Tobias Silver was the sexiest man Vera had ever laid eyes on. He wasn’t just some pretty face either. He was tall as a mountain, built like a brick, and his dominance came off so heavy even her crazy inner animal got quiet around him. He growled more than he probably noticed and had a filthy sailor’s mouth, but oh, when she’d hugged him, she’d felt like everything was going to be okay for the first time in a long time.
Sure, he didn’t know the whole story yet, but he was big enough and his inner grizzly felt gnarly enough that he just might survive what was coming after her. She liked the thought of him surviving the dark parts of her life. It’s why she’d chosen him. Sure, she had drawn up the mate-fur-hire contract sight unseen because it hadn’t really mattered if he was a crater-faced, dirty-diaper-scented ogre or not. She needed him for that apex predator that lived inside of him. This was about survival—or at least it had been until she’d seen him. He was strong, level-headed, and compared to the crying maniac clawing at her door, he was deliciously normal. He smelled like evergreens, spicy, manly body wash, and grizzly. That sexy combo was way better than beef jerky and toots.
Tobias was devastatingly attractive to her, all messy chestnut hair and looking like he’d just gotten out of bed. His serious green eyes had frozen her in place when she’d opened the door. She’d expected Harlan to be knocking again and was ready to give him what-for, but the sight of Tobias on her doorstep had shocked her silly.
He would be a good mate. Probably.
Tobias gave her an are you ready? look over his shoulder as she picked up the box of breakables he’d brought that she would definitely need to cure the Silvers’ hibernation problem. Tobias didn’t even realize how important this stuff was. It was the last thing that rat-finked Clayton had allowed her to order before he cut her off. The misfit who’d pissed him off so bad that he’d stopped supplies for a month? That had been her when she’d tried to escape by sneaking onto one of the delivery planes. The pilot had busted her the second he sat in the cockpit, and apparently tattled to Clayton. Maybe Clayton’s plan had been to remind her how much she needed him. Maybe leaving the misfits starving for a month was his way of scaring her into submission. She’d only become more determined to leave though. Oh, Clayton was going to be pissed when he realized she’d tethered herself to one of his precious enforcers, but screw him. He’d pushed her to this level of desperation. She almost wished she could be there to see his face when he found out what she’d done. Almost—because in real life, Clayton was scary as hell.
Tobias pulled open her door, and she gave one last look around at all the trinkets she was abandoning. No one here would have any use for her lab, and though she was more than ready to leave this place, it was sort of sad leaving with such a rushed goodbye.
Steeling herself, she followed Tobias out of her cabin and stepped over Harlan’s sobbing body. When he gripped her ankle, she gasped and rushed out, “The package!”
Tobias spun so fast he blurred, and in that split-second, he seemed to understand the desperation on her face because he lurched forward and steadied both her and the package. A growl ripped from his throat. “Get your fucking hand off her.”
When Harlan’s grip tightened, she cried out at the pain and stomped at him. “Let me go!”
With a crazy smile, he released her with a hard shove, and she fell forward into Tobias.
“I told you she was mine!” Harlan screamed, standing. He let off a shrill whistle, then called out, “He’s trying to take our woman!”
And just like they always did, the misfits appeared out of the trees when Harlan, their self-proclaimed king, called them. Shit.
“Tobias?” She should really warn him.
“I see them.”
“No, you don’t underst—”
Her throat closed up as Harlan gripped her neck from behind, strangling her. Tobias turned at her choked noise, and his face went feral, eyes darkening to the color of tar. Fear dumped into her system as she fought for breath, sandwiched between two terrifying brawlers.
He can shift! She just needed to tell him that and warn him about Harlan’s animal because Tobias was going to feel some serious pain if he engaged. And for some reason, she really, really didn’t want this almost stranger to get hurt on her account. She already felt protective of him. Can’t breathe!
Tobias dropped her bags in the dirt by the porch. “Let her go.”
“I can do whatever I want with my witch.”
“She isn’t yours, Harlan. She’s mine. My mate. If you don’t let her go, I’m going to rip you limb from limb.”