Bending Steele by Sadie Hart

playing a risky game, thinking she cared about
Hexe. She could feel her heart in her throat. This man, he would
not win.
    She forced herself to smile, a harsh baring
of teeth as she looked her mother’s killer in the eye. “That last
time you were in these mountains you killed a woman.”
    Surprised flashed through his eyes and Steele
laughed. “Her mate ran from you.”
    She stalked forward a step, her blade a
comfortable familiarity in her hand. The killer smiled then. “So
you don’t care if he dies?”
    “You never saw the little girl in the tree
above you.”
    He shook his head and laughed at her. “Bitch,
I don’t give a damn. That pelt was worth money and you all, you’re
not human. Not all the way. I killed an animal that day. I’ll kill
another right now.”
    His finger flexed over the trigger and Steele
froze at the flash of fear in Hexe’s eyes. The soft sound of the
trigger starting to depress. Fear slammed through her, white hot,
it burned through the ice around her heart. Damn, but she wanted
revenge, wanted this son of a bitch dead for what he’d done to her
mother.
    But she wanted Hexe alive more.
    “Fine,” she said, her eyes on Hexe’s as she
dropped her weapon.
    Her cat half came easy, like a blanket under
the skin she pulled it out, wrapping the animal around her. An
image of her father fleeing through the snow flashed through her
mind, the stink of his fear. She smelled like that now. But as her
gaze slammed into Hexe’s, she calmed. She trusted him. And unlike
her father…he wouldn’t leave her to die.
    Just like she was saving him, he’d save
her.
    The words were lost under the roar of her
beast as she slashed out. The killer jerked his gun up to take aim
and Hexe spun, slashing out with one leg he knocked the man off
balance. The gun bobbed, swerving wide and Hexe rammed his knife
into the man’s stomach. He staggered, a gasp spilling from him as
his gun slipped from his hands, just as Hexe rammed his second
knife into the side of his neck.
    Steele stood there as her mother’s killer
crumpled to the ground. His gun clattered over the wood, as the
killer gave one last gurgling breath and went still. He stared at
her, unblinking eyes locked on hers, but Steele felt nothing for
the man who’d haunted her for years. No triumph, no sudden feeling
of closure.
    Then her gaze shifted to Hexe’s, his
green-gold eyes watching her as he stared over the dead body, blood
on his hands. Relief stirred in her gut, but it was more than that.
She took a soft step towards him, one large paw splayed out over
the wood as she stopped just shy of the growing puddle of blood
that spilled out over Hexe’s floor. A soft rumbling sound roused
from her as she pulled the cat back in and shifted. Standing over
him, Steele stepped around the dead body and reached for Hexe, just
as he reached for her.
    “You okay?” his voice was soft, gentle.
Filled with an emotion she hadn’t dared believe in. Not for
her.
    Instead she swallowed as she blinked back
tears. “Fine.”
    “Steele…” His hands caught her face, blood
smeared over her cheeks, but she leaned into him and found his
lips, covering his mouth with hers. She kissed away the worry, the
fear.
    “Thank you,” she whispered as she pulled
away. She covered his blood stained hands with hers and held them
to her face, unwilling to look away from him.
    Her partner.
    She leaned in and kissed him again, the
faintest brush of lips on lips, like a fallen snowflake before she
pulled away. Hexe leaned in and snagged her lips, his teeth
skimming over her mouth before she opened to him, letting him
inside. Only to realize, he already was. He’d dug a place in her
heart in a week that no one else had ever come close to. He’d made
himself a part of her life.
    Even before he’d staked his claim, he’d been
trying to push his way in. She should have known a man like
Hexe—someone who hadn’t even been born in these mountains, who had
not only made a life for