BOOK 1:BLURB & PROLOGUE

##CHAPTER: BOOK 1:BLURB & PROLOGUE

COWBOY DEVIL’S EMBRACE

He’s been looking for someone to hold on to. She’s been waiting for the right guy.

This Jersey Devil has a jaded past. Too many loveless affairs, sleazy backroom deals, and an overall loss of his love for life has led Maximillian Leeds to one conclusion.

He needs a change.

What could be more different for a city slicker than buying a ranch in Northern New Jersey?

There’s just one problem.

He has no idea how to run a farm/ranch/thing.

What’s he even supposed to do on a horse?

An announcement in a supernatural newsletter gets him a misfit group of lone Shifters that all have one thing in common. They each need an anchor to settle their beasts.

Good thing the Motley Crewd Ranch is fully insured.

Thinking he's made a big mistake, Max changes his tune when he meets his fated mate at the Devil’s Food Bakery.

The pouty-lipped maker of decadent delights makes his mouth water.

Can this Jersey Devil convince the curvy baker to be his?

PROLOGUE-MAX

Something tickled the periphery of my brain.

I couldn’t identify it. Not yet. Not while sleep still clung to me like the cloying stench of the too-strong perfume the women I’d fucked around with last night wore.

Was someone here?

An animal?

A person?

Whoever it was, they weren’t a threat. At least, not yet.

They were simply hovering there, while I came to slowly, still enjoying my time on the other side of consciousness.

I wasn’t worried, though. If I was in danger, my Devil’s instincts would surely have woken me up before now.

I sighed and stretched, appreciating the cool, dewy grass as it slid across my overheated skin.

It felt even better than the ridiculously high thread count of my Egyptian cotton sheets back inside my bedroom.

But maybe that was because this house, my room, all of it felt like some kind of cage trying to trap me in. I mean, it wasn’t always that way. But just lately.

Fuck. Yeah. Lately.

The September sun was beating down on me from above. I could feel it, but I had yet to greet it properly.

I wondered what time it was. Growling a yawn, I opened one eye, expecting to see maybe one of the women still hanging around from last night, though I was fairly certain I’d told them to leave.

A gentleman made sure his sex partners came once or twice, which I always did. But that didn’t mean I had to extend them an invitation to stay the night.

They already knew that. And when the blonde had asked, I politely declined, informing her I’d rather sleep alone.

The smell greeting me was a woman alright. But not one I wanted to see while I was sporting some morning wood.

An issue that corrected itself the second I blinked the sleep from my eyes and recognized the unhappy mien staring daggers at me.

Fuck my life.

I sat up fast as lightning, and really, it felt like a bolt had just struck me on my ass.

I covered my eyes and shook my head.

This was definitely not okay.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I grumbled aloud.

“Maximillian McGregor Lucien Leeds, I assure you I am not shitting you,” Grandmother Leeds said as she stared down at me.

Her disapproval grew until it was practically a living thing. Sure, I’d spent the night outdoors after another evening of debauchery and sin. And now I was sprawled across the greenery, naked as the day I was born instead of inside my posh bedroom in one of the Leeds’ ritzy family estates.

I suppose I should have covered up. Then again, my grandmama was the one who surprised me, arriving unannounced.

Besides, she was no stranger to nudity.

I could only imagine the number of times she wiped my ass when I was but a babe. But it was too goddamn early for this. And I was in no mood.

“What do you want, Grandmother?” I grumbled and stood up, picking grass out of my hair.

Yes, I had better manners, but I was a little pissed. And really, who could blame me?

I had every right to be upset. After all, she, or rather, her grandmother, was the reason I, and most of my kin, shared our souls with this thing inside of me.

“That thing you so callously refer to in your very loud thoughts, Grandson of mine, is you,” she snapped.

“Oh no! I am more than instincts and need,” I replied angrily.

Okay, fine. I was being a dick. Whatever,

But I was mad. At her. At myself. At the whole fucking world. Mostly, at that side of me that was making impossible demands.

“You are your Devil, Maximillian. It’s not like with typical Shifters. The beast inside you doesn’t exist separately from you. It’s a symbiotic relationship, and it’s about time you understood that,” she barked angrily.

Ugh.

Grandmother was loud at the best of times. And at the worst, like now when I was on the receiving end of a rather excruciating headache as a result of the magicked whiskey I drank last night, she sounded even louder.

“Fine. I will endeavor to understand.”

“Maximillian, I had hoped for more than that from you by now!”

“Okay, but can you tone it down?” I asked, wincing as soon as the words left my lips.

“Tone it down? I should think you would be grateful I came in person to tell you about the state of your inheritance, dear boy.”

I stomped through the garden with Grandmother Leeds hot on my tail—metaphorical not literal since that part of me was safely tucked away.

The old woman was spry for a two hundred and seventy year old. I’d give her that.

Of course, she claimed to be a hundred and eighty, but that was bullshit. The Leeds family had been in these parts since before the War.

Revolutionary, not Civil, though we were here for that, too.

Grandmother was not the first Mother Leeds, but her reign certainly was long. Just like her reach. And the thought made my balls shrivel.

“What are you talking about? My inheritance?”

“I do not believe I stuttered, Grandson.”

“You’re saying if I don’t clean up my act the money is gone? Is that it?”

“That is precisely it. Do better, Maximillian.”

Well, fuck.

I frowned as she went on and on about some property of ours. Apparently, she wanted me to oversee its reconstruction.

What?

“No thank you, Grandmother. I am perfectly fine here.”

“Perfectly fine here? Young man, you are completely miserable and doing nothing worthwhile, I might add!”

“I said no, Grandmother⁠—”

“Sorry, old boy, but this is not a request,” a deep, masculine voice joined in the discussion.

“Ugh, what are you doing here?” I spat the question.

Fuck.

Usually, I could talk Grandmother down from whatever scheme she had in her head but Avail. He was another story.

I rubbed the top of my head and inhaled. Apparently, my older cousin Avail had arrived and was now standing beside their grandmother.

When did that asshole get here?

I huffed and quickened my pace, not caring that my manhood was swinging around in the wind. Served them right to have to see my cock and balls before breakfast.

“Couldn’t have waited for a decent hour to come at me with this, could you? Damn it. What time is it, anyway?”

“You will stop and listen! MAX!” Grandmother yelled.

I tried the doorknob to the kitchen entrance, but it was locked. Now, I hated the idea of breaking it. But another second of this shit and I would not have a choice.

“Try the little rock hide-a-key thing,” Avail murmured, still smothering his laugh.

“You know, you could have called and warned me this was about to happen,” I growled at my cousin as I bent down to find the fake stone that hid the extra key.

“Oh God, warn me first, for fuck’s sake,” Avail grumbled, and I snorted.

“What’s the matter, cousin? I’m fairly certain my asshole is prettier than your face and you look at that decrepit thing every day,” I snarked.

“You wish you reprobate,” Avail snarled.

Good to see the older man still had it in him. I smirked.

“Boys! I will remind you, I am still standing here,” Grandmother interrupted.

Technically, this was Grandmother Leeds’ property. All the family’s estates were in her name. But still. I’d have thought to have a little bit of privacy in my own—sorta—home.

“Maximillian, I mean it. If you don’t do what I am asking, the money will be gone!”

I finally unlocked the door and walked inside the kitchen where Mrs. O’Hare, my housekeeper and former nanny, was busy making breakfast. I walked in, ignoring her startled yelp.

“It’s just a cock, Mrs. O’Hare,” I said to the older Witch, who cleaned and cooked for me seven days a week.

“Yes, well, it’s only eight o’clock, Mr. Leeds. I’ll be needing a second cup of coffee if I have to face that thing,” she mumbled, waving her hand and summoning a robe for me.

“Maximillian, be polite,” Grandmother snapped.

“Sorry, Molly,” I replied and grinned, kissing the old woman on the cheek.

The Witch had been my nursemaid since birth. I’d known her my entire life. Pitiful as it sounded, she was sort of my closest friend. My surrogate mother.

How sad was that?

Avail watched the byplay without comment. Thanking Molly when she refreshed his coffee from my pot. He took one of my biscuits, too.

The jerk.

I loved breakfast. It was my favorite meal. But I didn’t stop to snag a bite or to breathe in the succulent scents of bacon and sausage frying in heavy cast iron pans.

“Good morning, Mrs. O’Hare,” Grandmother said.

“I take it you’re in trouble then, are you?” Mrs. O’Hare asked.

I could have explained, but instead, I shrugged and hightailed it to my bedroom, hoping for a moment of silence and maybe a shower before I finished this discussion with my cousin and relentless grandmother.

But those hopes were thwarted as both Avail and Grandmother kept up with me.

Of fucking course they did.

Grandmother was going on and on about the family legacy and the importance of this last quarter moon. Of course, Avail was trying not to laugh and failing miserably as she went down the list of things I was doing wrong with my life.

The prick.

But what did he know? Avail had no problems appeasing our demanding and utterly frightening grandmother. He already had his promised one. She had agreed to his mate claim and bore him children. They even had another one on the way.

Whereas I was just sick and tired, and well, bored with everything. I’d become completely jaded. Forty was right around the corner, and I hadn’t spied hide nor hair of my fated mate.

I was tired of looking. I would never find my promised one. That was my harsh and cold reality. My Devil would never be sated.

I only had three weeks left before this last quarter moon. It was a special one. I knew it all too well.

The last quarter moon before I turned forty. Four decades on this earth with no mate to satisfy my inner Devil, and that meant trouble for my kind. There was a balance to maintain between my humanity and supernatural sides, and I needed a female to help me find that balance.

Without it, I could go mad. Lose control. Risk being put down by my own kin.

Whatever.

Maybe Grandmother was just being dramatic with all this nonsense. I could survive without a mate. It’s been done. I think.

But no money?

Now, that was a problem.

I admit I’d grown too used to this lifestyle to think about starting from scratch. Then again, maybe that would be a good thing.

Maybe if I had something to strive for, I’d give my Devil something to worry about besides searching for a mate.

I could stop wasting my life sleeping around and partying like some trust fund brat with my own reality show.

Gods, no.

“Fine. Okay? But what am I supposed to do exactly? Move? And then what?” I asked as Mother Leeds turned her back and walked away.

“Figure it out, dear boy. Now, I will take my leave of you and, with your cousin to guide, maybe you will do the right thing. Henries will be in touch.”

“Okay, fine. Goodbye, Grandmother,” I replied.

What else could I say? She held all the cards. I followed Avail’s lead and kissed her cheek before she disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

Terrifying woman.

Still, I loved the meddling old female. She was my blood, after all.

“Come on, Max. I know what your Devil is going through. Let’s talk,” Avail said.

I heaved a sigh and turned my gaze to my cousin. How could he know? How could I explain my angst and inner turmoil to him when his life was so perfect?

But maybe he was right. Maybe a talk would help. I pushed open the door and nodded for Avail to precede me.

“I don’t know where to start, Avail. Everything is so fucking boring.”

“I get it. Which is why Grandmother and I have found a solution.”

“You? What the fuck do you have to do with all of this?”

I narrowed my eyes at my older cousin. Damned interfering scoundrel. Why couldn’t he just leave me to my mediocre life?

“Come on. Get cleaned up, refreshed, and we will talk,” Avail said, gesturing to Max to enter as if this was his room and not Max’s.

The nerve.