Page 67 of Cowboy Bear's Hope

What is going on?

Chapter Twenty-Avery

How had this happened?

“Dante,” I managed to say his name, fear tightening my throat and choking off the rest of my words.

My hands gripped the wheel, trying to focus on driving his massive truck down the snowy road. Every second felt like an eternity, my mind spinning in a thousand directions at once.

“Look at me, Honey.” His voice was steady, calm, even though I could hear the strain beneath it.

I glanced at him in the rearview mirror. His black eyes locked onto mine, unwavering, grounding me in the chaos.

“I got her. And I got you. This will all be okay.”

I nodded, tears streaming down my face, unchecked and relentless. I couldn’t stop them, didn’t even try.

My chest felt too tight, like my ribs might crack under the pressure of everything I was feeling.

Then, with trembling hands, I pulled the truck over to the side of the road. The ranch was only about eight minutes away, but I couldn’t keep going. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.

The truck barely came to a stop before I jumped out of the driver’s seat. Snow crunched beneath my boots as I yanked open the back door, my voice breaking as I murmured, “Oh my God.”

I stumbled back, my eyes widening in shock at the sight in front of me.

Dante was a big man. Broad, powerful, and intimidating to anyone who didn’t know him.

But I did.

I knew his strength was tempered by a gentleness so profound it made my heart ache. I had never ever worried about him with Rosie.

Not for a second.

But now, blood was dripping from him. Thick, crimson streaks seeping from deep gashes across his face, neck, chest, and arms.

It painted him, staining his skin, his torn clothes, the snow beneath him.

I muffled my cry with trembling hands, watching in horror as he tumbled out of the truck with Rosie in his arms.

My Rosie.

But it wasn’t her.

The child I had carried in my womb, the sweet little girl I loved more than anything in the world, no longer looked human.

She was a mass of fur, snapping and snarling, her small body twisting and writhing as if fighting an invisible enemy.

“Rosie?” I whispered, my voice breaking.

Her head snapped toward me, and that’s when I saw them.

Her eyes.

Only they weren’t hers anymore.

The bright brown eyes I knew so well had been replaced by something darker, something feral. They gleamed in the low light, piercing through me like a predator sizing up prey.

I froze.

---