Dead of Winter (Battle of the Bulls #2) - T. S. Joyce Page 0,57

Raven asked her, utterly stunned. “For me?”

“Well, it wasn’t really a risk if I knew what was going to happen. Ah ha! Here you go.” Cheyenne handed a ballpoint pen up to her. It had a logo with a worm on it.

Raven frowned at it. “What’s Willa’s Worms?”

Cheyenne shrugged. “I dunno. I like it because the little cartoon worm is cute. I have a few of them. They’re my good-luck pens.”

Raven skimmed the short contract, only good for this week so she wasn’t being locked into bucking for the circuit. She signed it and handed it back to Cheyenne. “Do you mind if I go see my family? Are you okay here by yourself?”

“Oh, yeah, Two Shots already bucked. He’s changing, and he’ll be here any second. Hey, Raven?”

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Take stock of this moment. You just kept up with bull shifters who have spent their whole lives training for these events. And you did it with no coaching and no prep.” She arched her eyebrows. “Your animal is one of a kind.”

And for a second, Raven could only stand there in shock. Oh, she knew her animal was one of a kind, but that had never been a compliment until now.

Are you sure you belong here?

That was the question that pretty cowgirl had asked her last week at the rodeo.

Last week, she hadn’t known about rodeos or bucking or the work involved behind the scenes. She’d just wanted to meet a bull shifter with a human parent so she could, perhaps, get to understand herself better. Get some answers to the questions that had burned her up all her life. She’d wanted to learn how to control the animal better and hide the animal better, but that’s not the lesson Dead and his herd had offered her.

They’d given her something so much better.

They’d taught her to appreciate her animal and, in turn, she appreciated herself more. This was the first time in her life she felt okay. Better than okay. She felt…normal here.

Are you sure you belong here?

She looked down in Dead’s chute as his rider was sliding onto the back of him. She knew how he felt now. Now, she was familiar with the adrenaline, the surge of power, and that pinpoint focus to put a rider in the arena dirt.

Dead, Dead, he twisted his head and looked up at her. Her heart filled with such pride for the man she loved.

She knew this life now. She knew herself. She knew him.

Hell, yeah, she belonged.

Chapter Eighteen

Raven tried to sneak up on the VIP box to scare her mom, but Annabelle was facing her way, talking to Dead’s dad, and she spied her.

She pitched an excited scream into the universe and caught Raven’s hug in the aisle behind their seats.

Annabelle was so ramped up, she jogged in place and squeezed the life out of Raven with her hug, but who needed oxygen anyway? It felt so good to see her and her parents, who were now waiting behind Annabelle to hug her.

She made her rounds and then squared up to Dead’s dad, offered her hand. “I’m Raven.”

“Girl, you’re more than Raven.” He jerked his chin up to the big screen television mounted above the seats on the other side of the arena. It was a slow-motion segment of her ride.

“You’re one hell of a shifter, too, Hagan’s Lace,” he said with a wink.

“Oooooh, that’s where Dead gets his charm from. It’s from youuuu,” she teased.

“Taught that boy everything he knows,” he rumbled. “I’m Liam. It’s sure good to meet you. Dead has sent me about four hundred texts this week about you. Seems he’s a little smitten. And between you and me? That boy don’t get attached to people easy. Come on, sit down. We got another round of beers headed our way, and my boy is about to buck.”

She took the seat right up front by Annabelle and cheered her brains out as she gripped the railing in front of her.

The announcer’s voice echoed through the arena. “Hailing from Montana, he’s the baddest of the bad, the maddest of the mad, and has a near-spotless record for throwing riders. I see those signs out there, ladies. I know you showed up for this bull. Takes no shit as a human and murderous as a bull, he’s the best of both worlds, but he’s got his hands full tonight. For his first ride, Roddy Brander is making a run for a top spot in the Battle of the Bulls