Breaking Fate: Book Three: Black Claw Ranch Read online

  Breaking Fate

  Book Three: Black Claw Ranch

  Cecilia Lane

  A Shifting Destinies Novel

  Copyright © 2019 by Cecilia Lane

  Cover Art by Kasmit Covers

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Breaking Fate: Black Claw Ranch #3 by Cecilia Lane March 2019

  Contents

  Breaking Fate

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Next in Series

  Newsletter

  About the Author

  Also by Cecilia Lane

  Breaking Fate: Black Claw Ranch Book Three

  Small towns aren't for her, but he could be.

  Sloan Kent believes in justice, for all. Humans and shifters alike. But when she's assigned to a new, shifter-run, Supernatural Enforcement Agency squad, she's suddenly regretting being open minded. Small town drama runs wild in Bearden and she doesn't want any part of it. She's just there to do her job… until she meets Lorne Bennett, that is.

  Hard muscles ripple underneath his button-up, and that cowboy hat doesn't hide his piercing dark eyes. She knows better than to get involved with a bear, but the heart wants what it wants. Even when the heart wants a broody shifter she knows is bad news bears, literally.

  He likes his women feisty and wild.

  Her having a gun is just a bonus.

  Lorne Bennett doesn't let anyone tell him what to do. Not his family, not his current alpha, and especially not some spitfire little human who thinks she's going to uncover all his secrets. He has good reason to keep those buried, and he owes those on Black Claw Ranch a debt for protecting his past.

  But Sloan seems different, like she could be the one to put his heart back together after all these years. Being with her could be dangerous though, for both of them.

  When their worlds collide Lorne and Sloan have to decide if their love really can conquer all when they’re confronted with the sins of the past. And if being mates can mend their broken hearts... or shatter them forever.

  * * *

  Step into the world of Shifting Destinies, where the men and women you meet might just be a little more than human. Their towns are protected by magic, and their hearts are open and ready for love. But watch your step - more than darkness lurks in the shadows.

  * * *

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  Chapter 1

  Sloan Kent stared at the man across the table. Daryl Jones, aged forty-six, held for questioning on a long list of crimes, chewed slowly and deliberately. She was damn sure if she cared enough to count, he chewed each mouthful of fast-food burger one hundred times between bites.

  She’d seen the tactic before, and she didn’t let it phase her in the slightest. He could take his sweet time. She had nowhere else to be. That was the down and upside of not being fully trusted by her new unit. She wasn’t given much to do, but she had time to babysit a perp in interrogation.

  Daryl was one of a handful still in the holding cells of the new Supernatural Enforcement Agency field office situated right outside Bearden, Montana. They’d picked the asshole up during a raid on a hunter cell, where he’d happily discharged his weapon into the body armor of agents attempting to take down his boss. The big man shouted ‘lawyer’ as soon as the cuffs were around his wrists, but the grunts guarding him weren’t so lucky to have legal counsel on retainer.

  Daryl slurped at his soda and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, ignoring the napkin next to the wrapper. “You’re not one of them.”

  Sloan leaned back in her chair. “I’m an agent.”

  “That ain’t what I mean. One of them. You’re human.” He waved a finger in front of his eyes. “Yours haven’t changed color once. Not like those freaks.”

  Only human on the shifter squad, in fact. Smart that he’d picked up on it. Though with his allegiance so proudly declared for the human side, she shouldn’t have been surprised.

  “You’re right.” She placed her hands on the table and pitched forward. “So you know how it feels to be the odd man out.”

  His flashed smile didn’t reach his eyes. “What can you expect from these fucks? They’re unnatural.”

  “Abominations, your boss called them. You can’t even tell what they are by looking at them. Could be a bear in their middle, or even a badger.” That one had come as a shock to many. The woman in question had recently moved to Bearden and got caught up in some sort of revenge plot to sell her to the hunter group. One of her abductors was a shifter herself, proving all manner of assholes existed across species. “And we don’t know how many exist, or how they got here in the first place.”

  The tactic was meant to form a bond, the words lifted from interviews with others picked up in the same raid. If Sloan could get Daryl talking, maybe he’d slip up with more information for the investigation. He was just one small piece in a bigger machine the SEA claimed it wanted to dismantle.

  The wheels of justice turned slowly when the people at the top didn’t actually want change.

  Daryl relaxed slightly. “Would these bleeding hearts be so accepting if they was aliens come to butt-probe their sons and daughters?”

  “They just don’t understand, do they? Not like you and your friends. You guys have your ideals. Standing up for something, I can respect that.”

  He grunted.

  “Bet you know all sorts of places to go and ways to find like-minded individuals.” Not taking her eyes off him, she clicked her pen and held it over a pad of paper. “So I’m asking, what were you planning on doing with the two you had locked up?”

  The light attitude he’d beamed at her disappeared.

  “You think I don’t know you?” Daryl asked darkly.

  Sloan clicked the pen closed and set it down with a measured sigh of annoyance. “Well, I don’t know you.”

  “You’re that cunt bitch who sent away Culpepper.”

  Fuck.

  The name sent a shudder of disgust down her spine, followed by a sickening unease.

  How many eyes watched from behind the glass? How many would spout off that bit of knowledge the moment they reached another friendly ear?

  How many already knew, and reported her every move back to Jimmy and his friends?

  “It’s Snitch Bitch, actually, and he’s not your concern.” Sloan didn�
��t even blink. The words rolled right off her back and even if they struck a nerve, she wasn’t about to let Daryl the Scumbag see it. “You’re looking at charges for assaulting a federal agent, illegal possession of a firearm, trafficking, and hate crimes. You’re in a world of trouble, Daryl. Only way to stop it crushing you is to start talking.”

  “Only human here. Only one willing to work with those fucking freaks out there. You always been a traitor, or is it just because you got some animal kinks in your closet?” He held up two fingers and wagged his tongue in the space between. “Let me loose, and I’ll fuck you back to the right side of things.”

  He wanted to get a rise out of her. She grew up around cops and tough boys who thought their worth was measured by the size of their dicks. Daryl Jones was on the inchworm side of the scale. “Think long and hard about the next words to come out of your mouth,” she said evenly, “and whether your boss will have the same loyalty to you when he’s cutting deals with that fancy lawyer of his.”

  “I’m not making deals with a snitch bitch!”

  Snitch Bitch. She wore the name like armor. She’d be damned before she let Jimmy Culpepper and his friends know how much their actions and harassment continued to sting.

  Sloan could see how a man passed over for promotion, with two kids in private school and an ex-wife demanding more alimony could boil over when a perp took a swing at him. She understood that, had a frame of reference for it in her head. She didn’t support it by any means, and did her fucking best to defuse any situation that turned too hot.

  What Jimmy did? That wasn’t getting rough with a suspect. That was torture. She’d nearly lost the contents of her stomach when she rode up on the scene.

  So yeah, she reported him. She went into gruesome detail to make sure the incident wasn’t swept under the rug. No one deserved the treatment she saw. Justice was blind for a reason and everyone—human, shifter, and even the probe-happy aliens—deserved their slice of it.

  Her reward? Transfer papers to the newly formed shifter division within the SEA.

  Girl cop, girl fed. Snitch Bitch. Human on the shifter squad. She didn’t have a place of her own. She was the round puzzle piece trying to fit in a world of square pegs. Sloan tried not to let being on the outside bother her. She’d grown tough over the years because of it. A little thing like not being trusted with more than filing the paperwork or talking to suspects wouldn’t break her.

  Even the last wasn’t entirely her own. She knew eyes observed from behind the glass. Daryl-fucking-Jones might as well have made an announcement over the intercom.

  Sloan wanted to throttle the man.

  Daryl crossed his arms over his chest and leveled her with a blank gaze. “Lawyer.”

  She shrugged, keeping her face blank. There went a chance to prove her worth and end her sidelining. She couldn’t even get one of the hunters talking; why the hell would her new boss give her anything of value to do? “If that’s the way you want to play it. This is all out of my hands now. I can’t help you if you call in some slime ball.”

  “Lawyer,” he repeated.

  Sloan opened her mouth to try reasoning with him again, but a knock on the glass cut her short.

  “Time’s up,” she said as she pushed to her feet. “You really should have talked.”

  Sloan stepped out of the box to find Mara Vaughn and Desmond Crewe staring at each other like two bushy-tailed cats.

  “I don’t care what good you thought you were doing,” Crewe hissed. “You’re here only to consult. You don’t get to make decisions on who gets released, and when.”

  Not wanting to interrupt anything she didn’t need to hear, Sloan brushed aside and made her way to her desk.

  She had a fair idea of what brought on the dressing down. Mara served as a consultant for the SEA on all matters related to hunters. She didn’t have a badge and wasn’t allowed out in the field. While everyone else geared up and rolled out, she’d been left alone with a clan of civilians that’d been picked up while searching for one of their own. Instead of keeping them contained while the agents raided the hunter meeting, Mara set them free.

  One face flashed to the front of her mind, and Sloan quickly shoved it away. She didn’t have time for dark-eyed men who’d just get intimidated by her service weapon. And she certainly didn’t want to tangle with a beefy cowboy who wouldn’t listen to officers of the law.

  Crewe, the agent in charge of the entire field office, had his work cut out for him in making the squad into a proper team even without consultants going rogue. He had some recruits from his military days, as well as any of the shifters who’d snuck their way into the SEA before they were technically allowed in the ranks. Instead of firing them outright and facing possible legal challenges, the bosses just shuffled them into the Bearden office.

  Outcasts and misfits and snitch bitches, oh my.

  Muted conversations died as she entered the bullpen.

  Sloan tried to let that roll off her back, just like Daryl’s words in the interrogation room. It was a bit more difficult when she knew every single one of the sidelong glancers could smell her emotions.

  Fuck. If they didn’t trust her before, they sure as shit wouldn’t trust her now. She was supposed to have her partner’s back, not put him behind bars.

  She said a silent curse to the sleaze who outed her.

  This wasn’t how she imagined her career would go. She knew it wouldn’t be sunshine and rainbows, but feeling as scummy as the assholes she tried to put away? She’d done what anyone in their right mind would do, but she was still eyed with suspicion.

  And that was discounting all the threats and hissed words from Jimmy’s closest friends. Sloan moved out of their immediate reach when she received her transfer papers, but they were persistent in making her pay.

  Snitch Bitch. Human on the shifter squad. Living in Bearden made her feel more alone than ever.

  With a growl that rivaled any of her shifter coworkers, Sloan tumbled into her seat and snatched up the pile of mail that’d been dropped off while she was in the box with Daryl. Desk duty. She had years under her belt as a beat cop, then more as a federal agent before requesting a transfer into the SEA, and she’d been relegated to fucking mail sorting and report filing.

  She wouldn’t break. Jimmy’s people slashing her tires and leaving notes in her locker hadn’t intimidated her to change her story. She wouldn’t give up making a place for herself in her new field office. The world needed good police, and she intended to fight for the side of justice until she drew her last breath.

  Her father’s memory deserved nothing less. The old man placed as high a value on serving his fellow man as she did. She’d learned from the best.

  She tried to imagine what he’d say to her if he were still alive. Something profound like hold the course, or fuck those pricks.

  She chose both. Fuck ‘em. She was there to stay.

  Sloan slid a finger under the sealed edge of the padded envelope and ripped it open.

  “What the fuck?”

  All eyes whipped to her, then down to the mess in her lap. Silence fell over the room, punctuated by the gurgling of the coffee machine from the break room.

  Sloan stared at the crumbled snake skins decorating her slacks.

  Because she was a snake who sent her partner away. Clever.

  She couldn’t roll her eyes hard enough.

  The pause of shock went on just a second too long. Her coworkers waited for someone else to step in first, to take the hit in seeming like they cared.

  Mara was the one that saved them from pretending. “You sure pissed someone off,” she said.

  Her words broke the spell over the rest and they turned back to whatever tasks and conversations she’d interrupted.

  “My specialty,” Sloan muttered.

  “You and me both.” Mara grabbed up a trash can and plopped it down at her feet.

  Sloan brushed the dried and breaking skins into the garbage and tried not to imagine she
was doing the same to her career.

  “Briefing room. Now,” Crewe ordered as he swept past.

  Sloan cleared her throat as she pushed to her feet. “Thanks for that.”

  “Don’t mention it. I’ve been in your shoes.” Mara shrugged. “Give them time to get used to you. And if they don’t, break their balls until they’re forced to respect you.”

  Sloan barked a laugh. A thin bit of strain faded from her shoulders with her first pleasant interaction in the office. Maybe she was finally reaching a turning point.

  The Jimmy Culpeppers and Daryl Joneses of the world would need to work a lot harder to spook her into giving up her sense of right and wrong.

  She just needed to figure out a way to survive everything else.

  Chapter 2

  Lorne Bennett heeled his horse ahead of the others. Streaks of purple and orange colored the sky overhead as the last bit of daylight dwindled into nothing. One more hill, then they’d be home. Just a little further until he could shed the annoyances of the clan and find solace in being alone.

  His bones and bear ached with the need for… something. Solitude, definitely. A shift, likely. That could be done without the others squawking behind him.

  He was tempted to gallop ahead and skip the big dinner, but then it wouldn’t be just the men of his clan shooting him questioning looks. He didn’t want to disappoint the mates. Tansey would probably kill him and grind him up for the next meal, but Joss would make her eyes wide and smell sad. She’d been through enough without him sullying the celebration of a new mate bond.