Page 42 of Kentucky Nights (Dead Man’s Ranch #1)

I’m so tired of her betrayal seeping further into me. If I had known about him, he would have had a chance of being a decent man.

Not…this.

“Audrey Reese, you know her, don’t you?”

“Audrey? Your maker?” Dru asks.

“Shut up. No one is talking to you. Be a good woman and keep your fucking mouth shut.”

“Don’t talk to her like that!” I snarl, the bull slinging me to the left for punishment.

“Don’t talk to me like that, and maybe your death won’t be so painful.”

Dru covers her mouth to catch a loud sob.

“Get me free from this bull, and we can talk, okay? I don’t have much time left. You obviously want answers, and I want to give them to you—” I try to stay as still as possible, the agony becoming more unbearable. “Son.”

I add the term of endearment in hopes it will ease his vendetta against me.

“You don’t have the fucking right.” He shoves Dru across the arena, and she slams against the railing, falling unconscious.

“Dru!”

Louisville stands in front of me, clutching the bull’s other horn to have more control.

“You killed my mother.” He leans in, swiping blood off the horn.

“You killed her before I knew her. Do you know my grandfather lost Reese Railroads? He went bankrupt trying to figure out what happened to Audrey. No one knew until I ran across a demon and a warlock who had a fortune teller in their custody. She painted a pretty picture of you staking my mother through the heart. She hadn’t turned more vampires or brought more kids to him to raise as bloodborns.

Do you know how much more powerful bloodborns are than someone like me?

Because she had to settle for a pathetic human like you, and you turned her down!

You turned down the chance for us to be a family! ”

Spit flies from his mouth with every hatred-filled word twisted from his tongue.

“I didn’t know about you. I had no idea she was pregnant. She must have kept it from me. She—” It dawns on me, a memory reawakening in the forefront of my mind when I asked her if she ever mystified me.

She had.

She had altered my memories.

The hit to the soul has me coughing up my blood.

“I didn’t know,” I wheeze. “She manipulated me. She used the ability to mystify. Audrey altered my mind so I wouldn’t know she was pregnant. She hid that from me.”

“Liar!” Louisville wraps a hand around my throat. “She wouldn’t do that. She was a good person. She would have been a good mom.”

The agony of missing what he never could have fills his eyes as he stares me with daggers. Tears race down his face.

He’s just a boy missing his mom.

“I wish I could tell you she was a good person, Louisville. I really do. I want to be able to say that.”

“You should, since you’re on your dying breath. Why aren’t you lying? Why aren’t you trying to save yourself? Are you so self-righteous that you can’t even do that?” he yells so loud his voice breaks.

“I killed her because she turned me into something I never wanted. I never wanted to be this creature. I longed for death.” My eyes dart to Dru, who is pushing herself up into a seated position, leaning against the rails that surround the arena.

Blood drips down her temple, face, and neck, gathering at the collar of her shirt.

“Until now,” I add, longing for my fated mate. “I don’t want to die now. I want to spend eternity with my mate.”

He steps back, looking me up and down. “The audacity you have to ask me to save you for another woman. You hated my mother so much for the gift she gave you, killed her, and now you appreciate what she did? So you can live happily ever after? Something you took away from my mother?”

“I didn’t know how to appreciate it then, but I do now.” I tilt my head back, needing one deep breath.

The night is painted in a billion constellations, giving me what I’ve always wanted—to die under the star-filled sky.

I’m not dying without a fight.

“You could have been my father, and I’m so happy you’re not.” He stares at the bull; the poor animal has my blood dripping down his chest from being forced to carry the weight of me. “Kill them,” he orders.

Gunpowder paws the ground, snorting a fuming breath, and charges at Dru. Time slows when the bull gains speed. Every thunderous step brings more pain, but I don’t care about that. Dru is seconds away from dying.

The bull tilts his head to plow into her, and it’s enough for me to use his momentum and the rest of my strength to become freed. Nothing else matters except getting to Dru.

I dig down into the roots of my soul for energy, speeding to her, and curl over her, taking another spear through my shoulder.

“Ahh!” I scream, shouting my agony to the sky.

The bull pulls away, wanting enough distance to charge.

“He will never stop trying to kill you. He has no other thoughts anymore. His brain is wiped clean.”

“Kentucky. I love you. I love you so fucking much,” Dru says, pressing her shaking hands against my wounds. “You’ll be okay. You have to be. You have to be okay. We aren’t done. We can’t be done. I just…I just got you.”

I cup her face with my bloody hand, pressing my forehead against hers. “I love you too, Darlin’. From the moment I saw you, I loved you.”

“I don’t want us to die,” she whispers, peering over my shoulder to the bull. “Bite me. Complete the bond.”

“Not like this. I won’t take advantage of your will.”

Dru’s murderous scream causes my ears to ring when Gunpowder’s horn pierces my other shoulder.

It doesn’t hurt anymore.

“My will?”

The bull backs away again.

“I don’t give a damn about my will!” Dru palms the back of my head, forcing me to her neck. “You carry my will in your hands every day. My will means nothing without you. Bite me so we can have a chance of that happily ever after.”

I hate the circumstance. I’m too weak to deny her offer when I want it so badly. Sinking my fangs into her vein is more than I’ve ever dreamed. Her skin gives without resistance, her blood pouring down my throat to heal the deepest wounds that have stained my bones.

Wrapping an arm around her, I groan from how fucking good she tastes. I pull her close, her hands still applying pressure to my wounds as she gasps with every drag I take.

My enhanced hearing begins to work again, and I can hear the pounding of the bull’s steps closing in.

Danger is close, and it isn’t enough to stop my body’s reaction to having my fated’s blood for the first time. My cock is hard. Her body is warm. Her blood is weighed with oxytocin, fueling every chamber of my heart with her desire.

I blur us out of the way in the nick of time, the bull’s head bending the metal railing from his power. His horns become stuck, which only piss him off further. He bucks and wails, doing his best to free himself.

Instincts have me biting into my own wrist and pressing it against her lips. Her eyes round in surprise, but she doesn’t question me. She holds onto my forearm, drinking to bind us.

The final step.

An orange glow lifts from my chest while a neon purple swirls from hers. They twist together and become one, floating back into our bodies.

We sit there staring at one another, my arm still wrapped around her tight, pressing our bodies together so I know she’s safe. The wound on her neck scars over, and the scent of death vanishes.

“Well, isn’t that unfortunate.”

Faster than he can take another step, I draw my gun hidden in my boot and fire.

Sinking a silver-plated wooden bullet through his heart.

His hand is slow, pressing against his bleeding wound, before he pulls it back to look at it. “You shot me?”

I stand, my strength renewed. My wounds need another few hours to fully heal, but they are well on their way. I keep Dru at my side as we walk to him, my gun still heavy and at the ready in my hand.

“You never threaten a cowboy and live to see another day, Son. Especially one who is quick on the draw.”

“You’d shoot your own son?” He falls to his knees, struggling to stay alive when his skin begins to flake into ash.

He falls onto his back, staring up at the same night I’ve dreamed about dying under. I didn’t have a choice. I had to kill him. Dru would have never been safe with him lurking around.

His hate, his need for blood, for violence, that’s what killed him. I simply pulled the trigger to finally put him out of his misery.

I do what any parent does. I sit down, pick his head up, and place him in my lap.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t around, so you wouldn’t hold so much anger inside you. You and I are a lot alike in that sense. If I had known about you, I would have been there.”

He lifts his hand for me to take. The angry man has vanished, and now all I see is a lost little boy. I hold onto it, my own tears bursting free, knowing I killed my own boy.

“I’m sorry, but I had to protect what’s mine.”

“It’s okay,” he rasps. “I can be with Mom.”

“I can take him from here.” Lorcan arrives, covered in the blood of all the lives my son killed. “His soul calls to me.”

“No. I want to be with him. He doesn’t deserve to die alone.” The breeze drifts in, carrying away ash peeling from his face.

“I bet you would have been a good dad,” Louisville says with tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. You’re okay.” I choke on a sob, running my fingers through his hair until there’s nothing there but piles of ash.

He’s gone.