Chapter 2

Chapter

Two

DEBBIE

T here was a man—a cowboy—walking toward them.

One who made the cowboy on the billboard they’d passed pale in comparison. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and with an extra swagger in his step. The brown, wide-brimmed hat on his head couldn’t hide his strong jawline even though it shaded his eyes. Long blond hair brushed the tops of his shoulders. Debbie was a huge sucker for a man with nice hair, she could run her fingers through.

Another man hurried up behind him, maybe an inch shorter than the first cowboy but even broader. He was dressed entirely in black, like he thought he was Zorro or something. Normally, Debbie liked that kind of color coordination, but there was something about the other cowboy that caught her attention even more.

Still, they were unknowns, and her brain immediately catalogued all the weapons she had within easy reach. Her cousins liked to joke she should be nicknamed ‘Arsenal’ because of the number of weapons she carried. Right now, she had the stilettos strapped to her thighs, which were reachable using the special pockets in her pants, a small knife strapped to her ankle, the garrote in her hair, and the grenades chilling at the top of the saddlebag closest to her. The rest of her blades were under the grenades.

Of course, the grenades were overkill for this situation. It was just two cowboys, after all.

Have me. Don’t need boom balls, her honey badger huffed. Or pointy things.

Her animal tended to take it as a personal insult that Debbie liked collecting weapons. What could she say? Sure, she liked fighting in her shifter form, but sometimes, she liked kicking a little ass as a human. She had better control over the amount of damage she doled out as a human, and sometimes, tearing off a man’s arm wasn’t actually necessary.

Plus, things that went boom were fun.

Hmph, her grumpy badger responded, clearly not wanting to admit that she was right. Debbie grinned before turning her attention back to the approaching men. She assumed they were shifters, which made her warier than if they were human.

The wind swirled, and Debbie wasn’t the only one of her cousins to take a surreptitious sniff, wanting a better idea of who was heading toward them. All of them were on alert, even if some of them were currently pretending they didn’t notice the incoming cowboys.

Stags . Her honey badger recognized the scent and dismissed them immediately. Not threat.

Debbie rolled her eyes. They probably weren’t a threat, but they were big, muscular males who were probably used to getting their own way. Just because they weren’t predators didn’t mean they were pushovers. Sometimes, her honey badger was just a wee bit overconfident.

Sometimes you paranoid. The honey badger sniffed its disdain, metaphorically turning its back and falling asleep. Except it wasn’t really ‘asleep,’ just tuning her out for the moment.

Yeah, she spent a decent amount of time arguing with her animal half—totally normal.

“Hello, ladies,” the blond cowboy said as he swaggered in close. Now she could see that he had bright blue eyes, just the right amount of scruff all over his square jaw, and freaking dimples when he smiled. Huffy or not, even her honey badger perked back up with interest—stupid animal. “Welcome to the Shady Grove Shifter Rodeo.”

Thor

“Well, hello, cowboys,” one of the honey badgers said. She sidled closer to them, smiling widely. Thor had to admit, she was drop-dead gorgeous. Curved in all the right places, long black hair, a dark tan to her skin tone, startling bright green eyes, and short enough to make him feel all big and manly, while still tall enough, he wouldn’t break his neck bending down to kiss her. “I’m Saskia. These are my cousins.”

His stag dismissed her immediately. It only had eyes for pink-helmet cousin, who was watching him almost warily. No, she didn’t have Saskia’s amazing rack or her stunning features, but she drew him in. Looking at pictures of them side by side, he would have chosen Saskia to flirt with every time, but in the flesh, he barely noticed Saskia.

Ajax, on the other hand, practically tripped over himself to shake her hand.

“Ajax, Beta of the Midwest Herd,” he said. For all his harping about focus, he didn’t seem bothered anymore that Thor had come over here. “This is Thor, my alpha.”

“Ajax?” Saskia asked, tilting her head. “Like in Deadpool?”

Sucking in a breath, Thor shot a warning glance at his beta, but it was unnecessary. Ajax just winced, that goofy smile still plastered on his face as he kept his hold on Saskia’s hand. She was that attractive.

“Uh, like the Greek hero,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “The Battle of Troy?”

“You’ll have to tell me all about it.” Saskia winked at him, and Ajax nearly drooled. If Thor wasn’t so amused, he might have rolled his eyes. He was so going to rib Ajax about this later—even if Saskia was the first pretty face to ever throw him off his game.

Still smiling flirtatiously, Saskia introduced them to her cousins. Apparently, they were all related, at least tangentially. They were also all definitely honey badgers, which made Thor’s stag a little wary. Honey badgers were known for being either totally crazy or total badasses—or an unholy combination of both. Having never met any before, Thor didn’t know if that was true.

Pink helmet was Debbie, and Thor found himself very reluctant to let go of her hand when she was introduced, making her eyes widen in surprise.

“Ever been to a shifter rodeo before, Debbie?” he asked, rolling her name over his tongue. It was short and cute like her. She wasn’t just cute though, she was a sexy little package, and just touching her soft, warm skin, feeling the callouses on her hands, made him want to keep touching her… and touching her…

“Uh, no, first time.” She peered up at him curiously, giving him a look like she was wondering what he was doing.

Her eyes darted to Saskia, then back to him, and he realized she expected him to be focused on her cousin. Thor immediately wondered if Saskia was always the welcoming committee. With her stunning good looks, it was likely most men were completely distracted by her. Ajax sure as hell was. He was practically panting.

“Would you like a tour?”

He should be getting ready for his ride on Maddox, but he could do both. Half of it was just getting in the right headspace, and he knew that wasn’t going to be possible if he knew Debbie was wandering around, meeting all the other cowboys. He could already see men ambling toward them.

His stag muttered inside his head, wanting to stake some kind of claim on the delectable Debbie before any other shifter did.

Why she affected him so strongly, he had no idea, but he knew he couldn’t just walk away from her. He wouldn’t be able to think of anything else if he did. He wasn’t sure his stag would let him, anyway.

“Sure, cowboy,” she said with amusement, seeming to get over her surprise pretty quickly. She looped her arm through his. “Show me the ropes.”

Thor chuckled at her pun, although she could have no idea just how much he’d like to show her all sorts of tricks with ropes. A sudden image of her tied to his bed, trussed up like a present—or a prize—filled his brain, and the front of his jeans pulled tightly across his groin.

“Come on, ladies,” Ajax said, claiming Saskia’s arm. She smiled sunnily at him. “We can show you around.”

Rana, the leader, nodded silently. Thor had recognized her name immediately, of course. A shifter born without the sense of smell? Everyone had heard of her. It didn’t seem to affect the way her cete responded to her, though. She was clearly in charge, but there was a tension among all of the women and it was focused on her.

Out of all the honey badgers, she was the quietest right now, but not in a good way. It was like the quiet before the storm—before someone snapped. Thor didn’t miss the worried glances several of the women shot her when she wasn’t looking. Something was wrong with the honey badger princess.

Well, if she was down about something, the rodeo was definitely the place to be.

In the meantime, he was more interested in her cousin.

Debbie

The rodeo was more than just a rodeo, Debbie quickly realized. There was basically a carnival going on with the rodeo attached. Sure, the audience stands were full, but there were multiple events throughout the day and people going in and out to watch them.

Most of her cousins had already drifted off, either in small groups or with a cowboy escort, to check out the carnival. Normally, Debbie would have been one of them, but she could tell Thor’s real interest was in the events. Hearing him talk about the skills required for each of them made them a lot more interesting. Besides, she didn’t hate having his attention all to herself. She was still a bit surprised he’d gravitated to her over Saskia, but she wasn’t going to complain.

Right now, horse shifters were racing around barrels one by one, competing for the fastest time. Currently riderless, although according to Thor, the next event would be horse shifters with riders, barrel racing. Unlike humans, there were no gender lines drawn. The riders could be male or female, it didn’t matter. It was all about skill and speed.

Debbie decided she liked that, although she didn’t think barrel racing was her speed. Bull riding, however… that sounded like fun. As soon as she found out Thor was a bull rider, she had plenty of questions for him.

“Have you ever ridden a regular bull?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “Most of us start out that way in our teens, but there’s not a lot of challenge to it for a shifter. They’re good practice to start, but we all get bored with it pretty quickly. Staying on top of a bull shifter is much harder.”

“And you’re good at it?” she asked, enjoying his cockiness. What? She liked a confident man. So did her honey badger. It wanted to snuggle up and maybe claw him a little.

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m the best ,” he said, winking. Somehow, he managed to sound as charming as he did arrogant, and Debbie found herself giggling instead of scoffing at his bragging.

“I guess I’ll find out later, won’t I?” she teased. “Assuming you can stay on the bull.”

“Are you doubting me?” he asked, drawing himself up in his seat. There was a twinkle in his blue eyes as he adjusted his hat, pretending to be affronted—mostly pretending. Debbie was pretty sure she’d gotten under his skin a little.

“Well, I’ve never seen you ride. For all I know, you’ll fall off in the first second.”

He snorted. Ooh, now she almost wanted to see him have a bad ride time, just for the fun of it. What? Watching cocky guys get knocked down a peg or two was fun, especially since it usually meant they were more bearable afterward. That he was already enjoyable company was despite his cockiness, not because of it.

“Want to make a bet?” he asked in a low voice, leaning in toward her.

The day was already warm, but now heat zipped through her in an entirely different manner. Her honey badger was into him, too, urging her onward.

Bite, claw… nom nom, stag. Which was her animal’s way of saying it wanted a piece of him.

“What kind of bet?” she asked flirtatiously, leaning toward him as well, so their lips were only a few inches apart. The desire in his blue eyes sparked hot, and one big hand came to rest on her thigh, fingers curving around the limb and making her skin tingle underneath.

“I win the bull riding competition, you come back to my trailer and fulfill all the filthy hot fantasies I’m having about you.”

Debbie’s pussy clenched when he said, ‘filthy hot fantasies’ and wondered if they matched her own. She wasn’t used to being at a man’s beck and call, though, especially in the bedroom. A lot of the men she attracted, even other shifters, were intimidated by the whole honey badger thing. The ones who were cocky enough not to be intimidated could be such assholes that her grumpy honey badger refused to have anything to do with them. Most of her cousins had the same issue.

Some of them slept with the cocky ones and enjoyed cutting them down to size. Debbie had always preferred the guys who let her take charge, even if she’d ultimately get bored when they never spoke up for themselves. Thor’s confidence was attractive, which meant she kept wondering what was wrong with him.

Still, there was no guarantee he would win. She tilted her head at him, raising her eyebrows in challenge.

“And if you don’t?”

His grin widened, fingers pressing against her inner thigh and caressing. The wet heat between her legs swelled in response.

“Then you can come back to my trailer, and I’ll fulfill any filthy hot fantasies you have.”

Pursing her lips, she pretended to think about it, then shrugged.

“I don’t know. If your dick is as big as your ego, there’s no guarantee you’ll know how to use it.” She grinned wickedly up at him, almost daring him to take offense. What? In her experience, the guys with the biggest dicks rarely knew how to use them, relying on size over skill. And Thor’s ego was huge.

Throwing back his head, Thor laughed his ass off, although he didn’t remove his hand from her thigh. Debbie couldn’t stop from grinning in response, even though she wanted to keep poking holes in his confidence.

This time when he leaned back in, his lips brushed against hers when they moved.

“Baby, trust me, no matter who wins this bet, you’re going to be completely satisfied.”

Debbie nipped at his lower lip, but he didn’t jerk back the way most men did. Nope, Thor, the dirty pervert, wrapped his free hand around the back of her neck and turned her nip into a kiss—a panty-melting, knee-weakening, pussy-creaming, full tongue kiss that left her panting.

Good buck , her honey badger said approvingly when he finally pulled back, this time nipping at her lip as he did so.

Fuck, that was hot. If he fucked as good as he kissed, maybe he wasn’t just bragging.