Savaged By the Beast (Broken Creek Ranch Shifters #4)

Chapter One Austin

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My head pounds as I collapse to the ground, exhausted.

I’m tired, hungry and just plain consumed with anger.

I feel my bones shifting inside my body as I force myself back.

My bear thrashes and jerks me around until I’m shaking with the effort of taking my body back.

Finally, I’m able to wrestle him under control and I shift back into me.

The oldest Stone brother and the only one that is a party of one.

And therein lies the problem. My bear is finding it easier and easier to take over since I’m being destroyed by my own pain.

My own hunger for my mate. I’ve watched all three of my younger brothers get their mates and it’s eating me up inside that I have yet to meet my one. My fate. The other piece of my soul.

I’m ready. I want her. But I can’t find her and I’m getting really pissed off about it which lets my bear have free rein to throw a very beastly tempter tantrum.

I lie there, feeling the grass under me and contemplate curling up in a ball and going to sleep. There’s no reason to stay awake. Nothing to keep me warm at night.

And then a haunting, elusive scent drifts to my nose on the wind. I sit up and my bear starts pacing inside my body, growling and thrashing to wrest control back from me. He wants to find her before I do.

But I need to find her. Need to touch her, hold her, devour her. That scent is the most intoxicating thing I’ve ever smelled in my life and I know without a doubt that it’s her. My mate. She’s here! She’s finally here!

I stalk through the woods and follow that elusive scent until I almost trip over a young boy, cannoning through the woods. His blonde hair falls across his forehead and his blue eyes widen as he catches sight of me.

“Dude, why are you naked?”

“Dang it, where the hell are you, Cody? Are you talking to someone? I better not catch you talking to strangers, young man! You know my rules!”

“Who is that woman?” I growl, half-crazed with curiosity and lust.

“My…”

“Dammit, get away from that man, Cody!”

A tall goddess steps out of the trees and strides closer.

Her full hips swing back and forth and my eyes follow them, unable to look away.

Her long blond hair falls across her shoulder in a long ponytail and she’s wearing a police uniform that follows every curve and dip of her body, begging me to touch her.

Her slim waist looks like it would snap under my hands and yet she’s obviously tougher than she looks.

I like it. I like it a lot. She stalks up to me and shoves me away from the boy.

Her warm brown eyes are crinkled at the corners, narrowed with anger.

“Where the hell are your clothes, buddy?” she grunts and pushes the kid behind her.

“Ummm. I fell off my horse and when I came to they were gone,” I say.

“Uh-ha. Yeah, right.” Her skeptical look has me grinning ear to ear. I love my brothers and the women they’ve found but innocent doe-eyed babies aren’t for the likes of me. I like my women a little spicy and this one here totally fits the bill.

She doesn’t believe a word I’ve said and I can’t stop myself from grinning like a sheep-killing pup. She’s no delicate flower. If I tried to carry her off like my brother Graham did with his mate, I think she’d knee me in the balls.

I send a silent prayer up to the heavens. My mate is just what I always wanted. A partner. A woman who’s unafraid of anything, that lives life to the fullest.

She’s a dream that I never want to wake up from.

Her brown eyes widen when I growl and she steps back a pace. Her eyes dart back and forth and her hand slides to her gun again.

“What was that noise?”

“Hmmm?” I stall. “Must be something loose out here in these woods. We should probably get going.”

She puts a hand out to forestall me when I start to follow her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I feel the shock from her touch all the way to my bones.

My bear growls and groans, trying to push his way up and I shove him down just as hard.

Damn idiot’s gonna fuck it up for both of us!

Zips of electricity zing along my nerve endings where she touches me and I have to take a deep breath and count to ten. And then fifty.

“Uh…could you run me by my place. I live out at the Stone ranch. I’m Austin Stone.”

Relief and curiosity spark in her shimmering eyes and I can’t stop staring at her. The pull to touch her is like magnets being pulled inexorably closer. There’s no way to escape it. And why would I want to? I grunt when she smirks.

“Stay here for just a second.” She whirls around and drags the kid out behind her and it isn’t until she’s disappeared out of my sight that I feel a momentary qualm.

The boy is hers. I can scent her on him.

I didn’t see a wedding band but then I wasn’t really looking for one.

I was too busy trying to keep my tongue in my mouth while I mapped out all her luscious curves and what I wanted to do with them.

I literally salivate over all those hips and thighs and wondering if her skin is tan like her beautiful face or creamy and pale like milk. Soft and supple and so lush that I could drown in all of her if only I can get past all the defenses I see popping up the longer I’m with her.

“Here!” A blanket smacks me in the face. I huff out a breath and yank it down, almost grinning when I see the smirk on her face. She wipes it away quickly and turns on her heel. “Put that on. I don’t want you sticking to my seats,” she growls.

I wrap the blanket around myself and follow along behind, helpless in her wake.

We reach her car and she turns to face me over the top of the car.

I don’t often get that with women but she’s at least five foot seven.

Her eyes glitter with something unholy and it takes everything in me to remember the boy in the car.

I want to leap across the damn car and haul her ass off into the woods, hopefully to find a strong, sturdy surface to fuck her against because I don’t think I can be easy and sweet with her.

I’m barely hanging on by my last shred of control.

She glares at me and the golden shimmers in her warm brown eyes tug at my heart, wrapping the tendrils of lust and love around until I feel like she’s possessed me.

My bear huffs and paces inside. He wants to take her.

Hell, I want to take her. I sniff the air and find her cotton candy and spice scent.

Lust sparks in my gut and my dick stretches.

My face heats as I hide behind the door.

I feel like an out of control hormonal teenager.

If the door wasn’t there, she would have a front row seat to how much I want her.

The blanket is tented obscenely in front of me and I grunt and shove myself against the door.

She eyes me curiously, lifting a pale brow. “Just so you know, I’m going to be checking up on you, Mr. Austin Stone. It seems mighty weird that you’re running around in these woods with no clothes on. You’re not one of these weird get-back-to nature hippies or something are you?”

I snort and tug the blanket tighter around me. “Uh, yeah. I’m definitely not that.” I might eat a hippie, but they don’t like bathing. Or at least the last one I ran into didn’t. I wrinkle my nose. I could smell that guy five miles away. There’s no way I even wanted to get near him.

“Well, get in the car. I’ll drop Cody off at my mother’s and then take you on home.”

My brow wrinkles. “Is Cody yours?”

“Of course,” she growls, dropping into the car seat and slamming the door shut.

I slide in slower and search her hands. She’s not wearing a ring. Relief floods me. She’s not married.

But what are the chances that the woman I’ve waited decades for is already taken? Considering my luck lately, I don’t even want to think about that.

Ugh! Love sucks!