the Broken, he loved they already had banter.

After he’d followed up on his promises and pulled three more screaming orgasms from her lips, she’d curled up against his chest and fallen asleep. He didn’t know exactly when he’d slipped into dreamless slumber himself, but the peace reverberating within his chest was something he’d never experienced before.

She was everything. All the wrongs in his life led him to this moment, to her.

“Isn’t it weird being with someone with such a similar name as your ex?”

Silly little minx. Badger. Whatever.

Her lack of filter was hilarious to behold. Not like Tansey’s where she popped off offensive shit without notice. Joss’s was awkwardly sweet, especially combined with her lack of curse words.

He’d gotten two more of those out of her before she closed her eyes.

Hunter kissed a line across her shoulder to hide his laugh. Fuck, that was where he needed her to bear his mark. “Mmm. You’re right. I guess we’ll just have to rename you like a stray brought home from the pound.”

She pushed him away, trying to contain her smile. “I am not a stray.”

“No, you’re now Fifi Featherbottom the Third.” She choked on her giggle. “Don’t like that one? What about Zinnia? Princess?”

Joss crossed her arms over her chest and faked a pout. “I am not a princess. I am a queen.”

He buried his nose in the crook of her neck. “Fuck yeah, you are,” he growled.

Before he could go any further, the loud blaring of his alarm screamed at them from across the room. He’d put it there to force his ass out of bed instead of slamming a hand over it and falling back asleep. That was biting him in the rear when all he wanted was to shut off the noise and sink back into his mate.

He groaned at the beeps. “We should be late. We should never leave here again.” He landed his hand on her ass with a smack that made her squeal in delight. “This is why food delivery was created.”

“Hunter,” she hissed in the cutest shocked tone in the world.

Her eyes blew wide. He wasn’t sure if that look or the tone made him harder. She was wild in bed, but talking about it made her blush.

He planned to send her dirty texts all damn day.

“Okay, okay.” He raised his hands in acceptance, then grumbled as he rolled out of bed. He flicked off the annoying alarm, then turned to find bright green eyes staring at him. He raised a finger at her. “No fair. You can’t look like that and expect me to do anything but you all day.”

She giggled and dove under the blankets.

Naturally, he jumped back into bed to cage her in and excavate her from her soft imprisonment.

Only after a long shower that only ended because the water turned cold, did they finally get dressed. Joss hurried through finger combing her hair and tying it into some complicated looking thing, a tiny frown furrowing her forehead as she glanced at the clock repeatedly. Hunter couldn’t help but lean against the doorframe and watch, heart bursting in his chest and bear running triumphantly through his mind.

She was exactly where she belonged. He just had to convince her to stay.

When they were finally ready to head up to the main house, he met her at the door and pushed it closed. “Hey.”

Before she could react, he cupped her cheeks and tilted her face toward his. Bright green eyes slid closed and her lips parted with a sigh as he sipped at her slowly and thoroughly. He needed to imprint himself on her somehow. It was the only way to keep his bear steady. Coated in his scent and craving his touch had to be enough until she was ready for more.

He eased back with a final smack. “I’ll see you later.”

Joss blinked at him. Her eyebrows shot together and paired with confusion in her scent. “Oh. Okay?”

He offered her a crooked smile and pulled the door open. A tiny swat on her backside got her moving. “Get to work, Fifi.”

“Princess,” she negotiated.

He lifted his chin and stared down his nose. “Queenie. Don’t sell yourself short.”

She was off his porch before she turned around again. The confusion and slice of worry threading through her scent riled up his bear. Hunter tried to soothe the beast. He meant no harm to their mate.

He jogged down the steps and caught up to her with a grin. “Fancy meeting you here. You going this way? We should walk together.”

“What are you doing?” she asked with a barked laugh.

He threw his arm over her shoulder and dipped his mouth to her ear. “I wanted to get an extra kiss before the day begins and stare at your ass.”

She swallowed back most of her moan. The bit he caught made him want to duck between buildings and wrap her around his waist.

“You’re the worst.” Joss looped an arm around him and pressed her cheek close with a happy sigh as they stumbled their way to the kitchen door.

Sweet fuck, the morning was perfect. He needed a lifetime of them. He didn’t care where. Black Claw, preferably. Texas, or Minnesota, or the other side of the world if she wanted. Just as long as he had his fill of her every damn day for the rest of his life.

“Wait a second.” He pulled her to a stop before she turned the knob. A glance over his shoulder showed him the yard dead quiet.

“What?”

“I just want one more moment with you.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“You’re the one still standing here.”

“You’re right. I’m just going to slip inside—”

He cut her off with a hard kiss that backed her against the door. His cock jumped to life between them, but he ignored that as much as he could with her body pressed against him. He focused entirely on kissing her until her nails bit into his skin.

“You’re right. You should get on inside,” he drawled. He dropped his lips to her neck and breathed into her ear. “I’ll be thinking about getting inside you all day.”

Her lips parted in a gasp. Red covered her cheeks, but it was only hot, cinnamon arousal that hit his nose. Hunter stepped back and grinned.

They were the last to arrive. All eyes turned to them as she stepped through the door with him following close behind. And fuck ‘em, he didn’t bother hiding his smug smile.

Yeah, they’d spent the night together. Fuck no, he didn’t regret a thing.

What surprised him was the lack of howls or whistles or jeers. They’d given Ethan and Tansey a load of shit when she’d first been brought back to the ranch. Tansey slung it right back at them. Joss wasn’t that sort of girl, so he was happy when they kept it to looks alone. Sly, interested, or just plain uncaring. But they didn’t cause a scene and embarrass his mate.

Maybe they were turning a bit civilized under Tansey’s reign. Hunter knew where the real power stemmed.

Joss hurried upstairs to change, then joined Tansey at the stove. Together they worked magic. Eggs and bacon and steaks appeared out of thin air and sizzled into deliciousness under their watchful eyes. Piles of food loaded onto plates and slid across the counter toward the hungry mouths waiting to start their day.

It was the clan’s only breakfast, and the first the ladies would serve for the morning.

He couldn’t take his eyes off Joss. She flitted from one task to another with ease. She had some sixth sense when it came to food. Any hint of strain she carried disappeared as soon as she stood in front of a stove and prepared a minor masterpiece. She loved what she did, and he loved watching her.

Then something shifted.

Joss reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. The hand she used to stir a batch of scrambled eggs slowed, then faltered. A frown dragged down her lips and erased the glow she’d worn all morning—the glow he’d put there.

Tansey slunk up to her side and leaned in, annoyance slicing through her scent. “Tell him no. He doesn’t deserve anything,” she hissed.

“I know, I know,” Joss mumbled.

Hunter’s stomach sank. She still carried his scent, but she’d been marked by another.

His bear pushed to the surface, ready to tear into anyone that touched her. Skin or heart, it didn’t matter to his inner beast. The competition needed to go. Preferably in a bloody defeat that served as a warning to anyone else that tried to steal her from him.

Hunter frowned and pushed back on his murderous instinct.

She needed time. He was prepared to give it to her. Between then, he hoped to keep stripping her down and proving over and over how good they were together.

Whatever she saw on her screen worried him. Was she prepared to let her ex go? He wanted to trust that she wouldn’t go running back the moment the man crooked his finger.

Hope and reality didn’t always line up. She had a past with the man. Real, strong ties. The kind that started with a kiss and ended with a vow. Those ran deeper than a couple kisses on the trail and fucking under the stars.

Fuck. Too many thoughts rolled through him. Too many doubts made him a thundercloud. He was all in again, just like always. He couldn’t avoid setting himself up to be destroyed.

She needed time, and all he wanted to do was rip into the fucker trying to steal his woman. He could pretend at being a gentleman, but that darkness lurked under his phony exterior. He was the same out-of-control asshole who clawed up a human for getting between him and a girl. He should have been put down years ago.

Joss deserved better. She deserved more.

His bear roared at him. Red hazed his vision. His gums ached and his fingernails poked into his thighs where he drove them to keep from scratching up the table.

“Gotta go see to Trooper,” he announced loudly and shoved away from the table. He pasted a smile on his face, but knew it looked crazy from the worry souring the smell of the room. “Thanks for the meal.”

Too big? Too fake? Fuck it. He had to get out of there. He had to get himself together. Maybe talk to his old man, make his bear understand a night didn’t equal a lifetime. Something. Anything. He had to stay steady.

Hunter weaved his way around the others. He heard his name once, maybe a second time, but blood pounded hard in his ears. Claws savaged his insides. His bear wanted out, to rip and shred, and he was the one punished for not allowing it to happen.

He tugged off his boots as he went. His bear pulsed inside him. Fur slid and receded as he tried to keep control of himself. It was a losing battle, but he had to get away from the ranch and witnesses and Joss. Out of sight, he let his bear rip through his skin with a roar.

Joss was light and he was drawn to her like a month to a flame.

He fled so he didn’t burn up.