Page 100 of Cowboy Bull's Promise

“Okay, that was something I never needed to see in a million years,” I mutter to Kian, my voice light but tinged with the kind of shell shock that only comes from catching your grandfather getting busy in his underwear with a woman wearing a brassiere that looks like it could stop bullets.

We’re back in my room, finishing up packing a few things. Not everything—just enough for me to stay at Kian’s cabin for the night.

Give Gramps some space.

Let him play house with Melody, his brand-new fiancée, apparently.

Still reeling from that, by the way.

There’d been tea, cucumber sandwiches, and a very awkward but oddly sweet conversation.

Melody asked me to call her by her first name, and my grandpa—bless his seventy-four-year-old, orthotic-wearing, card-playing heart—looked about as smug as a man in love and a bathrobe could possibly get.

He even patted her hand like we were at some vintage black-and-white movie where the guy has to light a cigarette to seem cool.

Except, you know, he was in boxers, and she was wearing lingerie that could double as medieval armor.

So yeah. We’re all traumatized.

But also? Maybe weirdly happy?

Because this day has been a lot.

Let’s recap, shall we?

First:

I find out Shifters are real. Like, really real.

Fur, fangs, claws, hooves, horns and all.

Second:

I’m mated.

To a Bull Shifter with a jaw that could cut steel and a voice that somehow short-circuits my brain and my panties.

Third:

Said Bull Shifter is maybe-possibly going to lose himself to the Rut, a terrifying, hormone-induced supernatural spiral that could rip us apart before we even have a chance.

Fourth:

I get swept into a girls’ day out meets super group of hot Shifter wives, where we eat scones, talk mating rituals, and place bets on whether Bulls bite during sex.

They do. Spoiler alert! I’m the evidence.

Fifth:

I help witness a birth.

Like a literal twin birth.

In a house.

On a ranch.

With howling, pain, love, and the kind of support that would make any rom-com jealous.