▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥After lunch, I told Vanessa I had to get back to work and that I would be back at six to get ready for dinner. She gave me a simple smile, and a wink telling me to pet Honey for her. I’m dumb because I felt like giving her that cow as a gift. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me. Am I a virgin? I wasn’t even attached to the woman I’d first slept with. It was one night I barely remembered. I leaned against the fence, watching the cattle graze under the late afternoon sun. The air was thick with the scent of earth and grass, the kind of smell that settled deep into my bones. It was familiar, grounding—but today, it wasn’t enough to clear the tension knotted in my chest.My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I fished it out, seeing Catia’s name on the screen. A sigh slipped past my lips before I answered.“Hey, Cat.”There was a beat of silence, then a sigh of her own. “Another one’s dead, Colton.”I closed my eyes briefly, pressing my fingers against my temple. Shit.T
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I sat on the edge of the bed- after moving from the kitchen counter, my laptop balanced on my knees, fingers flying across the keyboard as I typed furiously. The words came easy, fueled by a mix of frustration and grim satisfaction./Evil Still Exists Among the Good.Hey, Muse Squad,That much is clear in Dusty Creek, a town that once thrived before a crooked sheriff decided to turn it into his personal playground.I’ve spent the last week digging into this town’s past—by that, I mean listening to the locals, the ones willing to talk. The ones who haven’t been silenced by fear, or worse, indifference. What I’ve found is a slow, creeping decay, the kind that doesn’t happen overnight. Dusty Creek was once a place people were proud to call home. A tight-knit town, strong, steady. Then came corruption—quiet at first, almost invisible, until it spread like a disease.The thing about corruption is that it festers in silence. When people turn away, pretend not t
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★We didn’t talk when we left the house.I kind of expected us to, since we were both in shitty moods, but we didn’t. Instead, Colton drove while I stared out the window, watching the trees blur past under the soft glow of the truck’s headlights. The pack had long since quieted, and the deeper we drove into the open stretch of land, the more I felt the weight of everything settle.I wasn’t even sure why we were out here. He hadn’t said anything when we pulled onto some dirt road on the edge of town, hadn’t given me a reason when he parked and shut off the engine. But he didn’t need to. It was obvious—he just needed the silence.To be honest, so did I. If I didn’t get my thoughts in check, I might be tempted to walk into dusty creek, find my mother, and fight with her. As it’s been stated, I am not opposed to fighting and cursing the elderly. And that would be distasteful of me. I would be wasting a good fight on somebody who wasn’t even worth the air I bre
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★As Colton pulled the truck further down the dirt road, the land stretched wide before us, bathed in the cool evening light. The house came into view, warm and lived-in, the kind of place that had been standing for years and planned to stay for many more. A single flickering porch light cast long shadows across the wooden boards, and there, sprawled lazily on the front steps like it owned the damn place, was a cat. Its golden eyes locked onto the truck as if evaluating whether or not we were worth the effort of moving.I had barely unbuckled my seatbelt when movement caught my eye.A girl stood off to the side of the porch, arms crossed, weight shifted onto one hip like she had been waiting for us. It took me half a second, but I placed her immediately—Ashley. Laia’s sister. I had met her during the whirlwind of introductions to Colton’s family, but I hadn’t expected to see her here.My eyes flickered between her and the house. Was she living here with the
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 I chopped the vegetables with more force than necessary, the blade of the knife hitting the wooden cutting board with sharp, precise thuds. Samson stood beside me, stirring whatever was in the pan, his face blank, his silence loud.It was pissing me off.I wasn’t expecting warm brotherly bonding over dinner prep, but the way he was shutting me out was grating on my nerves. He wasn’t even looking at me. Just cooking like I wasn’t standing right there. He had apologized last night because Vanessa made him do it.But it seemed like he was still pissed. And he had no right to be. I let the silence go on for a minute, maybe two, before I finally exhaled sharply. “Alright, are you gonna tell me what your problem is, or are we just gonna keep playing house like we don’t know each other?”Samson kept his eyes on the pan. “I don’t want to discuss it in the kitchen.”I scoffed, setting the knife down with a little too much force. “Why the hell not?” I lowered my voice,
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 Dinner was done in another thirty minutes, and Samson and I set the table while the women stayed put. It wasn’t anything special—we just knew better than to let them lift a damn finger after putting up with us all day. When everything was in place, we called them over.Ashley, never one to waste time, popped open another bottle of moonshine and poured a full glass for each of us. All, excluding the one person who couldn’t drink right now. She brought water for Laia, who accepted it with a soft smile. Vanessa, on the other hand, strolled in like she had all the time in the world, completely at ease despite sitting at a table full of people who’d either fought with her or barely knew her.I pulled out a chair for her next to me. She hesitated, just for a second, then sat with a quiet “thanks.”Samson took his usual spot at the head of the table. Laia sat close to him, and Ashley next to her. We muttered a quick thanks before digging in, eating in easy silence—unt
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★The moonshine was good.Not the kind of good that made you want to chug it, because you’d end up on your ass if you did, but the kind that left a pleasant warmth in your chest and had your limbs feeling a little looser. Like everything was just a bit funnier, a bit easier.I liked it.The dinner had been delicious, and fun—mostly because pushing Samson’s buttons was quickly becoming my new favorite pastime. But now, with plates cleared and everyone moving into the living room, Ashley nudged me with her elbow."Hey, come help me with the dishes."I raised a brow, lifting my hand to gesture at my dress. “Do I look like I was made for doing dishes?”Ashley smirked. “Nope. But you’re still gonna help.”Before I could protest, she grabbed my wrist and tugged me toward the kitchen, my heels clicking sharply against the wooden floor as I followed.With a dramatic sigh, I took my place at the drying station, picking up a soft dish towel while Ashley turned on the
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★After munching on the pie, and having some more conversations with my new favourite person. Laia. I think her husband doesn’t deserve her, and it’s likely her choice under his coercion that she decided to quit her job. I’m just saying. After drinking some more moonshine, and chatting with the sisters. Colton decided it was time for us to go. Laia told me she’d contact me the next morning. I stumbled out of their house with a bunch of food she insisted i take, and another pie ashley said she makes for guest. Not gonna lie, i do enjoy their hospitality. Though some people *cough* Samson *cough* don’t like me, but that’s fine. Hostility never bothered. I know, people should be more confident, just like me. The drive back to the house was a blur for me. The funny thing is this moonshine didn’t make me feel drunk or like I’d be sick the next day. I felt nothing but easiness, and i felt loose. When we got to the house, i hopped out of the massive behemouth
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★It was buried.Like someone had wanted it to be.I’d been combing through articles for hours, the motions mechanical now, almost numb. My mind was on autopilot—just picking through keywords, cross-referencing names, digging into obscure land deals that didn’t make sense, tracking down vague, half-mentioned connections between people who seemed irrelevant at first glance. The rabbit holes I’d gone down had been endless, some of them leading nowhere. But I couldn’t stop. I had to find something. Anything besides what I found about the drug dealer. Still, I wanted more details. My eyes were aching, and my fingers were numb from tapping the keys. I was running on nothing but cold coffee and the burning need to dig deeper. I had spent the better part of the morning and afternoon chasing down leads that now felt pointless. But then… I found it.It was another old article, buried under thousands of newer headlines, hidden like someone had intentionally tucked i
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 I stayed long enough to make sure they both ate. Ashley had come down minutes after I'd urged Samson to bathe and dress in something else. He didn't need my judgment and neither did she. Didn’t matter that it was just eggs, pancakes, and the last of the sausage from the freezer. I stood in that damn kitchen like a drill sergeant, arms folded, watching Samson poke at his plate like food was something foreign. Ashley sat across from him, silent, her eyes rimmed red but dry now. She wouldn’t meet my gaze. I didn’t ask her to.I didn’t ask them anything.I just waited, and eventually they started eating. Slowly. Quietly. But they ate.That was enough for now. They drank some juice and told me they'd be staying indoors for the day. Well, not Ashley. Catia was coming to take her to her place so she could be away from Samson.Once I was sure they wouldn’t go back to bed hungry, I stepped out and headed down the porch stairs. The air was already thick with humidity, t
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 The water ran hot over my shoulders, and for a while, I just stood there, letting it scald the edges of everything I didn’t want to think about. My hands braced against the tiled wall, breath slow, heavy. It didn’t do much to rinse away the ache in my chest—but it helped. Just a little.It was easy to smile around Vanessa, but away from her, my brain was starting to think again. I'd love to have my ability to think fucked out of me. When Vanessa and I have sex, I can only think about her. I do love just thinking about her. It's better than thinking about all the problems in my life. By the time I dried off, dressed, and placed my hat over damp curls, the morning had already fully settled in. Vanessa hadn’t moved from her spot in bed when I peeked into the room again—still buried in her research, sharp as ever, focused like she was stitching the world back together with a single thread. She didn’t even look up when I asked her if she'd need my truck to go into
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I barely noticed the time passing.The world had narrowed down to my laptop screen, the dull hum of its fan, and the occasional click of my nails against the keys. Morning light had crept in slowly through the window, shifting from gray to gold while I chased paper trails and public records down digital rabbit holes. Every tab I opened spun into another, and another—property deeds, business filings, court case summaries, suspicious shell companies that seemed to tie back to a single name again and again.Alina.She was careful. Calculated. Her name was rarely listed, but the fingerprints were there—metaphorically speaking. I was stitching together something ugly. Bigger than what Colton had suspected. It wasn't just a bad deal gone personal. She was tied into something far-reaching. And worse—she was good at hiding in plain sight. I didn’t have the full picture yet, but I had the edges. And the more I found, the more certain I became: this was more than r
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I woke up warm.Not just in the way that meant the blankets were doing their job—but in the way that made my chest ache. Like a fire had settled there overnight. Slow, steady, and kind.Colton's arm was wrapped around me, his hand resting just below my ribs, his body curled into mine like he always belonged there. My cheek was pressed against the solid muscle of his chest, and I could hear his heartbeat—slow, even, completely at ease.It made me want to cry. In a good way. Maybe. This must be the good thing about having a partner. You're never truly alone. And if you want to be alone, you can. Take a moment to yourself. It works if you have someone who understands. Do I suddenly believe love strengthens and fixes everything? No. Heck, who knows if our relationship would stand the test of time. Who knows how this might end? In an affair? God I hope not. If Colton suddenly decides he's actually found his Mrs right, I'll kill them both. I nestled closer t
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 I must’ve misheard her. No way she just said—Vanessa narrowed her eyes like she could feel my doubt. “I’m in love with you,” she said again, firmer this time. “I am. And when you said you wanted more than casual... well, I want that too.”My heart damn near leapt out of my throat. My wolf—usually quiet and brooding—sank somewhere warm and content like he’d finally been fed after starving.She said she loves me.I stared at her, stunned into silence for maybe the first time in my entire life. Vanessa. The girl who ran from any emotional talk as if it were fire. Who flinched at the mentions of true love, side-eyed people talking about mates and marriage, ducked out of the room when things got too real—just said she loved me. Out loud. On purpose.And she hadn’t even looked away. She stood there, her chest rising and falling like she was bracing for something, arms crossed like she needed to hold herself together. But she was still standing, still meeting my eyes
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I could have gone to my bedroom to take this call, but I didn’t want to go that far.. I stopped in the hallway, just out of earshot. I’m not the type to run from my problems. Hell, I run right into danger, that’s just who I am. But I’m avoiding the main conversation with Colton. I want to have it. I want to talk about it. I want to say, yeah, I want more than casual with you, too. I want more, I love you. I don’t know how or when I fell for you, but it kind of just happened. However, I cannot throw my whole life away. Long distance won’t work for us.... i mean, fuck, why am i even thinking about this?I brought my eyes back to my phone.The number was unfamiliar, but I answered it anyway, partly because I needed a distraction and partly because a flicker of dread told me who it might be.“Hello?” I said cautiously.There was a pause. Then a shaky inhale.“Vanessa?” a voice I hadn’t heard in days, maybe weeks, not in person, not like this. But I knew it i
▄︻デ══━一 COLTON HAYES💥 After a moment of watching the lake, each of us silently making a plan in our heads, we decided to return home.We didn’t say much on the walk back. Vanessa kept close, her steps quiet but fast to keep up with mine. The storm had left behind a world slick with mud and the chill of lingering rain. Trees dripped steadily, and the sky overhead was still a dull sheet of grey, hanging heavy like the grief inside me.By the time we stepped back into the house, I shrugged off my damp jacket and tossed it on a hook. Vanessa followed, tugging her sleeves down her wrists like she was trying to ground herself. The house was too quiet without the family. Too hollow. The air still smelled like breakfast and loss.“Coffee?” I offered, needing something to keep my hands busy.She nodded, and we moved into the kitchen. I prepped the machine in silence, only the gurgling hum of it filling the space between us.“I was thinking…” she said eventually, leaning on the counter, “we s
★。\|/。★VANESSA DAVIS★。/|\。★I arrived back at the farm—Colton’s house—just as the sky slipped further into gray.From the second I parked, I knew something was off. The driveway was clear. No voices floated from the porch. No creak of floorboards or clatter of kitchenware inside. It was empty.Too empty.I stepped out of the Jeep and onto the damp ground, the air thick with leftover moisture and the scent of wet wood. The storm had passed, but the rain hadn’t fully let go. It lingered in droplets that clung to the leaves and coated the windows like tears that didn’t know how to fall.Inside the house, the silence clawed at me.“Colton?” I called out, voice echoing just slightly. No response. My footsteps padded quietly over the wood floors as I walked from room to room, scanning for any sign of him.Nothing in the kitchen.Nothing in the living room, either of them.His phone wasn’t on the charger. His keys were gone.A slow panic started bubbling in my stomach.I checked the front p