How West Was Won (Haven, Texas 7)

She noticed Mia had moved closer to her. Almost as though she was protecting her.

“West, you have to do better than this,” Alec commanded. He finally moved so she could see West.

He was bent over at the waist, his fists leaning against the wall as took deep, slow breaths. That dark energy swirled back to him. She didn’t know that she liked that he had that inside him. Not because she was scared of it, but because she worried what it was doing to him.

“If she’s gonna be yours, you need to learn how to control it,” Alec said, oddly. Who was he talking about? What did he mean by if she was going to be his? And what did he need to control?

Before she could say anything more, there was a knock on the door. Mia moved to open it and Alec shot her a look. She froze. He strode to the door and opened it carefully, keeping himself between Mia and whomever had knocked so she couldn’t see who was beyond.

“Alec,” a gravelly voice said. She knew that voice, even though she’d tried her best to avoid the man. Not because she didn’t think he was a good man, possibly even a kind man. She’d never heard a bad word about him, that was for sure. And that was unusual for a small-town sheriff. But when you were hiding what she was hiding, it never paid to grab the sheriff’s attention.

“Surprised to get a call from you. Think this is the first time you’ve ever invited me out here.”

“You’re not here to have a beer and shoot the shit,” West snarled.

She moved her gaze to West, her eyes widening. Didn’t he know he shouldn’t speak to a sheriff that way?

“Great. West is here.” The sheriff’s voice was dry, not angry though. More like resigned.

“He’s taken responsibility for her,” Alec explained.

Wait. Taken responsibility for her? Is he talking about me? And what the hell does that mean?

You know the rules of Haven. You know exactly what that means. Her gaze shot back to West.

“I don’t think so.” The word shot from her mouth before she could even think about them. And West turned to look at her.

“It’s already happened.”

“No, it hasn’t.” She glared at him. “No fucking way.”

West’s hands moved to his hips. His stance one of pure command. Meaning what he was going to say next, was an edict handed down from the top alpha dog.

What he didn’t seem to get what she wasn’t interested in belonging to him anymore.

“It has happened. I’m not arguing with you about it. And don’t say the word fucking.”

“You say the word fucking all the time.”

“I’m me. You’re you.”

“That . . . that doesn’t even make any sense,” she sputtered out. “What does that even mean? Is it because I’m a woman?”

“No, it’s because you’re sunshine. Sunshine doesn’t say fucking. Unless you’re actually talking about fucking. Then you can say it.”

“Well, that’s mighty big of you.” She scowled up at him.

“You’re trying to incinerate him with your eyes, aren’t you?” Mia asked her.

“I always wanted my superpower to be invisibility, or to be able to eat all the ice cream I wanted without an ice cream headache. But, right now, incineration would be an awesome power to have.”

Mia just nodded.

“So it sounds like business as usual at Lonely Horse Ranch,” Jake said dryly.

Alec backed away and let Jake into the room. There was a grin on his face, until his eyes hit her. Then his face went blank. But his eyes. Oh, shit, his eyes. They filled with a fire that was scary to see.

“What the fuck?” Jake turned to Alec. “You said we had a problem, but you said nothing about this.” He waved his hand over at Flick. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about being called a problem.