Page 19 of Cowboy Bear’s Hope (Motley Crewd Shifters #3)

A few minutes earlier.

The second I got the text from Avery, I bolted out of her old house on Willow Lane like my life depended on it.

I’d been spending my afternoons there all week packing up Avery and Rosie’s things. The plan was simple.

Move them out of this place and into my cabin permanently.

It was a good plan, solid, and I’d been sticking to it. Mornings on the ranch, afternoons here, evenings with my girls.

Winter had slowed things down at the ranch, anyway. The animals were snug in their barns and milking parlors, well-fed and cozy. The construction projects we’d planned were on hold thanks to the seasonal deep freeze that had settled over Dry Creek.

Mother Nature could be a fickle old bat, for sure.

At her best, she was unpredictable.

At her worst, some Dark Witch’s scapegoat.

Not that I kept up with magical politics.

Bear Shifters didn’t meddle in those things. We had enough on our plates without worrying about who was messing with the climate.

With Max’s permission and Emmet’s grudging acknowledgment, I’d taken the afternoons off to focus on moving Avery and Rosie’s lives into mine.

Permanently. And didn’t that have a nice ring to it?

Lucky for me, Avery wasn’t sentimental about the house itself. She cared more about the memories.

Photo albums.

Rosie’s baby things.

Her grandma’s old cast iron skillet.

The bits and pieces of their life that held meaning. And Avery, being the neat, practical little thing she was, had already boxed up most of it and stored it in the sitting room.

My job was just to haul it out, load it into my truck, and take it home.

But that could wait.

Stuff was just stuff, and compared to my family, it didn’t matter. Not even a little.

I reread the text twice, my heart thundering in my chest, and allowed myself exactly one moment to panic.

One beat of blind, unbridled fear.

Then I moved.

My Grizzly stirred in the metaphysical realm, pawing at the ground like a caged beast, ready to charge.

Anger and vengeance rolled through me in waves, hot and demanding, as the thought of anyone daring to hurt what was mine filled my mind.

Because that’s what this was. Someone was trying to hurt my family.

My mate. My cub.

And they were going to pay.

Oh, fuck yes, they would.

But this was the human world, and there were rules here. Expectations. I couldn’t let my Bear loose, no matter how much he growled and snarled inside me, begging to be unleashed.

It wasn’t easy reining him in.

Hell, it was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. But I would do it. For them. For my girls.

This wasn’t about me.

It wasn’t about my fury, my need to protect, or even my Grizzly’s primal instincts.

It was about them.

Avery and Rosie.

They were my world, my everything. And they were in trouble.

That was all I needed to know.

There wasn’t a thing in this world— or any other —that I wouldn’t do to help them.

To save them. To keep them safe.

Not even the Fates could help anyone who stood in my way.

Hold on, Honey. I’m coming.