Three Men and a Bounty by Gigi Moore Page A

in a quaking explosion.
    Slick with perspiration and panting, James rested his forehead against Chris’ for a long moment before pulling back to stare at him.
    “Still okay?”
    “More than okay,” Chris whispered and kissed James.
    Outside, the wolf bayed.

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    Gigi Moore

Chapter 6
    “What in tarnation happened to you?”
    Troy brushed by Josie on the staircase leading to the upstairs rooms without speaking. He should have known he couldn’t get away with such impoliteness, but he hadn’t anticipated bumping into anyone this late in the evening, not even the ever-vigilant Josie.
    “You heard me, mister.” She caught him by the bicep and jerked him back around to face her. “What happened to you?”
    Troy didn’t know what to tell her. He knew he couldn’t tell her the truth and wasn’t sure what else she would believe.
    That he had stumbled into another wolf’s territory in the woods and decided to stand his ground rather than retreat and play it safe like he usually did with wild animals didn’t sound believable despite its truth.
    How much of her woman’s intuition would accept the truth or think he was making up crazy tall tales?
    “Is that blood?”
    Josie pointed to a spot on his chin, and he remembered how he’d fought for his life, defended himself against the other wolf’s vicious attack. He remembered how he’d bitten into the lone wolf who’d had the misfortune of challenging him. He remembered how they’d clawed and snarled at each other as savagely as a person wielding a meat axe.
    It had been the first time he’d fought with another animal while in his wolf form. He’d always tried to avoid confrontations, one, for fear that he’d never survive a scrape with a truly wild animal and not just a shifter, and, two, for fear of being discovered by one of the Indian Three Men and a Bounty
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    tribes. That he’d survived this long without detection proved a testament to his caution and skill. He knew also that luck had been on his side.
    Before tonight, he’d never wondered if there were others like him.
    Now he did. The Indians even had a designation for people like him, so surely, he wasn’t the only skinwalker— couldn’t be. There must be others—somewhere.
    “It’s not my blood.”
    “What’s the other feller looking like?”
    “He’s a little the worse for wear.”
    “Don’t say.”
    “It’s not serious.”
    “Did you catch up with that young’un of yours?”
    Troy peered at her as she dropped her hand from his arm with the change of subject. “He’s not my young’un.”
    “You want him to be, don’t you?”
    “What I want and what’s reality are two different things.”
    Josie frowned and put a hand on her hip. “Well, what bee got in your bonnet since you left here?”
    Troy pressed a thumb and forefinger against the bridge of his nose and squeezed, suddenly overcome with a bone-deep weariness he hadn’t even seen coming.
    He could still smell them, could smell their lovemaking despite the blood that still filled his senses from the fight.
    Oh, how he had wanted to be a part of it, how it had pained him to be on the outside of that house and know what was going on inside without any recourse except to howl his outrage at the moon.
    It wasn’t like he could go up to the door, knock, and ask for the marshal and his guest. He didn’t have a reason like Chris had. He certainly didn’t have the gumption of the kid.
    Where had it gone? He’d been as fearless once when he hadn’t had anything to lose, when he’d been desperate for acceptance and love.

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    Gigi Moore
    He remembered how he’d wanted to thank Josiah for his kindness the same way Chris wanted to thank James—right and proper. He remembered how Josiah had gently but firmly turned him down, too.
    “I’m powerful flattered, boy, but I’m an old coot, too old for you.
    Maybe twenty years ago…Besides, there are rules against what you’re offering. Much as I want to, I cain’t, boy. I just