Chapter One Preview: Blackstone Ranger Chief

Preview: Blackstone Ranger Chief

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Chapter One

A bride walks into a bar.

No, it wasn’t the start of a bad joke. It was actually happening.

Right now. On a Tuesday night in the middle of January.

And the moment she walked into The Den, she caught Damon Cooper’s attention. But then again, who wouldn’t stare? She sauntered right in like nobody’s business, in a full-on, sparkly, frou-frou white concoction that trailed behind her.

What the hell was going on? And why, Damon wondered, couldn’t he stop looking at her? He hadn’t even seen her face, and now he itched to go over there so he could see the rest of her.

“I’m not seeing things, right?” Gabriel Russel asked, jaw dropped open.

“You mean, that hot, gorgeous little thing?” Anders Stevens piped in with a whistle. “Look at that body. I could get lost in—”

“Are you blind, man?” Daniel Rogers slapped him on the head. “She’s wearing a wedding gown. Obviously, she’s taken.”

“Well, I don’t see a groom anywhere,” Anders said with a shrug. “And what the hell is she doin’ here, walking in dressed like that?”

Damon frowned. What indeed.

“Maybe she’s lost?” Daniel offered.

“Or insane,” Gabriel snorted. “I saw this made-for-TV movie once, where the woman’s been abused by her fiancé. She snaps, kills the guy, and then puts on her wedding gown and drives off with his head on the front seat.”

“So, what you’re saying is, she’s hot and crazy?” Anders raised a dark brow. “Sounds like a good combination.”

“Really? That’s what you gleaned from that story?” Gabriel looked at him incredulously.

“Hey, the craziest girls are the best in the sack,” he said, unashamed.

“Oh, you mean like Darlene?” Gabriel shot back.

Anders winced. “Let’s not talk about that mistake.”

“I thought it was true love when she showed up at HQ, screaming and crying that she was going to kill herself if you didn’t come out and talk to her,” Daniel reminded him. “She’s definitely one of the more memorable ones.”

Anders took a swig of his drink and slammed it down. “Hey, I’m always up-front with women I fuck: One night, no strings. It’s not my fault if they think they could be the one to ‘tame’ me.” He snorted. “No one tames this tiger. Besides it’s not like you two,” he gestured to Gabriel and Daniel, “are innocent virgins knitting at home, waiting for your white knights.”

“Hey, I can’t help it if the ladies can’t get enough of this gorgeous face and hair.” Gabriel shook his thick head of golden hair in an exaggerated manner. The lion shifter really was handsome in the fairy-tale prince kind of way, and it was no wonder he had women fawning over him all the time.

“The only reason you haven’t committed to anyone yet are those nosy sisters of yours, pretty boy,” Daniel said.

“They’re protective, that’s all,” Gabriel retorted. “I’m their only brother and the youngest, too.”

“Speaking of the fabulous Russel sisters, do you think lionesses would go for a tiger?” Anders raised his brow.

Daniel nearly choked on his drink. “They’ll eat you alive.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

Gabriel’s handsome face twisted in anger. “You stay away from my sisters, Stevens,” he said with a quiet roar.

Damon was only half listening to their banter as his gaze was still fixed on the female. It was like the moment she entered the room; he couldn’t turn away.

She was now seated on one of the barstools, waving an arm out to catch Tim Grimes’s attention. The hulking polar bear was the owner of The Den, and on slow nights like this, he tended the bar. His back was turned to her, and when he finally did turn around, the look on the normally humorless bar owner was that of complete and utter shock.

The woman said something Damon couldn’t make out. Even though he was a bear shifter and had heightened senses, they were still too far away. Tim looked at her, then pulled out a bottle of tequila from the shelf, filled up a shot glass before sliding it across the bar to her. With a nod of thanks, she knocked back the entire glass.

Anders rubbed his hands together. “Woohoo. Tequila is the mating call of desperate women. I think that’s my signal, boys. I—Chief?”

Damon didn’t even realize he had slammed his palm on Anders’s chest to stop him from proceeding forward. What the fuck?

To his credit, Anders didn’t say anything or take offense. He merely took a half step back.

“You okay, boss?” Daniel asked, a concerned look on his face.

As chief of the Blackstone Rangers—a position he’d only held for six months—he was technically their boss. But he’d worked with them for five years now, and he also considered them friends, Gabriel especially since they’d known each other since grade school.

“Yeah,” he swallowed as his breathing became shallow. “I’m fine.”

Gabriel’s expression turned serious. “I know this is a lot for you, being out here.” The lion shifter lowered his voice. “I wouldn’t have suggested it except that you’ve been working your ass off for a week and deserve to relax. Plus, it’s Tuesday, so I thought it wouldn’t be packed. But with that blizzard keeping everyone cooped up last week, most people are rarin’ to get out.”

Right now, there were maybe a dozen people spread across the floor, but when he imagined it full of patrons, it was enough to make his chest tighten, and his bear started to get antsy. To say that crowds weren’t their thing was a big understatement. The animal growled, and pain burst from behind his chest as its claws raked and its block head slammed against its human cage.

Back in high school, his tenaciousness on the football field had earned him the nickname The Demon, and he had carried it through his career in the Special Forces. But now it seemed the moniker was apt for different reasons. Reasons he’d rather forget.

He focused his attention on the woman. “I need a drink,” he declared before stomping off toward the bar.

His eyes never left the woman in the wedding dress. Though her back was turned to him, he could see that she had long blonde hair tumbling down her bare shoulders and back. The crystal-studded torso clung to her curves, then fabric poofed out around her knees. As he drew nearer, his bear went eerily still. His gaze was fixed on the top of her head when she turned around.

Vivid blue eyes the color of pansies met his straight on, unblinking. Her face was … perfection. A pert nose, high cheekbones, golden tanned skin, and lush lips that parted with a sharp breath. Locks and locks of shiny golden hair framed around her face.

But the thing that had made him and his bear stand up and take notice was the feeling that slammed into their chest.

Mine.

What. The. Fuck.

The Demon in him roared at the discovery. Honestly, Damon had thought that after that incident—the incident—landed him an honorable discharge from the army, his bear would be too broken and damaged to recognized its mate.

Or maybe it was and she wasn’t their mate. After all, she was in a wedding gown so that meant she was taken, right?

The growl from The Demon rattled from his chest and was so loud, it made Tim snap his head toward him. “You all right there, Chief?” the polar bear shifter asked, a bushy white brow raised high.

“I-I’m fine. Whiskey, please,” he said in a hoarse voice. “Double shot.”

The woman—his mate—had turned away from him and was now hunched over her shot glass, which Tim had apparently refilled. Before he could even take a breath into his now rapidly-deflating lungs, she wrapped her fingers around the glass and drank the shot straight, pulling her head back dramatically so her blonde curls shook like waves of gold. Although she grimaced, she managed to slam the shot glass down and then waved her hand at Tim.

“Excuse me, bartender. Sir,” she called out. “Can I have another, please?”

Her voice was soft and delicate, her tone posh and polite. Where did this woman come from? She certainly wasn’t from Blackstone. Except for his stint in the army, he’d lived here all his life, and he would have recognized her. Hell, he wouldn’t have been able to forget her if their paths had crossed before.

As if sensing she was staring at him, her head turned, and her pansy-colored gaze narrowed at him. “Why don’t you take a picture? It’ll last longer,” she snapped.

There was a spark of fire in her, and it only lit up his nerve endings—in a good way. His body was practically vibrating with need, and The Demon roared approvingly at their mate.

Clenching his teeth, he turned away and grabbed the glass Tim had set in front of him. He tossed a bill on the bar, not bothering to wait for his change.

Fuck me. He never thought he would meet his mate. Most shifters didn’t have one, at least as far as he knew. His own parents, who were both Kodiak bear shifters like him, weren’t mates, and they seemed content. No one really knew how you could find or meet your mate, but rather, you just knew. But that woman—that possibly married woman—was the other half of his soul?

No thank you.

The Demon did not like that one bit. It wanted him to go back and claim her, declare to the world who she was.

Not happening, he told his bear. They were not fit for a mate. Not since the incident. And certainly not after the fallout from it. He couldn’t risk it. Not again.

Gabriel looked at him with concern. “You okay, man?”

Damon considered the lion shifter one of his best friends. He was the one who pulled him out from the darkness when he came home after being discharged. Kept him distracted after what happened and tried to make his life somewhat normal again. And, despite hating the outdoors, Gabriel even applied for the job with the rangers with him so he could keep him company throughout the training period, and even stuck around all these years when Gabriel didn’t even need a job or the paycheck.

“Yeah.” Damon took a swig of the whiskey. The burn did nothing to calm The Demon down, but the taste helped to ground him. Thankfully, it took a lot of liquor to get a shifter drunk, which was the only reason he didn’t turn into a raging alcoholic or drug addict after leaving the Special Forces.

“So, is she even hotter up close?” Anders said.

A growl got stuck in his throat as Damon managed to control his bear. “Didn’t notice.” The animal chuffed. Lie. Total lie, it seemed to say as it shook its fur. Their mate was gorgeous. The most beautiful female in the world.

“Better make your move, Anders,” Daniel said. “Looks like we’re not the only ones who noticed her.”

Damon whipped his head back to the bar. Two men had approached her and stood on either side, trying to engage her in conversation. But she didn’t acknowledge them and instead waved to Tim to refill her shot glass again.

Good.

Though she continued to ignore them and hunched further around her shot glass, the males didn’t seem to pay her disinterest any mind. They continued their efforts to gain her attention, their voices getting louder even as she pretended not to hear them and took another shot of tequila.

The glass in his hand cracked audibly as his fist tightened around it.

“Jesus, Damon, what the fuck?” Anders exclaimed as bits of broken glass exploded around them.

His entire body froze as one of the men drew closer, his arm going around her shoulders, which she shrugged right off. The snarl that escaped his throat was inhuman, and before he knew it, he was stalking back to the bar.

“… please get your hands off me,” she said in a polite tone even as she shrugged the man’s arm away again.

“Aww, darlin’, don’t be like that,” the man slurred. “I just wanna get to know—”

“The lady doesn’t want your company,” Damon growled.

The man’s spine stiffened, then he turned around. “Why don’t you mind your bus—Jesus Christ!”

Sweat and panic rolled off the man as Damon opened his mouth to bare his growing fangs. Human, Damon’s shifter senses told him. Probably a tourist wanting to have a look-see at the shifters living in Blackstone. The Den was a known shifter hangout, after all.

We can’t hurt him. They’d shred the man into ribbons without breaking a sweat.

But The Demon couldn’t be reasoned with, not in this state, not when it was seeing red. It wanted to rip the man’s arms off for touching what was theirs. Another inhuman growl rattled from his chest, and he knew that the muscles underneath his skin were moving as The Demon fought for control.

“Fuck!” The man yelped as a hand that was human, but now sprouting fur, wrapped around his neck. Black claws were extending from the tip, scraping against the man’s delicate skin.

“Damon, calm the fuck down.”

It sounded like Gabriel, but the blood roaring in Damon’s ears was too loud. The Demon was ready to kill.

A gigantic paw covered in white fur slammed down on the bar so hard, the various shot glasses and mugs clattered across the surface. “Can it, Chief,” Tim ordered. The older man was not someone to be messed with, both in human and polar bear form. “This is my bar, and you know the rules. No shifting.”

Despite the fear Damon could still taste in the air, the man smiled smugly at him. “You heard him. Let go of me.”

He bared his teeth one last time at the offending human, then loosened his grip and dropped his hands to his sides.

“I see you know your place.” The man spat on the ground. “Filthy animal.”

There was a loud roar, and though Damon thought it had come from him, he was wrong. It was Tim who let out the teeth-rattling, bone shaking growl.

“Oh shit!” Someone—Daniel, it sounded like—exclaimed before all hell broke loose.

Tim slammed both paws on the bar and then hopped over in one leap. For a huge man, who also turned into the largest bear in the world, he moved quickly, and soon he was advancing toward the two humans as his bones cracked and fur began to sprout all over his body.

“Fuck!” They couldn’t let Tim harm those humans. The anti-shifter organizations would be all over the place with their damn protests. “Guys—”

“We’re on it, Chief.” Anders cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders, then charged toward Tim. The tiger shifter could be lethal even without shifting into his animal form.

Damon’s next concern, of course, was the woman. He had to get her out—

“What the hell?”

She was gone.

The Demon roared in urgency, and pushed him forward and out the door. He didn’t sniff her scent, so he couldn’t track her with his nose, but there was only one exit here.

It didn’t take him too long to find her; she was like a beacon in that gown as she walked out of the parking lot toward the darkened road. There was an oncoming truck that she didn’t see as she continued to lumber forward.

With his superhuman speed, he caught up to her just as she was about to step into the truck’s path, then grabbed her arm. Unfortunately, he forgot his own strength as he pulled her, sending them both to the ground. His back slammed into concrete as puffs of tulle and a soft body landed on top of him.

“Hey!”

Arms grappled his as she pushed herself off him. As she struggled to get up, he groaned as her knees hit his abdomen. At least she didn’t aim lower.

Her weight lifted off him as she scrambled to the side. He got to his feet and let out another groan as he felt a different pain from his nether regions. She was on all fours and her gown had pushed her cleavage up, breasts nearly bursting from the top of her neckline. Fuck, his zipper was practically imprinting on his dick.

Brushing herself off, she got up. “Whaddidya you do that for?” she slurred. “I … it’s you.”

The tequila was strong on her breath, and she swayed on her feet. “Are you okay, miss?”

“Me? I’m fiiiine …” She hiccupped. “I just … I don’t usually drink that much.” Her eyes were unfocused. “Are you …”

Her body fell forward, and he easily caught her. His arms slipped around her waist and pulled her against his chest. As her sweet scent wrapped around him, he cursed inwardly. The Demon, on the other hand, yowled with delight.

Yowl with delight? That damned bear didn’t like anything or anyone. It hated almost everything in the world.

“You have pretty eyes.” She was looking straight up at him. “They’re so green.” Her hand reached up to cup his jaw, and his spine—and other parts of him—went stiff.

“Uh … miss, can I take you home? Or to your hotel? Should I call your husband?” That last part left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“I’m not … no husband.” She frowned, and her hands dropped to her sides. “I ran away. Jilted him at the altar, as they say.”

Relief poured through him. So, she wasn’t married. Of course, that didn’t mean she was free. “Where do you live, miss? Maybe I can call your family or something.”

“Nowhere. Not anymore,” she bawled, tears springing to her eyes. “I can’t go back now. Not after what I’ve done.”

Goddamn, he hated waterworks, but seeing her cry made him want to rip something apart. But he didn’t know how to comfort her. “How about a friend, maybe you can stay with a friend? Do you know someone in town? How did you get here?”

“I drove,” she stated.

“From?”

“From the church.”

“Which church?” He scrambled for names of nearby churches. “Saint Joseph’s in Greenville? Or the one in Verona Mills?”

“All Saints Episcopalian,” she said.

“I’ve never heard of that one. Is that the one on seventy-five?”

“It’s back home.”

“And where is home?”

She smiled dreamily. “Why, in Albuquerque, silly.”

“Albu—as in New Mexico?” he asked incredulously.

“Is there another Albuquerque?”

Christ. That was about an eight-hour drive from here. How in the world did she get all the way to Blackstone? And what was he going to do now? “I can’t leave you out here, miss. Is there somewhere I can take you to? A motel? Or the hospital?”

“You can take me home.”

The Demon thought that was a very good idea, but he pushed those thoughts away. “I don’t think—” He stopped as her head rolled back and her eyes closed. Then she started snoring softly, and her body turned into a dead weight in his arms.

Goddammit.