Awakening the Beast Read online

  Intent on dismissing Kelly’s words, Alexis opened her mouth to speak. Ryder interjected before she could, taking Kelly’s claim and running with it. He held out his arms. “I’m your man,” he declared. “Put me to work.” He grinned. “Teach me how to give a proper noodle whipping, and I will teach your men how to tame a wild beast.” He laughed. “Or I can rope and wrangle cattle. Whatever you need.” He shook his head. “Well. I might draw the line at shoveling shit, but then, a good meal can convince a man to do a lot of things.”

  She tried not to read anything into the “I’m your man” statement, but it was hard not to. Maybe because he was the first man to get her attention in too long to remember. She was more than attracted to Ryder; something about him made her comfortable. But none of this changed the bottom line. She didn’t have any extra money. Heck, she was barely keeping her current crew fed and housed.

  “I couldn’t pay you what you are worth,” she said, unwilling to confess her inability to pay. She didn’t need that getting around and spooking her men. If the ranch faltered in even the tiniest way, she was liable to lose it.

  “Keep me away from the confines of the local motel,” he urged, “and that’s payment enough.” She hesitated, and he added, “Save a cowboy, Alexis.” His voice lowered. “Save me.”

  Awareness swirled in her limbs. Why did she feel as if they were talking about something more than keeping him out of a motel? Save him? Good gosh, his expertise might help save her. Still. As much as she needed help, this was too good to be true. “I doubt my little ranch even begins to compare to what you are used to. You might prefer a motel.”

  “Try me,” he pressed. “You might be surprised.”

  She already was. Surprised she was entertaining this idea as seriously as she was. He reached for his cell phone, yanked it off his belt and punched a key. “Talk to my boss back at Jaguar. He’ll tell you I’m trustworthy.”

  Her eyes went wide. “No. No. That’s okay.”

  Ryder hesitated, studied her a moment. “You have a fax machine, right?” She nodded. “I’ll have my references faxed over. I insist.” She hesitated, and then gave him the number, watching as he punched it into his cell phone memory. “Save me from motel hell, Alexis. Give me a bunk with the guys and a big, wide-open sky. Make Round Rock bearable.”

  Alexis shook her head and smiled at his insistence. The man could be very persuasive. And Big W didn’t raise no fool. The experience this stranger had gained working in an operation like Jaguar’s might bring something they were missing to the table. And she needed that something before the bank foreclosed on the ranch. And bringing on a new hand would send a signal to the crew that things were good. “You’re here for personal business, you said. Only a few weeks?”

  “I won’t outstay my welcome,” he said. “If that’s what you’re worried about.”

  She wasn’t worried he’d outstay his welcome. She was worried she’d start depending on him, and then he’d leave. She inhaled, her chest suddenly tight with emotion she didn’t want to feel. Her gaze lifted to the sky as the rain began to fall. The rain she hoped would wash away the damn tears she didn’t want Ryder or anyone else around her to see.

  Chapter 3

  Ryder maneuvered his truck past the wooden gates of Big W Ranch, trailing Alexis as she drove the bumpy dirt path. He remotely remembered Big W Ranch. Remembered his father mentioning Big W’s little girl—Alexis. She had been a toddler when he’d been attacked. An innocent child who might have been a victim as easily as anyone else. And now, life had come full circle. Demons—Darkland Beasts as they were known to the Knights—had found their way back to Round Rock, hunting innocents again as they had hunted him. Perhaps they’d find Alexis this time if he didn’t stop them. He’d picked up their scent back at the bar, his senses raw with the taint of their presence, his nerves on edge ever since.

  He reached up and flipped the windshield wipers on high; the rain pounding on his windshield created more unease within Ryder. Huge droplets melted into each other one after another, crashing over metal and glass, erasing his chances of properly evaluating his surroundings.

  Following Alexis’s lead, Ryder pulled into a circular drive in front of a two-story house, its beaming floodlights fighting the darkness of the storm. He killed the engine and watched Alexis and Kelly exit their vehicle. Alexis waved him forward, but he didn’t move. Instead, he watched the two women run toward the high porch a few feet away, rain drenching their clothes and hair. At the top of the stairs, they paused under the cover of the overhang, glanced in his direction and talked together, both fumbling with wet hair and clothes as they did.

  More than happy to give them space to talk, Ryder took a moment by himself to consider his next move. Because with each passing moment, the circumstances he’d come upon grew more complex, more in need of careful evaluation.

  He could damn near taste the stench of Demons. They were close. His fingers tightened on the steering wheel, gripping so he wouldn’t reach for the saber shoved beneath his seat. The Demons were here, inside this ranch, eating it away from the inside out—Demons that would not die without decapitation, without the use of his sword. Yet, to stay near Alexis, to keep her and her people safe, he could not make a rash move and scare her—and getting out of the truck with blades strapped to his body qualified as rash.

  His gaze captured Kelly entering the house, leaving Alexis alone, waiting on him. Ryder quickly shoved open the truck door, no less reluctant to exit without his weapons than moments before, but accepting that he had no choice. And certainly he was not reluctant to be near Alexis again.

  Alexis. She set him on fire; she called to him in a soul-deep way. He felt what she felt—ached from the loss of a father who she had not admitted losing, worried about the loss of a ranch that she had not admitted was in danger. She was his mate. There was no other explanation.

  The wind thrust rain against his body, soaking him within moments of his feet touching the ground. Heaviness settled in his heart, even as the anticipation of being near Alexis made it pound faster, harder. There were Knights who were centuries older than he, Knights who struggled without a mate, slowly eroding from the inside out. For each Knight had been touched by a Beast, and that taint lived forever on his soul—until a mate bound the darkness within, the Beast within, and freed him forever. It was a struggle Ryder hadn’t experienced yet, still young and in control. So what made him, a Knight only twenty-five years, worthy of salvation over them?

  He knew nothing of the answer, but nevertheless, as he charged up the steps toward her, he could not deny the protectiveness she summoned from him, nor the fierceness of her emotions as they wrapped around him, flowed through him.

  Only a few steps separated them as he drew to a halt under the lighted enclosure; her wet hair plastered to her lovely face, showing her true beauty. Long, dark lashes framed worried brown eyes. Only a foot separated them, and that was too much. He wanted to protect her, but he wanted more than her safety. He wanted her.

  Alexis tilted her chin upward, her gaze searching his, heat sparking between them, borne of a connection that went beyond desire. Possessiveness flared in him, a primal burn that reached beyond the man and stirred the Beast within. “Come inside,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

  He didn’t argue. Inside, close to her, was where he belonged. In her bed was where he belonged. Ryder followed her through the door, and forced down the Beast that pressed him to grab her and pull her close. To kiss those wet lips dry. Because making love to her might be as rash as getting out of that truck with swords drawn. She might pull him close now and push him away tomorrow.

  And that wasn’t an option. Not now. He hoped not later. But deep down he knew there were complications, reasons that might defy the bond of mates. Reasons she couldn’t leave, reasons he couldn’t take her with him.

  Alexis was thankful to have Kelly home safely, but in the process of bringing her home, she’d also brought home Ryder. Growing up on a
ranch, she’d certainly seen many a cowboy exchange labor for room and board. She’d learned not to ask questions, to be glad for the help. But Ryder wasn’t one of those men; he was different in ways she had yet to understand.

  Shoving open the front door of the house, Alexis walked inside, her hand resting on the door as she welcomed Ryder inside, her mind processing her intense reaction to him.

  He hesitated on the doorstep, eyeing his boots and then her. “I’m pretty muddy.”

  “As am I,” she said, waving her hand at her own feet and pointing out the trail of mud on the floor. “It appears Kelly was, too.” She eased farther behind the door to allow his entry. Memories floated through her mind, an image of her father that stabbed painfully in her gut. She shoved it aside. “This house has seen far worse than a little mud.”

  Thunder rumbled directly overhead, the walls of the house shaking, as if urging him forward. “Come in,” she encouraged, a chill making her shiver as the air conditioning kicked on, the vent above her head spraying her wet skin with chilly air.

  Ryder obeyed, stepping into the narrow hallway leading to the rest of the house. The potency of his presence was instant, intense. Alexis inhaled, Ryder’s big body close, his impact on her more devastating to her senses than she thought possible. She wanted him. God, how she wanted him. As if he somehow reached inside her and flipped a switch from off to on.

  She swallowed hard and turned away from him to shut the door. Mentally she locked out the storm with her actions, realizing, with overwhelming completeness, how much she wished she could truly lock out the world. For just one night, she didn’t want to be the Big W boss lady. She didn’t want to worry about being judged by the men who worked for her, by the bank that threatened foreclosure. She didn’t want to pretend she was Superwoman on the outside, when inside the steel was melting. Didn’t want to miss her father so much. She wanted an escape. But she didn’t dare allow herself such a thing. Not when this man would soon be among her crew.

  Willing her body to calm, Alexis turned to face Ryder. “I’ll go get some towels,” she said, finding him only inches away from her. Anything further she might have said slid away, lost. Alexis stared into his eyes. Green. His eyes were green. She’d wondered, back at the bar. Wondered what color the eyes that drew her deep into their depths were. In all of her twenty-eight years, she couldn’t remember ever being so enthralled by a man’s face—with the strong jaw now forming a shadow of a dark beard, the scar slashed across his right brow, the sensual line of his mouth.

  Damp hair fell over her face, jolting her back to reality. Alexis shook herself inwardly and shoved the wayward strands behind her ears. “Let me get those towels.”

  With those words, she sidestepped around him and started to depart, intent on escape to pull herself together. Instantly, his hand gently shackled her arm, his palm branding her with wicked heat that slid up her arm, and somehow managed to spread across her chest, her breasts aching with sudden awareness.

  They were shoulder to shoulder, the air charged with attraction. She lifted her gaze to his, a question in her eyes. Why did she want him so much? What was he doing to her?

  “Alexis,” he said softly, an intimate rasp to his tone that promised he had more to say.

  Her name, one word, that was all he said, yet that word hung in the air with a silky promise of something important to follow, a promise she found herself silently willing him to speak. Because for some inconceivable, completely irrational reason, this moment felt as if it might have a profound impact on her life. That this man, a complete stranger, held some secret she desperately needed to have revealed.

  Chapter 4

  Alone in the hallway of Big W’s ranch house, Ryder and Alexis stared into one another’s eyes, heat swirled around them, blanketing them in awareness, in desire. Ryder wanted so many things in those moments. He wanted to kiss Alexis, to taste her, to touch her. He wanted to bury himself deep inside her body and claim her as his own. To tell her everything he was, everything he had been, to simply wipe away the secrets that would make protecting her a difficult task. And he wanted his sword.

  But were the things he wanted the right choices?

  Seconds ticked as they stared at one another, the moment of decision upon him. What would he do? What would he say?

  “Oh. Ah, hi.”

  Kelly’s voice came from behind Ryder, her presence bursting through the spell woven around Alexis and him. Regret tore through Ryder, the loss of opportunity, of choice, gone with the intrusion.

  Ryder quickly noted the flush of embarrassment coloring Alexis’s ivory skin. He immediately let go of her arm, but he had to wonder why Alexis would react in such a way to Kelly finding them together. He pivoted to face Kelly, assessing her with a newfound interest about how she affected Alexis. She wore white sweats and a pink T-shirt, her blonde hair piled on top of her head. She was a pretty woman, perhaps mid-thirties, slender, curvy, nice facial features. But she lacked confidence. He could see it in her eyes, in the way she carried herself. Which explained why she put up with Hector’s abuse.

  “Sorry,” Kelly said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, as if the scrutiny made her antsy. “I…” She looked at Alexis, indicating the mop in her hands before resting it against the wall. “I was going to clean up the mess on the floor before you did.” Her gaze swept Alexis and Ryder again, taking in their wet clothing. “Let me get some towels for you two.” She rushed away, leaving no time for response.

  “Thanks,” Alexis murmured, sounding a bit baffled.

  Before he could ask why, Ryder’s text-message alert went off on his cell phone. He yanked his Nokia 8800 off his belt, surprised it still worked considering it was wet, and punched the receive button. His gaze lifted to Alexis. “My references are on your fax,” he said, his voice lowering. “So you know you can trust me.”

  Her gaze caught his. “Your boss really went out of his way in the middle of the night.”

  “We take care of our own,” he said, and added silently, and now you are one of us. Or at least destiny said she was. But even if she would have him, if she would walk away from her life to accommodate his pledge to the Knights, would the other Knights resent her presence, resent his reward of a mate?

  “Here you go,” Kelly said, reappearing in the doorway. She tossed Ryder a towel and then Alexis. “I’ll mop up the floor.”

  Alexis rubbed the towel through her hair and then studied Kelly with a thoughtful expression. “Thank you, Kell. I know you’d prefer to be in a hot bath right now.”

  Kelly nodded, her eyes clouding over. “It’s the least I can do, considering everything.” Her lips lifted a bit. “And you have Ryder to attend to.”

  Ryder scrubbed his head with the towel, and bit back laughter at the obvious inference that they were attending to personal matters, not business. Alexis frowned, her brows dipping in an adorable way a second before she turned to him. “Let’s go look at those references.”

  He smiled. “Lead the way,” he said, following her to the end of the hall. To his left was a huge sunken living room, with wood paneling and brown carpeting. To the right, double wooden doors that she pushed open and walked through. Ryder found himself in the center of a den with an aged wooden desk in the far right-hand corner; books lined the walls.

  “This reminds me of back home,” he said.

  Alexis draped her towel over an empty file folder rack before walking behind the desk to a credenza where the fax machine rested. She lifted the faxed pages, glancing across the desk at Ryder. “How so?” she asked.

  “Jag’s office looks a lot like this,” Ryder said, tossing the towel he held over his shoulder and walking to one of the bookshelves. One war title after the next, fiction and nonfiction, lined the shelves. Humans were obsessed with war and fighting each other, when the real dangers lurked in shadows, hoping for their destruction. “He’s a history buff.”

  “So was my father,” she said, and looked up from reading the fax. “
Jag,” she repeated. “As in your boss, Jag?”

  He nodded. “Right,” he said. “You got the fax, I take it?”

  “I did,” she said, setting the papers back down on the fax machine and walking to the desk. “Your credentials are, well…they’re amazing. You don’t need to be here, helping me. Why would you?”

  “Why do my reasons matter?”

  She didn’t answer his question; instead she inhaled deeply, seemed to battle within herself a moment before exhaling again. “Someone with your experience could go somewhere else and be paid a lot of money. Why come here instead?”

  “I don’t need the money,” he said, which was true. He didn’t have as much as the older Knights, but he’d done well enough. Like the other Knights, he was given an allowance and expected to spend little to nothing himself. He’d invested; he’d saved his money.

  She laughed, the sound laced with disbelief. “Everyone needs money.” Her pain lanced the air and ripped through his heart.

  His hand still resting on one of the books on the shelf, afraid to say the wrong thing, his next words were a gentle prod. “How long has your father been gone?” he asked.

  “Six months,” she said, surprising him with the quick answer. “Massive heart attack. No warning.”

  His heart squeezed. “I’m sorry.”

  Her chin lifted. “I’m dealing with it.”

  Ryder crossed the room until he stood at the opposite side of the desk from her. “I can see that,” he said, but he knew she wasn’t as tough as she wanted the world to believe. He could see the pain in her eyes, feel it in the room, almost taste it in the air. His voice was low. “I’m sure his death impacted the ranch. That can’t be easy to manage.”

  Her head turned to the side, her gaze going to the wall, then flickering back. “The ranch is fine.”