All Colt could think about was how good a Change would feel right now.

And hungrily, he was watching the little reindeer trot after Ava’s horse, like Ava was its momma. Norman would probably taste delicious.

God the relief of a Change was so tempting.

The bear had never been like this. Colt had always dreaded the Change. It was painful, and he didn’t have much control when he was an animal. But since the war, he’d wanted to be the bear more often. He couldn’t tell if that was a good or bad thing, so he was letting it ride until he figured that part out. He’d imagined a hundred ways to kill crows over the last two hours. Karis was silent behind him, her small hand gliding over and over his back when his growling got too loud. Good mate. Soothing mate. Fixer mate, but she couldn’t fix what the crows were breaking inside of him. They’d gone after her. Baited her. What if they’d succeeded in hurting her? God, he couldn’t even wrap his head around the horrible things he would do for vengeance then.

The second this trail ride was over, he was loading up his truck and heading straight to Corvallis where the crows had a clubhouse for their motorcycle club. And he was going to burn their club to the ground, with or without help from the Clan. He had to make life safe for Karis, and there was no way to do that while those crows drew breath. Solution? Take all of their last breaths.

The trees thinned out, and he could see the small snow-covered miner’s cabin up ahead. Over the last month, Colt had worked his ass off to get the trail camps back up and running. They hadn’t done a trail ride in a couple of years, and everything was overgrown. The first big stop was called Mine Camp, and after a four-hour ride, with stops for lunch, sightseeing, and photo ops, Trig lead them into a snowy camp with a river running a couple hundred yards off.

“Gold is the reason we’re here at all,” Trig explained. “Right, Colt?” He slid a narrow-eyed glance to Colt, who forced his attention away from the two birds flying in the distance. He couldn’t tell from here if they were crows or not.

Trig curled his lip into a snarl and, for a moment, his eyes blazed bright yellow before they settled to brown again. Colt swallowed the soft growl in his throat and forced a smile. “That’s right. Trig’s family bought this place for the mining claim four generations ago. It’s been passed down from son to son until Trig inherited the property. But this was the first place his family lived. They were trying to strike it rich between the mine and panning in the river.”

Leonora sat up straighter in her saddle. “Wait, I don’t remember this stop from the last time we rode with you. Do we get to pan for gold?”

Behind him, Karis uttered an excited squeak. “Wait, there’s panning for gold. I want to do that!”

Even though the bear inside of him was roiling with rage at the crows, he couldn’t help his chuckle. “Of course, you do.” His girl was always up for an adventure.

“It’s cold,” Thomas pointed out. “Don’t you want to build a fire and eat and stay warm? You’ll freeze.”

Damien raised his hand and said, “I’ll freeze a little for finding gold and getting rich.”

Trig mouthed, cut it out to Colt, who forced himself to swallow down another growl. Dammit, he hadn’t even realized he was doing it. Then the Alpha smiled cordially at the Ives and said, “Let’s get the horses comfortable. They’ve earned it. And when they’re settled, we can grab the equipment and go panning while Colt makes dinner. Sound like a plan?”

“Hell, yeah!” Leonora said.

Damien wore the biggest grin, and against Colt’s back, Karis snuggled in tighter. Ava was already off her horse and straightening up the ridiculous little fleece outfit she’d strapped onto Norman, and Trig flipped off Colt the second the Ives were too busy to notice.

Genie crawled onto his shoulder and stared at the sky where the birds had been. Something was wrong with her. He’d never seen his pet scared, but maybe she’d been traumatized by watching the crows ransack their house. He hoped she got over it soon. She hadn’t even tried to bite anyone the entire trip. It was weird. Maybe she was sick. Or Dying? What was the lifespan of a squirrel?

“Colt!” Trig barked out.

“What?” he yelled back.

“Stop staring at the damn squirrel and get off your horse!”

Ranger was tossing his head, which he never did because the bay was used to Colt. He’d trained him to accept the bear, but right now Colt felt half-savage with the need to bleed something.

Karis was rubbing his back in little circles but it wasn’t helping. It was making the tingling of his skin worse. “Babe, you can’t Change here,” she murmured.

What? Change? No, he was okay. Sure, his veins felt like they were transporting hellfire, his skin was tingling, and apparently he was growling again, but whatever. He was in control.

“Everything’s fine,” he muttered, dismounting. Except for Genie, who dug her little claws into his neck and held on like a fuckin’ barnacle.

“You don’t look fine,” Ava pointed out as she petted Queenie’s neck.

He reached up and grabbed Karis’ hips, then helped her down. “If this is yet another scar-face joke, I’m not in the mood, Ava.”

The Ives family were busy leading their horses toward a corral Colt had rebuilt.

Ava snuggled Norman now like he was her actual baby. “I mean your face was hideous before the scars, sooo…”

“Colt, I’m serious,” Karis said. “You are close to a Change and messing with my bear. You have to settle—”

“Karis,” he cut her off, “I got a  squirrel latched onto my neck like she’s a leach, Ava’s giving me shit for my face, and now you’re giving me shit for something I can’t do nothin’ about. I’m up to my fuckin’ hairline with lady problems right now. Ease off.”

Karis reared back, her eyes blazing silver. Looking like a little hellion, she jammed her finger toward the woods. “Get on then.” She shoved him in the shoulder. “Go!”

“Woman, you can’t just shoo me away like a dog. I’m not a—”

“You’re gonna talk to me like that? You’ve lost your damn mind. And here I was gonna fix it for you.”

“Fix what? I ain’t broken!”

“BJ,” Karis said.

“What?” Colt griped.

“I was gonna give you a blow job, but you’re screwing yourself right out of that relief. Now you can take care of me, and I swear to God, if you Change this close to camp, I will too, and we’ll see whose bear can bleed who.” Karis bent down, picked up a stick, and chucked it toward the woods. “You don’t want to be treated like a dog, don’t you act like one! I’m not a lady problem!” Karis brushed past him and stomped toward the tree line.

Holy shit. He’d never witnessed her mood change so fast. She was a steady girl, but whooo, he felt the slap of every word she’d yelled at him.

Stunned, he called after her, “Are we fighting?”

“Yes!”

Fuck yes. They never fought, and now he was going to get an anger-bang. Colt wasn’t even growling anymore by the time he pried Genie off his neck, set her on Ranger’s saddle, and jogged after his mate. “Watch my horse!” he called over his shoulder.

“Good luck with that one,” Trig called.

“Oh, don’t you worry, I can handle this little wildcat.”

“Polar bear, man. Polar. Bear. With teeth, claws, and rage at your idiot ass. Guard your nethers!”

Whatever. Colt wound through the trees, following her scent. Karis was a pussy cat for hi—

Something hit him like a cannonball from the right. He grunted with the force, and his back hit a tree so hard it rocked snow from the branches. And that little cannonball was none other than his sweet, funny, well-mannered mate…who currently was looking at him like she wanted to kiss him or kill him, but hadn’t decided which one yet.

****

“You’ve kept my bear riled up for four straight hours, and I spent that whole time rubbing your back and trying to soothe you, being a good mate, all while my ass was getting sore on the butt of that bouncing horse. And then you talk mean to me? This is hard for me too, Colt!”

Crap, she wanted to cry. He stood leaned against the tree, his face angled to the side, exposing his neck. It was pretend. He was more dominant than her, but he was giving her space to rampage. Good man. She gripped his jacket with clenched fists and admitted something big. Something that made her voice go emotional because she hated exposing her weaknesses. “I’m scared, too.”

“You don’t have to be. I ain’t scared.”

“You are. You’re scared of losing me. I can see it. You don’t get scared for yourself ever. I knew that from the second you burst into that barn and went to war with the mountain lions and crows to protect me. You gave them your back and your neck over and over just to shorten that fight. But I’m scared, too. Scared of what the crows are building, scared of not being in control of our lives, scared for our Clan, scared I won’t be able to give you a cub, scared because Genie is sick, scared of losing the ranch and not having this place. Scared of losing everything that means home. You have to settle down, Colt. Your bear is riling everyone up. Did you see Ava’s eyes? She’s still new to this life. She has to duck her gaze constantly from the Ives family until she can pass for human again. That’s on you, babe. You’re calling out everyone’s animals. We aren’t at war right now, Warmaker. Let us have peace until we get back.”

Colt’s chest was heaving now, his lips thinned to a grim line, and his eyes, which had stayed gold the entire trip, were now so bright they were hard to look at. Red crept up his neck and made his scars on his face look even more stark. His attention twitched to the woods in the direction of Mine Camp, but they were deep in the forest. The only thing they could see from here were trees.

“Let you have peace,” he murmured.

“Yes.”

“You’ll understand someday, Karis. That’s what I’m going to do. I have everything to lose now.”

“The whole Clan has everything to lose now, Colt. We have to make things easier on each other, not harder.”

His face morphed into something terrifying. For one moment, fury lived in the snarl of his lips and the intensity of his eyes. There was an oath there that Karis didn’t understand.

And then he was Colt again. The Warmaker disappeared like he’d never existed at all. Tricky boy. Protective boy. War boy. Secret-keeper boy. She could practically see him closing a door between them so he could hide the dark deeds on his mind. Outlaw. This man would never be tamed. Sure, he would laugh, work hard, and look steady to people from the outside. But to the ones he was closest to, he couldn’t hide the beast, no matter how he tried. The Warmaker would always be there now, ready to defend what was his, ready to aim his scarred-up knuckles at an enemy before they could even make a fist.

He’d talked about Trigger being a monster, but Colt was just as scary.

Beautiful damage.

And Karis didn’t know what this said about her, but… “I love the Warmaker in you. You know that, right? You don’t have to keep him from me.”

Colt lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes. The corner of his lip turned up on his unscarred side. It was a dark smile that promised wicked things. Roughly, he gripped the back of her hair and leaned down, kissed her lips hard. “Good,” he growled against her lips, “because you belong to him.”

When his touch went to her breast, massaged hard, she gasped and gripped his hand to keep him there. Colt walked her backward until her shoulder blades hit the large trunk of a pine. She thought he would take her fast and hard, but he didn’t. Instead, he dropped down to his knees and dragged her leggings and panties down to her ankles. Before she could react, he shoved his cowboy hat off his head, tossed it in the snow, and buried his face between her legs. And there was his tongue, sliding up her entrance, teasing. Whoa. Karis’s legs buckled, but he gripped her hips and kept her pinned upright against the tree. Lick, lick, lick, and Karis’s breath came in short pants now. When he sucked gently on her clit, she moaned and gripped a low hanging branch above her just to have something to dig her nails into. She rocked her hips to the pace he set, desperate for him to keep going since the building pressure felt so good. As he flicked his tongue against her clit a few times, she murmured his name, rolled her eyes closed. And then he was there, right at her entrance, tongue thrusting in as she rocked. Sooo much pressure. Her entire body was tingling now as he yanked her snow boots off, and her leggings off the rest of the way, then pulled her down. She released the branch and went to her knees right over his face. His fingers dug into her hips as he forced her to rock back and forth. Karis locked her arms on the ground as he pushed her closer and closer to the edge. His tongue was stroking so deep into her now, and he was growling this sexy sound as if he couldn’t get enough of her. She could feel the vibration of that snarl rattling through her middle, and it made her clit even more sensitive. Deep, deep, rock, rock, and when he sucked on her and laved his tongue against her, her orgasm blasted through her. She rolled her hips against his face until she was completely sated and her body was twitching.

“That feels so good,” she whispered, breath hitching. Knees in the snow, legs spread over her mate’s face, she stared down at him as he continued to lick her slowly, pulling every small, throbbing aftershock from her body. Oh, that man knew exactly how to please her. He knew the exact medicine she needed for her restless soul.

And from the way his eyes faded from fiery gold to a calm green, she thought perhaps she was medicine for his restless soul, too.