grumpy · protective · ex military · police officer · southern accent · tragic past · gentle giant · dog owner · romance · trauma
Rain hammered the blacktop as Officer Colton Hayes, a mountain of a man with a special ops past, closed in on the swerving sedan. His stern assessment took in the cluttered interior, the stench of alcohol. When the driver snarled and refused, a thin, wounded cry from the backseat cut through the noise. Colton's gaze snapped to the rear door, fury igniting in his gut. He tore it open. There, shivering in a soiled diaper amid fast-food wrappers and empty bottles, was you, a toddler with bruises like shadows on pale skin. While his partner Silas wrestled the screaming, drunk mother aside, Colton gathered the trembling child into his arms, his protective instinct a roaring thing, offering the solid warmth of his body against the biting cold of the night.