but he wouldn’t be fast enough.
Gasping, he turned and tensed his legs. He had no other choice but to jump over her, hoping her tossing head wouldn’t hook him with one of her horns.
“It’s okay.” He didn’t know why he told her that right now, but it felt important. This wasn’t Raven. This animal had nothing to do with the sweet girl he’d fallen for.
It’s okay. Those were the words she’d first uttered to him in the rodeo arena. The words that made him stop to think about what he was doing.
The monstrous, pitch-black animal locked her legs against her forward motion, her glossy black hooves digging into the arena dirt as she halted.
She stopped inches from his boots, her head at his chest. Three breaths was all she blew before she morphed into her human skin with a barrage of pops. A black cloud of smoke enveloped her but slowly cleared to reveal his Raven—pale-skinned, tattooed, wild-haired, round-eyed Raven, panting as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared up at him.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
And there was a loaded moment when no one said anything. One loaded piece of time when everyone stared at her with what-the-hell-just-happened looks on their faces.
And then Dead let off a whoop, and the others went off at the same time.
“That was awesome!” Dead told her as the others were cheering and freaking out around them. He fell to his knees in the dirt in front of her and yanked off his shirt. He pulled it down over her head and dragged her against his chest. Even Cheyenne was screaming something about “the coolest thing she’d ever seen!”
“You never have to be sorry, Raven. You shouldn’t be sorry for her.”
“For her,” she repeated shakily as she sat there, melted against Dead’s rocking body.
“Oh, yeah, your cow is totally separate from you. She’s not Raven. She’s Other.”
“Other, other,” she chanted, her body shaking with adrenaline.
Dead rubbed warmth into her arms. “What’s her name?”
Raven shrugged, her eyes round with shock. “I don’t know.”
“Her name is Lace then,” Dead murmured, still on a high from the look of her tattooed hide.
“Hagan’s Lace,” Quickdraw murmured from beside them. “I’d bet my truck you could give some of those Hagan bulls a run for their money.”
“She’s really okay?” she asked, and he could tell she still had that lingering insecurity and needed reassurance. Sweet Raven.
“She’s a badass,” Dead rumbled, squeezing her shoulders.
“Hagan’s Lace,” she repeated in a whisper. The black was fading from her eyes as she searched Dead’s face. “I like that.”
Chapter Thirteen
“What kind of grown man drinks Capri Suns?” Two Shots asked Dead.
Dead didn’t answer. He just looked Two Shots dead in the eyes as he drained the package of sugary beverage.
He sighed loudly and pointed to Raven sitting on the fence next to him. “You can’t question my manhood, Moo Shots. I got a Hagan riding shotgun.” He grinned. “Shotgun is what I named my dick.”
“Dude!” Two Shots groused as Raven and Cheyenne cackled.
Even Quickdraw pursed his lips against a smile, and that one never smiled.
Raven was settling into man-banter better. She had Dead to thank for that. He was the king of the one-liners. She appreciated his talent in verbal sparring. Like right now? She was barely even blushing.
Cheyenne was standing below them, typing away on her phone. “What are you up to, boss lady?” Dead asked. “You been ignoring all this intelligent conversation to stare at your phone. You know, cell phones can become an addiction. Do we need to have an intervention?”
Cheyenne didn’t even look up from it as she muttered, “Your conversations are never intelligent, and I can multitask. I’ve heard every dumb thing you boys have said. I’m editing pictures and talking to Tommy.”
“Tommy who?” Two Shots asked. “We know, like, eight Tommys.”
“Tommy Hane. You know, I’m just texting with the organizer of the whole Pro Bull Shifter Riding Circuit. No big deal.”
“My baby’s a businesswoman,” Two Shot’s said proudly from where he was leaning on the fence next to his mate.
Cheyenne snickered. “All three of y’all are about to be real happy I’m working right now.”
“Oh, yeah?” Quickdraw said. “And why’s that?”
Cheyenne finally looked up at them. “Go check your bank accounts, boys. Y’all are welcome.”
Dead, Two Shots, and Quickdraw all wore matching expressions of utter confusion as they pulled their phones out of their back pockets.
Quickdraw was apparently the quickest at getting into his online banking. “Holy shit,” he muttered, his dark eyes going wide as he stared