TESS

I fled Las Vegas with nothing but bruises on my skin and panic in my throat. No money. No phone. No plan. Just a single goal to disappear.

When I woke up in a stranger’s bed on a secluded Texas ranch, that goal got harder to hold onto. Especially when Calder Maddox looked at me like I was something he wanted to protect. He’s distant. Guarded. Dangerous in ways I don’t understand. I should’ve left the second I could stand on my own. But I didn’t. Something about Hollow Ridge keeps pulling me deeper. And Calder? He’s the quiet storm I never saw coming.

CALDER

She was bleeding. Beautiful. And completely wrong for this place.I told myself letting her stay was a mistake. But I kept her anyway. Let her stay one more day. I’ve spent my life holding this ranch together, hiding the truth beneath silence and soil. I don’t have room for complications. Tess is all sharp edges and haunting eyes, digging under my skin and asking questions I can’t answer. She doesn’t know what I am. What we are. She just knows she’s not safe. And for some reason, she trusts me anyway. But secrets don’t stay buried long in Hollow Ridge. The longer she stays, the harder it gets to protect her. Even from myself.

If you love protective alphas, found family dynamics, slow-burn fated mates, and heroines clawing their way back to freedom, The Cowboy and the Stray will steal your heart and set it racing.

Contains mature themes.