Ruthless
Author: Renee Rose; Vanessa Vale
Date: 2000-01-01 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Contemporary; Paranormal Romance; Paranormal; Shapeshifters; Contemporary Romance; Erotica; Fantasy; Westerns; Romance
Description: **PACK RULE #6: KEEP HUMANS AWAY FROM PACK LAND.** My alpha told me to get rid of her. Make nice and find out if she’ll sell her property. Keep her from bringing more humans close to our land. But before I’ve even met her, I catch her scent. The moon’s full and I have to follow it. I can’t stop myself. I ran straight into human territory, onto her property. Find her bathing naked in the moonlight and show her my wolf. Now all bets are off. My alpha may want her gone, but I need her to stay. In fact, I’ll do anything to make sure she never, ever leaves.

Wolf Ranch: Ruthless

Wolf Ranch - Book 6

Renee Rose

Vanessa Vale

Wolf Ranch: Ruthless

Copyright © 2020 by Bridger Media and Wilrose Dream Ventures LLC

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author's imagination and used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from both authors, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover design: Bridger Media

Cover graphic: Deposit Photos: tolstnev; aarrttuurr

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Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Epilogue

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Also By Vanessa Vale

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1

RAND

I seriously couldn’t get my clothes off fast enough. The full moon was driving me fucking nuts this moon cycle. The last couple days, it felt like the monthly pack run would never arrive.

As we raced to strip off our clothes in the mudroom of the pack cabin, I tore my jeans getting them off my legs.

“Easy there, champ,” Boyd said to me with a lazy grin. Fucking easy for him to say—he no longer has the raging urge to mate since he found his female last summer.

Not that the sharp intensity I felt to run was about the urge to mate. I didn’t even crave the usual full moon joy-fuck with any of the unmated females. What I needed was to run, run hard. Push myself because I was desperate for something I didn’t even know.

I kicked off my second pant leg with a frustrated growl.

“Moon got under your skin?” he asked. The rodeo champ was too easy going for his own good.

“I guess,” I muttered, running a hand over the back of my neck.

Karen, the she-wolf who’d been trying to hook up with me for the last couple moons, tried to make eye contact, but I dodged the glances. I had zero interest in pursuing sex with her tonight. Or ever. My wolf snarled at the thought of touching her, and it wasn’t because she’d already tried to hook up with every other unmated male in the pack. It was normal for unmated wolves to screw around during the full moon, usually without any weird expectations, but Karen was clingy. And right now, I couldn’t wait to shake her.

That was the fucking confusing part. Usually the aggression with the full moon—the need to run and hunt—was equal to the need to fuck. And while the randiness was there—hell, my boner was swinging in the wind as I jogged outside—none of the usual choices sparked any interest from me.

No, this primal feeling that something had crawled under my skin had me running in human form before I’d even shifted, the ground hard beneath my bare feet.

“Race you to the other side,” my brother Clint said, goading me by smacking my bare ass as he dashed by. The fucker.

His mate, Becky, was human, so she didn’t shift; however, she was always amused by his antics on a run. And well satisfied when he returned. I’d put money on her expecting their second pup anytime by the way they got it on.

With a snarl, I dropped to all fours, pine needles skidding out below my giant paws as I shifted and took off at a sprint. The night air was cool, not a cloud in the sky. Perfect. I chased my older brother, nipping at his flanks like we were still teenagers, but when we finally reached the ridge, I dropped back. Stopped. Something pulled me in the opposite direction from him and the others.

I longed to go down the mountain. Toward the Sheffield ranch next door.

Where humans lived.

Where it was forbidden to run.

Boyd ran by, his wolf loping with an easy grace. He enjoyed these runs alone before heading back to satisfy his human mate, Audrey. He chased me for a moment, nipping at my heels to get me moving, but I snarled, showing my teeth, and he ran on without me.

What was down there?

It didn’t matter, I couldn’t investigate. Not in wolf form, and I’d been dying to let my wolf out all week.

I started to follow the pack, but every step I took made my agitation grow. I needed to go the other way.

Fuck it.

I turned back and trotted to the ridge again. Put my nose in the air to sniff. There was something on the wind. Nothing detectible, nothing I could describe to another wolf, but I would swear there was a scent calling to me.

I cocked my head, listening to the yip and howl of the younger wolves in the pack learning how to hunt. Rob, the alpha, would kick my ass for breaking a pack rule. We didn’t run in human territory. Ever. It was beyond dangerous for the pack.

No one could know there were wolves in this area. There’d been issues in the past, and none of us wanted more.

But I tore down the mountainside anyway, my paws scrambling through the loose gravel on the steep slope. I ran hard and fast, following my instinct, hardly noticing which direction I was going.

Not until I ran straight past the Wolf property line, where my alpha’s family lived and ranched. I found myself on human property, on Old Man Sheffield’s land where I used to work as a teenager. Even though it had been over a decade since I’d last worked here, I knew this terrain inside and out, and it felt as much like home as Wolf Ranch.

Every kick of my paws drove me into a deeper frenzy. A scent became clearer. Intoxicating. Maddening. What the fuck was out there that was driving me insane?

I reached the outcropping that overlooked the waterfall into a hot spring pool in the middle of the river and skidded to a stop.

Holy fuck.

There, in the pool below, was a female.

My female. In that instant, I knew she was mine. Her scent wasn’t strong, but it was there on the slight breeze.

Her bare skin glowed pale in the moonlight as she cut through the water, swimming in a circle around the secret spot. Every wolf in the area knew about that place. Some of us were lucky enough to use it in human form on summer days because we’d been friends with Old Man Sheffield.

I froze, staring in fascination at the long, slender slope of her bare back, the pale globes of her ass flexing with her kicks. Her hair was long and dark—although it was hard to tell what color it was with just the moonlight, but I remembered it as bright red—and thick, fanning out in all directions around her shoulders, floating on the water’s surface.

She dove down and disappeared under the waterfall, and I nearly launched myself over the edge into the pool so as not to lose sight of her.

Just like the scent, I instantly recognized her.

Natalie.

The name filtered through my hormone-addled brain.

My mate was Natalie—the new owner of the Sheffield ranch. A human. The great-niece of Old Man Sheffield, who’d owned the property for sixty years and left it to her when he’d died a few years ago. I remembered her as a kid when she’d come a few summers to stay. Hell, the last time I’d seen her, she’d been… maybe ten. But she wasn’t a girl any longer. Fuck no, every inch of her was all lush woman.

I dropped to my haunches in the stream and whined, my wolf going insane because she’d disappeared.

A moment later, she resurfaced.

I heard her breathy inhale and wondered if that was how she’d sound when my cock filled her for the first time. I nearly howled and gave myself away. My quarry had been cornered. My prey, found. I’d be ruthless in making her mine.

Even though I’d suppressed the sound, her head jerked up, and I found myself staring straight into her dark eyes. The waterfall was only fifteen feet or so, but she saw me nonetheless.

Surprise registered on her face. Her lips formed a perfect “O,” and she abruptly stood up, letting water rivulets run down her—aw, fuck—perfect breasts. They were full and high, tipped with furled nipples. I wanted to lick off every fucking drop of water.

I scrambled up to my paws to stare at her. I couldn’t look away.

“Hey, wolf,” she said softly.

Her melodic voice shocked me out of my trance. She didn’t scream. She didn’t even move. She wasn’t afraid. She was talking to me. Almost like she knew I was a shifter. That I’d understand her.

Fuck. I just let my wolf be seen by a human. One who lived next door to my alpha. Even though she was mine—I felt it, smelled it, sensed it—I was in deep shit. For two fucking reasons. One, Rob was going to kick my ass. Two, I had to leave her here. I couldn’t shift and go down to her. Toss her over my shoulder and carry her from the water like I wanted. Lay her on the soft summer grass and fuck her hard and long until she screamed my name. Until she had my seed deep in her and my mark on her neck. Then she’d know what I was. Who I was. The secret would be out.

Whirling, I took off at a run, back up the mountain, away from the scent that had been driving me wild. I would never be eased now. Not while I knew what the need inside me was. Not until I made her mine.

I’d figure out this fucking mess. Until then, I fled. Away from my mate.

2

NATALIE

It was real. The wolf was real. Holy shit, everything I remembered from when I was a girl had actually happened.

I hadn’t been sure. I’d been ten years old, visiting my great uncle—the only adult who ever really cared for me—and I’d seen something as if out of a movie. Something impossible.

I’d been upstairs in my bedroom looking out the window when I heard a shout. The ranch hand, Rand, had gotten pinned under my great uncle’s tractor, the wheels losing traction in the mud before it had tipped and rolled on top of him. I’d screamed from the window, opening it and calling to my uncle to help. Before my uncle got close, I saw a wolf scrambling out from the overturned tractor instead of a human. A wolf. I caught a glimpse of blue eyes, the thick gray fur. I’d never forget it as long as I lived.

It had startled at Uncle Adam’s approach, took off running on three legs, favoring an injured one for a few hundred feet and then running like normal. Like nothing had happened. As if he’d never been crushed.

I’d raced downstairs and out of the house to meet Uncle Adam by the tipped tractor.

“Rand was under there,” I’d sworn, pointing to where he’d been, my finger trembling. “I saw him go under.”

But there was no one there now.

“Uncle Adam,” I’d said, my voice shaky. “I saw…” I’d drawn a breath, swallowed hard. “I saw… a wolf came out the other side.”

Rand had turned into a wolf. Like magic. Or… something.

Uncle Adam had gone very still. Then he dropped a hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eye. “There are strange things that happen in this valley, Natalie,” he’d said, instead of telling me I was lying or making up tales. “Come inside. I’ll tell you a story.”

He’d sat me down with a glass of lemonade and told me the wildest story I’d ever heard.

A story I never forgot, but one that was hard to believe.

All these years, I still hadn’t been sure if it was all made up. If my mind had played tricks on me. On what Uncle Adam had told me. What I saw. As if he’d embellished onto what I’d told him, to make it some kind of fairy tale. Something fun for a kid whose parents dumped her on a Montana ranch for summers because they couldn’t afford daycare. Like an adult telling a child about the Tooth Fairy or Santa, so there was some wonder in life.

Now, almost fifteen years later, I knew the truth. Actually, I’d known all along, but this proved it. Uncle Adam hadn’t lied or embellished or told tales.

Werewolves did exist.

A gray wolf specifically. The one I’d seen before. The one who’d popped out from beneath the overturned tractor. I knew who’d been at the top of the waterfall.

He’d seen me naked.

Even with only the full moon brightening the night, I knew. The silver fur. While I couldn’t see them, I imagined the blue eyes.

Rand.

I climbed out of the swimming hole, trying to calm the trembling in my limbs.

I wasn’t scared. It wasn’t like I thought the wolf would hurt me. Nor the guy the wolf would shift into. I didn’t know why I shook. Why I trembled with newfound interest in the ranch hand from all those years ago. Maybe it was just the realization that the supernatural was real. Paranormal happened—and to someone I’d known for such a long time.

Right here in Cooper Valley. Right on my property. Uncle Adam had told me the truth. Trusted me with it.

I grabbed my short terry cloth robe that doubled as a towel and wrapped it around my dripping shoulders.

My nipples felt abraded by the soft fabric, and my pussy ached. I was aroused. Strangely eager. Maybe it was the wild excitement of seeing a wolf shifter up close.

Or maybe because it had been Rand? He’d been sixteen that summer. Big for his age. Handsome, even to a girl of ten who hadn’t known what handsome was.

In wolf form, he’d been beautiful. Enormous. Broad shoulders and a thick coat of glossy fur. Intense. Tonight, his focus had been on me. Only me.

I slipped on my sandals and followed the path back toward the house, a small smile playing on my lips.

Werewolves were real. Rand was still around. Hell, he was on my land now.

Somehow, it made my decision to move to Cooper Valley feel less crazy. There was a reason I was pulled back here. A reason beyond the fact that I’d graduated with a largely useless master’s degree in music, didn’t have a cent to my name and had nowhere else to go. I’d wondered why Uncle Adam had given the ranch to me when I hadn’t seen him in fifteen years. Maybe now, I knew the reason. Maybe now I was the only one with the secret, the one human who could be a good neighbor and protect it.

3

NATALIE

“Hot water would be good, but first fix the leak on the roof.” I sat at the kitchen table making a list of all the things that needed to be done on the house. And talking to myself. The backdoor was open to the warm day. I’d forgotten how beautiful summers in Montana were. How peaceful. I was getting used to the lack of city noise. No cars driving by. No other tenants in my crappy apartment building yelling at each other or the sound of someone’s TV. No ambulances or dogs barking.

Nothing but the wind and an occasional bird, which had me having conversations out loud. Scratching out the line PAINT HOUSE, I moved it further down the to-do list. That could wait although I felt bad for anyone driving by who had to look at the place. The clapboard siding was faded and peeling, and every time I came down the dirt driveway, I felt even more weary.

I was thankful to Uncle Adam for leaving me this place. Hell, I’d be homeless otherwise because rent in L.A. was too expensive for someone without a good job. But the house was a project with a capital P. There was so much work to be done. More than the seventy-three dollars in my bank account could pay for. I hoped the tip money I got from working at Cody’s Saloon the night before would be enough to pay the electrician coming over.

“I could do a haunted house in the fall. I wouldn’t have to do a thing,” I muttered. The idea actually had some punch to it. Hell, I was game for any way to make some cash, but if the electrical issues weren’t fixed, I might be owning a pile of ash and rubble.

I put my arms up in the air, leaned back and stretched. Dropping them down, I ran a hand over my hair, tugged the tie from my wrist and put my hair up in a ponytail. Going to the coffeemaker, I grabbed the pot, stuck it under the faucet to fill it, then dumped the water into the back of the ancient machine. After adding grounds to the filter, I pressed the button to start the machine.

“Fuck!” I shouted, jumping back, then sticking my finger in my mouth, as if that was going to help.

The machine had not only shocked me, but made a weird sizzling sound. Reaching across the counter, I grabbed the cord and tugged the plug from the outlet, afraid it was going to catch fire… the start of the house burning down. For the past few nights, the lights had been blinking upstairs, and now I got electric shock therapy from the coffee machine.

Leaning against the aged formica, I noticed the hum of the fridge had cut off.

“Great,” I muttered, going to the light switch, flipping it on and off to confirm the power was out, at least in this part of the house.

The coffeemaker had blown a fuse and zapped the hell out of me. It was probably fried and that meant no coffee.

Hearing tires crunch in the drive, I cut through the house to the front door. The contractor’s scheduled arrival couldn’t have been better planned if I’d tried. If he had a venti Americano with skim and a shot of espresso, I’d make babies with the guy.

I squinted against the bright sunshine as he hopped from the pickup truck. On the truck’s door a cool house logo and R&N Construction in a bold font below. “You must be Natalie. Heard lots about you for a long time.”

“Not sure if that’s a good thing or not,” I replied, setting my hands on my hips.

As he came up the porch steps, he said, “We were all wondering when you’d show up. I’m Nash. We talked on the phone.”

“Right,” I replied, shaking his hand. “Glad you could make it.”

“Heard you’re the new bartender at Cody’s. The owner’s a friend of mine, so I appreciate his referral.”

I’d answered an ad at the bar in town, and thankfully, having been a broke grad student working full-time at a bar for the past few years had paid off because Cody had hired me on the spot. Now I could pay the light bill. If I could keep the electric working.

“He’s a nice guy,” I shared. “I’m thankful he hired me and gave me your number to help. As you can see, I’ve got a few things to fix.” I looked up, indicating the entire house.

He offered an easy laugh. “A few things.”

“Your timing couldn’t be better because I just blew a fuse.”

“It’ll be easy for us to fix things since we live on this side of the mountain. We’re neighbors.”

I arched a brow. “Oh?”

He tipped his head away from the house. “Live in the hills above Wolf Ranch.”

Oh. I looked him over again, this time wondering if he was one of them, a shifter. He didn’t look any different than any other big guy. He was maybe a few years older than me with sandy blond hair that curled from beneath a baseball cap with the same construction logo on it. I pegged him at six feet and close to two hundred pounds.

Good looking, not that I was interested in a shifter. I wasn’t although my mind went to the silver wolf I’d seen at the swimming hole the night before. The one who I’d seen long ago. The one who’d worked on uncle’s ranch.

Rand. The one I knew wasn’t this guy.

I cleared my throat. “There are tons of issues with this old place,” I said, getting my thoughts away from Rand Tucker. “My list is long. Too long for my budget to do all at once.”

“No problem. I assume electrical is at the top?” He followed me down the hall.

“Yeah. The lights have been blinking, and as I said, I just blew a fuse turning on the coffeemaker.”

He stuck his head into the kitchen. “Wow, my grandparents had a fridge like that.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, leaned against the doorframe. “Well, it’s not running right now.”

He frowned then nodded. “Where’s the fuse box?”

I tipped my chin toward the hallway. “Basement.”

He stepped back and let me lead the way.

I opened the door and flipped the switch. That light worked. Going down the rickety stairs into the creepy basement, Nash followed. There were small windows that let some natural light in but not too much, which was probably good because I didn’t want to see how many spiders were in the dark corners. If I saw one, I probably wouldn’t be coming down here ever again.

On the far wall, there was a bigger window I remembered Uncle Adam telling me had been opened for coal delivery back in the day. He’d had to shovel it into the furnace to keep the house warm in the winter. Beneath it, the dirt floor had bits of crushed coal ground in. That had been decades ago when it had been last used, replaced with an oil burning furnace.

The air was cooler, a dank scent filled the air. There wasn’t much on this level beyond an old washer and dryer and a few lines strung between the first floor’s cross beams for hanging things to dry.

“Here it is.” I went over to the old box on the wall.

“Wow, vintage fuses. Haven’t seen many screw-in ones lately.”

I turned and pointed at my uncle’s handwriting next to each one stating what they went to in the house.

Heavy steps came down the stairwell right before a deep voice said, “Careful, darlin’. Touch that and your hair might curl.”

Nash and I turned, Nash’s shoulder brushing mine.

I touched my hair, red as a rooster and already crazy curly. It always looked like I’d been electrocuted. I didn’t need that to actually happen to have that effect.

“I told you to wait for me,” he growled at Nash, who immediately stepped away from me.

“Rand’s right,” Nash replied. “Gotta turn off the main first.”

I heard Nash but wasn’t paying him any attention. I felt like I’d gotten a jolt of electricity just looking at the guy who’d come down the stairs.

Rand. The wolf from last night. I knew it was him. Felt it in my bones. My heart leapt and my pussy wept.

I hadn’t seen him since I was ten, but I knew who he was. He’d been sixteen then, so he obviously looked older now. The time had treated him well. Really well. He was… wow. Better. Bigger.

Holy shit. I’d been right back then, and I’d been right the night before at the swimming hole. Rand was a shifter.

He stared at me with those blue eyes that I knew had met mine from the top of the waterfall. In the dim light of the basement, they seemed to glow, just as they had before. His hair wasn’t silver, far from it. Beneath his cowboy hat, it was almost black. His jaw clenched, and his nostrils flared.

“Red, it’s been a long time.” He came over to me, extended a hand and pushed Nash further away.

Red. I’d forgotten all about that nickname he’d given me all those years ago when my hair had usually been in a long braid down my back. He leaned close, and I had to tip my chin back to look up at him. His nostrils flared as he drew a deep breath. Almost like he was breathing me in.

God, he probably was. I’d bet he had a keener sense of smell than a normal human. Wolf senses.

“Sure has,” I replied although my mouth was dry.

“You’ve grown up.” His gaze drifted over me from my cheap gas station flip flops to my wild hair… and everywhere in between. He reached out, tucked a curl behind my ear.

I gulped, and my skin prickled at the action.

Holy shit.

“So… have you.” I didn’t remember him to ever be a gangly teenager. The opposite. He’d been tall, thickly muscled and, to a ten-year-old, cute. The first vague flutterings of a girlhood crush had been awakened by him. Now, he was even taller, even broader. His muscles had muscles. My female interest wasn’t a vague flutter any longer.

Hell, no. It was instant attraction. Heat. A longing I’d never known before.

Nash stood off to the side watching as if he were at a tennis match. “You two know each other?”

Rand dropped his hand but almost reluctantly. “I used to work for Old Man Sheffield. Back in high school. Natalie was here summers when she was little.”

Nash snapped his fingers. “That’s right.”

I knew I blushed but hoped it didn’t show too much. “Haven’t been back since I was ten,” I admitted. “It’s been a long time.”

“Sorry about your uncle,” Rand said. “He was a real nice guy.” He smiled, making little crinkles form in the corner of his eyes. While he seemed intense with me, almost overwhelming, it appeared he did that alot. Smiled, that is.

“You knew him better than me. Working here, you had to know him really well,” I admitted. “I was shocked he left me the house and property.”

“You were his only kin, as far I know.” Rand looked up as if he could see through the subfloor. “Needs some work. What are your plans for it?”

I shrugged. “A friend of mine suggested a bed and breakfast, so it can earn some cash.”

Was it me or did they tense up a little when I said that?

I’d thought Rand had been staring before, but now, I felt trapped. Caught in his blue eyes. As if he could see into me.

“You want people to come here and stay?” he asked, as if I’d said tourists should come and shovel manure in the barn.

I frowned, unsure of the issue. “I don’t know anything about ranching, and I don’t want to bartend forever. Income would be a good thing. I like to eat. There isn’t much in the way of jobs out here. At least for what I do.”

“What’s that?” Rand asked.

“Concert violinist.” That was a touchy subject, and Rand gave me the usual wide eyed stare of surprise. I couldn’t see Nash except out of the corner of my eye with Rand standing so close.

I took a deep breath, and my chest bumped Rand’s. “Well, standing in the basement is fun and all, but I’m sure you two have other projects besides me.”

Rand just stared, took another deep breath then stepped back.

I sighed.

Nash went to the fuse box, glanced over his shoulder. “Got a flashlight?” he asked Rand.

Rand pulled one from his back pocket, handed it over along with a new fuse. Kept his gaze on me.

“How did you know to bring that?” I asked. He was well prepared.

His eyes crinkled warmly even though he wasn’t outright smiling. “I used to work here, remember? Nothing’s changed with the electric. I used to have to come down and replace the fuses for your uncle all the time. Got a hell of a shock once. Come on, we’ll go upstairs, and you can holler down and let Nash know when the power comes back on. Always thought this basement was creepy.”

“Probably full of spiders, too,” I murmured, looking around. I freaking hate spiders.

I looked to Nash who gave me a wink, then I turned to go. Walking up the old stairs, I became acutely aware of Rand following. Of his eyes on my ass. This guy had seen me naked the night before! I knew it was him, but there’s no way he knew that I knew.

I couldn’t tell him either. Obviously, he had no intention of telling me the truth. It was like the saying about a secret being the elephant in the room. In this case, it was a sleek, gray wolf.

“Ack!” My foot dropped through a rotted stair. I shrieked, arms flying out to steady myself as my body dropped. Before I even found the handrail, Rand caught me—one hand under my arm, the other at my waist. Instead of steadying me, he tugged me backward, and I tumbled straight into his arms, honeymoon style. I gasped again, this time from the hard feel of him holding me in his arms.

“Easy, Red,” he rumbled. “I got you.”

“What happened?” Nash called from below.

“We’re good, just watch the broken step when you come up,” Rand replied, pulling me in close.

“Oh!” That was the inane sound that came from my lips as he carried me up the remaining stairs.

Slowly.

Like he was in no hurry to get to the top.

And not because I was too heavy, and it was a struggle for him. No, I felt weightless in his arms, like he could carry three of me and still not break a sweat.

Wolf strength.

My startled gaze found his, which had taken on an eerie, beast-like glow. “Careful, darlin’,” he murmured, his warm breath feathering against my cheek.

For some reason, his words—or maybe it was the deep velvet rumble of his voice—seemed to reach right inside me, speaking to my tingling lady parts like he was singing a serenade. He looked even more handsome close up and personal, the strong line of his jaw made even more manly by a pair of sensual lips. He smelled like sawdust and leather and clean soap.

“Wow. Um, th-thank you,” I managed to say as we reached the hall.

“Might have to keep you in my arms just in case something else breaks.”

I laughed. “In this house? Then you’ll never be putting me down.”

“Works for me.”

O.

M.

G.

I looked back down the stairs, where Nash stood with his hands on his hips, watching us. “Huh,” he said, like he just figured something out.

“What?” I squirmed a little in Rand’s arms, which made a deep rumble come from his chest. I felt it against my arm as much as heard it.

He still hadn’t put me down.

“Um, are you going to let me go?”

“No.”

Just no?

Nash shook his head and disappeared, and a few beats later, the light in the basement stairwell went out indicating he’d gone back to the fuse box and turned off the main power.

“Um. We can’t stay like this.” No matter how much I liked being in his hold, it was a little weird.

Rand sighed then made a show of checking the floor before he gently tipped my feet to the ground. Even when I was safely standing, his hand settled on my low back, like I might fall through the floorboards at any moment.

Which, given the state of the house, was always a possibility.

“So, this B&B idea?”

My heart still galloped like a wild mustang from his casually heroic rescue, and I hoped he didn’t notice how his touch, his nearness made me react. I was flushed and not from the warm summer morning. I was jittery, and I hadn’t had that hit of caffeine that had been denied.

I shrugged again, trying for laid back. “Like I said, not many jobs around here for what I’m skilled at. I’m not sure if I’m enough of a people-person for having out of town guests, but I’ll do what I need to to get by.”

“I remember you and your uncle sitting together fiddling,” he said, surprising me.

I smiled at the memory. “Wow, um. Yeah. Haven’t done that since I was here, either.”

He frowned. “I thought you said you were a concert violinist.”

“Yes, I am. I’ve played the violin but haven’t fiddled.”

He was watchful but said nothing.

My uncle had bought me a violin when I was six and taught me to play. My parents couldn’t afford music lessons and thought it was a real waste of time. Especially later when I decided to go to college to study music. They’d thought I should stay home and help support them, working at the drug store where my mom worked, and when I chose to leave, they pretty much stopped speaking to me.

Only Uncle Adam had been supportive, if from far away. I hadn’t seen him in years because after that last summer when I was ten, I’d had to stay home because there wasn’t any money to send me. Then when I was fifteen, I got a job.

“Why are you here, then?” he asked.

I arched a brow. “I just moved in. Getting rid of me already?” I wasn’t going to tell him I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

“Not a chance.” He smiled, and yup, my panties were ruined. He reached out, stroked a tendril of hair back behind my ear. Again. As if the gesture was something he had to do. “The house is free and clear, right?”

I nodded, my breath caught in my chest. There wasn’t a mortgage on the property. The house and the land were all mine. “I know, all I’ve got to pay is annual taxes, heat, lights, but as anyone who’s not blind can see, there’s more to be done around here than just the electric.” I could get a mortgage to pay for the remodeling that needed to be done, but I wanted to avoid any kind of debt if possible.

His eyes roved over my face as if he were trying to memorize it. “Willow patched the roof last summer.”

I knew the woman because she’d impersonated me the year before as part of a case with the DEA to investigate a drug ring on the ranch next door. That had been interesting.

“Hey! Are the lights back on?” Nash yelled from the basement.

I blinked, having forgotten he was even here and went to the kitchen, flipped the switch on the wall. I heard the hum of the fridge and the overhead light worked.

“Yes!” I called. I turned again, and while I didn’t bump into Rand, he was right there, as if he couldn’t stay away.

“Um… while the fuse has been replaced, that doesn’t really solve the problem I called about.”

He nodded, his dark hair falling over his forehead. “I saw enough. You need a new fuse box, one that’s up to code. I can pick up the supplies and be back to replace it this afternoon.”

“Okay. I can probably swing that as long as you take payment in small bills.” When he frowned, I continued. “Tip money from Cody’s.”

He ran a hand over his face as if he wasn’t thrilled about that or something else. “Based on what was running through the basement, it’s all knob and tube wiring,” he added. I was expecting him to comment on my job, but he stuck to his. “The whole house needs to be redone.”

While I knew that, hearing it made my stomach twist into an anxious knot. What did I know about home ownership, much less ranch ownership? And I thought I could turn this place into a profit-turning endeavor? When it was literally falling down around my ears?

I was so screwed.

“I can’t afford to do it all at once. You do more than electrical, right?”

He looked me over once again, his lips quirking. “Lots more, Red.”

For some reason, it seemed like he was talking about more than just construction. Heat pooled between my legs under his steady gaze, and my nipples puckered in my bra.

Nash came up the steps and into the kitchen and cleared his throat.

I sprang back from Rand, suddenly conscious of how close we were standing. How we’d been staring at each other. That my gaze had been fixed on his lips.

“You might want to put the coffee maker in the living room for now, get it off the same circuit as the fridge and your other kitchen appliances.”

“Okay, right.” I nodded. Nash nodded back and glanced at Rand, who was still looking at me.

“Ready?” Nash asked. His curious gaze was still on Rand. “We should probably stop at Rob’s place to give him the news. You know, that Natalie arrived.”

“Yeah.” Rand seemed reluctant to move, reluctant to look away.

“Uh, now?”

“Right.” Rand tipped his cowboy hat at me. “I’ll be back, darlin’. This afternoon.”

“Sure. I’ll see you guys then.” I lifted a hand to wave.

“Just me,” Rand growled. “Nash has somewhere to be.”

Nash flicked his brows like that was news to him, but he gave me a wave and left.

“I’ll be back, Red,” Rand said again when the screen door slapped shut behind Nash.

I leaned my hip against the doorframe, a smile starting to form around my lips. “So you said.”

“Yep. Won’t be able to keep me away.” He winked and left, walking backward like he didn’t want to stop looking at me.

I watched, heat swirling everywhere.

Holy shit. Did Rand… like me? He had to be the way he stared at me and touched me and carried me and… God.

Guys like Rand weren’t usually attracted to geeks like me. I wasn’t bad looking, but in Los Angeles, I sure hadn’t turned many heads, mainly because I didn’t do the Barbie Doll routine with the straightened hair and painted nails. I had B cups, no implants. No designer clothes. Just wild red hair.

I was a musician who ran with the arty types.

Rand was a cowboy. Carpenter cowboy. Hot, carpenter wolf cowboy.

Who was coming back here this afternoon.

With a yelp, I ran for the shower. Montana living got more and more interesting every day.

4

RAND

“A bed and breakfast? No. Absolutely not. That is totally out of the question.”

Nash and I watched Rob, our alpha, pace around his giant kitchen after we gave him the news about Natalie’s plans for the Sheffield ranch.

He moved back and forth in front of the sink on the far side of the island. Nash sat at the large table, and I leaned against the fridge. I had no idea where Willow was, but with my wolf hearing, I knew she wasn’t in the house.

“That can’t happen.” He took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair.

“Well, obviously,” I agreed although my belly twisted. A wolf fucking lot. The urge to protect my mate was already at war with my alliance to my pack. I’d scented her at the swimming hole and confirmed it earlier.

Why the fuck did she smell like fucking apples and spice? Why did my wolf practically lick his lips to get a nice taste of her to see if she was just as sweet? Fuck, it wasn’t just my wolf. I wanted to get her beneath me. I wanted to find out if her scent was as delectable everywhere.

Now that I knew her by smell, I’d find her anywhere. That was the only way I’d been able to walk away earlier.

The fact that she was just down the road while I was standing here arguing with my alpha made my wolf angry. I knew I had to stay, to explain, but all I wanted to do was turn my truck around and get back to her. Open that front door, find her and set her on the nearest horizontal surface and claim her.

But no. I had to talk this shit out like girls at a slumber party. “It was an idea, a way for her to make a living,” I explained. “She doesn’t have any money to fix the place up, and it will need work, as you know.”

“I won’t forget my mate fixing that fucking roof,” he grumbled. “She sure as fuck learned her lesson about being up there.”

“Oh shit,” I muttered. The idea of Natalie on that steep pitched roof made me start to sweat. Yeah, she’d have a sore ass if she even thought about doing something as stupid as that. She wouldn’t dare. Would she? “There’s more to be fixed than the roof. I can’t imagine the B&B happening for a stretch. Might even take her a year or two to get the place ready, depending on how much she has to invest and that doesn’t even take into account furniture and decorating. Fancy sheets and whatnot. With her only income coming from bartending at Cody’s...”

I wasn’t super thrilled about that either—her driving through the canyon late at night. It wasn’t safe in dry, daytime conditions. I’d have to find out her schedule and pick her up. No, I’d have to stay there and watch out for assholes. She was gorgeous, and no way would anyone hit on her.

I spun on my heel, set my hands on the sides of the fridge and growled. I had to let it out, and this way Rob would know I wasn’t doing it because of him. I was losing my shit. I couldn’t scent Natalie right now. Couldn’t reach out and touch her. Couldn’t feel the silky slide of that wild hair. Taking a deep breath—which sure as fuck didn’t help—I turned back.

Rob shook his head. “Not acceptable. I don’t care if she’s broke or made of money. A B&B means humans. Here. Right fucking next door. There can be no chance of that happening. We saw what happened when that asshole Markle was around.”

Jett Markle had owned the property on the other side of Natalie’s. He’d shot one of the younger shifters in wolf form. He’d also been a drug mule for a cartel, so he’d been a dick neighbor. But he hadn’t been pulling in random tourists wanting a hay ride or chuckwagon dinner in the Wild Wild West either. Those out of towners would get more than they bargained for if it was a full moon and caught sight of one of us on a run. And since Natalie was my mate, it was going to be impossible to keep me off that land. In any form.

“We need to get rid of her,” he said, setting his hands on the counter and staring at me. Why he wasn’t pushing Nash, I wasn’t sure.

My gaze turned red, my hands clenched into fists and my wolf came to the surface. A growl rumbled through the room. Nash was up and at my side in a flash, his hand closing on my shoulder. He shoved me down into the nearest chair. “Watch it,” he muttered.

“What?” I asked, frowning.

“What the fuck is up with you?” Rob stared at me, then surprise widened his eyes. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

“That’s what I said,” Nash said to Rob.

“What?” I repeated.

“With the power out, the electricity between the two of them could have gotten that fuse working,” Nash said on a grin.

“What are the goddamn chances?” Rob asked. He looked directly at me. “Natalie is your mate?”

I shot back out of my chair and looked from Nash to Rob, ready to rip their heads off if they even blinked funny in Natalie’s way. Then I realized what I was thinking, how I was acting. “Fuck,” I muttered, tossing my hat on the center island and running a hand over my neck. “Is it that obvious?”

“Dude, you just growled at our alpha when he said we had to get rid of her,” Nash replied.

I growled again hearing the words repeated. Shit, I hadn’t even realized I’d snarled the first time.

“You’re clearly losing your shit,” Rob said. “You scented her.”

I nodded, my dick hard and my mouth watering at the memory. I’d left her without having a taste, without having her know she was mine. “I caught the scent last night on the full moon run, and it drove me wild.” I didn’t reveal that I’d disobeyed pack law and ran down to the ranch in wolf form. I was already treading thin ice growling at my alpha. And I could’ve killed Nash for getting there before I arrived this morning, that he’d been alone with her. When he texted me that he was answering a service call there, I’d told him to wait for me. I should’ve told him not to go at all. Fuck, I’d been crazed to see her again. To be sure my wolf had been right at the swimming hole.

“Didn’t you used to work there?” he asked.

“Yeah, all through high school,” I told him. Rob was a few years older. By the time I was working for Old Man Sheffield, he’d already been alpha for a few years. “Helped in the fields, around the house, whatever he needed.”

“Did you meet Natalie back then?” he asked.

“I remember her from one summer she came, stayed for most of it. She was probably nine or ten.” I held up a hand. “Before you ask, no, I had no idea. Hell, you think I’d have let her go if I had?”

“How old were you?”

I scratched the back of my neck, looked up at the ceiling, blew out a breath. “I don’t know. Fifteen or sixteen? I was too young, or she was too young or whatever. It doesn’t matter. I know now she’s mine, and she sure as fuck isn’t a little kid.”

Nash laughed then squashed it when I gave him a glare.

“No one’s getting rid of her, okay?” I boomed, even though I obviously wasn’t alpha around here, and if he wanted Natalie gone, she’d be gone. But I’d go with her.

Rob held up a hand. “Cool your tits, cowboy. Nobody’s threatening your mate.”

“Sheffield’s place is like our pack’s new breeding ground,” Nash said with a smirk. He was having too much fun with this.

Rob had met his mate in Willow, who’d been the DEA agent pretending to be Natalie. Now the real Natalie showed up, and I was claiming her.

One by one, our core pack members were all mating humans. There must be some reason Fate changed the rules on us. I didn’t really care, not now that Natalie was mine. The why of it didn’t fucking matter.

“Maybe she’ll sell the place,” Nash offered. “She needs money, right? That’s the only reason she wanted to start a bed and breakfast. It’s not like it was her dream or anything.”

Rob shook his head. “Jett Markle tried repeatedly to buy the place off her last year and so did Boyd. She didn’t bite. That property means something to her.”

“Okay, so I just have to help her find a new vision for it,” I said slowly, rubbing the back of my neck. “Get her to think again about it being a B&B. I mean, she doesn’t seem the type who enjoys coddling and feeding strangers on a daily basis.”

“You mean you’re not the type. Getting it on with her’s going to be hard if you’ve got Mr. and Mrs. Tourist from Iowa in the next bedroom.” Nash laughed at his own humor. I didn’t find it so funny because he was right. I intended to get it on with her frequently. Thoroughly. And loudly.

“Sounds like you’ve got as much reason to sway her as me,” Rob said.

“I’ll do it but my way.”

I had no intention of sharing my space with Natalie with anyone besides pups. If she was so attached to the house, I’d move in there. The cabin my grandparents left me was too small for settling down anyway. I also had a soft spot for the Sheffield house having worked there for a bunch of years. I hadn’t given it much thought then, but now? Now it was ideal. Plenty of land, near the rest of the pack, my parents. Levi and his growing family.

Rob levelled me a look. “You’d better. We can’t have the neighboring property crawling with humans. I never worried about Old Man Sheffield because he kept to himself and gave us privacy, but I don’t even like the idea of having a human—hey.” Rob infused alpha command in the last word, and the noise in my throat instantly turned off.

Fuck, I was growling again. “Sorry,” I muttered, dropping my gaze to show submission.

“She’s your mate, I’ll leave you to take care of it, Rand,” Rob said then pointed at me. “But see that you do.”

I gulped and nodded. I’d never, ever had the slightest urge to defy my alpha on anything, but the thought of either telling my mate she couldn’t do something or, worse, working against her nearly flayed me alive. This time yesterday, I hadn’t even known I had a mate, let alone had a desperate need to satisfy one.

But I didn’t have to work against her. I just had to win her over. Show her what it could be like between us then reveal myself and what we were. Then she’d understand she couldn’t open a B&B next door. It was as simple as that. A bunch of orgasms would make both of us feel a whole fucking lot better.

“No problem,” I said. Nash and I stood and walked out.

“No problem, huh?” Nash jeered as we cut across the back lawn. “I’ve never seen you lose your shit as you were back there.”

I let out a puff of breath. Okay, yeah. He was right. “Her scent. It’s driving me fucking insane. I had to drive away. Now it’s killing me to be away from her.”

Nash only grinned, slapped me on the shoulder. The asshole. “Good luck. I’m sure you’re going to have fun trying.”

I frowned. He was having too much pleasure at my expense. Total asshole.

I wanted to toss Natalie over my shoulder and take her to bed, fuck her until she forgot any name but mine. Bite her neck and claim her. That wasn’t going to go over well. She was human, and discovering the guy who’d just fucked her hard was also a wolf shifter was hard to process. She’d said she wasn’t wild about spiders. Did that mean all animals? Would she be afraid of my inner wolf? No. I’d get rid of every worry she had. Every doubt. Show her she was everything to me. That I’d take care of her. Protect her. Show her pleasure. She’d have no doubt about me. About us.

5

NATALIE

A few hours later, after doing a load of laundry in the creepy basement then pinning it out to dry on the line outside, I finally got around to dealing with the coffeemaker. As Nash had suggested, I carried the coffeemaker into the living room—its new home until I knew it wouldn’t zap me or blow a fuse. I set the machine on a side table near a plug as I heard the sound of someone coming down the driveway and park. I wasn’t going to think about how I got strangely giddy at the idea of it being Rand. He’d said he was coming back, and I hadn’t realized how much I’d looked forward to it until now.

But when I pulled back the curtain and looked out, it wasn’t Rand but an older man climbing from a late model pickup truck. I’d never seen him before, but unless I’d poured someone a drink at Cody’s, pretty much everyone in town was a stranger.

I pushed open the screen door and met the man as he approached the house. I pegged him as being in his early sixties, a few inches taller than me. His large belt buckle was attempting to hold his stomach in, but I wanted to give him room in case it gave up the fight. I’d also give him space because the look on his face wasn’t all that welcome.

“Morning,” I said.

“Ma’am. I’m Nathan Brown, one of your neighbors.”

I glanced around as if I could see his house.

“Live up in the hills to the south of here.”

That meant he was a shifter.

“Nice to meet you,” I replied. He wasn’t carrying a plate of brownies, so I had to assume he wasn’t here to be the welcoming committee. I sort of liked Rand’s welcome better.

“Knew your uncle. He was a good man. Private. Kept to himself.”

I nodded, letting him talk.

He glanced up at the house. “The place needs lots of work. Thinking maybe since you’re from the big city and all, you might want someone to take it off your hands.”

I frowned. “You mean sell?”

“This place is pretty big for a little lady. Doubt you’re up for the challenge this place will bring you.”

“It is big and a challenge.” He didn’t look fit enough to climb the porch steps let alone reshingle the roof.

“I’d like to make you an offer on the place. Fair market value and all.”

“That’s… generous of you. I just got here, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet. I’ll think about it, all right?” The answer was no, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. The guy who’d lived next door had offered top dollar for my place although I’d learned from the DEA it was because he’d wanted to combine the properties to have enough room for a private runway for his drug shipments. Boyd Wolf had also offered to buy the place, no doubt for legal reasons. I’d turned him down, too.

Sure, the place was dilapidated, but it was mine. It had been Uncle Adam’s, and he’d left it to me for a reason. I hadn’t exactly figured out what it was, but I wasn’t going to sell. Not yet. If I ever decided that was the best option, I wasn’t selling to this guy.

He looked shifty. What sixty-something took on a place like mine? It needed work. He should be heading to Arizona or somewhere warm for the winter. Eating peanuts at the local VFW. Not dealing with bad wiring and electrocuting kitchen appliances.

He also didn’t look like he was made of money. His clothes were dated and worn. So was his truck. That didn’t mean he didn’t have the means to buy my land or a hundred properties, but what was his angle?

“Montana winters are long,” he advised.

“I’ve got a heavy coat and boots. Thanks so much for stopping by, Mr. Brown.”

He stared at me as if waiting for me to say more. When I didn’t, he nodded then shuffled back to his truck and drove away. Only when the dust settled did I go back inside and plug in the coffeemaker. Before I could make a pot, I heard someone else coming down the drive.

This time it was Rand. He pulled up and parked.

There went my heart, just like before. It leapt right into my throat. God, he was handsome. I had no idea I had a thing for cowboy hats and snug jeans. Just the sight of him climbing from his truck had me hot. My fingers itched to grab the thick strands of hair beneath the edge of his hat and tug him down to kiss me.

I definitely hadn’t thought this way about Nathan Brown. Gah.

I was such a mental slut when it came to Rand because I’d imagined all that while he carried in two bags from the hardware store and what looked like a takeout bag of food. Not sexy times offerings.

I held the screen door open, and he slowed as he passed me. When he leaned down, I swore he inhaled.

Oh my God!

He sniffed me.

Total wolf. My face grew warm wondering if he liked my scent. Had I put on deodorant? I mentally sighed, remembering I had. Thank God. What did he pick up in that quick breath? What could he tell about me from one whiff? Where I was in my cycle? That I was turned on by his nearness? God, could he smell that I was getting wet?

It should have been creepy. Any other guy sniffing me would get throat punched. But Rand… that wasn’t what I had in mind.

“I picked up a couple sandwiches while I was in town.” He set the bag of take-out on the kitchen table and the hardware bags on the counter. “I also bought more smoke alarms for the place. I don’t like the idea of you being alone in this tinderbox without proper safeguards. I should stay here until the electrical is fixed.”

“Um, wow. Um, that’s… okay.” I blinked. I was right, he was into me.

I tried to ignore the crazy fluttering in my chest. I wasn’t used to a lot of male attention. I’d had a couple boyfriends in college, but I’d never had a near stranger act so darn interested in me. Sure, we’d met before, but I’d just been a kid. Back then, I’d considered him cute before I even had a flutter of newfound female interest, but what did a ten year old know? Any crush I may have had ended when I watched him turn into a wolf. Thankfully, Uncle Adam had believed me then validated what I’d seen. Even told me Rand hadn’t been the only shifter around.

Over fifteen years later, the same was true. Rand was still handsome, still a shifter and still not the only one around. My property was right next door to Wolf Central.

That meant there was so much I didn’t know about the guy. Yup, near stranger. Near stranger who looked at me like he was hungry and not for a sandwich.

It was downright weird the way he expressed his interest in an over-the-top, protective way. And very flattering. And bossy. He wanted to move in with me?

Maybe that was how wolf-guys rolled. Maybe Rand was a big player with the ladies. He even said we were neighbors. I was a right-place, right-time convenience fuck.

I couldn’t forget, even after all this time, Uncle Adam’s tragic personal story. It had set me straight on guys like Rand. Wolves couldn’t be with humans. Not permanently, anyway. It was forbidden. Hookups were probably fine, and my pussy was thinking that wasn’t a bad idea. Except—

When he was still in high school, Uncle Adam had been in love with Maggie, a female shifter from Wolf Ranch. But she hadn’t been allowed to date him. A human. Even back then, it went against pack law. He’d told me they’d met in secret and shared a mad love, but one that had to come to an end when they graduated.

Maggie’d been forced to break things off. Not long after that, Uncle Adam had heard she’d left the pack to marry—no, mate—a wolf shifter in Nebraska. Some kind of arranged marriage thing.

It was a sad story of unrequited love and the reason Uncle Adam never married or had kids. He’d had a far off look in his eyes when he’d told me no one could hold a candle to his sweet Maggie. It was also why he’d been fiercely protective of the pack that lived next door and the secret Maggie had shared with him. He wasn’t supposed to know about shifters, but he had and kept that to himself for the rest of his life.

When I’d told him about how I’d seen Rand hurt by the tractor and turn into a wolf, he’d included me in the secret and shared his own personal story with shifters. After, Uncle Adam had sworn me to secrecy, too. Told me to never talk to Rand about the fact that I’d seen him shift or let on that I knew anything about their kind, that he and the rest of his family and everyone at Wolf Ranch were shifters. “They deserve that peace,” Uncle Adam had said.

I remembered his soft, raspy voice telling me that, how I’d nodded solemnly in agreement. How I’d felt special to be responsible for something so big. That summer had been the last time I’d come to the ranch, and it had been easy to keep the secret. No one at home, especially my parents, would have believed me. I’d kept it all this time. Even when Rand had appeared in wolf form on top of the waterfall watching me skinny dip.

Even now with him as my contractor. I had to pretend I didn’t know the truth about him and Nash, that they were shifters.

“Turkey or roast beef?” he asked, making me startle. He’d washed his hands in the sink and used a dish towel to dry them. Pulling wrapped sandwiches from the bag, he looked to me. “Are you hungry? You’re not a vegetarian or a vegan or something like that, are you?”

I laughed, going to the sink to wash my hands, too. “No. Although I did eat a lot of mac ‘n cheese and buttered noodles to get me through college. Turkey, please.”

“No more noodles for you. I’ll make sure you’re well fed, darlin’.” Rand flashed a grin, and when I noticed he had one dimple in his cheek, my panties melted on the spot. God, this was going to be hard, having him in my house doing the remodel projects, plus being hot, plus being a shifter…

He took a deep breath, and it seemed as if his blue eyes got darker.

I wanted him. Maybe he’d been in the back of my mind all these years, but there was a pull between us. Shifter or not. As if the secret I kept, the one he wouldn’t say, made me feel more connected to him.

I had no problem with a cowboy-wolf hookup. A fling with the contractor was what pornos were made of. I didn’t come to Cooper Valley looking for a husband or long-term boyfriend. If Rand liked to sow his wild oats with humans before he got mated off to some other pack or whatever it was they did, I was down.

Totally down. I just had to remember not to get my heart involved, like Uncle Adam, because Rand wouldn’t stick. Just like Uncle Adam’s Maggie.

Rand took a step closer. Somehow, he seemed bigger. Was he big all over? I had to wonder if wolf cocks were bigger than a regular guy’s. Was he proportional? Extra proportional? Oh God, my mind was one hundred percent in the gutter.

Clearing my throat, I opened the ancient fridge and pulled out a jug of lemonade I’d bought at the store. “Want some?”

“Sounds great, Red.” He winked.

I melted some more at the nickname. He used it like we were close and not just strangers who barely remembered each other from fifteen years ago. But the fact that he remembered all these years… I was going to be a puddle of goo by the time lunch was over.

I took a sip of the tart drink, licked the drops from my lips. My gaze whipped to his when I heard a rumble. Had he growled?

“You’re hungry, huh?” I asked.

The corner of his mouth turned up. “You have no idea.”

He took a step toward me, as if he was hungry for—

“Upstairs,” I blurted. Oh my God, what did I just let fall out of my mouth?

He stilled, a dark brow arching and the corner of his mouth tipping up.

“Upstairs? What do you want to do upstairs?” he asked, his voice somehow deeper than before. Huskier.

I wanted him to strip me bare and fuck me hard, but I couldn’t say that. Ever.

“Red?” His knuckles stroked down my cheek, and my eyes fell closed. “You need something from me? All you have to do is tell me, and I’ll take care of it.”

I bet he would. My pussy clenched at all the possibilities. I opened my eyes, and I realized he’d moved even closer. I tipped my head back to meet his gaze.

“Before we eat, could I have you, um, do something big and manly for me?”

Big and manly? Out of all the things that could be wrong with the house, why couldn’t there be a sinkhole?

Rand shot me a cocky grin. “Darlin’, I would love to do manly stuff for you. Show me what you need.”

It was the first thing that came to mind, besides sexy times. I felt even more stupid than before, but I couldn’t just say nevermind. “Come on.” I beckoned to him with a crook of my finger, heading out of the kitchen, sandwiches forgotten.

His smile was decidedly wolfish as he took off his hat, set it on the kitchen table as he followed. My nipples reacted to the way he was looking at me. They grew tight and heavy because of it.

I led him up the stairs, once more acutely aware of his presumed gaze on my ass. “In here.”

I led him to my bedroom and pointed to the window from a distance.

He looked from the window to me, a bit puzzled. “What is it, darlin’?”

“In the corner.”

He went in that direction. I flinched as he got closer. “The spider?” He turned and grinned over his shoulder at me, that dimple knocking me on my ass again. “Are you scared of spiders, Red?”

“Yes,” I said immediately, nodding my head, so he knew there was no doubt. “I’m fine with anything else but spiders… ” I shuddered.

Rand grabbed the empty water glass by my bed and put it over the spider on the wall then carefully carried it to the open window. This one didn’t have a screen, so he shook the glass outside then turned back around.

He hadn’t killed it. He’d let it go.

“All gone, darlin’.” He set the glass back beside the bed, but I wouldn’t be drinking from it again until I washed it. No way.

He came over to me, wrapped his arms around me like we were already lovers, like he’d done it hundreds of times before. “No need to be afraid,” he murmured, eyes crinkling as he smiled down at me. “I’ll take care of all the spiders around here.”

I suddenly found myself shivering. Most houses in Montana didn’t have air conditioning. This one especially, since it didn’t even have up-to-code electrical. It had to be over eighty degrees on the second floor. I wasn’t the least bit cold. It was from the closeness of Rand, his strong arms banded around me for the second time today.

Rand was smooth—very smooth. He knew how to make a girl feel comfortable and at ease. What woman didn’t want a spider tamer as a lover? I had to bet he woke up in a different woman’s bed at least twice a week. I shoved that mood dampening thought out of my mind.

I was in his arms now, even if I’d be another human notch on his belt. Did I want that? My pussy didn’t care. My mind had different thoughts.

Of course, I’d love to be the special one, but I was smart enough to know that wasn’t a possibility. I just wanted in on the experience, knowing he was in the same headspace as me. Temporary. Scratch an itch. Let off some steam.

I bet he was incredible in bed.

Probably one hundred times better than my past boyfriends. With his arms around me, I couldn’t even picture any of them in my mind.

Rand’s hand dipped lower on my back, cupped my ass and squeezed. “What other manly tasks do you have for me, Red? If you need some help coming up with ideas...”

I was suddenly breathing like I’d jogged up three flights of stairs. Our gazes tangled and locked, his blue one intense and wild. I reached up and ran my fingers through his dark curls as I’d wanted earlier.

“Well, there were a few things…” My voice came out husky and low. I started walking backward toward the bed. Yeah, my pussy had won the battle with my mind.

He fell easily in step, not releasing me from his embrace. “Oh yeah?”

The hand not on my ass wrapped around my nape, holding my head captive. I felt his dominance, that unleashed power in the hold. It was gentle, but I knew who was in charge. He lowered his lips toward mine.

“Tell me all of them,” he murmured, his lips so close they brushed against mine.

I swallowed hard. “How are you with your tongue?” I asked.

His mouth descended on mine at the same moment he pushed me onto my back on the bed. He caught his weight with one hand, still cradling my neck with the other as his lips slanted across mine. His tongue swept into my mouth at the same moment the bulge of his erection found the cradle of my legs.

I gasped, opening my mouth wider for him, rocking my pelvis up to meet his. I felt how big he was. How hard. How much he wanted me.

“Were you thinking you wanted my tongue here?” He licked at the corner of my mouth then pulled away enough to cup my mons with his hand. “Or here?” He dragged a knuckle over the seam of my shorts, sending shockwaves of pleasure to my clit. If it felt that good with his clothes on, then I was in big trouble here.

He bit the fabric over one of my breasts. “Or maybe here?”

I tugged at the hem of his shirt, dying to see if he had washboard abs. I just knew he had to.

Yep.

He did. He helped me by reaching back and doing that sexy one-handed shirt-removal thing that I thought only the guys in movies knew how to do.

Oh glory be to Jesus. The man—wolf—whatever, was beautiful. Gloriously solid muscle, a hairy chest that just begged to be scratched with my newly grown nails. Nails that weren’t good for playing the violin.

“How about all the places, darlin’? You want my tongue everywhere?”

“Yes, please.” I sounded completely breathless.

He rubbed between my legs again. “Seeing as how you asked so nicely…” He trailed his tongue from the hollow of my throat down between my breasts.

He pushed up my tank top. “Can I take this off, Natalie?”

Oh God. Hot and respectful. This could be a simple make out session if that was as far as I wanted it to go. He’d stop. He’d kiss the hell out of me, maybe even get me to come with his hand over my shorts like we were teenagers.

That wasn’t what I wanted. If I was to have him for just a little fun, I wanted all the fun. I owed it to women everywhere to see this guy naked. Get that dick in me and take it for a ride.

“Mmm hmm.” I lifted my torso up a bit, making him shuffle up onto his knees, so he had room to tug the shirt over my head, and I waited for him to unhook my bra while he was at it. “I love that you asked, big man, but, um—you’ve got the green light.”

He stroked my hair back. “Aw, darlin’. Are you telling me I’m in charge?”

I was pretty sure I blushed to my roots, but I nodded. I figured he had way more experience than I did. I definitely didn’t want to be driving this show. Not when he obviously had the moves.

“I always was.” Cocky bastard.

His eyes took on that curious otherworldly glint as he took in my breasts. I wasn’t big, but he didn’t look put off. Far from it.

My gaze tracked down between our bodies to the bulge in his jeans, and I noted two things. One—wolves definitely were bigger than humans. Two—he was rock hard for me.

He didn’t rush. No, Rand gave me everything I hoped for, lowering his mouth to my right breast and licking and teasing my nipple as he squeezed and kneaded the left.

I moaned, finding his beefy shoulders with my fingers and hanging on for the ride. “Rand,” I cried out when he bit my nipple. That little bit of pain went right to my clit.

“Aw, fuck, darlin’. Keep calling out my name like that in that sweet, needy voice of yours, and I’ll give you everything you want.”

I nearly came right then. This was so much better than all the lights-off, awkward-polite couplings I’d had with musicians or artists. Rand was all alpha male—confident in his sexual prowess and swoon worthy in his approach… even after gently putting a spider outside.

He switched to my other breast, giving it the same treatment, but he moved his hand back between my legs. I squeezed my thighs together around his fingers, needing more there. More pressure. Penetration. Satisfaction.

“Unbutton those shorts, darlin’,” Rand rumbled when he lifted his head, briefly. He flicked his brows and grinned at me. “See? I’m not asking this time.”

A zing of pleasure went straight to my core, as if the mere suggestion of his sexual dominance would make me come. Had he known I wanted him to take charge or was it a given? If I’d been bossy, would he have let me dominate him?

Yeah, he’d have let me. I knew he was in charge, and I wanted him that way. It got me hot.

I reached down, fumbling hurriedly to open the shorts. I shoved my own hand down them, shocked at how swollen and wet my folds were.

Rand captured my wrist and pulled my hand out then brought my fingers to his mouth, holding my gaze as he slowly sucked my juices from the tips. “Mmm. I knew you’d taste good, Red. But I didn’t know how good. But see, pleasuring you is my job. And you’re creeping in on my duties. So I think punishment is in order.”

Punishment? My belly flipped but not with fear. Totally with excitement. If anyone had asked me yesterday if I was into punishment sex, I would’ve said no freaking way. But Rand was showing me a side of myself I didn’t even know I had. Desires I’d never glimpsed before.

He rolled me to my belly and pulled my shorts and panties all the way off. He slapped my ass lightly.

Too lightly. I moaned, arched my back.

I looked over my shoulder. “Harder,” I whispered, half frightened of what I was asking for.

Rand’s wolfish grin appeared. His hand smacked down before I even had time to rethink my request.

“Oh!” I slammed my inner thighs together, unbelievably turned on.

Rand chuckled darkly. “I’m not gonna ask if you want more, darlin’, because you told me not to, so I’m gonna spank you until I think you’re good and wet.”

Oh. Gawd.

I was already good and wet, but his suggestion that I could be wetter seemed to make it so. His hand smacked down, hard and fast. He popped my ass, alternating cheeks, right and left for eight spanks, then slid his fingers between my legs.

I came on a harsh gasp.

Just like that—embarrassingly wet, clenching under the tips of his fingers, which weren’t even inside me.

“Oh, goddamn, Red. That is so fucking hot. You liked your spanking, didn’t you?”

I made an unintelligible sound as my head flopped down. I was embarrassed but still so freaking turned on. “More,” I murmured.

Rand uttered a curse and returned to spanking me, increasing the intensity slightly, so I started to squirm before he stopped to rub over my core again. “Roll over,” he commanded but didn’t wait for me to comply. He gripped my hip and pushed me onto my back then spread my knees wide and settled between my legs.

“Rand,” I warbled. I was trying to catch my breath, get my mind to focus, but he was making it impossible.

“How quick are you going to come for me this time, Red?” He lowered his head and slid his tongue between my nether lips, parting them and tracing around the insides.

I arched up, my hands flailing until they caught his head. “Ohhh-oh, Rand!” I shoved my fingers through his hair and tugged, pulling him against my core. He found my clit and suctioned his lips over it, sucking.

I quivered. Gasped.

He slid one finger inside me. Then another.

“Oh my God, please,” I begged.

He pumped his fingers, still thrashing my clit with his tongue. When he shifted to stroking the inside wall of my channel, I jerked, my knees squeezing around his ears. No one had ever hit that spot before. It felt so good. Hedonistic pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Rand played my body better than I ever bowed that violin.

I choked on a cry. Held my breath. Let out another one. And then I came, so much harder than the last time. A full body orgasm that made me squeeze his fingers like I was pulling them deeper. My legs accidentally kicked his back as I thrashed and pumped my hips and screamed his name while I came and came and came.

6

RAND

Fate was sweeter than moonlight. I couldn’t believe she paired me with this beautiful, responsive angel of a human. A wildcat between the sheets. And we hadn’t even fucked. She was so responsive, so… perfect. That pussy of hers, all pink and dripping, my mouth watered for more.

When her thighs clamped around my ears, I’d thought I’d be smothered to death. What a way to go. Hot and tight and sweet. She was it for me. I’d never get enough, never crave anything but this pussy for the rest of my life.

It was mine, and in return, I was its slave.

I waited until Natalie’s orgasm passed and she went limp before I eased my fingers out and licked them. I’d have this taste on my tongue often. Waking her up with my head between her thighs would be my new morning routine.

If I’d had a condom, I might have fucked her because my dick was so hard it could pound nails, but no—this felt right. Me satisfying my mate. Showing her exactly what she had in store for her once she submitted to my claiming bite. She’d always be pleasured, her needs satisfied. If she wanted her ass spanked, my handprint would be all over it. Whatever it was, it was my job to give it to her.

She wasn’t a virgin, and that made me grit my teeth. That there was a guy out there who’d seen this body, touched it, made her scream, made me want to hunt him down and kill him. It didn’t matter, she was mine now, and no one else would touch her. Hell, if I had my way, no one would look at her. Seeing her like this, naked and satisfied...

Her eyes were closed, lips still parted, and the sound of my name being called in that throaty voice of hers still echoed off the walls.

It was a sound I’d never forget, not as long as I lived.

I adjusted my dick. Fuck, my balls ached. They were so full, and it was all for her.

Natalie’s eyelids fluttered open. Her lashes were a lighter shade of red, same as her brows, and she had a dusting of freckles across her nose. I wanted to stay right where I was and study every inch of her perfect body. Count those freckles.

She licked her lips, glanced down my body. “What about you?” Her voice was hoarse.

I shook my head. “Next time, Red. This was me showing off my big, manly skills.”

She pushed up on her forearms and smiled, her eyes still glassy, cheeks still flushed. “You have mad skills.”

Reluctantly, I fetched her panties from the floor and handed them to her. The last thing I wanted to do was cover up that pussy. If I had my way, I’d have her in bed like this all the time. Not for me to fuck, but legs parted, wet and ready for me to satisfy. Having her come satisfied my wolf. And me.

She glanced away as she worked her panties up her legs. “Is this, uh, a service you offer to all your female customers?”

I frowned. What was she talking about? “No, ma’am.”

“Nevermind,” she said quickly, reaching for her bra and sliding it on. “I shouldn’t have gone there. It doesn’t matter.”

“I don’t,” I insisted, the itchy sense that it did matter—very much—taking me by the nose. I wasn’t a virgin either, but it bothered me that she thought she was just one of many. She was it. The only. “This was a first for me.” Dammit, that didn’t come out sounding right, either.

The niggling sense that I was screwing things up got stronger.

Fuck! I should’ve paid more attention to my brother and the other guys who’d mated humans. Remembered the things they’d said. Human women viewed relationships differently than we did.

She pulled her tank top on and hopped off the bed to her feet. “Well, I’m looking forward to the next time,” she said lightly, but for some reason, it sounded forced. As if she hadn’t just screamed my name… twice.

Fates, I had no fucking idea what went on in a human female’s head!

“When that pussy aches for more, you let me know,” I said. I handed her shorts to her, then pulled on my t-shirt. “Did you work up an appetite?” I’d already had my meal.

I didn’t know why feeding her seemed so goddamn important, but my wolf wanted to see to her needs. Prove I could provide for her. Protect her. Satisfy her.

“I’m starving,” she affirmed.

I looked around the bedroom. “No more spiders to kill? You need anything else from me up here? I mean for now—I’ll be back to see to that greedy pussy again, don’t you worry none.” I tossed her a wink, even though things didn’t seem quite as light as they should.

She smiled in return although a pretty blush spread across her cheeks as if she were embarrassed about how she’d behaved.

As if. She’d been hot as fuck.

She shook her head. “You’re pretty smooth, cowboy.”

Smooth? I didn’t want to be smooth. I wanted to be sincere. I also wanted her to know that I’d take care of her. In all ways.

I was going to have to make it a little clearer what my intentions were here.

“Now, I’m hungry,” she said, her hips swaying as she walked out the bedroom door. “Thanks for bringing food.”

I followed her down the stairs, keeping my gaze glued to that pretty little ass of hers. The one she’d just let me spank pink. She’d be thinking of me every time she sat down.

That little reminder made my wolf’s chest puff up again.

We both washed up and sat down at the rickety table in her kitchen to eat. I had to adjust my dick, so it wasn’t strangled by the zipper.

“So, Red. It’s been a while. Fill me in on your life.” I unwrapped a sandwich then the other. “Turkey, roast beef or half of each?”

I flicked a gaze at her. Waited.

“Half of each,” she replied.

I rearranged the sandwich halves, so we each had both kinds, then slid one in front of her.

“Thanks.” She lifted the turkey and took a bite. I did the same, waited.

She dabbed some mustard from her lip with a finger, and I watched the move intently, imagined a little drop of my cum caught there from after her sucking me off. I stifled a groan and took a few gulps of the lemonade she’d poured earlier to try to cool off.

“The short version is that I went home after that summer. Went to college for music then onto getting my master’s. I inherited the house, and now I’m here.”

“What else?”

“Like what?”

I shrugged. “Anything. Doesn’t have to be special.” I took a bite of the roast beef.

Her lips quirked into a pretty bow. “Well, you already know I hate spiders, and I play the violin—well, played.”

I jerked my head up on alert. “What do you mean played?”

“I don’t know. I think, actually, I’m done with music. Forever. Grad school just sucked every last drop of pleasure out of it for me. I have this terrible pain behind my shoulder blade every time I play, and my stomach cinches up tight, and all I can think about is how un-fun it is.”

“Wow. I’m sorry. How long have you felt that way?”

“Pretty much by second semester of grad school.”

“You didn’t think about quitting then?”

Her brows dipped. “I did, but I couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

She lifted her delicate shoulders. “My parents hated that I went to college. I wanted to get out, and I knew college was the way to do it. They hated even more that I studied music. They wanted me to stay home, work a minimum wage job like them and contribute to the household like I had since I was fifteen. We had a huge fight when I enrolled, even though it didn’t cost them a dime. I got a scholarship and worked three odd-jobs to make it through.”

I cocked my head. “So you had to prove to them you’d made the right choice?”

She laughed, covering her mouth with a napkin. “Pretty much, yeah. Redheads can be stubborn, if you haven’t heard.”

I laughed. “I have heard.” I studied her pretty face—the splash of freckles across her nose, the warm brown eyes. Fuck, I could look at her all day.

So my mate was stubborn. I could deal with that. She’d have a red ass because of it. And she’d love it.

“You told me you came here because it was yours, free and clear. It took you, what, almost two years to show up?”

She nodded. “I was in school, then the DEA called me, and that pushed me back a bit.”

Yeah, the whole Jett Markle fiasco. Looking back, I was glad it had happened since Rob had met his mate. In a way, Natalie had helped them get together.

“Why now?” I wondered.

Yeah, that was the biggie.

She set the sandwich down, took a sip of lemonade. “L.A.’s expensive. Not a lot of jobs for a classically trained violinist.” She picked a bit of lettuce from her sandwich, sighed. This was an issue for her. A weak spot. I didn’t like the idea of her struggling, of her parents being dicks. “I wasn’t going back to living with my parents, letting them think I was going to help support them again. This was really the only place I could think of to go where I could afford the rent.”

“Why didn’t you just sell the place?” I asked, looking up at the ceiling.

“Uncle Adam left it to me. I didn’t get to see him or come here after that summer when I was ten, but… well, we had a connection. He was the one who introduced me to the violin, made me love it. Like you remembered, we used to fiddle together.” I shrugged again. “I don’t know. This place has seemed more like home than anywhere else. I just have to figure out how to make it work.”

“You mentioned a B&B,” I said, bringing up the subject carefully.

Nodding, she picked up her sandwich. “Like I told you and Nash, one of my girlfriends back in L.A. suggested the idea. It’s a way to make this place viable. I’ve got to earn income somehow. Working at Cody’s pays the bills but not you.”

My eyes widened when I caught on. She thought she was going to have to pay me for work on the house. As. Fucking. If.

“Darlin’, don’t worry about paying me none. We’ll get to that another time. I can work on this place and get it spiffy for guests, but do you really want them? I mean,” I cleared my throat. “If you chose Cooper Valley over L.A., you can’t miss big city life and a gaggle of people.”

She smiled. “Yeah, who likes people?”

I grinned. “I like you.” I wasn’t going to hide my feelings. She knew how I felt about her with every lick of her pussy, but I’d tell her, too.

Her smile fell, and her cheeks got as red as her hair.

“That got you all flustered.”

“And you?” she asked, blatantly redirecting the conversation.

“Me?” I asked, leaning back in my chair and tucking my hands behind my head, elbows out. I wanted her to know I was open to any questions she had. There would be no secrets between us.

“Yeah, you. What have you been up to these fifteen years?”

I dropped my arms, leaned forward. Pierced her with my gaze, so she didn’t have any doubt she was the center of my focus. My world. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you changed the subject.” I winked. “Went to college in Missoula with Nash. Studied business. Came back here after. We started the contractor business together.”

“You were a big help to Uncle Adam.”

My gaze softened, remembering the guy. “He was a good man, Red. You’ve got good people in your family.”

She looked away then took another bite of sandwich.

“What? What did I say?”

She took her time to chew and swallow. “My parents aren’t like Uncle Adam. They’re small-minded, miserable folk. I was supposed to stay in Nebraska and get a job at Walmart and take care of them in their old age. I haven’t even told them I own this place because they’d probably hound me to sell it and give them some of the money. They don’t know I’m in Montana, working at a bar to fix up Uncle Adam’s old ranch house.”

Yeah, that wasn’t ideal. I needed to come up with some other way for her to earn a living and fix this place up. It sure as fuck wasn’t bartending at Cody’s, that was for damn sure. I didn’t like the idea of her being down there having every eligible and not eligible guy in the valley hitting on her like she was fresh meat.

Every one of them would know my fist first hand. I also wanted to track her parents down and have a talk with them. Right after I beat the shit out of any guy she’d fucked before me. Shit, the list was getting long. “That sucks. Not that you’re here. About your parents. I love mine. They’ll like you.”

Shit, they would. They were going to be thrilled. Both sons mated.

“Me?”

“Yeah, you.”

“Rand, I—”

I held up a hand, cutting her off. “Eat your sandwich, Red. You’re safe, for now.”

She looked nervous by my words. “The way you’re talking, you think we’re—”

“What?”

I quietly waited for her to spit it out, but when it never came, I asked, “Together?”

She looked down at her sandwich. “Rand, I’m not interested in your kind.”

A dark brow winged up. What the hell did she mean? My heart clenched. She had no idea. Did she? “Kind?”

Her face brightened, and she gave me a flirty smile. “Yeah, bossy and too full of himself.”

I grinned wickedly, leaned forward. “How’s that ass feeling? Sore on that hard chair? If I remember correctly, you were the one who asked for more.”

Now she looked away, sweetly embarrassed. “I just… I’m not interested in anything more than sex.”

“We didn’t have sex, darlin’.”

She rolled her eyes.

“You know what I mean.”

“Oh, I do. I just have to wonder how many orgasms it’ll take for you to change your mind.”

7

NATALIE

“Whiskey sour,” the blonde cowgirl ordered. She gave me a suspicious once over, like she was afraid I was moving in on her territory, even from behind the bar. She wore a tank top with the word Flirt in sequins across her boobs. Her blonde hair was styled and curled artfully down her back, and the pink cowboy hat actually looked cute on her. With me, there was zero competition, that was for sure.

My mind instantly went to Rand and the fact that she’d be perfect for him. Styled, smiled and sexy. Then my inner bitch came out and wondered if he’d already been there, done that. I wasn’t going to call a woman interested in sex a slut because that was just wrong, but she was giving off the available vibes, and she sure as heck didn’t need a lasso to wrangle a guy.

Yet Rand had been into me. The fact that he hadn’t gotten off was a blatant indication. What guy went down on a woman and didn’t want reciprocation? He’d been hard. I hadn’t missed the thick outline of his dick behind his jeans. My pussy clenched at what we’d done. How I’d let every inhibition down and learned a thing or two about myself.

I liked to be spanked.

I liked Rand. That was a problem because I craved him. My pussy too. He’d been right. I had needs, and I wanted him to meet every one of them.

Shit, my nipples were hard.

I was going to be a flushed, panty-ruined mess if I didn’t focus, so I only nodded to the woman. I quickly poured the drink and pushed it across the bar, took her cash and tucked it in the till. I was focused on my work, diligent. I wasn’t trying to make friends or wrangle myself a husband. It was important for Cody to see I was here to literally work. I slung the drinks fast, even though the bar wasn’t crowded yet. I understood it got packed on weekends, with live music, mechanical bull riding and line dancing, but I was impressed with the crowd of regulars who were here on a Wednesday.

I was definitely going to have to buy myself a cowboy hat, so I fit in. I was about the only person in the place without one. I’d skip the sequins. That wasn’t me no matter where I lived.

A tall slender cowboy in his forties sat down in front of me. “So you’re the new girl.”

I was filling a pint glass with beer from the tap. “Does my reputation precede me?” I asked, flicking him a gaze.

“Sure does.” He smiled at me. “Doesn’t take long for word to travel that there’s a newcomer in town. Especially when she’s a beautiful redhead with the last name Sheffield.”

I ignored the beautiful redhead part. “Did you know my uncle?”

He tipped his hat back. “Sure. Everyone did. Adam bought his cattle feed at my store. We were sure sorry to hear of his passing.”

“Yeah, me too. I wish I’d come out to see him sooner, before he died,” I admitted.

That guilt had been eating at me since the day I found out my great uncle had left me everything. I wasn’t sure I deserved it considering I hadn’t been back here in fifteen years and only managed to write a few letters a year to him.

He’d been supportive of me studying music. He even used to send me a check to cover my books when I was in school, which was more than my parents ever did. It seemed like the only letters I wrote back were thank you notes for his generosity. And here I was living off it permanently now.

The bar started filling up, and I took several more orders while the tall cowboy maintained his position parked in front of my station.

“If you need any help out at the ranch, I’d be happy to stop in.”

I paused in pouring a line of shots of tequila to look at him. Rand had said something similar, and I’d gotten a fuse fixed and my pussy licked.

Was that some kind of line because while he was attractive, I had no interest in spreading my legs for him. “What kind of help?” I tucked the bottle back in the holder in front of me.

“You know, if you have any leaks that need fixing or whatever. I’m pretty handy with a wrench.”

“I’ll be taking care of her plumbing.” Rand’s deep voice rumbled across the bar. He loomed behind the tall cowboy, somehow making the man appear old and frail, which was ridiculous. Rand’s gaze bored into the back of the other guy’s head.

The man stood from his bar stool and pivoted but seemed to reconsider a fight when he came chest to chest to Rand.

“Oh. Well, I suppose you mean that literally, then,” the cowboy said, apparently recognizing Rand.

Rand gave him a serious nod. “I do. Back off, Robertson.”

“Or?”

Oh shit. Next they were going to pull their dicks out and measure them. Good thing I was on the other side of the bar, so they didn’t pee on me to stake their claim.

“She’s taken,” Rand practically snarled.

“Rand,” I said, but both guys ignored me.

“That so?”

“That’s so. Back off while you can still walk.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the words themselves, the look on Rand’s face or the tone that sounded more of a wolf growl than human voice that had the guy taking a step back.

The cowboy pulled a card out of his pocket and slid it across the bar toward me. “If you do need help with anything else. Don’t hesitate to call.”

I didn’t touch the card. Didn’t breathe.

I wasn’t sure if I should be turned on or angry by Rand’s behavior. He was acting over the top, as if he’d staked his claim.

We may have fooled around, but we weren’t a couple. I’d made it really clear what I wanted from him. Yes, I’d probably jump in the sack with him a few more times, but I wasn’t going to let him publicly stake his claim on me, and I definitely wasn’t going to lose my heart.

The guy walked off, and Rand moved to stand directly across from me. He snatched up the business card and tore it into little pieces. “Darlin’.”

“I’m taken?” I asked, setting my forearms on the bar. I had to look up at him, but our heads were closer. I didn’t need the entire bar to know my business although people nearby hadn’t missed the show.

“Yeah.”

Yeah? That was it? “You do not get to dictate who I talk to. I’m not sure what gave you that idea.”

Rand opened his mouth then shut it again, his gaze wide and alert. Almost alarmed.

I should’ve probably been satisfied to see how dismayed my words made him, but instead it knotted up my belly. Like I’d hurt his feelings and didn’t enjoy the guilt of it.

But that didn’t make sense. Cocky cowboy electricians didn’t get their feelings hurt when the woman they just screwed flicked them down the path to the next woman.

Did they? Er… did he? Had I hurt his feelings?

“Rand, I told you—”

It was Rand’s turn to lean forward. “Who licked your pussy, Red? Made you scream?”

I darted my gaze around. “I’m working!” I hissed.

“Yeah, me too. I’m doing my job to protect what’s mine.”

I melted inside but rolled my eyes. “I’m not yours.”

“Your ass still have my hand print on it?”

I flushed.

“That’s what I thought. Robertson’s not going to get a finger on you. Not any guy in this bar. Hell, in Montana.”

“Possessive much?”

Of course, at that moment, a large group of men bunched up at the bar, all giving me their orders, and I was busy for the next forty-five minutes straight. I managed to get Rand a soda, but we didn’t get a chance to talk further. His hand print wasn’t on my ass any longer, but I remembered how it had tingled.

Ugh, but did we even need a talk? Wasn’t the whole point of casual sex that you didn’t have to examine it or belly button gaze over it afterward?

The blonde cowgirl from early in my shift returned and pressed herself up against Rand. “Hey,” she purred. “I missed you Monday night.”

My gaze jerked to Rand’s face.

Just as I’d thought, they looked good together. Fuck, I was jealous. And that made me the possessive one. How could I blame Rand his actions with the cowboy when I felt the same way?

His gaze snapped to mine. Alarm rang on all his features again. “Karen,” he said as if the two syllables were distasteful to him. “Have you met Natalie Sheffield?”

I liked the way he said it. Like he was calling out that he was here with me. Which of course, he wasn’t, since I was working, and he was sitting across the bar from me, trying to snatch away the cards of men who tried to pick me up.

I stuck my hand out. “Nice to meet you.”

She shook it in that cold fish way women sometimes had. Like they had no idea how to shake a hand. Which was weird since she had the rugged, outdoorsy look going.

And then it hit me.

Monday night. The full moon.

She was one of them. Another wolf.

“Go find another guy, doll,” Rand said to Karen. His gaze was locked on mine, as if looking her way wasn’t even worth the effort.

She stood beside him, her boobs pressed against his upper arm. “Rand?”

“Someone. Else.” His voice was a snarl. Her eyebrows went up, but she didn’t say more, only turned on a heel and left.

I had no idea how long we stared at each other. Whether anyone was trying to get my attention for drinks.

He dropped onto the bar stool. “Red, you think I’m the possessive one? That look on your face could kill.”

I blinked then sighed. He was right. I wanted to throat punch Karen for looking at him. Had he enjoyed the feel of her pressed against him? I’d never have that much cleavage even wearing a push-up bra.

“So, Red, am I possessive? You have no idea.”

Oh, I was getting a pretty good idea. I just had to decide if I liked it or not. And if I did, what was I going to do about it?

8

RAND

Natalie worked hard. How she stood on her feet for hours with a fucking smile on her face when drunks practically slobbered over her, others argued about stupid shit like too much foam on their beer or guys like Pete Robertson, who wanted in her pants. I had no idea how much she made in tips by last call, but it wasn’t enough to put up with all the assholes. Cody either needed to pay her more, or she was going to have to consider another job. I was going to lose my shit if she kept working here. Without me as her own personal bouncer.

I’d dropped onto the stool to get rid of Robertson and didn’t get up all night. Not once. I made sure no one touched her, smart mouthed or said a bad word. She might be as fiery as her hair, but she was innocent. Sweet. Light. I wouldn’t have one frown on her face.

Natalie had come my way and refilled my soda but only rolled her eyes at me for my macho, staking-my-claim behavior. I grinned and winked back, which only made her roll her eyes some more. Fuck, she was a spitfire, and I loved that her sass was directed at me.

“Is it like that every night?” I asked, walking her to her car. I had my hand on the small of her back, my wolf glad to be touching her again. The bar had been between us all night. A real pain in the ass for me although it did soothe my wolf that it made a barrier between her and everyone else.

“Like what?”

“Guys all over you?”

She laughed, tucked her purse higher on her shoulder. “All over me? The only guy into me was the one whose business card you tore up. He wanted my business.”

I knew Robertson. He was an okay guy. Ran the feed store in town. Owned his own house. Never married. “He wanted your pussy.”

She gasped, spun on her sneakers to face me. Only a few cars were left in the lot, and while it was well lit, there were pockets of darkness that made me glad she wasn’t walking alone. I had wolf hearing and eyesight and would know of any danger well before it got near us. She sure as fuck didn’t.

“I can’t believe you just said that!”

“Why?” I asked, leading her on towards her car.

“He didn’t want my… my—”

“Red, I’m a guy. We all want pussy. But yours is taken. Yours belongs to me.”

Yeah, I was a possessive fucker. But after the number of guys who eyed my mate all night, my wolf wanted to claim her. Completely. My bite on her neck. My scent on her. In her. But even that wouldn’t satisfy me because most of those assholes were human. They wouldn’t even recognize my mark.

I’d just have to stay with her all the time. I could hear Nash laughing at me, at how crazy possessive I’d become. In human terms, I was totally whipped.

We stopped in front of her car which was in the back corner. My truck was a few empty spots over.

“I do not belong to you,” she countered.

Setting a hand on the hood of her car, I got in her space, breathed her in. There was the sweet smell I’d been craving, that had taunted me all night but subdued by the stale beer tang in the bar.

“Not yet. Your pussy does.”

She shook her head, rolled her eyes. Again. “You’re insane.”

“For you.” I couldn’t resist a second longer. I lowered my head. Kissed her.

She gasped and melted against her car. My tongue found hers, and we kissed like high schoolers, as if first base was all I was ever going to get. I was starved for her, the sweet taste of her mouth… and her pussy.

I pulled away, and she looked up at me through her lashes. Yeah, she liked me. My kisses, how I made her feel. How I made her forget. She wouldn’t admit it. What independent woman wanted to admit they liked to hand over control? As a shifter, I needed it, especially when she gave it to me so sweetly.

“I should get home, Rand.”

I didn’t miss a beat. “I’m going with you. Or bringing you to my place.”

“Excuse me?”

“I already told you I don’t want you staying there alone until we get the electrical sorted out. We never got those smoke alarms put up.” It was the truth. I wasn’t going to be able to sleep knowing her house could catch fire. Of course, the electrical hadn’t changed in decades, so I didn’t think it would make much difference now, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. Besides, I wanted her in my bed. Beside me. “And,” I stepped in closer. “After watching all those other men drooling over you tonight, I’m pretty much dying to mar—I mean, to stake my claim.”

She rolled her eyes. Again.

“You keep rolling your eyes at me, darlin’, and I’m going to spank your ass.” I leaned in close, played with one of her curls. “But then, that’s not really a punishment, is it?”

“Rand,” she breathed.

I inhaled, picked up her scent… and her arousal.

“Stake your claim?” she asked, ignoring my threat, which we both knew was no threat at all. “You don’t have a claim, big guy.”

I shoved down the sense of panic those words produced in me, prodding the overwhelming need to toss her over my shoulder and get her back to my place as fast as I could. Fates, I could hardly see straight from jealousy and possessiveness right now.

“Well, I’m trying to make one, darlin’. You’ve been driving me insane all night.”

“I was slinging drinks. You’re crazy.”

“Crazy for you, crazy for not being able to touch you.” I leaned my forehead against hers. My dick was going to have a zipper imprint in it, and my balls had never been so blue. “I need to touch you. Say I can touch you.”

Her mouth fell open, and she glanced around. “What? Here?”

No one was around. I knew it. Heard it. Felt it. I didn’t have to look away. “Here. Now.”

She sputtered. “You’re serious.”

“I had to watch Robertson try to pick you up. I’m not sure if I’ll be buying anything at his feed store again.”

“You’ll deny him business because he wanted—”

“—my pussy,” I said, trying to hide the growl. She really was driving me crazy. “If he keeps his hands and thoughts to himself, maybe I’ll change my mind.”

She stared then laughed. She was laughing at me. My possessiveness. My need for her.

“You think this is funny, Red? This connection we have? I spent hours watching you tonight without being able to touch you. Fine. Just let me look. I won’t touch. Lift up that skirt and show me that pussy.”

“You’re serious.”

“Dead serious.” I stepped closer, my fingertips brushing her waist. I could lift her skirt myself, but I wanted her to do it for me. To offer herself up the way she had this afternoon.

Prove she was mine.

I watched her swallow, her pupils dilate. Only a shifter would be able to notice in this light.

She looked around one more time, rolling her eyes and blushing, then lifted her jean skirt. Higher and higher until it was at her hips. Light colored panties with little strings on the sides covered her pussy. Taking a deep breath, I could smell that lush peach between her thighs. It was wet. It was swollen and ripe and ready for me.

“Fuck, do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?”

“Rand,” she whispered.

“I was wrong. I can’t not touch. Let me feel how wet you are. Let me make you feel good.”

She was panting now, and I could feel the heat coming from her skin. I’d stop if she really wanted to. I’d push her but only a little bit. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her, especially with my need.

“Yes.”

That one word was all I needed. Gently, or as gently as I possibly could be, I tucked my fingers into the elastic at her hips and snapped it, careful not to abraid her skin.

She gasped. I slid the rent panties from between her legs, tucking the damp cotton into my jeans pocket.

“Rand,” she breathed. “What are you doing to me? We’re standing in a parking lot.”

“No one sees you like this but me. Do you trust me with that?”

She stared at me with lust filled eyes. Nodded.

Fuck, yes. I cupped her at the same time I claimed her mouth in a searing kiss. She kissed me back, like she was as hungry to taste me as I was for her. I licked into her mouth, slanting my lips over hers, drinking her in.

“You’re dripping for me.” Fuck, she was warm. I stroked her, smearing her wetness all around, ensuring I coated her hard little clit before I dipped two fingers inside as I dragged my mouth down the slender column of her neck.

“This is just a preview, Red. A warm-up. I can’t fucking wait to get you in my bed.”

“Your bed?” she panted. She went up on her toes as I curled my fingers inside her. When I found her g-spot, I rubbed it. Her hand went to my wrist as she rode my fingers. “You like that, darlin’?”

“Yes,” she moaned against my mouth.

“That’s it. That pussy knows what it needs, that I’ll give it the pleasure it’s been begging for. So greedy. Good girl. Come all over my hand.”

She did. So fast, so beautifully. She cried out my name and let it carry on the wind. If anyone was around, they’d know it was me who made her come. It was me who she was letting finger fuck her in the parking lot.

My dick was leaking pre-cum like a faucet. I wanted in her so bad, to feel the tight clench of her walls strangle it. Milk it of cum.

“That’s it, Red. You gonna let me take care of all your needs?” Slipping my fingers free, I licked them clean as she leaned against her car to catch her breath. She didn’t even think about the fact that her skirt was up about her waist. I patted her pussy once, gently, then lowered her skirt back down.

“Follow me back to my place. I’ll give you everything you need.”

Her eyes were closed, and she was panting. I loved her like this. Pliant, sated. Mine.

“That was just a warmup, Red. You’ll be in my bed, and you won’t be sleeping anytime soon.”

That was a promise.

9

NATALIE

The only reason I went home with Rand was because we had unfinished business. He was coming on strong, and I didn’t mind it because, well, he’s so flipping hot. And ridiculously skilled with his fingers. And mouth. If I admitted it to myself, I liked the over the top attention.

I wasn’t foolish enough to think this could go anywhere. I knew it couldn’t. I was human, and he was a shifter. Same as Uncle Adam with his high school sweetheart. It was a love that couldn’t be.

Not that we were in love. I’d only met him again a day ago. I didn’t believe in love at first sight. Hell, I didn’t really even believe in love. It hadn’t worked for my parents—the love part. They didn’t even like each other, barely co-existing in what experts would call codependency of mutual dislike. I had no idea why they stayed together. I assumed they’d gotten together in the first place because they’d been hot and heavy for each other. I really didn’t want to know anything about that, but ever since I could remember, they were not in love or even in lust. They pretty much hated each other.

But somehow, they made hate work for them. In a ridiculously dysfunctional way.

That meant I was jaded and dysfunctional when it came to love. That also meant I definitely wasn’t falling in love with Rand. How could I when it was his wolf being all lusty and possessive?

I did like the lusty part. He’d already given me three orgasms and hadn’t even been inside me yet. I sort of couldn’t wait to see how the rest of this went down because if he was that skilled with his fingers and mouth, then…

Yeah. How could I deny myself more?

I followed him to his place—a sweet little cabin just up the mountain from my place as the crow flew. Like he said, it was on Wolf Ranch land. We really were neighbors.

I hopped from my car, looked around.

“This place is darling. Do you own—” I shrieked when Rand rushed at me and swept me off my feet into his arms, honeymoon style.

The waning moon was still nearly full, and I could see those crinkles at the corners of his eyes when he smiled at me. My heart thrummed rapidly in my chest.

“You’re crazy,” I told him on a laugh.

He was impulsive. Fun. Exhilarating.

“So you said.” He grinned like he was proud of it, twirling me around under the moonlight.

I wanted to acknowledge, then, that I knew what he was. That it was his wolf making him act this way. What normal human sniffed a woman he was interested in so much?

I understood why it was so easy for him to pick me up and carry me like I weighed nothing. He was a shifter. I knew. He knew. I wanted to ask him a million questions about being a wolf, but it was a secret I wasn’t supposed to know.

Uncle Adam had sworn me to secrecy. He’d even implied that if the pack knew that we knew, we’d be in danger. I didn’t think Rand would hurt me, but I was an outsider, even though I lived next door to the pack and had kept their secret more than half my life.

“This was my grandparents’ cabin,” he said as he carried me up the steps to the tiny front porch then inside. There was a rocking chair, and I imagined Rand sitting in it as the sun set. “It’s tiny but all mine. I inherited it, like you with your place.”

It was small in square footage but not in stature. The A-frame was made out of solid logs, the beamed ceilings were higher than I would’ve thought would be normal for the time it was built. There was a large sleeping loft and one bedroom and a small but adequate kitchen.

It was cozy and charming. Exactly the place I’d want to be snowed in for the winter. With Rand, of course.

But I couldn’t be thinking that way. This thing with Rand was a one-time deal. I was going to get it out of my system and wish him well finding his she-wolf partner or whatever they called one.

He carried me into the bedroom and dropped me on the bed, immediately peeling off his shirt and tossing it away.

Okay, maybe a two or three-time deal. Based on his strength, he’d probably have the stamina to go all night long.

This guy was hotter than all the Magic Mike guys put together with sculpted shoulders, pecs and abs and that generous smile. Even after him eating me out on my bed and then fingering me in the parking lot, I hadn’t seen him stripped down.

I unbuttoned my jean skirt, which felt far too rough on my bare ass without the panties and shimmied out of it.

Rand’s eyes glinted a lighter ice-blue—almost silver. His wolf was showing.

God, it turned me on. Knowing he was something so magical and different made him fifty times more exciting than the average guy. Maybe one hundred.

He growled, crawling over me, making the bed dip on the way.

“Uh uh.” I held up a hand. “I want to see everything.” I drew a line with my finger up and down the center of his body. The soft hair on his chest tapered in a V to his navel, then to a thin line that disappeared beneath his jeans.

He grinned.”Don’t worry, Red. I’m gonna give you everything tonight. I told you earlier, that was just a warmup.”

My pussy clenched at the warning.

I pulled off my blouse—the one that had made my boobs look great and was good for tips—and tossed it on the floor.

Rand hadn’t moved. He seemed frozen, watching me with that animalistic glint in his eyes. A low growl sounded in his throat. Definitely not a human sound.

The hairs on my arms stood up, but my pussy clenched again, hard.

All I had on was my bra. He was behind.

“Off,” I choked out, pointing to his jeans and trying to sound normal, even though my heart raced a mile a minute. I should have been sated by that incredible orgasm at Cody’s. He was right, it had only gotten me warmed up and wanting more.

He moved in slow motion, never taking his eyes off me. He flicked open the button on his jeans then unzipped them. “Take that bra off,” he rasped, his voice deeper than normal.

I swallowed. I loved his bossy tone. So sexy. Especially in bed.

“You first,” I whispered, eyeing the V of his lower abdominals that descended into his jeans.

The jeans and boxer briefs disappeared in a flash—faster than I would’ve thought possible, and then he pounced, landing over me with a bounce of the bed. He straddled me, looming over my body on his hands and knees, his thick member brushing my inner thigh. He bent his head and captured the front of my bra in his teeth. “I said, off.”

“Don’t rip this, too,” I laughed and caught his head, burrowing my fingers in his hair and guiding his mouth to my left nipple.

He growled, bathing the puckered peak with his tongue before sucking it deeply into his mouth through the material.

I gasped at the answering tug between my legs. Before I even knew what I was doing, I wrapped them around his back and pulled him into the cradle of my thighs.

He groaned and shuddered, his teeth grazing my nipple before he pulled sharply back. “Fuck, Natalie. You keep that up, and I’m going to forget to be gentle with you.”

I shivered, wondering if wolf shifters were rougher than human men. They had to be, right? Considering how much stronger he seemed to be. And possessive.

“I’ll get a condom on because if you keep that up, I’m going to be buried inside you way before I get through the foreplay.”

“Screw the foreplay.” I propped myself up on my forearms, watching as he dove to the floor to retrieve a condom. I meant it. We’d already had plenty of foreplay. Twice at my place and once in the parking lot. “I’m ready for the real deal.” I glanced down at his cock. Thick, long, hard. A penis wasn’t all that good looking, but a hard dick with a flared head and a bead of pre-cum at the tip was something else altogether. And Rand’s? My mouth watered to taste. Feel it hot and heavy on my tongue.

Rand came up growling. “Don’t worry, Red. I’ll give you my dick. Is that what you need, beautiful? To get crammed full?”

My belly fluttered at his dirty talk. I nodded. Some part of me wondered at my trust of this guy. That I’d be here in his house, in his bed, so soon after meeting him. How I let all my inhibitions slip, let my need and desire for him take over.

He wasn’t human! But Uncle Adam had trusted him. And he’d trusted their pack. Whether it was logical or not, I’d trusted Rand the moment I saw him again—in wolf form and human. I always had, it seemed.

This felt like the safest and most thrilling hook up I could ever have.

Rand let out a curse, rolling on the condom. “I was trying to go slow for you, Red. But you had to go and look so damn perfect in my bed.” He tackled me, pinning my wrists beside my head as he nibbled all down my neck, stopping to breathe deeply like he was savoring my scent.

“Do you like the way I smell?” I dared ask.

He froze, then cleared his throat. I was instantly sorry I’d called attention to it. It was just that I was dying of curiosity. “Is that weird?” he asked, lifting his head to examine my face.

He was worried about it.

I guessed he would be since their existence was a huge secret I wasn’t supposed to know. I’d pointed out an obvious trait of a shifter. Now, in the heat of the moment.

I shook my head. “Nope. It’s hot,” I assured him. “I mean, if you like it. If you don’t, and I smell like BO or something, it’s embarrassing.”

“BO?” His face split into a huge smile. “Hardly. Oh, I like it, Red. I like it so fucking much.”

“What do I smell like?” I whispered, watching his handsome face in the lamplight.

He dropped his head and gave my right nipple a flick of his tongue. “Like apples and sunshine. And woman. My woman.” He gave his head a quick shake. “Sorry.” He grinned. “I’m still smarting over all those assholes checking you out tonight.”

I should tell him I wasn’t his woman, and we both knew I never could be, but it was too nice basking in the heat of his jealousy. His desire for me.

Besides, his dick was hard, protected in latex, and he was between my legs. Why would I want to talk when we had other things we could be doing?

We could have that talk tomorrow.

I wrapped my legs around his back again. “Come here, big man. Show me what you’ve got.”

He groaned at the same time he thrust, spearing me with his erection. I gasped at the welcome intrusion. The stretch of my tight channel around his girth. God, he was big. I clenched around him, adjusting.

He stayed buried inside me like I was some virgin he had to baby. Pain flickered over his face. “Sorry. I’m sorry, Red. Fuck, you can’t goad me like that. It’s hard enough to hold back for you.”

“You should be proud of that thing. God, I’m so full. But who said you had to hold back?” I purred, even though I knew I was tempting fate. I was probably no match for the fierce, animal aggression he had brewing inside him. I wanted to have it unleashed because I had a feeling I wouldn’t see the true Rand, all of him, until he did.

“Aw, Red. Keep that up, and I am going to destroy this sweet, wet pussy of yours.”

Said pussy clenched around his cock again, urging the destruction. He let out a shaky breath and rocked back, then thrust deep.

My exhale was harsh and excited as I lifted my hips to meet him. I ran my hands over his chest, down his muscled arms, trembling and rocking my pelvis up in little pulses to move him inside of me. He still seemed to be holding back. What he was waiting for, I wasn’t sure, but his eyes sure as hell weren’t human. They were one hundred percent wolf.

“I’m not that fragile,” I told him, cupping his jaw. “I won’t break.”

He hovered over me, still not moving, breathing hard like he’d just finished a race.

“Please,” I added.

“Fuck, Red,” he cursed. “You have no idea what you’re in for.”

10

RAND

My mate was magnificent.

Too magnificent.

Sprawled out bare beneath me, her dark red hair a wild curtain around her head, her green eyes dark with lust, she had my control hanging by a goddamn thread.

I was ready to mark her right here, right now. My teeth were long in my mouth, dripping with the serum that would forever embed my scent into her skin. It was everything I could do not to lose control. She didn’t know anything about shifters.

She deserved the truth, the choice to become mine. There was no question she would be mine, but it couldn’t be now. We had the rest of our lives together, and from what I’d learned from the guys who’d all found human mates, I wasn’t going to fuck this up like they had. At first. Sure, they’d gotten their shit together, but I wasn’t going to blow it because her pussy was just too fucking perfect.

No. I was stronger than that. Fuck, I was going to try because if anyone was going to make me weak, it was Natalie. She wasn’t giving me much of a chance to get my shit together, either. She kept squirming and rocking beneath me, trying to take me deeper, to get me to move inside her.

Fuck. I was dying of pleasure here. I could come, but I couldn’t bite.

I held still as I shut my eyes, breathed. As soon as I got my teeth to retract, I let my hips go. She wanted hard, I’d fuck her hard. I’d give her anything she wanted, especially if that included me being balls deep inside her. Three deep slams, and her head nearly hit the headboard. Fuck. I pulled out and dragged her lower, then pinned her in place with a hand at her shoulder. I tried to take another breath and slow down, but she reached for my cock and guided me back into her.

I couldn’t help it. “Red,” I growled. I jackhammered into her.

She flung her knees wide, making herself soft and pliant for my assault. It was like our bodies were fucking made for one another.

Hell, they were, weren’t they? She was my fated mate. Of course, sex with her would be beyond perfect. That she would want it as wild and sweaty and heart pounding as I did.

“Natalie,” I rasped, already at the edge of my rope. Hell, I’d been needy and fucking frantic since the moment I caught her scent on the breeze on Monday night. Now? I was downright desperate. “Fuck, Natalie.”

I had the presence of mind to rub her clit with my thumb, and she cried out, squeezing my cock so tight I nearly came right there. She yanked me down with claws in my skin, like she was as greedy for me as I was for her. As if she were the shifter, and her inner wolf was coming out.

Impossible, but she was definitely a wildcat.

I wanted to kiss the hell out of her, but I kept my jaw locked and lips closed to keep my fangs from making any unwanted appearances. Instead, I buried my face in her neck, breathing in her delectable scent as I pounded into her. The bed shook, slamming against the log wall.

Natalie’s cries filled the small cabin, the current of every sound running like tremors through my body, speaking to my cells, awakening parts of me I never knew existed.

I became someone new.

Natalie’s mate.

Her pleasure was my sole focus. I would die if I didn’t come with her. At least I’d given her pleasure twice already. Now, we’d both get off, but she’d come first. This time and always.

“Rand,” she panted, her silken voice penetrating every sense. “Rand…”

“What is it, beautiful? You need to come?” I didn’t know how I even managed to speak, my brain was so addled with lust. The scent of fucking filled my nostrils. Sweaty, slippery fucking.

“Oh God,” she moaned. “Please.”

“Fuck, yeah.” The tether on my control snapped when she begged. I shoved into her deeper, harder. I couldn’t help but be rough. Time stood still, or maybe it rushed forward. I wasn’t sure—the room definitely spun.

Natalie clenched around me, coming in perfect timing because my balls couldn’t wait a second longer.

Thank fuck.

I came with a roar that echoed off the walls, slamming home and staying there while I filled the condom with a lifetime’s worth of lust.

She panted against the side of my head. I could feel her heart racing where our chests pressed together, slick with sweat.

Gradually, the room stopped spinning. My consciousness returned and sweet, sweet gratitude filled my chest.

Mate.

I had a mate.

A beautiful, spirited, human mate.

A wonderful, talented, gorgeous creature who lay panting beneath—

Oh shit!

“Am I crushing you?” I scrambled back, regretfully pulling out as I retreated.

“No,” she murmured, tugging me back. “I liked it.”

I buried my nose against her neck again. “I like you,” I said. I really wanted to say, “I love you” because that’s exactly what I felt, but I knew enough about humans to not jump the gun on that.

“I like you, too,” she mumbled. She sounded sleepy, like the sex had wiped her out.

I didn’t want to separate our bodies, even for a moment, but it was my job to take care of my mate. “I’ll be right back, Red.” I crawled out of bed and disposed of the condom then brought Natalie a glass of water and a washcloth to clean up.

But it was too late. My sweet mate had already fallen asleep, like a gorgeous goddess in repose, meant to be worshipped.

I tucked her under the covers and slid in beside her, looping an arm around her waist and drawing her smaller form against mine. Her back was to my chest, and we were like two spoons in a fucking drawer. I smiled at my ridiculous thought then kissed her head. “Good night, perfect mate,” I murmured.

The words tasted as sweet on my lips as they sounded to my ears.

Mate.

I had one now.

In my bed, exactly where she belonged.

I just needed to claim her, and my life would be complete.

Claim her and get her happily settled in her house. Hell—and redirect her bed and breakfast plan to keep the pack safe.

Should be fairly easy.

I hoped.

11

NATALIE

I rolled over and smiled, snuggling into the soft blanket and warm guy. Rand had his arm thrown over my waist, his hand cupping my breast.

He kissed the tip of my ear. “Morning, darlin’.”

“Mmm,” I said, too content to say more. The room was bright through my eyelids, so I had to assume we’d slept in. After the late night at the bar, I was ready to stay in bed longer.

And if it was with a hot guy…

“I’ve been thinking,” he said.

“How long have you been awake?” I asked, my voice raspy with sleep.

“A while. Did you know you snore?”

I elbowed him lightly. “I do not.”

“Fine, you whiffle.”

I pursed my lips, but I didn’t argue.

“We can head back to your place and pack your things.”

I wiggled my hips and felt him hard and insistent at my lower back.

“Why would we do that?”

“It’ll be quicker and easier to do the rewire if the power’s turned off. Besides, I plan on having you in my bed every night from now on so—”

My eyes popped open. I was fully awake now. “From now on?”

He gave my breast a gentle squeeze. “Hell, yes.”

Wait… what? That wasn’t even possible for him. I was human. He had a pack that forbade mixed mating.

This wasn’t the one night kind of talk. I rolled over, our faces about a foot apart.

“Hey there,” he said again, brushing my hair back from my face. “You want to come on my dick or my mouth this morning?”

I blinked. I was instantly hot at the prospect of either of those options. But he was moving forward too fast. “Back up a sec. What do you mean from now on?” I asked.

His dark brow went up, and I watched as his eyes roved over my face and down to my chest. When I realized my breasts were exposed, I tugged up the sheet.

“From now on as in every day. Every night.”

“Yes, I got that. But this isn’t an everyday kind of thing.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“No, it’s not.” I pushed up to sitting, trying to pull the sheet with me. “Rand, this… thing, I know it’s just an itch.”

He looked me over. “Fuck, you’re gorgeous in my bed. And this?” he swirled his finger in a circle. “It’s definitely an itch. An itch I can’t stop scratching.” Reaching beneath the covers, I could tell he was gripping his dick, pumping it.

I climbed from the bed, found my bra and put it on as I talked. “Get a flea collar then. This is not happening.”

He pushed up onto his hand. “It’s already happened, Red. You don’t want to stay here, that’s fine. We can do the work around you.”

Frustrated, I pushed the strap onto my shoulder. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to maybe make me some coffee then kiss me at my car, then I’d drive away. Maybe, maybe, we’d fuck again if we got that itch but nothing more. It annoyed me that he was pretending we could be something more when I already knew for a fact it wasn’t possible.

That was why I was frustrated. Angry at how hot he looked in his bed. I could just shut my mouth, climb back in bed and answer his multiple choice question about getting me off.

We’d only dig in a little deeper. And while I didn’t know jack about love, this was the kind of guy I might fantasize about having for keeps.

Which wasn’t possible.

No, I had to walk away now.

“This was fun, but this isn’t an everyday thing, Rand. It can’t be.”

“Why not? Didn’t you have fun?”

He wasn’t being logical. I went around to the foot of the bed, found my jean skirt. I stepped into it and shimmied it up my legs. “It’s not about fun. I mean, it was definitely fun. But I know you don’t want something long term.”

His brows dipped. “I want forever, Red.”

That made me freeze. My breath caught. My heart skipped a beat. But he was lying to me. Strange—Rand didn’t strike me as a liar. He was smooth but didn’t give off the player vibe. It offended me he would try to lead me on. “No.”

He pushed all the way up to sitting, his gorgeous torso on display. How did a guy get abs like those? It wasn’t from any gym around here.

“No? What the fuck, Red? What do you mean no?”

Now he was pushing me into a direction I’d never wanted to say. I’d sworn Uncle Adam to secrecy. I knew Rand kept his being a shifter a secret, and he was pushing me to say it aloud, to voice the one thing he never wanted uttered.

I found my blouse, slipped my arms through it with more effort than required. “I mean, you’re being bossy again. Telling me I’m having an orgasm this morning whether I want it or not.”

His mouth opened, and he held up a hand. “Cool your jets, darlin’. I’m not making you do anything. I’m a generous guy. When it comes to you, I want to make you happy. I want to hear you call my name in that breathy way again. I don’t care if it’s on my mouth or my dick.”

“Why?” I asked, running my hand over my face.

“Why what? Why do I want you to come? Because I’m a generous lover.”

I sighed. “Fine, I’ll give you that. But why me? Why do you want it every day?”

“Why don’t you?” he countered.

I tossed my arms up. “Because we just met. I don’t know you.”

“You know quite a bit about me, darlin’, just like I know a hell of a lot about you.”

His gaze dropped to my chest, the fact that I hadn’t buttoned my blouse.

I tried to calm down enough to get my fingers to work the buttons.

“I told you before, Red, you’re mine. I’m a possessive fucker.”

“I saw that clearly last night.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

He sat there all sexy and rumpled. And confused.

This was it. There were only so many lies I could come up with to skirt the truth. And he was telling them, too, which bothered the hell out of me.

“I know, Rand.”

There, I said it. After fifteen years, I said it.

“Know what?”

I turned around to search for my shoes.

“Know what?” he repeated.

When I didn’t answer, he moved to me, took my arm and spun me back to face him. He stood before me. Bare. His dick was hard and bobbed between us, but he was looking at me with such confusion, such intensity, he clearly forgot he was aroused.

“Know what?” he asked, this time with a little snap. His patience was at an end.

“What you are.”

He stared.

“That you’re a shifter.”

His eyes widened slightly, and the grip on my arm tightened, but it wasn’t painful.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, clearly trying to fake it.

I sighed, let it out. “I saw you. That summer when the tractor fell on you.”

He dropped his hand, went to the bed, sat on the edge.

“I told Uncle Adam. He knew, told me what you were, what all of you at Wolf Ranch were. Are.”

Rand looked over, surprise on his face. “Old Man Sheffield knew? All that time?”

I nodded. “His first and only love was a shifter from your pack named Maggie. She couldn’t be with him because he was a human. So yeah. I know. I know there’s no forever for us.”

He lurched up from the bed, holding both hands out. “Hold up. That’s where you’re wrong.”

Something fluttered in my belly. God, I didn’t know how badly I wanted to be wrong. My legs trembled where I stood, as if my body believed this conversation was far more important than I’d given it credit for.

“First of all, it used to be pack law that we couldn’t mate with humans, but that’s no longer the case. What really guides us is fate.”

I wanted to roll my eyes, but he appeared dead serious.

“A shifter catches the scent of his or her mate and knows them immediately. It’s biology. There’s no choice or question involved. I don’t know whether your uncle was Maggie’s fated mate, but I do know you’re my mate. You’re mine, Natalie Sheffield.”

The trembling in my limbs grew stronger. I swallowed. “Wh-what are you saying? You just smell someone, and that’s it? You know?”

“Yeah, that’s it. You’re mine. Your scent told me. I caught it on the full moon, and it led me straight to you.” His eyes widened, and a cocky grin stretched his lips. “You knew it was me at the swimming hole, didn’t you?”

For some ridiculous reason, I felt my cheeks heat, even though he’d seen me naked a few times since. “I knew.”

I reeled, trying to assimilate what he was telling me. That there was some biological urge that just clicked and told him I belonged to him.

“Listen… this is all a bit much. I hear what you’re saying. You don’t do love. You just… mate? Well, th-that’s not how it works for me.”

Rand’s face seemed to drain of color. He took a step forward, reaching for my upper arms and lightly touching them. “What’s the problem, Red? If you know what I am and know you’re my mate, then why are you pushing me away?”

I crossed my arms over my chest, more as a protective gesture than anything else. I could hold back from letting him hold me. “Because I’m human.”

He frowned. “Yeah, so? So are a lot of the pack’s mates. Audrey and her sister Marina. And Becky, my brother’s mate. Charlie, our veterinarian. They mated shifters.”

“Uncle Adam… ”

“Come on, Red. Sit.” He led me to the bed, and we settled at the end. “Tell me what your uncle told you. I won’t touch you.”

I eyed him for a minute then told him about Uncle Adam’s high school sweetheart. “I won’t be with a guy, a shifter, who leaves me for another shifter.”

He turned, looked to me. He lifted his hand to cup my face, let it fall. “That’s not how it is. Maybe then, maybe that family, but things are different now. Even Rob, who’s the pack alpha, was prepared to mate a human, but Willow, you know her from the DEA sting last year, turned out to be a wolf.”

My eyes widened. “Willow’s a shifter, too?”

He gave a small smile. “She didn’t know it then. But that’s not the point. Everyone in the pack lately’s mated to a human. I’m the next to fall. For you.”

I popped up, paced, considered. Uncle Adam’s story was poignant, but I couldn’t deny the four examples of human/shifter relationships he’d mentioned. Even Rob, the leader, had been prepared to mate a human. If they all had done it, then Rand would be fine with it too.

Then I thought of my parents, the true issue. “Your wolf is driving you.”

He grinned. “That’s for sure. I… I’m hot for you. I won’t deny that. But I want more than that. You want love. Well, that’s easy. I love you, Red.”

There. That. All of a sudden, I was cold. His words, they were empty. “No. Don’t do that. Don’t say the words when you don’t mean them. Love isn’t some biological urge. Your wolf is controlling you. Will always do so. My parents, they… they hate each other. They live in this loveless, miserable marriage. I’ve heard that word tossed around when it means nothing. I won’t have that.”

“You won’t be miserable with me,” he replied.

I shook my head. “You don’t even know me. We’ve spent one night together. One night. I’m not going to sign up for a lifetime based on that. I’ve seen how unfortunate that scenario can turn out. I won’t be in a relationship every day when I will never know if it’s the wolf’s need for a mate or love that keeps us together.”

“I’ll always have a wolf’s need for you. You’ve seen it, it’s possessive and bossy. It’s desperate for you.”

He truly had no idea, which was proof that this wasn’t going to work. He didn’t understand that I wasn’t going to have a relationship with a shifter, one who was driven by his need to mate. Not by genuine connection. Not by love.

“Exactly. I can’t. I’m sorry but no. That’s just biology. That’s not love.”

I turned again, grabbed my shoes off the floor and carried them out of his bedroom. My purse was on the floor by the front door, and I grabbed it.

“Red!” Rand called, following.

I went outside, the sun warm, the sky a gorgeous blue.

“Red!” he cried again, stepping out onto the porch. Butt naked. “Don’t leave. I’ll just have to follow you.”

I stopped by my car, looked to him. “No, you won’t be following me. Your wolf will.”

12

RAND

Nash’s truck pulled up while I was still standing in the doorway, my dick waving in the wind.

I cursed and stepped back into the cabin and yanked on a pair of jeans and t-shirt. We had a job today—a chimney rebuild at one of the pack member’s houses. I’d told Nash yesterday to reschedule because I needed to get Natalie’s whole house rewired, but he’d refused.

“You’re gonna need to keep working if you’re going to help fund her fix-up project,” he’d told me. “Besides, I can’t do the chimney job alone.”

He was right, but fuck if I didn’t want to jog right past his truck and go after my mate. I wanted to follow—hell, I needed to follow, but Natalie didn’t want that.

“You look like shit,” Nash observed when I climbed in the cab. “Did you just wake up? Did you even eat?”

I shook my head. My brain was whirring and spinning in twelve different directions, and all of them were around Natalie. What the fuck had just happened? She’d known I was a shifter. For years. I couldn’t get my head around that. Humans didn’t know about shifters. My brother, Clint, had told me how he’d had to reveal what he was to Becky, and that had been a cluster fuck. Being the younger sibling, I was able to learn from Clint’s mistakes. I hadn’t even gotten to the point where I would have messed up telling Natalie the truth.

She already knew.

She’d known all along she was going to walk away while I’d been sinking hard and fast.

My wolf was pissed for letting her go. What was I supposed to say to her?

I had no fucking idea.

Nash put the truck back in park. “Go grab some beef sticks. I’m not gonna have you snarling at me because you’re hungry and haven’t marked your mate yet.”

I wanted to snarl at him right there. In fact, I would have loved a good wolf fight—the two of us throwing down in a tussle of fur and fangs until I got rid of some of this aggression. But when we were done, bloody and worn out, I’d still feel the same fucking way.

Natalie had left and nothing was going to fix that. Except going after her and getting her to see reason… somehow.

When I refused to move, he shook his head and got out, stomping into my open cabin and coming back with a handful of the giant meat-sticks we kept on hand for wolf snacks.

He dropped them in my lap, put the truck back in gear and started driving. “So? What’s the problem? I smell her all over you.”

“She knows about shifters.”

“Okaaay.” He drew out the last syllable as if to imply there was no problem.

“She says what I feel isn’t love. Then she basically shot out of here and told me not to follow.”

He steered around a turn, kept his eyes on the road.

“Well, humans are different,” he said, as if he knew this shit. He didn’t have a mate. He had no fucking clue. Still, he went on. “You should talk to your brother about it. Or to Becky. Human women don’t get the mate thing. Didn’t Becky refuse to marry Clint because she’d had a bad marriage? They don’t understand that bad matings don’t happen.”

“They also don’t understand that a true fated mating is special,” I reminded him. Lots of shifters never found their fated mate. They settled with someone before it was too late to have a family. Those pairings were like human marriages—took work and could fall apart. Domestic abuse was rare, but when it happened in shifter couples, it was made even worse by the biological urge to stay with a fated mate. A female wolf might leave, but the male wolf would be compelled to follow his mate, even if she wanted to be free of him. Or so I’d heard. Again, it was rare.

“Maybe you can get her to see what the others have. I mean, look at Audrey and Boyd. Clint and Becky. The others. You’ve got good examples of human/shifter mates that are fucking nauseating to watch.”

“Yeah, they would be good, if she saw reason. She’s not thinking clearly. Plus, she mentioned her parents’ bad marriage. From what she told me of them, they’re a piece of work. Said she doesn’t want a loveless pairing.” I rubbed my forehead. “She thinks what we have isn’t love.”

He turned and looked at me before back on the road. “Well, by their definition it isn’t, I guess. I know you knew her when you were kids, but you only really met the other day. You only found out she was your mate that night. That’s why you should go talk to Becky. Or any of the other women. Figure out what humans need to fall in love.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple. She doesn’t think I love her. How do I prove to her my feelings are real besides all the shit I’m already doing? I mean, if I get any more possessive and protective, she’ll be tied to my bed.”

I slumped in the seat as the truck bumped along the dirt road. Fuck. This was way harder than I’d anticipated, and no matter how much my wolf—and my dick—wanted her permanently in my bed, that wasn’t the way to go. I thought I’d been so lucky to find my mate at a good age for mating and pups. I didn’t realize finding her wasn’t the only hurdle. Or the smallest.

Not that I wasn’t willing to do whatever the fuck it took to prove my worth to her.

We pulled up at the job site and climbed out of the truck, unloading our supplies.

Nathan, the homeowner, came out to greet us. He was kind of a prick, which was probably part of why Nash had refused to reschedule the job. Nathan was the type to make a big stink and ask for a discount and all that shit, even from a fellow shifter.

I also disliked the fucker because a relative of his from another pack tried to kill my brother last year. Disliked was being generous, especially in my current mood. Not that the fiasco with Clint had been Nathan’s fault, but he was a shady asshole, and I wouldn’t put it past him to be more involved than we’d discovered. He was the type to stir trouble wherever the fuck he went.

I knew Rob had to watch his back with the older guy at every turn. He seemed to have it in for Rob especially, wanting him replaced with someone else as alpha, whoever the fuck it might be.

“Hey boys, about time you showed up,” Nathan drawled, scuffing the heels of his cowboy boots in the dirt as he walked.

Nash raised his brows. “We’re right on time by my watch.”

Nathan made a show of checking his watch. “If five minutes late is your definition of on time.”

I kept my mouth firmly shut. In the mood I was in, I was likely to do or say something that would come back to bite me in the ass. Hard. Instead, I pulled the ladder out of the back of the truck and propped it against Nathan’s house then set up the scaffolding next to it with our supplies.

When Nathan turned back and went inside, Nash gave him the finger.

My wolf was too fucking cranky for me to smile, but it did lighten my mood a bit. The guy was part of the pack. We took care of our own, even if one was a total bastard. I shook my head and got to work. The sooner we got it finished, the sooner we were out of here. The sooner I could get back to Natalie.

We climbed up the ladder, set the boards on the scaffolding and got to work, taking apart the stone chimney where it had caved in after the ground below the century-old ranch house settled. The structural problems were more than just the chimney, but that was the only one Nathan was willing to fix at this point.

“Did you get the fuse box replaced over at Natalie’s yesterday?” Nash asked while we worked. He pulled a loose stone free and set it on a tarp he’d placed on the roof. The day was warm, but the tall pines that surrounded the old cabin kept the sun from beating down. There was a slight breeze and the scent of evergreens and fried eggs—I assumed Nathan’s breakfast—filled the air. In the distance, I could hear a deer cutting through the woods.

“Yep.” I poked a rubber mallet gently against some loose concrete, and the pieces fell to the ground below. “Now I just need to rewire the whole damn place. I don’t like her staying there when it’s in that condition.”

“Even though the house has been like that for decades, I don’t blame you,” Nash said. After a moment, he grinned. “Makes a good excuse for her to stay with you in the time being, though, right?”

A lead ball sunk to my belly. “Yeah, I’d thought so, too, but after the way she lost her shit this morning, I don’t think she’s going to go for it now.”

He set another river rock on the tarp. “Any progress on talking her out of opening a bed and breakfast?”

I tipped my hat back, then shook my head. “Fuck.” Another thing to fucking deal with. “Haven’t brought it up yet. I have to find the right angle, you know?”

The truth was, I didn’t like any angle that wasn’t the clear one to support Natalie in whatever she wanted to do, so this situation put me between two boulders. She didn’t want to open the house up to tourists. Based on her lack of enthusiasm with the idea, it was only a way for her to make income. But she was right, her options were limited. I had no idea how talented she was at the violin, but the closest orchestra I knew of was in Seattle. That would be a long fucking commute from Cooper Valley every day.

The B&B idea was viable if the house was fixed up. There was land, a beautiful setting. Hell, it could be a real financial winner. For the pack though, it would be a disaster. If I nudged her toward the business, Rob was going to kill me. If I steered her clear of it to make Rob happy, she’d probably rip my balls off, and that was after she’d proved her point about not wanting to be with a shifter.

I ran my dirty hand over my face. “Fuck,” I breathed. “There is no right angle.”

“You’ll think of something,” Nash said although he didn’t sound that confident. He was probably thrilled he wasn’t the one losing his shit since he didn’t have any good advice. We’d been best friends since pretty much birth, and he hadn’t even held back when poking into my shit. Still, neither of us knew jack about dealing with human females. I’d never felt so out of my element in my life, and that wasn’t saying anything about how my wolf was pissed at me standing up here fixing a chimney instead of getting our girl.

I shot Nash a pained look. “I sure as fuck hope so. She’s stubborn.” I shook my head. I fucking loved that about her until this morning, that she was as wild and untamed as her hair. But it was when I was ready to give her a pleasurable wake up that I learned she was gonna dig her heels in against me. Against being my mate.

She said I didn’t love her. Then what was it called when a guy was losing his shit because of a woman? At the idea of her being out of my sight? Where I couldn’t touch her or breathe her in? Why did my wolf want to snap at me for the first time ever?

I sighed again. I’d figure it out. I had to. In the meantime, I just had to get my wolf’s insanely jealous and possessive streak to calm the fuck down.

13

NATALIE

I spent the day scrubbing the hard water stains off the tile in the master bathroom. Literally all day.

I may have thrown myself more obsessively into the job than usual in order to not think about Rand. About the night we’d shared. God, I was sore from the way he hadn’t held back. I’d actually begged him to do so, and now I felt it, as if my body was reminding me what I was missing.

My heart still sped up every time I remembered what he’d said.

You belong to me, Natalie Sheffield.

He really believed that.

God, part of me wanted to believe it too. Wouldn’t life have been easy if we were both shifters, and we both just “knew” the other was the one? If love didn’t matter because our inner wolves were smarter than we were?

But we weren’t. I wasn’t a shifter. I had no idea if Rand was the one. Sure, I was attracted to him. Not just because he was too handsome for his own good but because he was… nice. Bossy. Protective. Definitely over the top, but I was drawn to that. I was sure all the women in Cooper Valley felt the same way. But lust wasn’t love.

Lust had gotten me into his bed the night before. Made my pussy sore. Made my nipples ache for his mouth again. My nipples did not decide whether I wanted forever with someone.

I’d seen my parents’ shitty relationship. How they were assholes to each other. How they’d been the perfect example of what not to do. But what was the right thing? How was I supposed to feel? How would I ever know what love was if the closest example of a marriage was the worst?

How would I ever know that Rand was with me because of the guy or the inner wolf?

Sure, love at first sight would be amazing, but I wasn’t Cinderella, even though I was scrubbing my bathroom. I hadn’t believed in fairytales in a long, long time. I’d certainly stopped before I’d ever come here and seen a man turn into a wolf.

When I finally had the tub and tile gleaming, I stripped out of my clothes and showered, closing my eyes and trying to shove the thought of my possessive wolf suitor out of my mind. Or the tingles from my body. “Shit,” I breathed, turning the faucet off and sliding back the plastic curtain.

Nothing was going to make me forget about Rand. Just being clean made me think about him. If he sniffed me now, would he pick up the smell of my soap? Of the shampoo? Would he know I was still aroused? God.

Stop thinking about Rand!

Today, it was impossible. Especially when I heard a truck pull up out front. I dashed to the window and peeked out. Rand.

His truck engine cut off, and he stepped out.

Eek! I quickly toweled off. “Just a minute!” I called when he knocked loudly. I hadn’t locked the front door, but I hadn’t left it wide open either.

“Natalie?”

Crap, he was coming in! And I was naked. This was not how I meant for our next meeting to go. How was I going to keep from fooling around with him again if I didn’t have the barrier of clothes as protection?

I panicked, dashing to my room to grab some clean clothes. My hair dripped down my back. “Um, just a second!”

“Everything okay up there?” His boots were already pounding up my stairs. “Afraid of a spider?”

“No, I just—”

He threw my door open wide, his expression alarmed. I hopped on one leg, my panties still around my ankles. “Eek!”

“Oh.” The deep, interested note seemed to ripple over me like an aphrodisiac. “Sorry, Red. I, uh, thought you sounded distressed.” His gaze bounced then landed on my breasts. My nipples tightened and tingled in the heat of his stare.

“Only because you caught me getting out of the shower. And obviously naked.” Screw it. He was here. I was naked. He’d seen every inch of me although it had only been with the soft light of his bedroom, not broad daylight. I pulled off the tangled panties and threw them at him. “You’re not supposed to just let yourself in and run up my stairs.”

He caught the panties in one hand with a smirk. “We need to talk about you locking your door. What if it wasn’t me who pulled up?”

“Most people knock then wait for someone to come to the door.”

“Sorry.” He had enough grace to look sheepish although barely. “My wolf is protective as—” He shook his head. “Nevermind. Forget my wolf.” He took off his cowboy hat and held it in his hands. “Can we forget my wolf? I want to do it the human way. Whatever that is, Red. You show me.”

I blinked at him, surprised at this turn. Damn, he was sweet. He sure made it a difficult offer to refuse. I realized he hadn’t done anything wrong. Fine, he was a little bossy, but that was a good thing, right? If he was willing to try, then I should too. Again, right?

“I really don’t know the human way, either,” I confessed.

“Sure, you do. If I wasn’t a shifter, what would you want me to do right now?”

Oh jeez. I was naked, and we were a few feet from my bed. It was wrong. A really bad idea.

Really, really bad.

But dang it if I didn’t want him. Just one more time couldn’t hurt, could it?

A slow smile spread across my face.

“What’s that saying?” I strutted toward him. His gaze switched from unsure to lusty in the blink of an eye.

“Red?”

“Save a horse and ride a cowboy?” I asked.

His grin stretched ear to ear. “Yeah, I think that’s the one.” He glanced toward the bathroom. “Give me sixty seconds to clean off for you—I’ve been working all day.”

I followed him into the bathroom. It wasn’t like me—I’d never been bold and cocky with a guy before, but Rand’s unwavering interest made it come naturally. “Only if I get to watch.”

In a whoosh, the energy shifted. I’d given him permission, and he was taking charge, the way he always did. He picked me up by the waist and lifted me into the shower with him. “I’m doing the watching, darlin’. If you’re in here with me naked, you’re going to be screaming my name.”

I let out a shaky laugh as he stripped and turned on the water.

And he was right.

Five minutes later, I was out of my mind with pleasure, my back flattened against the tile, and his mouth on my core.

I screamed his name. Once. Twice.

Five times as I came and came and came.

14

RAND

I drove out to my brother’s place when Natalie left for work at Cody’s. I’d wanted to follow her into town, of course, but she’d gotten in my face about acting so possessive and sitting guard at the bar. Again.

“You want me to forget about your wolf?” She’d poked a slender finger against my chest. “Stop acting crazy.”

She called it crazy, I called it being her mate. She might be going to do her job, but it was mine to keep her safe.

“Fine,” I’d grumbled, completely not fine. “But I’m coming down at closing time to make sure you get safely home.”

She’d rolled her eyes but didn’t argue.

Now, as I drove up to Clint’s and Becky’s place, my wolf gnawed at me to get to that bar and make sure she knew I was still staking my claim. My mark wasn’t on her neck. My scent wasn’t on her. What made my wolf even more pissed was that even if I had claimed her, none of the human guys would pick up on the fact that she was mine. To them, she was fair game. Always would be unless I put a ring on her finger. Then, I might be able to relax although I knew a few assholes who didn’t care if a woman was married or not.

Fuck. Fuck! I was losing my shit. I may have compromised with her and backed off, but—

No. Nope. My insanity was why I parked in front of the cabin. To get some advice from a real human female. If she could put up with Clint, then she’d have the answers I needed. I’d gotten her in my arms and screaming my name again, but it was only a start. I didn’t think Natalie’s mind had been changed. Yet.

I climbed out of the truck and knocked on the door. I swore to fate, I could hear my brother doing baby talk inside. Lily, his baby girl, couldn’t have her daddy wrapped any more firmly around that pudgy little finger of hers.

“Door’s open,” Clint called in a grown up voice then returned to his high pitched tone. “Is that your Uncle Rand? Hmm? Is Uncle Rand here to see you?”

I couldn’t help but grin at the transformation in my brother. And at how adorable his halfling babe was. Obviously, she got her looks from me.

“Hey, where’s your mate?” I asked, entering the kitchen, where Clint had Lily in a high chair, the tray covered in peas. She offered me a single tooth smile when she saw me, a smooshed pea stuck to her cheek.

Clint was in a kitchen chair facing Lily, but he glanced up at me. “She’s at Rob’s. It’s ladies’ night down there.”

I groaned as I ripped off my hat and stabbed my fingers through my hair. Maybe I should just abort this mission and head to Cody’s. Yeah, that’s what I should do.

Clint eyed me not as a threat but with curiosity. I got along just fine with his mate, but I didn’t often seek her out specifically. “Why? What do you want with Becky?”

I cleared my throat. “Well, ah…”

Clint’s protective streak kicked in—it had been warring with his gentler daddy side, but that disappeared as I hesitated. He stalked around the table and nearly bumped chests with me. “What do you want with my mate?”

Yeah, so much for not being threatened.

“Advice,” I mumbled, not quite meeting his eye.

Clint cocked his head. “Come again?”

“About my mate.”

Clint’s face transformed from the stern visage of the enforcer to one of celebration. “Rand! What the fuck? You found your mate?”

Lily babbled and slapped her tiny hands on the tray as if she was also happy for me.

A sputter of guilt flickered in me. I’d figured Rob would’ve told him by now. I should’ve told my brother sooner although I’d been pretty fucking busy trying to pin Red down.

“Yep. Yes. It’s Natalie. Natalie Sheffield.”

“No shit.” He grinned at me and gave me a slap on the shoulder.

“Listen, I’d love to stay and watch Lily throw peas at you, but my mate is stubborn as fuck and doesn’t think I love her.” Yeah, that pretty much summed it all up. “This is why I need to talk to Becky and figure out what the hell to do.”

Clint crossed his arms over his chest and laughed. Then he looked down at Lily and said in his ridiculous baby voice, “Your Uncle Rand’s got big problems. Yes, he does!”

I glared. “It’s really not funny.”

Lily laughed and threw a pea on the floor. Great.

Clint sobered. “Nope. I know. It’s definitely not funny at all. Well, why don’t you go down to the big house. All the women are there together. I’m sure they’d all be happy to school you on everything you did wrong.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I could probably kick your ass while you’re in daddy mode.”

Clint’s grin reappeared. “Try it, little brother. We’ll see how well that works out for you.”

I wanted to punch him—I really did—but Lily was babbling away so sweetly, waving her chubby little fist, it even had me turning soft. I settled for flipping him the bird as I walked out and got in the truck to drive down the road to Rob’s house.

When I got there, the women—Willow, Audrey, Marina, Becky and Charlie—were all waiting for me on the porch, wine glasses in hand, waving. I sighed, knowing this wasn’t going to be fun. At all. A prostate exam might be less invasive than what I was walking into.

“Here he is! We heard you needed the female perspective,” Marina called out as I walked up.

I groaned. Yeah, this was going to be painful. But Natalie sure as fuck was worth it. “Word travels fast.”

“Clint texted,” Becky said with a smile. “And we heard the news.”

“I learned yesterday,” Willow gloated, tossing me a wink. “Rob told me about Natalie. Congratulations.”

I shook my head. “Congratulations are definitely not in order.” I climbed the wooden steps of the huge wrap-around porch and leaned against the rail. The sun hadn’t set yet, but the heat of the day was dropping off to a cool Montana summer night.

“What’s the hang up?” Marina asked. She was the youngest of the women—younger than Natalie. She’d left college to mate Colton Wolf, Rob’s brother.

“The hang up is that she thinks it’s not love.”

“I’m guessing you got all hot and heavy since your wolf scented her,” Willow said.

I gave her a sly wink. “You know I don’t kiss and tell.” They all knew the truth. No shifter male could resist their female once she’d been scented. “Still, Natalie says I barely know her, and she’s afraid of being stuck in a loveless marriage.”

“You proposed?” Becky asked, eyes wide. “I’m surprised you told her about being a shifter.”

I closed my eyes for a second then opened them. “No, I didn’t propose, but she’s human, and that’s where her mind goes. Shitty parents who have a shitty relationship have made her wary.”

“Well, I can understand that,” Audrey said. She was Marina’s sister and our local OB/GYN who’d mated Rob’s other brother, Boyd. “It’s certainly hard for us to understand the whole mating thing when we don’t have the same recognition of mates that you do.”

“That’s just it. I didn’t tell her what I was. She already knew. She knows about the entire pack.”

It was almost comical the way their eyes widened in unison, so I filled them in on how she’d seen me shift all those years ago and what her uncle had shared.

“Wow,” Becky said. “That… that changes some things since she doesn’t need time to come to terms with the whole wolf thing. But I guess that makes more sense then, too. Let me guess, you went all P’s on her.”

I frowned. She ticked off her fingers as she answered. “Possessive and protective and pushy.”

“Of course,” I replied, almost offended I wouldn’t behave like that with my mate.

“That’s all wolf, Rand. Or mostly,” Charlie shared. She was the newest mate, having been claimed by Levi earlier in the summer.

“You have to give her time to fall in love with you. And to believe that your feelings, while biologically driven, are real,” Becky advised.

I took off my hat and rubbed my forehead. “Right. Okay. So dates? That kind of thing?”

Marina shrugged. “Whatever comes naturally. Just time. Spending time together.”

“I don’t have time,” I growled. The four human women drew back at the wolf-growl in my voice, and Willow stepped forward, the alpha female in her ready to give it right back to me. “Sorry.” I held my hands up. “I’m sorry. I’m just going fucking nuts. I’m crazy possessive of her. All of the P’s. And jealous as hell that she’s working down at Cody’s, with all those men eyeballing her. I can’t stand it.”

“You or your wolf?” Marina asked, cocking her head to the side.

I scrubbed a hand over my face, trying to rub out some of the misery. An idea struck me. “Maybe it would help if you all talked to her. If she met you? You know, to get some perspective on what it’s like to mate a shifter?”

“You want us to do your work for you.” Becky laughed.

“I’d do anything in the world for you if you could deliver my mate to me right now,” I admitted with a wry smile. My wolf and my dick both liked that idea.

The women looked at each other. “Sure, we can talk to her. If she wants to talk,” Willow said.

“She could join us for our next ladies’ night,” Marina suggested.

I groaned. “Can’t you see her sooner?” The thought of a whole week going by without me doing everything in my power to get my mate to agree to mating me was killing me.

Marina shook her head. “You can’t rush this. You’re going to scare her off if you act crazy.”

I hung my head. “Yeah. She’s pretty much told me that already.”

“Well, it’s time to listen!” Becky countered.

“I hear you.” I exhaled. “How much time do you think she needs?”

Becky snorted. “However much it takes. Definitely more than a week.”

“More than a week?” Fates, I wasn’t going to survive this. How long could a possessive wolf like me last without claiming his mate? Well, at least next week, she could be with these women instead of… ugh. “She probably couldn’t come to your ladies’ night, anyway,” I realized aloud. “She works evenings at Cody’s and wouldn’t want to give up the shifts.”

“Well, maybe we can go there,” Audrey said with a shrug. “We can try to make it seem casual. Not an ambush. Becky and I can stop by after work sometime. The hospital’s not far from the bar.”

“Not an ambush, right,” I replied. “Thank you. Thank you ladies so much. It really means a lot to me.” I pushed off from the rail and backed down the stairs. It was time to get to Cody’s. It wasn’t even near closing time, but I’d just tell her I was in the area. Whatever.

“You still have to do the work!” Marina called to me.

“Yes, ma’am,” I agreed, offering all of them a wave. “I will. Just as soon as I figure out what that means.”

The females’ laughter followed me to the truck.

I ground my teeth and gears as I shifted into reverse. I was no closer to claiming my mate. But I did feel marginally better.

I just needed to give Natalie my time and prove my love for her. So as long as I didn’t push too hard and make her run or shove me away, I could do this.

15

RAND

A few days later, Nash and I got to the pack lodge early to open it up and clean it for the monthly pack meeting. It had been built decades earlier as the central meeting place but also the starting point of the monthly full moon runs. It was away from any prying human eyes and a safe location to shift freely. The last time I’d been here was right before I’d veered off path because of Natalie.

I hadn’t been aware of it in the moment, but I’d somehow known my mate was out there, that I’d needed to seek her out. Now, I was stir crazy—which was putting it mildly—being away from her. Me, here with my pack—her at Cody’s working.

There was a time when Levi and Clint would be here helping us, too, but now that they were mated to humans, they didn’t come as early or stay as long. From what Clint had told me, Becky and Audrey would be stopping by the bar to meet Natalie. That and that alone kept me from jumping in my truck and heading into town.

Charlie and Becky, Marina and Audrey could come to pack meetings if they wanted, but not all the pack members made them feel comfortable, which fucking sucked. People like Nathan Brown, the guy whose chimney we fixed a few days ago, and other conservative members had old-fashioned ideas about how the pack should be run. They were traditionalists, old-timers who thought Rob was too… liberal. The alpha had done many things in the almost twenty years he’d been leader, all for the good, I thought. Most recently, he’d changed the pack law to allow the mating of humans, and not all the members agreed with it. Or him. No matter the example he set or the number of shifters who were mating humans these days, it didn’t make a difference.

Rob and Willow pulled up, looking every bit the alpha couple they were. When Rob’s wolf had chosen her, he hadn’t known she was actually a shifter—nobody did. Including her. Not until she was shot in the line of duty, and she spontaneously shifted to heal herself. Rob would’ve mated her anyway, shifter or human, but it sure took the pressure off that his human mate turned out to be a beautiful ginger wolf, and as alpha as could be for a female.

“Hey guys. Thank you for opening up,” Rob rumbled as he came in. He came over, slapped me on the shoulder. It was a sign of a good leader that he still thanked us every month. I’d be here even if he didn’t. He was like another big brother to me, and my family had been standing behind him as an alpha since the night the Wolf boys’ parents had died when we were kids.

My parents came in next, my mom carrying a casserole dish of her famous lasagna and my dad bringing a pan of brownies and a watermelon. “Rand, go and grab the bag of groceries in the back of the SUV,” my mom directed. She always over-provided on the food. Potluck meant everyone brought one thing, but my mom had to bring at least five to every meeting. No one would go hungry on her watch.

She was the pack’s mother hen, without stepping on Willow’s shoes.

I went out to her car and carried in a grocery sack full of chips and home baked cookies and a bag of freshly cut carrots and celery with ranch dressing.

Inside, Rand and my dad were setting up the chairs.

The pack members started rolling in, and Rob stood at the doorway to shake hands and greet them all.

“Hey, Clint. You didn’t bring the humans today?” Nathan Brown called to my brother.

It was a purposeful dig—implying that Clint’s daughter Lily was also human and wouldn’t shift when she reached puberty. Clint didn’t care if she shifted or not or if she grew wings and flew like a fairy. He was pleased with his daughter any way she turned out. Same went for me, my parents. Rob. Fuck, everyone in the pack but Nathan.

I growled on his behalf although it was probably drowned out with the noise of everyone arriving.

“Don’t call my family the humans,” Clint clipped and a staredown ensured between the two men—one young, one older. Clint topped him by several inches and at least thirty pounds of muscle. The only time Nathan had any strength was in shifter form but not compared to Clint or me.

I sauntered over to stand at my brother’s shoulder. If Brown thought he could fuck with Clint, he’d quickly find out at least six of the strongest pack members would have his back. Nash joined, too, arms crossed over his chest, most likely so he didn’t strangle the asshole.

Nathan shrugged. “Are you ashamed of what they are?”

Clint’s hand shot out, and he gripped a fistful of Nathan’s shirt.

Growls went up all around the large meeting room until Rob’s voice cut across the room in an alpha command, “Enough.”

The lodge went silent.

Boyd stepped forward, using his signature diplomacy the rest of us had never mastered. “Hey, now. Everybody take a breath.” To Nathan, he said, “I’m sure you don’t want to goad a former council enforcer into thinking you’re insulting his mate and pup, right? Because that would be ill advised.” His words reminded the pack that my brother had been chosen by the shifter council and had enforced their laws secretly for years. He probably had more kills counted than Colton had while serving as a Green Beret. Boyd’s words sobered the room.

“Take your seats,” Rob ordered, forestalling any response from Nathan.

Everyone immediately moved and settled. I sat beside my brother—not that he required my back up. The reminder of him being an enforcer without any of us knowing for so long still stung a bit. I knew it had been for his safety and ours that his role had been a secret, but it bugged the hell out of me that Clint had lived a double life.

With Becky and Lily, it was long behind him now.

Rob ran through the usual pack agenda and then opened the floor for new business.

“I have new business,” Nate Brown said, standing up.

Aw, fuck. Seriously, every time this guy spoke up it was to take a pot shot at Rob’s leadership. The guy was open about his dissatisfaction over the direction the pack had taken allowing us to mate humans and whatever else he could stir up shit about.

There was always something.

I swore I heard Rob’s teeth grinding from my seat. “What is it?”

“Were you going to tell us about the threat to our pack from your neighbor?”

“What neighbor?” I couldn’t help my angry outburst. If he was talking about Natalie, we were going to have more than words.

I was gonna tear his head off.

Rob held up a hand in my direction, his stern glance conveying his displeasure. At me, even though Nathan was the one being a pain in the ass.

Fuck.

I shut up, and Nathan waited. I could practically sense his giddy excitement over the trouble he was about to cause.

“You heard the question,” Rob prompted. “What neighbor?”

“I think you know exactly who I mean. Natalie Sheffield and her plans to open a bed and breakfast right next to you. To the entire pack.”

What the fuck? How did he kn—oh shit. We were talking on his roof when we’d fixed his chimney! What a dumb-ass move. Fucking shifter hearing.

A stir went around the room, and I muttered a curse. Clint wrapped a hand around my forearm to prevent me from leaving my seat. My wolf was pissed. Natalie wasn’t here. She wasn’t in danger, but I wanted to protect her still.

“Keep your cool,” he muttered under his breath. Not that muttering worked well with shifters.

Keeping my cool was an impossibility. My wolf wasn’t going to sit on my ass when a threat to Natalie was being made. I was ready to tear out throats. One specifically.

Rob frowned. “That situation is being handled,” he said curtly.

“I think this pack deserves to know how it’s being handled. Having a revolving door of humans adjacent to pack land is a problem. A big problem,” Nate said.

There were a few murmurs of assent around the room.

A low growl started in my throat.

“Knock it off.” Clint tightened his hold on my arm.

My parents, who sat a few rows ahead of us, turned to look at me, taking in Clint’s hand on my arm.

“It’s being handled,” Rob repeated.

“But how?” This time it was someone else who asked the question, which meant Rob would probably have to address it. If it wasn’t my mate who’d moved in, I’d have been rational and thought the question reasonable. A human next door, especially one who might open a B&B, could make trouble for a pack.

Dammit.

Rob closed his eyes as if begging for patience. “We are working with Natalie Sheffield to find another solution for the property.”

“I’ll gladly go by the place and—”

“You won’t,” I snarled. Clint couldn’t stop me from flying to my feet. I jabbed a finger in Nathan Brown’s direction. “Nobody goes near that place, do you understand me?”

“Rand!” My mother sounded shocked.

“Enough, son,” my father used his quiet authoritative voice on me. The one that usually worked.

Rob’s nostrils flared. “Sit.” His alpha command might have worked under different circumstances. I felt my knees start to bend, but my wolf responded with a surge of energy to combat it.

Clint seized the moment of weakness to yank me back down to my seat.

A rumbling went around the room.

“As you can see,” Rob cut over it, and the room fell silent again. “One of our pack brothers has a horse in this race.” He paused a moment for that information to land.

A mate? She’s his mate? a few people whispered.

My mother’s eyes went round, and she laid a hand on her cheek with pleasure.

“And that is how I’m handling it,” Rob continued. “Rand will win over his mate and bring her into the pack. Then I’m certain we can come to an arrangement that works for Ms. Sheffield and the pack.”

My stomach knotted up. I didn’t like hearing Rob announce my intentions to the whole pack like that, especially because while the fact that the words were true, they weren’t completely accurate. He was being diplomatic and trying to shut it all down. I knew it was to quell the dissent against his leadership. To get the assholes off his back and mine. Still, the moment he ended the meeting, I stalked out, skipping the potluck. I couldn’t stay even though I knew my parents would want to talk. To celebrate. I couldn’t now, not when my mate was being threatened.

Nathan Brown had better watch his back. Because I would mate Natalie. I’d bring her to pack meetings if she wanted to come. If he made the tiniest remark about her, I’d fucking kill him.

My brother may have more experience in that area, but I’d never been more certain of anything in my life.

16

NATALIE

I’d spent the last twenty minutes in the storeroom counting liquor bottles. It was early and the bar was quiet. It was after happy hour and well before the evening crowd arrived although Tuesday didn’t get packed like the weekend. I adjusted the count of tequila on the clipboard then moved onto the vodka. It had been a few days since I’d told Rand he needed to chill the fuck out… at least that was the way I thought about it.

The guy was the epitome of alpha, over the top male.

Every time I worked, he showed up to walk me to my car and then followed me home. He sat at the bar in what I now considered his usual stool and ensured no one messed with me. Not that Cody or the weekend bouncers would allow it. We’d spent every night together either at my house—where the smoke alarms had been installed and the wiring work was in progress—or at his cabin. I’d had a little chat with myself, meaning my pussy, and she’d won. We were going to sex it up for as long as we could with Rand.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t still resisting his claim on me. He didn’t love me. Of course, I didn’t love him, either. While I’d known him most of my life, I didn’t really know him. Although, he would argue with me about that since we were more intimate than I’d been with anybody. That didn’t mean I was in love. I didn’t even know what love was. It wasn’t like I’d had a good example of it at home. I never felt loved by my parents. The closest I’d felt to affection was the kindness from Uncle Adam. I liked my friends. But the Big L? Love? Nah. It was a stranger to me. I’d never professed love to the few boyfriends I’d had in college.

I’d learned to have sex without love. If I waited to be in love with someone to have sex, I’d have died a virgin.

I had no idea what was going to happen in the future, but I knew I couldn’t hang my hat on Rand’s supposed undying love and a happily ever after for the two of us. Planning on this thing going somewhere would be a big mistake.

That was what it felt like with my work, too. I was going nowhere.

I was in a flipping storeroom counting liquor bottles. I had an advanced degree in music, and I was in a cowboy bar in the middle of Montana. I’d taken the bad situation of being a broke grad student who hated her field of study to something worse. I wondered if on some subconscious level I came here so I wouldn’t have to play music any more. There was nothing in Montana for me to do as a violinist. Lessons to local kids? As if that was going to pay the bills.

But I also didn’t want to be a professional bartender. Cody was great, and he was a solid business owner, but slinging drinks wasn’t what I wanted to do with myself.

I grabbed the clipboard and shut off the light.

“There you are!” I stopped halfway to the bar when two blonde women came up to me as if we were long lost friends. One was in her early thirties, short with glasses, and the other one was curvy with a sassy smile. The one with glasses nudged the other, but looked at me as she said, “Careful of the storeroom. Last time Becky was in there, she got knocked up.”

I stared at the other one who was now rolling her eyes and blushing. “Whatever,” she said, shrugging and not denying. She’d gotten knocked up in the storage room? Seriously? “By the look on her face and the clipboard in her hand, I had way more fun.”

“Probably,” I replied, not sure what to say.

“I’m Becky,” she said. “I’m Rand’s sister-in-law.”

The lightbulb went off. These were human mates of the guys from Wolf Ranch. That made Becky Clint’s mate.

“I’m Audrey,” said the blonde with glasses. “Boyd’s wife. We work at the hospital, and since we were in town still, we decided to stop by.”

I couldn’t help but smile at how… perky they were. I wasn’t sure if they were always this way or not. “Great.”

Cody waved me over.

“Want a glass of wine or anything?” I asked, walking to the bar and lifting the pass through. I held it up for Cody, and he took the clipboard from me.

The ladies had taken stools at the bar. “We’re both driving back to the ranch, so no alcohol for us, but I’m starving,” Becky said. “Breastfeeding makes me hungry all the time.”

“I heard you had a baby,” I said, putting a menu between them. Rand had told me about his family the other day as he’d worked on the electrical. He’d had to take the switch out and somehow feed modern wiring to a plug a few feet away by tugging it through behind the wall. In some spots, he’d had to poke through the sturdy plaster. It was a mess and a huge undertaking. I’d asked him after trying to pay him for his work… again, but he’d pushed me off. So far, it was only electrical supplies he’d purchased… the fuse box and a heck of a lot of wire. That wasn’t ridiculously expensive… so far. I’d get squared away with him. I would, dammit. “Lily, right?”

Becky smiled “That’s right. Audrey had a baby, too. You’ll be Aunt Natalie to both girls.”

I stepped back and held up my hands. “Whoa, not sure what Rand told you, but—”

They grinned at me. “Rand told us you were driving him crazy,” Audrey said. “Nice job.”

A waitress came to the bar and handed me a ticket. I read it then grabbed a pint glass and filled it from the tap. I glanced at Audrey as I worked.

“You want me to drive him crazy?”

She set her forearms on the bar. “Absolutely! Those guys need to work for it.”

“Can we get an order of the boneless chicken wings with the buffalo hot sauce?” Becky asked.

“And lots of blue cheese dressing,” Audrey added.

“Sure.” I went to the computer and put the order in with the kitchen.

“Besides keeping Rand on his toes, working at this awesome bar, what else do you do?” Audrey added, “I admit, I feel like I’ve known you a long time since we thought Willow was you last summer. Now you’re really here.”

A few more orders came in, taking me away from answering. A band was setting up on the stage when I finally circled back to Audrey and Becky. “Well?” Becky asked.

“Oh, um…” I’d forgotten the question. “I’ve been in school in L.A. and finished my master’s in music.”

“Awesome!” Becky said. She leaned to the side when the waitress dropped off the wings. I grabbed extra napkins from behind the counter and poured them both glasses of ice water. “Do you play an instrument or sing or—”

“Violin.”

“Really? You need to meet the Barn Cats then,” Audrey said. She pointed to the men on stage and then waved at one. Obviously, they knew each other. “They played at my wedding reception.”

The band began to play. Unlike the usual rock cover bands most bars had, these guys were fiddlers. Three fiddled, and one on bass set the deep harmony.

A forgotten memory of Uncle Adam taking me to see a bluegrass band filtered into my mind. It could’ve been these guys—they definitely looked that old. As old as my great uncle would be if he was still alive.

I smiled, both at the memory and at the music. This wasn’t the constipated concert violin playing I’d left behind. It was lively and fun. There were mis-strokes played although I was probably the only one who noticed, and it didn’t matter. The crowd loved them, and they were having a good time. There was no professor standing at the podium grading their bowing technique or the perfection of the curve of their fingers on the strings. No conductor. No grades.

Watching them made me wish I’d never gone to college for music at all. That I’d kept it as something for me. Just for fun.

Then maybe I’d still love it the way I had when Uncle Adam gifted me that first violin.

There was a lull at the bar as people made their way in front of the stage to dance, and I leaned my elbows on the bar across from Audrey and Becky.

Audrey leaned forward conspiratorially. “So the guys were all floored to find out that you and your uncle knew about them all this time.”

I glanced around. No one was paying us any attention, and the music drowned out her words.

“Rand told everyone?” I wasn’t sure why that bothered me a little. I guessed because Uncle Adam’s secret had felt sacred to me all these years, and then… bam! It was out there. Or maybe it was because Rand had this whole pack thing going that I didn’t really understand. I didn’t come from a tight knit family. I came from dysfunction. I didn’t have any siblings. No grandparents that I remembered. The only relative besides dear old Mom and Dad was Uncle Adam.

“I’m sorry if that was private,” Audrey said, immediately catching my reaction. “It’s just from what I’ve heard, your uncle was such a good neighbor and friend to my husband and his brothers for so many years. They were touched to find out he’d felt a connection with them and had protected their secret his entire life.”

I softened. “Yes, he did. He’d loved a member of their pack, did you hear that part? She broke his heart.”

Something twisted in my own heart saying the words. I’d been telling myself I didn’t know anything about love because my parents were such bad examples, but I realized I’d internalized Uncle Adam’s story as well. The Romeo and Juliet tragedy where the two sides couldn’t come together because of who they were.

Maybe that was why I was so daunted by Rand’s insistence that we were supposed to be together. My parents were married but were a horrible couple. Uncle Adam and the female shifter were supposed to get together because they were perfect but couldn’t.

It was lose/lose however I looked at it.

“Rand told you things have changed now, right?” Audrey asked, pushing her glasses up her nose. “I mean, if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t be mated and married to Boyd. Rob says Fate alone should dictate the rules of mating not the pack.”

I shook my head, my chest tightening. All this talk about the pack and mating made me anxious. They were all coming at me too fast. It was too much. I could still feel the echo of tragedy from Uncle Adam’s love story with a shifter. I didn’t want to write my own.

I’d only talked to Boyd Wolf on the phone when he’d offered to buy my property. He seemed nice. As for the other guys, including Becky’s mate, I knew nothing about them. Were they as possessive and crazy as Rand?

“Hey,” Audrey touched my arm. “I know how intense these guys are when their biology kicks in. Rand’s desperate to mark you as his and seal the deal, but you don’t have the same urge.”

“Mark me?” I leaned forward on my forearms. Had I heard her correctly?

Becky and Audrey glanced at each other. “You explain,” Becky said. “You’re the doctor.”

“Well, we don’t know the science of it, obviously,” Audrey replied. “But from what I can gather, when a male has found his true mate, his fangs coat with some kind of serum, and he has the urge to bite her to leave his scent in her skin.” She pulled aside her collar to show a pair of scars.

“Oh God,” I muttered. This was just getting weirder and weirder. Not only did Rand want to control everything from my house to where I slept to who talked to me when I was working, but he’d left out the insanity of his need to bite me. I didn’t even know if the guy loved me let alone if I wanted his scent in my skin. Sheesh. “No, thank you.”

“If he doesn’t mark his chosen mate, he’ll go m—” Audrey put her hand on Becky’s arm to stop her, mid-sentence.

“Go where?” I asked.

Someone waved me down, and I went to fill their drink order.

Audrey answered my question when I returned. “I’m sorry—you don’t need to know that. I can tell we’ve already overwhelmed you, and that’s the last thing we wanted to do,” Becky said.

The knot in my stomach grew tighter.

“I thought it was all nuts when it happened to me,” Audrey confessed. “Boyd was this big player on the rodeo circuit. Smooth talking, good looking. I’m pretty sure he had a different woman in every town. I wanted nothing to do with him.” She picked up a celery stick and dunked it in the blue cheese. “But he kept coming on stronger and stronger. And I felt like it must be some kind of joke. I mean, I was just the nerdy small town doctor. There was no way a guy like him was playing for keeps.”

Becky nodded the entire time at Audrey’s story. “But they do play for keeps,” she interjected. “A wolf never leaves his mate. Never loses the urge to protect her and provide for her. I found that a little daunting after a bad marriage… before Clint. Like if I jumped into another one—there’d be no getting out. Clint and I aren’t married, like humans. We’re mated, same as Audrey and Boyd. It sounds pretty darn scary, but there won’t be a reason to get out. These guys are totally dedicated to their mates.”

I loved the story they were selling me, but I just didn’t buy it. “How do you know, though? You’ve only been married—mated, what? A year or two? You’re both still in the honeymoon phase. And Rand’s not Clint or Boyd.”

Becky gave me a commiserating smile. “I’d say I know Rand better than Audrey does since he’s Clint’s brother. Those guys have a good family. Solid. Clint’s and Rand’s parents are fated mates. When you meet them, you’ll believe it,” Becky promised.

“This is too much pressure,” Audrey said, probably reading my doubtful expression again. “We definitely didn’t come to talk you into anything. Only to lend our support if you need it.”

“Thank you, I appreciate that.” I did. I liked both women, and I believed they meant well, I just didn’t trust this wolf biology thing. I wanted a real relationship based on shared experiences, love and respect. Not on the way I smelled.

“Just don’t push Rand away if it seems too good to be true. Let yourself have him and all that comes with being with a shifter, if you like it.” Becky winked.

I smiled reluctantly.

Yeah, I did like the good.

And she was right—it did seem too good to be true. How could it be this amazing and be real? Or lasting?

I was letting myself have it—some of it, anyway. I just didn’t want to trust that it could possibly be forever.

Not when it was something I didn’t even understand.

17

RAND

A few days after the pack meeting, I pulled up to Natalie’s following a day of installing a tile backsplash as the final touches of a shifter family’s kitchen remodel. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her sitting on the porch steps like she was waiting for me.

The sight made my heart gallup, but I forced myself to act casual.

But keeping things casual for a shifter who needed to mark his mate was like teetering on the edge of a cliff for hours upon hours.

Every day that went by without me marking Natalie was a new ordeal. I didn’t tell her this, obviously, or any of the shit with Nathan. Venting any of his issues, which solely revolved around her, was not going to help me with Red. Not one fucking bit.

But I made it through. It was damn hard to prove my love to someone when I was also supposed to be playing it cool and not putting any pressure on. That made no sense to me, but I wasn’t human. I had shifter parents as role models. I wanted a love like theirs, and while it was based on shifter traditions and customs, it was a relationship. A mating, which was pretty much a wolf marriage.

But my wolf couldn’t be denied. It was a part of me, and it had to be tamed and only Natalie could do that. I wasn’t about to go moon mad anytime soon, but it was getting harder and harder to not claim her. Even now, sitting here and staring at her, was I blowing it? Was I doing this human thing right?

Like—how many gifts were too many? How many orgasms? How many fix it jobs could I do at the house without her asking before I seemed presumptuous and intrusive? I had every intention of living here with her. Forever. But she lost her shit over me paying for a fucking fuse box. It was a fine fucking line I had to walk, and it nearly had me out of my mind.

“Hey, darlin’,” I called as I forced my steps to slow down on the way to her. Yeah, I was whipped.

She stood. She seemed to be wearing a bikini under her tank top and jean shorts, which made me fucking crazy to pull off her clothes and see her in it. And nothing else. “I was going to go down to the swimming hole to cool off, but I thought I’d wait for you. Wanna come?”

Fuck, Natalie and the swimming hole? I grinned. “Does a wolf need to run?”

Her gaze caught mine, curious. “Do you?”

I’d been trying not to mention my wolf. It was part of my playing it cool act. I leaned down, meaning to just give her a quick peck on the lips, but instead my forearm looped under her ass, and I hoisted her legs up around my waist, bringing her warm center against my middle, her breasts in my face. I nipped one of them through the shirt.

“When the moon is full,” I admitted. “And when I need to let off steam. It helps keep the wolf in balance. Otherwise, he starts running the show.” I winced, hoping this wasn’t too much again. Fuck, I second guessed every thing I said these days.

“You mean all this… this alpha-ness is you and not your wolf?”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Alpha-ness? Darlin’, Rob’s the alpha around here. I’ve got nothing on him.”

I carried her inside and set her on the kitchen counter.

“I want to see your wolf.”

I went still. “You do?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve seen it before. When the tractor tipped over. Then again that night at the swimming hole. Will you show me when we get up there again? This time, no running off.”

I drank in her warm gaze. “I thought maybe you weren’t so crazy about my wolf.”

She reached for me, cupping my face. “That’s not it at all. That’s what you thought?” She shook her head. “No, Rand. I love that you’re a wolf.”

“But…?”

“But, you admitted you’re all bossy and alpha. I know, not like Rob, but still, I know it’s because your wolf is pushing you. I don’t want to base a relationship on that biological urge. Especially when I don’t have the same one.”

I gripped her thighs. “You don’t…” I shook my head. Freaking out. After all these days… hell, all these nights we’ve spent together. I’ve shown her how I feel for her. In every action, every word. And she didn’t— “Fuck that. I know you feel something for me.”

She pulled my lips to hers. “I definitely feel something. I just… it’s too soon to call it love. And I want love. Not wolf lust.”

I dropped my head in the crook of her neck, stifling my roar of frustration. “I think we’re talking about the same thing. But I’m gonna give you time.”

I pulled my head back, so I could look her in the eye.

“So are you… going to show me your wolf?” Her voice held a teasing quality that went straight to my dick.

“I’ll tell you what. I’ll show you my wolf if you play your violin for me.” I knew her feelings about music had taken a nosedive in grad school. I could smell the pain of it on her when she spoke of it. I didn’t want to pick the scab, but if there was any way I could help her find her way back to her love of music, I’d bet she wouldn’t feel quite so lost in Cooper Valley.

Her eyes widened. “The violin? I thought you’d say you wanted me to ditch the bikini or something.”

“That too,” I replied, reaching down to shift my dick in my jeans.

“Why do you want me to play?” she demanded.

I shrugged. “I want to hear you. It’s a huge part of your life—or it was—and I haven’t heard a note since you were a kid. Please?”

Her expression softened almost to wonder. “You really want to hear?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not that good. I mean, I’m okay, but my professors—”

“I couldn’t give a shit about your professors. I’ll bet you’re incredible.” I stepped back and gave her room.

She blushed and hopped off the kitchen counter. “Okay, I guess. Right now?”

“Bring it to the swimming hole. We can pack a picnic. I’ll bet the sunset over that waterfall is magnificent.”

Her expression went soft again. She rose up on her tiptoes to brush a kiss on my lips. “Sounds good, cowboy. I’ll get a blanket and my fiddle. I’ll play and you can shift and howl right along with me.”

That idea made me laugh, and for the first time since I pulled up, content.

“You want to grab some food from the fridge?”

“On it.” I gave her ass a smack as she left the room and checked her refrigerator. I made us some sandwiches and washed a bunch of grapes. She had a few bottles of iced tea that I grabbed and packed it all in the lunch cooler I took from my truck.

“Last one there is a rotten egg!” Natalie yelled, racing out the back door ahead of me, her arms laden with the blanket, towels, and violin.

I laughed and locked her place up before I took off running after her, catching her easily and grabbing her around the waist. “As if you could outrun a wolf,” I said, spinning her around before I set her, laughing, back on the ground.

She shoved her red curls out of her face and smiled up at me. The sunlight hit her face, giving her skin a luminous glow. “There’s probably nothing I can do better than you, is there?”

“A million things,” I said. “Starting with that.” I lifted my chin toward the violin. “Let me carry this.” I took the blanket, towels, and instrument case from her arms.

“Now you’re carrying everything,” she protested.

“Yep. And that’s the way I like it, darlin’.” I tossed her a wink, and she shook her head, but she was smiling.

She jogged ahead in her flip flops looking like a summer dream with her flaming red hair glowing bronze in the sunlight.

It didn’t take long to get to the swimming hole since it was on her property. I spread out the blanket while Natalie stripped out of her clothes.

“What I want to know,” I drawled as I strolled over to her, “is if you knew you were coming here with me—why you bothered with this bikini?” I tugged the string on the bow in back, and it sprang free, sending the bikini top flapping. I did the same to the bow at her nape, and the little scraps of navy blue fabric dropped to the ground.

She grinned. “I wore it in case you didn’t show.”

“You didn’t wear one the last time you were up here. When do I ever not show?” I advanced on her like she was Little Red Riding Hood, and this big bad wolf was going to eat her for dinner. And I was. I snagged the tie at the side of her bikini bottoms.

“Never,” she breathed. “You always come. I’m trying to get used to it.”

“Get used to it.” I captured the last tie, and her bikini bottoms fell away, too.

Damn. She’d shaved or waxed her trim bare for me. “You do that for me, Red?” I asked, and she blushed, nodding. “It’s the prettiest sight I’ve ever seen.”

She turned and ran into the water, laughing and looking over her shoulder at me to chase her.

I growled and yanked off my clothes, splashing after her. For several delicious minutes my wolf reveled in being close to her, our naked bodies dancing together in the water. And then it became too much for me. Her soft, slick body, her laughter, her scent. I captured my mate and swam with her beneath the waterfall, to the ledge behind it. After lifting her to sit on the edge, I gripped her knees. “Open those thighs for me, darlin’. I need to get my mouth on you.”

“Rand,” she croaked, her head falling back in pleasure. I fucking loved when her voice sounded like that—like thick, sweet honey. I had to figure out how to light her up beyond the sex, but for now, this kept my wolf from going mad, and I loved the taste of her on my tongue.

I spread her nether lips with my thumbs and flicked over her clit. I swirled the tip of my tongue around her pleasure button in the way I was learning she liked.

“Rand.”

I worked a finger into her tight channel at the same time I affixed my lips over her clit and started sucking. This wasn’t meant to tease, to watch her writhe and be at my mercy. No, this was pure pleasure for my mate. If she came so easily for me, it only made my wolf happy to be able to satisfy so thoroughly.

“Rand!” She yanked at my wet hair.

“Come for me now, Red. Then I’ll give it to you good on the blanket when we get out.”

She came. My sweet female always came hard, every damn time I got my hands on her. It was the most satisfying part of my day to hear her breathy cries as she crested that peak.

When she finished, I carried her back to the center of the pool and floated her in my arms. This… perfection.

18

NATALIE

This was happiness.

I wasn’t sure I ever knew it before. Maybe as a child—the summers I’d spent here with Uncle Adam and learning to play the fiddle. But not like this. Not this warmth swirling in my chest. The sense that all was right in the world.

I blinked slowly in the last rays of evening light as Rand swirled my body around on the surface of the water and realized…

This was love.

I loved Rand.

Right? Well, I wasn’t sure. Love was abstract and undefined. But this happiness—it was new and foreign and wonderful. He made me happy. Made me feel… special. Whole. I craved to be with him, missed him when we were apart. I thought about him. Ached for him—and not just my pussy.

I nuzzled against his neck, savoring the moment, the feel of his hands on my ass, the hard prod of his dick against my belly. What was I going to do? This wasn’t supposed to happen. No, he was a danger to my heart. How did he feel about me? I knew how his wolf felt, but what about Rand? Could I trust him with my heart? Could this be more than what my parents ever had? Could this be what Uncle Adam never was offered?

I had no idea, but there was no going back now. I just had to trust and hope he wouldn’t break my heart.

After a while, he carried me out of the pool and onto the blanket. His eyes glowed silver.

“Show me your wolf,” I whispered, the air drying the water from my skin.

In a blink—and with complete trust—he transformed, joints cracking and popping as he dropped to all fours beside me. He was huge, so much bigger up close than I’d realized. Much larger than an ordinary wolf. I wasn’t afraid, though. I knew him. I’d seen him before. I reached for him, burying my fingers in his fur, stroking his ears and face.

“Beautiful. You’re beautiful.”

He walked in a circle on the blanket, the way a dog might before it would lie down, but he stopped by my violin case and gave it a shove in my direction with his nose.

I laughed. “You want me to play?”

He dropped to his belly and lay his giant head on his paws.

“All right, I’ll play.”

Somehow, playing for a wolf was far less intimidating than playing for my peers or professors. Especially when that wolf was Rand. Especially sitting naked at a secret pool on my land. We were alone, the entire world forgotten except for right here, right now.

I opened the case. The smell of resin brought back a flood of bad memories—the constant judgment and critiques, the competition.

But Rand wanted to hear it, so I tightened the bow and rubbed resin over the horsehair. I gave the violin a quick tune and tucked it under my chin.

That spot in the middle of my back twanged—the protest pain I’d had for the last year and a half.

Rand watched me with his wolf eyes.

“What do you want to hear?” It felt ridiculous to play the violin naked, to ask a wolf what to play, but it also helped me let go of the seriousness with which I always approached the violin.

Rand crept forward on his belly with a soft whine. I reached out and stroked the thick, gray fur.

“You don’t care?”

His tail waved.

“Fine.” I started playing a Sonata in C that had been part of my master’s concert, but the bad memories made me abandon it a few notes through. Instead, I started muddling through a string version of Coldplay’s Yellow.

Rand’s tail waved faster. His ears stood up. Those intense silver-blue eyes never left my face.

I played the whole song through, restarting every time I messed up and finding it didn’t matter if I did. Rand wasn’t judging. There was no one out here to mind if I forgot the next note.

When I finished, I struck up one of the first songs Uncle Adam had taught me—”Camptown Races.” I picked up speed playing it, a smile tugging my lips, remembering how comical Uncle Adam would get playing his fiddle as fast as his fingers could fly.

How could I have forgotten how much fun it was to fiddle? I tried another old folk song and then another. When I laid the violin back in its case, I was smiling, happier, even than I’d been after the orgasm Rand gave me. Maybe, and I wouldn’t say that to Rand.

The pain between my shoulder blades had disappeared—which seemed nothing short of a miracle.

I turned back to Rand and found he’d shifted back—and he was all man lying on his side on the blanket—his giant erection bobbing in my direction.

“Red, that was incredible,” he said, leaning up on one elbow.

The one compliment filled a well I’d thought had been dry. His simple words made me feel good, validated my playing, all the time I’d worked. The struggle. With him just watching me, I’d been able to find the happiness in my violin again.

“So were you.” I straddled him and reached off the blanket for his jeans where he kept a seemingly endless supply of condoms for us.

With a growl, he took charge in the way I loved, reversing our positions in a smooth roll and taking the foil packet from my fingers. “Get ready to lose your mind, Red,” he warned.

“Show me what you’ve got, wolf,” I dared.

19

RAND

It seemed almost domestic, finishing my day and driving to the Sheffield ranch. I could see the old house, and I put the blinker on to turn down the driveway. I wanted a cold beer and my mate tucked beside me on the back porch swing. While my grandparents had left the cabin to me and I’d fixed it up to make it mine, it didn’t feel like home. Not like Natalie’s place.

I knew it had all to do with the woman herself and not the property. I drove by it every day and hadn’t once considered it my Home Sweet Home until I’d found my mate. Natalie Sheffield was my home.

My wolf practically howled at the sight of our mate at the mailbox. I couldn’t miss her long legs in those cutoff jean shorts or the way her small breasts were outlined in the snug t-shirt. She wasn’t high maintenance, and I liked that. She was natural. True to herself and fucking perfect.

I turned my truck onto the driveway but put it in park beside the mailbox. Natalie flipped the little door closed and strolled over, a few envelopes in her hand. She squinted against the bright sun. “Hey handsome, you lost?”

My wolf wasn’t going to let me keep my ass in the truck, so I climbed out, approached her. She stepped back, and I pivoted, so she was pressed into the side of my truck. I liked her there, but with her facing this way, the sun wasn’t in her eyes. Mine were shielded by my Stetson. “I’m right where I want to be.”

Her pupils dilated, and she swallowed. “I was going to go through Uncle Adam’s things, donate some clothes. There’s stuff in the basement that could be cleared out. But the idea of spiders had me procrastinate, and I got the mail instead.”

“I’ll move whatever you need out of the basement,” I told her. Her fear of spiders was extremely irrational, but I was smart enough not to tell her that. I also thought it cute, that I could be her white knight when it came to anything in her basement.

“Thanks. It’ll still take time to go through even if it’s all piled in the living room. I can do it this weekend.”

“Did you get a call from Willow? I gave her your number. She wanted to invite you personally to a barbecue at the big house. More procrastination for you.”

She nodded, her curls bobbing, then catching on the breeze. I couldn’t resist reaching up and tucking it behind her ear. “She did.”

“I think she feels bad that she hasn’t stopped by. I know you saw Audrey and Becky at Cody’s, but no one’s come over to make you welcome.”

“You’ve made me very welcome,” she replied with a sly grin.

Just like that, I was hard.

“You haven’t met anyone else in the pack besides Nash. I want you to meet the whole gang.”

“I did meet one other pack member. At least, I assume he’s a member based on where he said he lived. An older man came by to introduce himself and offer to buy the place.”

I stilled, set my hands on the top edge of the truck bed. What the fuck? “What do you mean?”

“A guy from the pack came over. The day you and Nash first came over. Said he’d give me a fair price if I wanted to sell.”

I had a guess who it was, but I had to be sure.

“How do you know he was from the pack?”

She rolled her eyes but thankfully wasn’t picking up on my change in mood. “He said he lived above Wolf Ranch. So I figured he must be. I know it hasn’t been long since you found out that I know about shifters, but I’ve known for most of my life. It’s pretty obvious now to me.”

I wanted to ask her how it was obvious because if it was clear to her, I wondered if it was to anyone else. But that wasn’t what I wanted to deal with now.

“Did he introduce himself?”

“Yeah, Nathan Brown. Older guy. Big gut.”

I nodded stiffly. “I know him.”

She studied me. “You don’t seem happy.”

Shit, I couldn’t hide my feelings from her. It would be impossible. Nathan Brown had shown up at my mate’s home. “I don’t like him coming by here. He’s not dangerous, but he’s kind of a dick.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” I rubbed my face. “I don’t like that he was making a grab for this place. It feels like he was trying to move in on Rob Wolf’s territory, you know? And—” I stopped myself. I didn’t want to infect Natalie with pack relation toxicity.

“And what?”

“Nah, nevermind. It’s probably not that big a deal.”

To me, it felt like a threat. Not outright but in a shifter way. Showing up and asking to buy the place. That was before he even knew she planned to turn it into a bed and breakfast. So he’d been interested in this property all along. His beef wasn’t about Natalie. It wasn’t even about me. It was about Rob, as alpha.

Natalie peered at me, brows lowered.

I sighed. “It’s complicated. He’s an old timer, and I don’t mean in age. He’s set in his ways, in the old ways of the pack. He probably doesn’t like that a human owns property that adjoins our hunting grounds. I know he doesn’t stand for stuff Rob’s doing as alpha.”

She frowned. “Like what?”

“Like mixing with humans.”

She stared at me, then ducked under my arm and walked back to the mailbox, then spun back around. “You mean mating humans.” Her face was flushed. Shit. I should not have told her about the division in the pack. “I knew it.” She tossed up her hands, the mail in her hand forgotten. “I told you this!”

“Nathan Brown is an asshole who likes to stir up shit. This has nothing to do with you, of course. His interest here was in your property. But he’s the type who’s pissed that almost every shifter match in the past two years or so has all been to humans. Guys like Nathan say that mix-mating means a diluted pack.”

“You mean kids?”

“Yes. Audrey and Becky have both had pups.”

“Pups?”

I ignored her question and kept going. “I’d think Marina will have one sometime soon. Maybe even Charlie. It’s just a trend in a direction Nathan doesn’t want the pack to go.”

I didn’t mention the fact that he was anti-B&B. It didn’t matter. Natalie didn’t want to run one. I didn’t need to have ESP to know it wasn’t her personality. It was a way to make money, but she was smart and resourceful enough to find an alternative. One that made her eager to get up in the morning. That fulfilled her. It wasn’t waiting on tourists, that was for fucking sure. Just like it wasn’t slinging drinks at Cody’s.

Nathan’s problem with the B&B really was about Rob’s leadership, not even the actual bed and breakfast, if that ever happened. He was always looking for a way to challenge Rob on his decisions.

Still, Nathan had approached my mate. She wasn’t going to be a pawn in his pack issues. I didn’t like it. Not one fucking bit.

“Look, Nathan Brown is not the welcome committee I or the alpha wanted you to have. If he comes by here again, I want you to let me know, okay? I don’t like the idea of him stopping by here whenever the hell he feels like it.”

“Okay,” Natalie said.

“We’ll go to the barbecue, and you’ll see what everyone’s like. Everyone who is important.”

Natalie nodded. “All right.”

“Good girl. Hop in the truck. I’ll drive you back to the house where I want a beer and kisses from my woman.”

When she turned to go around to the passenger side, I gave her ass a little smack. She gasped and looked over her shoulder. She wasn’t pissed any longer but surprised. And turned on.

I grinned. “Actually, the beer can wait. I want my woman.”

20

NATALIE

A few days later, I was covered in plaster dust from helping Rand with the electrical. I had to wonder if the project was ever going to end, and I was definitely second guessing making any other upgrades to the house. I wasn’t a do-it-yourselfer, and I knew nothing about wiring a house other than the fact that when I turned something on, it had power.

But I felt bad that Rand was doing it all on his downtime, which wasn’t tons. He worked hard with Nash at their construction business. The last thing I’d want to do in my off hours was wire an old house, but he was determined to see the house safe. At least from a wiring standpoint. And spiders. He was relocating any he found.

“You are going to have to take my money one of these days.” I leaned against the wall. Rand had poked five holes along it, so he could pull the wire across the room from the switch to the plug.

He was squatting by the outlet and looked up at me. “You’re mine, Red. That means I support your needs.”

Despite the kindling warmth his words produced, I refused to allow it in. I pushed off, set my hands on my hips and glared down at him. “I can take care of my own needs, thank you,” I snapped. “And this house isn’t something you are required to take on. Splurge for a dinner and a movie. That’s what a date does, not rewire a woman’s entire house.”

He grinned and slowly stood then came over to me. “A date? I’m much more than that, darlin’.”

“Lover, then.”

He leaned down and tucked his nose into my neck. “That, definitely.”

I shivered at the way his warm breath fanned over my delicate skin.

“I’m your mate. I take care of you.”

I tilted my head to the side, not sure about giving him more room or leaning away. “Do you want to beat your chest while you say that too?”

He laughed and stood. “You’ve been in my bed every night for well over a week. I’ve told you what you are to me. What it means. I’ve even backed off and tried to be more… human and less wolf.”

I made a non-committal sound halfway between a snort and a grunt.

“I love this house. I’m gonna work on it, not only because it’s yours and you’re mine but because it deserves to be brought back to life. To shine. Your uncle would want that. Hell, I’d even think he wanted this. Us to work on it together.”

I stared at him, my mouth open, not sure how to respond. That actually kind of made sense. Had Uncle Adam known we’d get together like this? Had he given me this house to… to what?

Sound like an idiot?

I sighed. “How about this? Your time is your own, but I pay for supplies. All right?”

“You can pay me, too. I’ve got some ideas on how you can do that.”

I couldn’t help grin at his playfulness. “Oh? What are they?”

His cell rang, and he sighed, pulled it from his pocket with dusty fingers.

“Hey Marina. Yeah, she’s here with me.” He glanced at me. “Yeah, hang on.” He passed me the phone.

I looked to Rand confused. “Hello?”

“Natalie, hi, this is Marina. I’m Audrey’s sister and mated to Colton. I’m sorry we haven’t met yet.”

“That’s okay,” I replied.

“I need to get your number because it’s weird to have to track you down through Rand.” She took a deep breath. “Audrey told me you play the violin, and you met the Barn Cats the other night.”

“Yes.”

Rand leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. I guessed him to be as curious as I was as to why Marina had called.

“I’m calling because I’ve made a cake for a wedding that’s happening tonight. The Barn Cats are to play at the reception, but one of them, Tom, is sick and can’t come. A reception needs a band, and I wondered if you might be able to fill in.”

I tried to keep up with everything she said. “You want me to replace the Barn Cats?”

Rand rubbed a hand over the back of his neck and a smile spread across his face.

“No. I want you to fill in for Tom. Play with the Barn Cats.”

“Oh. Um…” I blinked at Rand. “She wants me to play with the Barn Cats,” I said to him.

“You said you fiddled with your uncle.”

“Yeah, but that was a long time ago,” I countered.

“What?” Marina asked.

“Sorry, hang on, okay?” I said to her then lowered my hand to my side with the phone.

“It would be easy for you, right? You’re better than all of them put together,” he said.

Was I? I still felt like the worst player in the world based on my professor’s constant critiques. But maybe he was right. This was a small town bluegrass band. “I could play with them, yes.” I doubted I was better though.

He stroked a knuckle down my cheek. “Do it for fun. Do it for the Barn Cats. You’d be doing them a favor. And the bride and groom.”

I nodded then put the cell to my ear. “Okay, Marina.”

“Oh, that’s great. Can you be at the Greystoke Lodge at six?”

“I’m sure Rand knows where it is.”

Marina agreed and hung up.

I touched my hair. “I need a shower and a navigator. I have no idea where I’m going.”

“You playing the fiddle with the Barn Cats? Red, I wouldn’t miss this fun for anything.”

Three hours later, we pulled up to a small hotel set beside a pretty curve in the river. It was two stories and sprawling, with a porch and black shutters. Window baskets of red flowers lined the first floor windows. White ribbons circled trees and linked them to form a path toward a patio with about thirty or forty guests. A bar was set up by the hotel’s side entrance, and wait staff were carrying around trays of appetizers. Marina’s pretty wedding cake was on a table by itself in the shade. I couldn’t miss the bride in her pretty dress and cowgirl boots and the groom in his western duds at her side. A wooden archway was covered in white roses, and I had to guess that had been the pretty altar.

We climbed out, and a woman came our way. She had sleek dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and wore jeans and a black t-shirt that had a drawing of a cake in gold on the front.

“Hey Rand!” She called but kept her eyes on me. “The real Natalie Sheffield. Love your dress.”

I was used to wearing black pants or skirt and a white shirt for concerts, but this was Montana, and if the Barn Cats were playing, the wedding wasn’t formal. I’d chosen a long, flowy dress in dark green. Simple but a little bit dressy. I put my hair up, so it didn’t get in my way.

“So glad to finally meet you. I’m Marina.”

I nodded at her as I was hugging my violin case. “You, too.”

“Thanks so much for coming. I’ll introduce you to—” At the sound of men’s voices, she spun about. “Oh, well, nevermind. The guys can introduce themselves.”

Three men, all of whom I recognized from Cody’s, came my way. “You look like your uncle,” one of them said, a smile on his face. He was big, like a bear with gray hair. “I’m Kurt. This is Sam and Joe.”

“Hi,” I said. “I think I remember seeing you guys play once when I was little. And the other night, too, at Cody’s.”

“That right? Well, your uncle played with us until the arthritis in his hands forced him to stop.”

My eyes widened. “Really?” I had no idea Uncle Adam played in a band. I looked to Rand, who shrugged.

“Heard you’ve got some skills,” Joe said. He had a mop of white hair that stuck up in a way that reminded me of Doc from Back To The Future.

Marina had said Audrey had told her that I played. She had no idea if I was good or not. That meant—I looked again at Rand. “You told them about me?”

He set a hand on my back, gently stroked up and down my spine then winked. “Told them you’re a natural fiddler.”

“I haven’t done it all that much, but I’ll try my best,” I shared. I’d never fiddled for an audience before and definitely not in a band.

Kurt patted me on the arm. “You’re going to be great. I know it.”

How, I had no idea.

“Since you heard us the other night, you know how we roll. It’s time to set up and get started,” he added, and everyone went down the path to the reception.

I leaned up and kissed Rand. “Thank you,” I said.

He smiled. “Darlin’, I won’t ever turn down one of your kisses, but what was the thank you for?”

“For believing in me.”

His eyes went all soft. “Always. Now get up there and show everyone how amazing my woman is.”

I stuck my case under my arm, so I could hold his hand. As we went to join the others, I realized he hadn’t said my mate. No, he’d said my woman. He was trying to do human stuff, to not let his wolf out so much.

I loved him. I did. And this just proved it.

Ten minutes later, the Barn Cats started their first song. I had my violin up under my chin and listened for a few seconds, then tapped my toe to the beat. Kurt looked to me, and I started in, adding a layer to the melody. I played simply and in the background for another minute. Then Joe gave me a grin, and I picked it up, getting into the song. Letting it all out. I got into the groove, let the music flow over me. I watched each of the guys, and we found our rhythm. The bride and groom began to dance, others soon joined. Rand pulled Marina—who must’ve been invited to stay since she made the cake—into his arms and did a few expert spins and turns.

Everyone was clapping and stomping, having a great time. I was having a great time, too. Kurt signaled the song to end. A round of applause kicked up. “Having fun?” Kurt asked me.

I couldn’t help but grin. “So much fun.”

“You got a way with that thing,” Joe said. “Might have to make a spot for you in the band.”

I shook my head. “I’m sure Tom will be feeling better soon.”

“He will, but you’re joining us. Welcome to the band.”

It felt good to be wanted like this. No resume. No interview. Nothing fancy. Just acceptance. Kind of like Rand. He’d just known. So had these guys.

“I’m not sure—”

“Time to get back to it,” Kurt said, cutting me off. I looked out at the guests who were eager for more.

I looked to Rand, whose gaze was on me. Only me. He winked as the guys started a new tune.

This. This right here. I added my violin to the music and let everything go. Didn’t worry about a thing but having fun.

21

RAND

Natalie carried out a plate of brownies when I stopped by her place to bring her to the barbeque at Rob’s. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a thick bun, and it nearly made me carry her inside to ravish her before we left. Not that I would’ve said buns did anything for me in the past, but anything Natalie wore or did seemed to turn me on, and every change in her dress or appearance just further enthralled me. And the long slope of her neck made my dick get hard and my mouth water with the urge to mark her.

My wolf was antsy about bringing her around other wolves when she hadn’t been claimed—even though nearly every wolf who’d be there was mated. And it wasn’t like Nash or Johnny were going to move in on my territory. Nash knew the score, and Johnny was too fucking young.

Still, logic had nothing to do with the crazy possessive thing I had going at all times for my mate.

My mate who hadn’t yet accepted she was mine.

We were getting closer, though, or at least it felt like it. I didn’t know how long it would take her to decide, but I could tell she had feelings for me. She wasn’t snapping at me any longer. She wasn’t eyeing me with doubt. I was learning what made her eyes shine or her expression go soft. She liked that I noticed things about her, when I paid attention. She liked when I was supportive. She liked my help around the house although too much of it made her uncomfortable. She was starting to enjoy my constant presence at closing time at Cody’s. I could see her face light up when I came in, and there was a lightness about her as she flitted behind the bar, stopping often to talk to me or just share a smile.

It seemed she didn’t like feeling out of balance with me, if I had to guess. She wanted consistency from me. Consistency of putting her first, which wasn’t a hardship and what I’d been doing from the very start. This was a fucking kicker because I was the one out of balance with her, and she had no idea.

She literally had me by the balls.

“How many people did you say were going to be there?” she asked, glancing down at the brownies as if there wasn’t enough.

“Give me a kiss, darlin’,” I said. Part of the consistency was to kiss or touch her all the chances I could get, to know I’d always crave her. It wasn’t a hardship. Fuck, no. I wanted it, too. Wanted her lips, her entire body, all the fucking time.

She cupped my jaw and gave me that fucking kiss.

“Not too many, pretty much the Wolf guys and their mates. Clint and Becky. Nash. Oh, Charlie and Levi, too. Don’t be nervous, Red. They already love you,” I assured her.

She rolled her eyes. “What? They have a nifty reaction to my smell, too?”

I chuckled. “No, but they know you’re my mate. That means you’re going to be one of us now. As soon as you decide you’re ready.”

“Ready to let you mark me,” she clarified. Becky and Audrey had shared the marking process with her, and she’d had a lot of questions for me afterward.

I nodded, watching her face intently for any sign that she was ready.

She kept a good poker face. I had to will my wolf and my dick back. Again.

“Anyway, everyone will love you because I do and also because they know I would literally kick their asses if they weren’t on their very best behavior.”

Natalie smiled. “You’re ridiculous,” she said in that warm way that made me feel as tall as a mountain.

“Come on.” I held out my hand and took the brownies from her, stealing another kiss before I walked her to my truck. “I can’t wait to show you off.”

She rolled her eyes again, but the sweetest smile stretched her lips. I opened the truck door for her and helped her in before I walked around to my side. Rob’s house was close enough to walk, but Natalie had her flip flops on that matched a pair of turquoise short shorts. Besides, we were already running late.

“My parents are going to be there,” I admitted when I climbed in, setting the brownies down on the console between us. I didn’t want to stress her out, but not telling her didn’t seem right either.

Her hand went to her hair then tugged down the visor to look at herself in the mirror. “What? Eek! I’m not ready for that!”

I pushed the visor back up. “You look beautiful. They’re really nice and will love you just the way you are.” Like I do. I started the truck and offered her an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry about it. You’re going to have a great time.”

I was fairly confident that was true, but if truth be told, I was as nervous as she was. What if she didn’t like the pack? My family? My friends? My mom was impossible not to like, but from what Natalie had told me of her parents, I wasn’t sure if she was going to be receptive to a healthy dose of mothering. They were my whole life. Always had been.

I drove up the road to Rob’s and parked in the front circle with the other trucks. Levi, a long time ranch hand and now Cooper Valley’s new sheriff, and his mate, Charlie, stood out front with Clint and Becky, ogling Lily.

I parked, went around and opened the door for Natalie. She held the brownies in a tight grip as if it was some kind of shield.

“Hey guys.” I plucked Lily out of Becky’s arms and tossed my little niece into the air. The baby laughed and shrieked at me, her cherubic face the kind that could melt the wickedest heart. “This is Natalie Sheffield—the real Natalie,” I said with a smile.

Natalie stuck out her hand and shook Clint’s. I blew a raspberry in Lily’s neck before handing her back to her mother.

“This is my brother, Clint,” I said, pointing his way. “You’ve already met his mate, Becky.”

“Hi, again,” Natalie said.

“And the sheriff here is Levi. His mate, Charlie, is our local veterinarian.”

They shook hands and shared greetings.

“Her grandfather is probably wandering around here, somewhere, you’ll meet him, too.”

“If you see a dog, he’ll be with my grandpa,” Charlie said.

“So great to meet you,” Clint said. “We’re glad you showed up in Cooper Valley. Didn’t like your place sitting empty every day driving by.”

“Well, thank you for looking in on it,” Natalie said.

Clint tipped his hat. “Least we could do. Old Man Sheffield was a good neighbor to us.”

“Come on, let’s get you a beer.” I steered Natalie into the giant ranch house, down the hall and into the kitchen, where she set the brownies on the long wooden farm table that was already covered with dozens of dishes. No one ever went hungry at a Wolf barbecue.

Marina was pulling a pan of what smelled like cheesy-biscuits from the oven. “Hi, Natalie! Great to see you again,” she chirped, her face flushed from the heat of the oven. Colton leaned against a wall nearby, arms folded across his chest like he was her personal bodyguard. “This is Colton, and I was telling him just how awesome you were the other night.”

Natalie shook hands with Colton.

“Welcome, Natalie. Glad you made it. Based on what Marina said, you need to play for all of us.”

“Oh, I… uh, didn’t bring my violin.”

Colton grinned then flicked a glance at me. “Don’t worry. You’ll be around for lots of get togethers. The drinks are in a cooler out back. Help yourself.”

Natalie offered a relieved smile. “Thanks.”

My parents walked into the kitchen at that moment and froze. Stared then smiled. Not smiled—but beamed. My mom opened her arms wide. “There she is—”

I shook my head quickly, trying to signal to her to tone it down.

“Oops. Too much?” My mom clapped a hand over her mouth and dropped her other arm.

Natalie laughed and hugged her. “Hi. Nice to meet you. And not too much. I’m not used to so many people wanting to meet me.”

Although I knew her words were the truth, I couldn’t miss the awkwardness between them.

“As you probably can guess, this is my mom, Janet, and my dad, Tom.” I went to my mom, kissed her cheek.

“I’ll take a hug, too,” my dad said, engulfing Natalie in a bear hug. “Any woman who puts up with Rand and his wolf needs a hug.”

That broke the ice because Natalie actually giggled. If it was at my expense, I didn’t fucking care.

“Sorry,” I said, tugging her hand to steal her away. “My wolf and I want to show her off.”

They shooed us out the back door.

“They’re just excited,” I murmured once outside.

“For us,” Natalie echoed like she was a little bit in shock.

“Sorry, darlin’.”

She squeezed my hand. “No, no. Don’t apologize. They’re sweet. I’m just not used to sweet. My parents are miserable human beings.”

Yeah, just as I’d thought.

Willow and Rob were setting up folding chairs around a couple long tables.

“Natalie!” Willow cried with a wave.

I leaned in and whispered her name. Natalie smiled and walked over to her. “So great to meet you in person.”

“That’s right, you two talked before Willow came here pretending to be you, right?”

“Yes, we spoke a few times on the phone setting it up. I guess we do look alike.” Natalie eyed Willow.

“Well, close enough considering no one around here had seen you since you were ten,” Willow said. “Although my undoing was the violin. That’s how I got made. The Barn Cats were playing here, and they wanted me to get up and play with them.”

“Oh no!” Natalie clapped a hand over her mouth.

“Natalie played with them the other night, so she made up for your… shortcomings.”

Willow rolled her eyes and smacked me on the arm.

Natalie tipped her face up to me. “Wait… did you meet Willow when she was undercover and think she was me? You’re the one who saw me when I was a kid.”

“Nope,” I swore. I could tell the idea bothered Natalie, the fact that I might have confused her with Rob’s mate. “I didn’t meet her until it all came out that she wasn’t you. If I had, she definitely wouldn’t have fooled me.” I tapped her on the nose. “You are unforgettable, Red.”

I winked, and she rolled her eyes and hip checked me.

Rob came over and looped his arm around Willow’s waist. “Natalie. It’s nice to meet you. The real you—not that it wasn’t even nicer meeting the fake you.” He pulled his mate in tight against his body and breathed in her scent like it was keeping him alive.

In a way, it was. Unmated alpha wolves ran the danger of moon madness, and word was that Rob had been perilously close to it when Willow showed up. So she literally may have saved his life.

Natalie laughed and extended her hand. “I’m going to just introduce myself as the real Natalie around here.”

“Rob Wolf, your neighbor,” Rob said, grasping it.

“And our alpha,” I filled in even though she already knew that.

“I understand from Rand you and your uncle have protected our secret for years,” Rob said. “We’re indebted to you.”

Natalie blushed. “I wasn’t even sure if the story was real to be honest. A ten year old has a powerful imagination. But it’s a secret I’m honored to know.”

Rob glanced at me before redirecting his attention back to Natalie. “So, what are you thinking about doing with the property?”

I stiffened at his bold question. The guys sure as fuck didn’t know how to small talk.

The truth was, I hadn’t had any serious discussion with Natalie at all about her bed and breakfast idea. I knew I was supposed to redirect her for the sake of the pack, and I was fairly certain I could do that if it was something she really wanted to do, but like claiming her, it wasn’t something I could rush. Telling Natalie she couldn’t do something was the surefire way of getting her to do it.

Both Rob and Natalie seemed to notice my reaction because they shot curious glances my way.

“Well, I’m considering opening a bed and breakfast,” she replied. “It’s a huge house and property, and I don’t know the first thing about ranching.”

Rob adjusted the hat on his head, shooting me another glance. “There might be other options. We could rent your land for grazing,” he threw out, like it was an idea he’d just thought of. It wasn’t a bad one, even if she chose not to do the B&B. She could start making some extra cash right now, and she didn’t have to sling drinks all night.

A tsking sound behind Rob made us all turn.

Fucking Nathan Brown stood there looking like the cat that just ate the canary. “This is your definition of handling the girl?” he sneered.

Natalie shot me an alarmed look. “Excuse me?” she demanded.

My fingers bunched into tight fists at my side. I hadn’t gone to have a little chat with him for showing up at my mate’s house. Now I wish I had.

Rob’s upper lip curled. “Nathan. I don’t recall inviting you to this barbecue.”

“Didn’t know I needed an invitation to stop by. I saw the cars and thought I’d say hello.”

“Well, it’s a private gathering—to welcome our new neighbor,” Willow said, her voice cool. A few of the others came over. My parents stepped out of the kitchen.

“Yes, the new neighbor. The one I just heard is still planning on opening a bed and breakfast next to pack land.” Nathan turned his gaze on Natalie, and I growled. He was twisting her words around.

Rob’s hand shot out to block me from stepping forward.

“Wait—what is going on here?” Natalie demanded.

Nathan turned his righteous gaze onto Natalie. “Hasn’t your mate straightened you out yet?” He sniffed in Natalie’s direction a few times. “Oh—I stand corrected. Not mated yet.” His gloating smile crooked in my direction. “You haven’t even sealed that deal yet, Rand?”

My snarl came straight from my wolf.

“Stay back,” Rob barked with alpha command, making my limbs fall slack with the impact.

But fucking Nathan wasn’t done. To Rob, he said, “I don’t think your boys are capable of any of the tasks you put them to.”

Now Rob snarled, but Willow jumped between them, putting her hand on Nathan’s chest and walking him swiftly backward, toward the driveway. Smart woman. Nathan wouldn’t fight a female, and Willow was shifter-strong and trained in combat. “The alpha has it handled, but your supreme lack of diplomacy may have just fucked things up. Now I suggest you get in your truck and drive away before you get put in your place in front of every pack member here. Move.” She gave him a shove when she got to the circle drive.

She didn’t need the back up, but Levi, Colton and Clint all found their way behind her.

I was so focused on not killing Nathan, it was only then I realized my bigger problem. What a huge, colossal mistake I’d made.

Natalie hand her hands on her hips, staring up at me with angry tears swimming in her eyes. “What is this, Rand? I’m being handled?”

“Now hang on, Red—”

I reached for her, but she gave me a shove. It didn’t move me physically, but I felt it to the very depths of my soul. My wolf howled. Everyone at the barbecue was looking our way now, but my vision had tunneled to Natalie’s pained eyes.

“You were what? Sent by Rob to make sure I didn’t open a bed and breakfast? Is that it? That’s why you were so curious that first day? And every day since?”

I put my hands up to stop her. She was taking this all wrong. “Just hang on. It’s not like that.”

“It’s not?” She whirled on Rob, who still stood there, looking uncomfortable. “What was Rand supposed to do with me? What task did you give him?” she demanded.

Rob rubbed his face, still splitting his gaze on Willow where she stood supervising Nathan’s departure. Clint and Levi flanked her. “Rand’s right, it wasn’t like that.”

A tear streaked down Natalie’s face because she was filling in all the blanks herself. I nearly died knowing this was turning into a huge clusterfuck, and it was hurting her. “What has it all been, Rand? Were you supposed to mate me, so the pack can have the property?” The hurt in her voice gutted me.

My eyes widened at where she was going? “What? No, no, no.” I waved my palms at her, trying to step closer, but she just moved away.

“What then?”

“I just—” Panic made me choke. I couldn’t think of a single word to fix this. “I was going to talk to you. Change your mind about the B&B. That’s all.”

Natalie clutched her stomach like she felt sick. “God, I told you all along, that it was your wolf who was into me. Now I know why. You said your alpha was fine with mating a human but living next to one? Or having them in and out on your neighbor’s property? Yeah, you had me right from the start. I knew this wasn’t real.” Her face crumpled.

“It’s real!” I roared.

In my periphery, I saw some of the females coming closer—Marina and Becky and Audrey.

“You were sent by your pack. By your alpha.” She shook her head. “I was... a task.” Natalie stumbled away, and I lunged to follow.

“You were not a task!” I shouted. “You are my mate!”

“As far as I can tell, mating is like ownership. You call it claiming. You were supposed to claim me, so the pack could have ownership of my land.”

“That’s not true,” Rob interjected.

“It’s not,” I pleaded. “It’s love, Natalie. I’d be begging to claim you if you lived in a gutter. I swear to fate.”

“It’s not love,” she said, shaking her head, tears streaking down her face. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s definitely something different. This can’t work, Rand.”

“Let’s talk this out,” I begged.

“You all have been talking with each other. You’ve got what you need from me all planned out. There’s nothing left to talk about.” She spun on her heel and walked off in the direction of her land.

I wanted to catch her up, to pull her back against me, to carry her off somewhere private, so I could figure out how to show her the truth, but I knew my touch wasn’t welcome. So I settled for following her retreat. “Natalie, it will work,” I called. “We’re not that different.”

“Don’t follow me,” she snapped as she glared at me over her shoulder, throwing a hand out. The scent of her tears drained me of all aggression.

“Natalie,” I choked. My wolf howled, frustrated and angry she couldn’t see reason.

“I can’t do this,” I heard her say more to herself than me, but my wolf hearing heard it loud and clear.

“Let her go.” Becky caught my arm. “She needs space right now.”

My wolf howled some more.

“Natalie,” I choked again, watching her retreating back. “Please stay.”

I heard her sob, and she broke into a run, following the horse trail that led to her place.

“Fuck,” I croaked, unable to do anything but let her go.

Someone laid a hand on my shoulder—Rob, maybe.

“Fuck,” I repeated and dropped to my knees.

My mate was gone.

I’d fucked the whole thing up.

22

NATALIE

I ran the entire way back to my place, my flip flops slapping the ground. After I climbed through the barbed wire fence onto my property, I stopped and threw up.

I couldn’t believe I had been a task to Rand.

The pack had sent him to befriend me. To mate me.

What the fuck? I’d known it wouldn’t work. That there was no way a shifter could love, not when he was controlled by his wolf.

And Rand had been using me! He’d chosen the pack first. I was just a pawn. Heck, if it hadn’t been me who’d inherited the land, the same issue would have existed. If that person had wanted to start a B&B, Rand would have been sent just the same.

I was interchangeable. I was just the human in the Sheffield house threatening the pack.

This just underlined the fact that Rand was an entirely different species. He wasn’t human. He hadn’t even been thinking with his dick when he’d wanted me in bed. No, he was a shifter, and he’d had the mating urge. Nothing more.

He was part of a pack. A pack that didn’t permit human matings until two years ago. A pack that apparently had a really big problem with me opening a B&B here.

I didn’t even know what was real.

I really didn’t. Why didn’t he just outright say they didn’t want that type of business next door? Out of everyone, I’d have understood. Hadn’t Uncle Adam and I both kept their secret all this time?

I pushed into the house and ran up to my bedroom, collapsing on the bed. When I’d moved here, I’d been used to being alone. I didn’t mind the idea of living out here by myself.

But now the idea suddenly terrified me. With the windows open, I could hear the crickets, nothing more. Loneliness blew through the house like a tidal wave, drowning me. All my time here had been filled with Rand. Rand’s smile, his wink. His clever tongue between my legs. His ever present concern for me and the property.

Ugh—the property!

Was he really just after my house?

No. No, I couldn’t believe that. I hadn’t felt that. I didn’t have much faith in people, including my own parents, but I thought I would’ve known if he’d been playing me the whole time. He’d spent hours poking holes all over the house to fix the wiring.

He’d looked devastated when I broke things off. He’d actually begged for me to stay. But was it him doing the begging or the need of his wolf?

I turned my face into the pillow, but the tears had dried up. Now I felt nothing but the heaviest weight on my chest. In my limbs.

I couldn’t even move. I had no idea what to even do. How to function.

Maybe if I closed my eyes, I’d fall asleep and could forget this day ever happened.

Except what would happen tomorrow? I couldn't bear the thought of restarting my life here without Rand. He’d already become such a huge part of it.

The only part that mattered.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out. There were texts coming in from Rand, but even the thought of reading them tore a crater in my heart. I turned my phone off and closed my eyes.

Tomorrow, I would figure out what to do.

Tomorrow, I would somehow go on.

23

RAND

“Get him in the truck.” I vaguely heard the bark of my alpha as the guys shoved me into the back of Clint’s pickup.

I didn’t know where they were taking me or what happened.

The moment Natalie left the barbecue, I’d gone catatonic. I’d fallen to my knees, and the howling of my wolf grew too loud to hear anything else.

Levi, Nash and Johnny climbed in the back of the truck with me, but they avoided eye contact, like my pain might be contagious.

Or maybe they were afraid I’d try to fight.

I didn’t feel like fighting, though. It was more like I was frozen. Unable to move or function. It must’ve been my body’s or brain’s survival strategy to cope with the pain of watching my mate walk away.

Forever.

This can’t work, Rand.

Oh, fuck! My mate felt betrayed by me! She thought Rob sent me to woo her for her land. As the truck started to climb the road to the mountain, I scrambled to pull out my phone, my brain finally kicking into gear.

With clumsy thumbs, I managed to text a message to Natalie.

Please believe me. You are my mate. I hit send.

Fuck. That wasn’t the right thing to say. No way should I remind her about my wolf. I tried again.

You are my soul. My love. My everything.

But those were just words. They meant nothing. What was really the issue? I rubbed my jaw. She thought my love wasn’t real because Rob had asked me to change her mind about the B&B.

Rob. The alpha. I wasn’t even there because of my wolf. That she’d understood, had accepted and let me back in. But not the entire fucking pack.

And then I knew. I had to be willing to turn my back on my pack if necessary. I had to choose my mate over the pack. That she was what mattered. That was the only way to prove myself. I could be a shifter with her, but she’d know it was my human who’d made the choice. That I wasn’t being driven by my wolf.

I typed, If you truly want a B&B, I will stand by your side all the way. The thought made me slightly nauseated, knowing the implication for the pack, but I didn’t care. Rob had dealt with Boyd mating Audrey when there hadn’t been any precedent. He’d flexed for that. Then came Colton and Marina. Same went for his other brother. And they’d mated females who hadn’t known about shifters. Natalie knew. She’d almost always known. And kept the secret. Respected the pack.

Losing Natalie wasn’t worth preserving pack privacy because Rob had always had it. He could just deal. And Nathan? That fucker better find a new pack because he wasn’t welcome here. But he was Rob’s problem.

All I cared about was Natalie.

Then I sent the words,

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

Until Nash grabbed the phone out of my hand.

And then I was ready to fight. I tackled him to the truck bed even as it bumped along down the dirt road.

“Hang on, chill the fuck out,” he sputtered, releasing my phone and showing his neck in surrender. “I just think maybe you should clear your head before you keep texting her. The females thought she needed space. They’re human. They can see what you can’t about Natalie right now. If any one of them was here, they’d toss your cell out the truck. Texting her every second isn’t giving her space.”

“He’s right,” Levi agreed. “Put the phone away until after you’ve had a run.”

I looked around, finally understanding where they were taking me. Up to the mountaintop to shift and run. I felt like I was coming out of my skin. Now I could really do that.

I released Nash and rolled off him. I would’ve said thanks, but I was still too fucking grumpy. Instead, I dropped to my back and crossed my arms over my eyes until the truck rolled to a stop in front of the pack lodge.

“Get him out,” I heard Rob command.

“I’m coming.” It felt like I was wading through mud just to move, but I climbed out of the truck. All on my own.

“Come on, let’s run it off,” Rob said, stripping off his own clothes. We didn’t need to open up the building. We’d leave our things by the truck. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and no one was going to come up here and steal our shit.

All the guys were there—Clint, Nash, Rob, Boyd, Colton, Levi, and Johnny. They all kicked off their boots and stripped. My pack brothers, here for me in my pain.

They understood.

I swallowed hard and took off my clothes, shifting and running. The group flanked me. It wasn’t a playful run, but it wasn’t aggressive, either. We just ran fast and hard all the way to the top of the mountain and around the back side. When we looped around to the Wolf Ranch side I skidded to a stop, the gravel sliding under my paws. I stared down at Natalie’s property.

The other wolves circled up around me, as if to keep me from going down there and doing something stupid.

I sat on my haunches, lifted my muzzle to the sky and howled.

The voices of my brothers answered me, filling the sky with the mournful sound of a wolf who’d lost his love.

24

NATALIE

I woke up hoping it would be tomorrow, but it wasn’t.

It was only eight, and the light was mostly faded in the sky. Night was falling fast. I’d slept three hours, that was all. My skin was covered in goosebumps, but I wasn’t sure why.

And then I heard it—a wolf’s howl.

Every hair on my arms stood up, and my face instantly felt tight and hot, tears burning in my eyes. Because I knew without a shadow of a doubt—that howl belonged to Rand.

His heart hurt as much as mine did.

Choking back a sob, I climbed out of the bed and threw back the curtain. The howl sounded far away, but I still found myself looking for him anyway.

Like he’d be here as he always promised he would.

But he wasn’t. And he wasn’t coming. I’d told him not to follow, and he’d honored my wishes.

I slipped my flip flops on and went down the stairs. I walked an aimless circle around the ground floor. Everything reminded me of Rand. The newly patched wall where he’d pulled fresh wiring through, the table where he’d sat eating a sandwich, the blanket from our time at the swimming hole that I’d left by the cellar door to put in the laundry.

I picked it up and carried it down the stairs. Rand had already repaired the broken stair and made sure all the rest of the boards were solid. I tossed the blanket in the washing machine and started it then looked around at the shelves of stuff Uncle Adam had stored down here.

What was even in these boxes? I pulled one down. Anything was better than thinking about Rand.

I pulled the lid off and stared down. Inside was an old black and white photo, curled at the edges. A high school prom picture.

I flipped it over to look at the back. Written in a female’s clean script were the words, “Adam and Maggie, Prom 1950” and a heart. My pulse picked up speed. I turned the photo back over and studied both their faces. The youthful exuberance there. Uncle Adam looked proud of the teen on his arm. Maggie was young and vibrant and looked bright and happy. She wore a strapless dress with a full skirt and had dark hair that fell in waves above her bare shoulders.

My heart squeezed painfully. They looked so content, but their love had been doomed. Was it a Sheffield thing? Were we meant to fail at love? Were me and Rand just as doomed?

I set the photo aside and looked back in the box. There were movie stubs. A man’s class ring on a chain. Letters. Should I read them?

On one hand, it felt like an invasion of privacy. Uncle Adam never stopped loving this woman, the story he’d shared as fresh in my mind as when he’d first told me. He’d saved this box of memories of her until the day he died. On the other hand, maybe my witnessing their love would be an honor to those memories?

Or maybe I just wanted to feel someone else’s pain instead of my own right now.

I examined an envelope addressed to Uncle Adam in the same loopy scrawl as was on the back of the photo. The sender was Maggie Landing, and she’d sent it from Broomfield, Colorado.

I inhaled sharply. So this was after their break up.

With trembling fingers I pulled out the letter and opened it.

Dear Adam,

To honor my mate, I won’t write again, and I must ask that you please not write me back. I wanted you to know, though, that you were right. Leaving with my mate—even though discovering him was sudden and unexpected and frightening—has been the happiest decision of my life.

I know I broke your heart, and for that I will forever be sorry. I will always treasure my memories of you, my best friend and my first sweetheart. But there’s no denying fate. Fate chose another male for me—I knew him the moment I caught his scent. He makes me unbelievably happy. My wolf is happy, I’m happy. Our love grows and blossoms more every day. I’m getting used to living with his pack, and I’m already pregnant with his pup. Forgive me if this news is painful to you—that was not my intent, I only write to reassure you that I’m content, and I hope you can be, too.

Thank you for supporting me always, even—especially—in letting me go to be with my fated mate.

I hope someday you’ll find your version of a fated mate. The love that only grows.

Best wishes,

Maggie

I sniffed, wiping my tears with the back of my hand. Poor Uncle Adam. He fell in love with the wrong girl.

But at least Maggie had found joy. It didn’t sound like some kind of pack-arranged marriage. It was the kind of attraction Rand described. What he claimed he had with me. One scent, and he’d known, just as Maggie had mentioned.

The love that only grows. Was that what we had?

Did Rand actually love me?

He’d said what he felt was just like love, but I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t a shifter, I didn’t feel it the same.

The lone wolf howl sounded again. I jumped to my feet. It had sounded closer this time.

Had he come for me?

Remembering how he’d gone to the swimming hole that night of the full moon, I started running up the stairs. Was he there, waiting for me?

It was probably irrational. Possibly stupid. But I felt like he might be there again. At my swimming hole. Where he’d shown me his wolf and gave me the gift of my violin back.

Now, he was giving me space but watching over me in wolf form.

He was letting me go but not leaving. He’d said he’d never leave. That was love. So was the way he winked at me. The way he showed up every day after work. How he’d fixed the broken step. Moved the spider from my bedroom and outside.

It was so clear now. So obvious. He might not have said the words, but he’d shown me. Maybe that was more important. Actions didn’t lie. My parents actions were obvious, filled with anger. Hate. They resented each other, and it showed. It was clear there was no love between them.

But Rand? Every single thing he’d done sprung from love. Maybe I’d been the one blinded by the wolf. So caught up in differences, limitations and the past that I’d lost sight of the rest of Rand. Of us.

I grabbed a sweater and dashed out onto my porch, stopping to listen to the night sounds. Hoping to hear the wolf-song. My wolf-song.

Somewhere nearby, I thought I heard a twig snap, and I startled, peering into the darkness.

“Rand?” I asked. My voice sounded froggy from crying.

A shiver of foreboding ran through me as I listened to the silence. I’d never been afraid at the house before, but I suddenly wished Rand was here.

Another howl pierced the air. Rand! I was right! It was closer than before—not up on the mountain.

I started running for the swimming hole, certain he’d be there.

The issue of Rob asking Rand to talk to me about the B&B suddenly seemed overblown. It had made me feel like an outsider and question Rand’s intentions, but I should have given him a chance to explain. I shouldn’t have pushed and resisted and feared his commitment to me. It was the only thing I knew to be true.

I stumbled over rocks as I ran through the darkness, wishing I’d brought a flashlight. But I couldn’t stop, couldn’t go back. A sense of urgency had come over me, and I couldn’t stop until I got to the swimming hole.

I was desperate to find my wolf. To see Rand, and figure out how to make things right.

25

RAND

I’d promised the guys I was fine, swore I was going back to my cabin, but as soon as I got there, I’d stripped all over again, shifted and ran for Natalie’s place.

Yes, I was violating pack law by being on human land, but this was Sheffield land. This was my mate’s land.

And I didn’t give a fuck.

I stopped on the ridge above the waterfall that cascaded into Natalie’s swimming hole and lifted my nose in the air. The sky was dark, darker than the last time I’d been here. I swore I could smell her, again, just like last time. My wolf hearing didn’t pick her up though. Natalie wasn’t here, and it was probably my mind conjuring her scent.

Wishing she’d appear.

I stilled. Sniffed. I also caught a scent I didn’t like. A scent of danger that had my fur standing up around my neck. Ruffled down my spine.

A scent of… was that… lighter fuel?

My head snapped up toward Natalie’s house and could see the orange clearly.

Flames!

No! Fuck, fuck, fuck. No!

I was running before the thought had formed, racing down the side of the ridge, taking the back way to Natalie’s house.

Her burning house.

Fates, that place was a tinder box to begin with! Sure, there were fucking smoke alarms, but it was going to catch, and there was nothing to stop it. The volunteer fire department this side of the mountain was tiny. There weren’t any fire hydrants out here. Only well water, and even if they had a filled tanker, would it be enough to put out a house of her size?

I didn’t give a shit about the house. I cared about Natalie. Was she inside? What if the smoke alarms didn’t work? What if the fire was too quick for her to get out? What if I couldn’t hear her over the alarms?

I was sprinting as hard as I could, my mind coming up with the worst.

The closer I got, the stronger the acrid smoke. Glass shattered as the fire sucked air in through the open windows. The downstairs was fully engulfed, the flames licking up the walls.

I skidded to a stop and shifted, then yelled for her.

“Natalie!”

I ran around the house, barefoot and naked, looking for her. Her truck was out front, which only made me panic more. She had nowhere to go but here, as I’d practically driven her back to this firetrap.

“Natalie!” I bellowed.

Fuck, I wished I had a cell to call the others, to get them here to help. But I thought I heard faint shouts from Wolf Ranch. They’d be here in minutes, too.

I stilled my heart. Listened. I couldn’t hear her over the raging fire. I had no idea it made so much noise, that it was so hot even thirty feet away. My mate was in that house. I had to save her. I couldn’t wait another second.

I had to save my mate or die trying because a life without her wasn’t worth living.

26

NATALIE

Rand wasn’t at the swimming hole. I stood there a moment listening, hoping to hear his howl again. I turned in a circle.

And then I saw it.

A red glow coming from the direction of my house.

What the fuck?

It took a moment for me to really believe what I was seeing. The house was on fire. My house was on fire!

I debated for a moment whether I should run to Wolf Ranch for help or go back to the house to see if I could get anything out before it came down, when I heard Rand yelling my name.

From the house.

Oh God.

Still out of breath from running here, I took off the way I’d come, racing back.

“Rand!” I yelled back. “I’m here.”

I could see the silhouettes of people running for the house. The flames were too bright to make out who they were, but I guessed they were all from Wolf Ranch. It was close enough for them to see the fire from the main house. God, with the way it was burning, the fire shooting from windows on both the first and second floors, it could probably be seen for miles.

“Natalie!” This time it was someone else calling my name.

“Rand!” I yelled although I was breathing so hard from running all the way back from the swimming hole. I looked for his head in the group but didn’t see him.

“Natalie!” Several heads turned as I ran up, and Nash dashed over to me. He was soot streaked and sweating. Everything smelled like a campfire, and the heat was impressive. His hands settled on my shoulders, and he looked at me with wide, wild eyes.

“God, are you all right?” he shouted over the hiss and crackle of the fire.

I nodded, licked my lips. “I’m fine. I was up at the swimming hole and saw it.”

“Rand! She’s here!” someone shouted.

“We thought you were in the house.” Frowning, he threw another wild glance over his shoulder. “He thought you were in there.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Rand? No! He can’t be inside?” I ran toward the house. “Rand!”

Rob and Willow headed me off, Nash right behind me.

“Tell Rand she’s here,” Nash shouted. I heard a different tone to his voice—fear.

Rob’s whistle pierced the night, making me jump. The others rushed over.

“Are you sure he’s in there?” I shouted, desperately clinging to any option other than the one I couldn’t accept. “It’s getting worse!”

Rand was in the middle of that fire. Looking for me.

“I heard him calling your name and saw him going in the kitchen door when we were running here,” Rob said, his voice grave.

No.

No!

I ran toward the house, but someone caught me around the middle, pulled me back and into him. My feet came off the ground, thrashing. “No. You can’t go in there.” Rob. His voice was deep. Commanding.

I didn’t give a shit.

“Rand’s in there! He’s my mate. We have to save him!”

“I’ll go in,” Nash yelled.

“You can’t,” Rob shouted. “There’s no way in, and it’s going to collapse soon.”

“No! Rand!” I screamed. “He’s mine. I love him, and I didn’t tell him. He needs to know!”

I started to sob in Rob’s arms as I watched my house burn. I couldn’t imagine Rand inside. Needing help. Unable to escape because of the smoke. Or already burned. Dead.

“I have to help him!”

“You have to stay here. Safe. That’s what Rand would want.”

“Save Rand! We have to save Rand!” I screamed, tears streaming down my cheeks. I fought to get free of Rob’s hold. “What am I going to do without him?” I sobbed.

Cars were pulling up in my drive, more people piling out all around us.

“It’s not over yet. He’s a shifter,” Rob said, still holding me back from surging in. “We’re hard to kill, and we heal spontaneously. But the same isn’t true for you. Do you understand? You can’t go in there.”

I looked closer and realized the other shifters were trying to get in. They’d circled the house and were yelling to Rand that I was out.

“Is he still alive?” I sobbed.

“I don’t know,” Rob said grimly. “He could survive, if he can find his way out.”

But that’s when the house groaned and collapsed, the upstairs over the kitchen first, then seconds later the other side of the house. Windows fell to the ground and shattered. Flames shot up into the sky now that there was nothing holding them back.

Shifters leaped out of the way and scrambled out from the outskirts where they’d been trying to get in. Rob dragged me backward.

I screamed and screamed, “Rand! No! Rand, please!” I doubled over, coughing and choking on the smoke and soot as I watched the two-story structure flatten.

He can’t die.

He can’t die.

I love him.

Oh God, I loved him so much. How could I have been so stupid, pushing him away at every turn? I’d been so afraid of getting hurt, I’d hurt us both. And now I’d never see him again.

But Rob said he could survive. He just needed to find his way out.

“Rand!” I shouted. “Rand. I’m out here! Rand!”

Sirens wailed, getting closer. The fire department would show up, but there would be nothing they could do.

“Rand!”

And then, suddenly—miraculously—a huge wolf’s head emerged from the side of the house, as if he magically came through the stone foundation. No, from the coal chute!

Fur gone in spots, skin black, the wolf scrambled out.

Boyd and Levi ran forward and yanked him free of the rubble.

Rob released me, and I ran to Rand. He bounded toward me, limping at first, but then bursting with energy, a joyful whine coming from his throat.

“Don’t shift,” Rob barked at Rand. “Fire department just arrived.”

“Rand,” I wept, dropping to my knees and sobbing. I stroked his fur, carefully. “Your fur. You’re burned everywhere.”

“He’ll be all right,” Boyd said, appearing beside us. “His wolf will heal him quickly. I promise.”

“He’s right,” Audrey said. “I’ll treat his wounds to satisfy myself, but it won’t be necessary. Their bodies have miraculous healing properties.”

Charlie appeared with a sheet from the clothesline and dropped it at his feet. “In case he does shift,” she said.

The firemen moved in, spraying down the flames although it was too little too late. No matter what they saved, it would have to be torn down.

Levi took charge communicating with them as sheriff, explaining that I was safe, and no one was in the house.

“Rand,” I croaked, my arms around the giant beast. He licked my face, tail wagging, still yipping and whining with joy. I laugh-cried. “I’m sorry, Rand. I’m so sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t have doubted you.” Somehow it was easier to bare my soul when he was in wolf form, just like it had been easier to play violin for him that way. I could drop my defenses and say everything I truly felt. And now, I wouldn’t let anything keep me from saying the words. He was alive, and he had to know.

“I got confused,” I confessed, tears streaming down my face. “I was stupid not to believe in your love. Or to think we were too different. I should have trusted fate.”

From one second to the next, Rand shifted. I gasped at how horrific he looked in his human form, his burns angry and raw. I yanked the sheet over him, but Rob turned around from where he appeared to be guarding us while still giving us privacy and snapped, “Shift.”

Rand instantly shifted back to his wolf.

“I don’t want to have to explain a burn victim who miraculously healed to these firemen,” he said. “I told you to stay shifted.”

Rand whined softly and laid his giant head in my lap.

“I don’t care about the bed and breakfast,” I told him. “If it’s an issue for the pack, I won’t do it.”

“We have a problem. I caught the scent of lighter fluid in the front,” Nash said to Rob. When we first got here. I just followed the scent, and there’s even a little in the driveway.”

“Lighter fluid?” Rob repeated.

Rand growled, low and menacing.

“Wait… it wasn’t the wiring?” I looked up at Nash.

“It was spilled on the front walk,” Nash explained. “If someone used it to set fire to the house, the scent would have burned off, but some dripped away from the house.”

“You couldn’t save it, huh?” a loud voice came from where the firemen were gathered.

“Nathan Brown,” Colton growled, stalking away in his direction. Levi was right on his heels.

Rand’s lips curled back from his gleaming fangs, and he snarled. My heart beat faster.

“I will fucking kill him if he’s responsible.” Rob’s hands clenched into fists at his sides.

They thought that guy had done this?

Boyd also stalked away, circling behind the group, toward the driveway.

A few minutes later Boyd joined Colton and Levi and the group of firefighters with the older shifter. Boyd was carrying several bottles of lighter fluid. “Found these in the back of his truck.”

From where I was crouched beside Rand, I couldn’t see too much. The only light was from the fire and everyone was in harsh shadows. There were angry shouts, and the group bunched up. When they parted again, the old shifter was face down on the ground, Levi putting a pair of handcuffs on him.

I couldn’t hear what had been said, but had he admitted it? Levi wouldn’t have restrained him otherwise. Right?

Oh God. This was bad. Had that guy been trying to kill me? I felt Rand’s muscles tense and I held him tight although he was much too strong for me to hold back if he really wanted to get up. He saw what I did, probably came to the same conclusions.

Rand was possessive and protective in normal times, but when his mate was intentionally put in danger?

Rob turned immediately, like he was afraid Rand would do something rash. “Let’s go. Back to my house where you can get cleaned up, and Audrey can look at your wounds.”

Rand’s fangs were still barred.

“Nathan Brown is being dealt with. Come on. Your mate needs to know you’re okay. Let’s get you cleaned up. Levi will take care of Nathan for now. I’m sorry, Natalie, but there’s nothing to be done for the house. The fire department will make sure it’s put out. There’s nothing for you to do here, and Rand needs to heal.”

There wasn’t anything to say because he was correct, about all of it.

“As for Nathan as a pack matter, I will deal with him and his shit once and for all tomorrow. Move.”

I doubted drill sergeants could do it any better. Rob had a way of issuing commands that made someone want to get up and move even before deciding to obey.

At least that was how it felt to me. I scrambled up from the ground, and so did Rand. Rob led us to the horse trail that went between our properties.

All the women—Willow, Marina, Audrey, and Charlie—came along. When we were far enough away, Rand shifted from his wolf and wrapped the sheet around his waist then picked me up in a honeymoon carry.

“What are you doing?” I yelped. I set my hands on his shoulders, but I was afraid to touch a burn. “You’re the one who’s hurt. I’m fine.”

His eyes met mine, and he wasn’t watching where he was going. Even so, he didn’t trip, didn’t falter at all. “I don’t fucking care. I thought you were in that house. I thought you were dead, Red, and it nearly killed me.”

Tears filled my eyes again. I leaned my forehead down against his. “Same,” I whispered. “How did you get out?”

“I was searching for you, and it was too hot. I couldn’t get out and found the stairwell to the basement, but knew it would all collapse on me. Then I remembered the coal chute from when I fixed the fuse box.”

What he’d gone through. God, it had been close. Too close. “I love you, Rand Tucker.”

I felt the rumble of a growl from his chest.

“I love you, Natalie Shefield. Now and forever. Human love. Wolf love. Every fucking kind of love there is, I’m in it with you. You’re mine, and nothing’s going to change that.”

I let out a happy sob. “No, nothing will change it for me, either. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure it out.”

“Darlin’, I know these ladies are going to want to do their doctor-veterinarian shit to me when we get back, but can we please just sneak away to my place and skip all that?”

I groaned with a smile. I wanted that so much, for us to be together. Alone. But… “No. You’ve got burns all over. I would really feel better if they looked at you.”

He grumbled. “I’m fine. But whatever you want, Red. You’re the boss of me.”

I cleared my throat. “Except when I’m not,” I murmured, remembering how much I liked when he took charge.

Rand stopped walking for a moment. “Aw, darlin’. Now is not the time for me to get a hard on for you. I’m wearing a fucking sheet around my waist.”

I giggled. He was all right. Injured, but he’d heal. “Right. Later.”

“Later, yes. Later I am going to boss the hell out of you, and you are going to scream my name until you’re hoarse.”

“I already did that tonight,” I reminded him, sobering.

His eager expression slipped. “Scream in the good way,” he amended. “Don’t think about that again tonight. We can’t. Nathan Brown is lucky he’s spending the night in a jail cell, or I would rip him to shreds.”

“I don’t want to think about it, either,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder.

The warmth in my chest, having his arms around me, savoring the words of love we finally shared… the sense of rightness that flowed through me was undeniable. How could I have ever doubted that what we had was real?

27

RAND

I let Audrey look me over, flushing out some of the worst burns with water, but there wasn’t more she could do. I was fucking lucky my lungs were clear, and my skin was healing quickly. It still hurt. Fuck, did it sting, but I knew it was temporary. But Natalie was with me.

She loved me.

She was mine.

That would last forever.

Even though Audrey was a doctor who treated humans, she agreed the best thing for me was to shift to my wolf and stay that way until the worst of the damage had been repaired.

“I agree with the doc. Based on the way those blisters are healing—” Rob said, leaning against the kitchen island. “—a few hours in wolf form, and they’ll be mostly gone.”

I didn’t want to wait a few hours to make Natalie mine, but I wasn’t going to be able to claim her like this. The burns were all over my body, and there was no way I could fuck her now. I wanted to focus on her. Her silky soft skin. Her cries of pleasure. I still hurt, and she’d worry.

That was not the way to claim a woman.

I looked to Natalie, who nodded.

“Fine, but I want to heal at home.”

No one argued, probably knowing that once I was better, nothing was going to keep me from my mate.

Rob nodded. “I’ll drive you to your cabin.” He said nothing more, just narrowed his eyes. Waited.

I met Red’s green gaze, leaned in and kissed her, then whispered in her ear. “I’ll heal in my bed, then I’m claiming you. Yes?”

She pulled back, studied my face. “Yes.”

My wolf soothed. I exhaled. Fuck, I did hurt. I nodded, then shifted back to my wolf. Let shifter biology work as Rob drove me and Natalie back to my cabin. I hopped onto the bed, circled, then settled, but didn’t close my eyes until she climbed beneath the covers. Her scent surrounded me, in a way healing me as much as time, and I slept.

I had no idea what time it was, but just after dawn. The sky was soft, the sun not having risen over the mountain. The air was cool coming through the open windows, the scent of smoke was redolent. I shifted back to human form and carefully sat up, not wanting to wake Natalie. She was asleep on her side, her hand tucked beneath her cheek.

Fuck, just seeing her here made me smile. I shrugged my shoulders, looked myself over. Besides being filthy, I was mostly healed. The minor burns were completely gone, no sign of them on my skin. The spots where there had been blisters had hints of pinkness, but I didn’t hurt anywhere.

I ran my hand over my head, felt a spot where my hair had singed. On my chest, there were some bare spots, but that would all grow back.

I crawled toward Natalie, loomed over her and nuzzled her neck. She stirred, a smile on her face. Her eyes popped open, and she sat up so abruptly, she almost popped me in the nose with her shoulder.

“Easy, Red.”

Her gaze roamed over me, eyes widening in obvious shock. “You’re healed.”

She reached out to touch me but pulled her fingers back. I grabbed her hand, set it on my chest.

“You’ve known about shifters but didn’t know how we heal?”

“No.” Her hand began to slide over my skin, gently. Almost reverently. “Well, no one told me specifically, but the tipped tractor. You… healed as I watched you run off in your wolf form.”

I closed my eyes to the feel of her fingers. Fuck, just that little brush of her skin on mine lit me up. My wolf practically rolled over and offered her his belly. “I remember that happening. Scared the shit out of myself because I was stuck, but I shifted and scrambled out. I had no idea you’d seen any of it.”

“Scared the shit out of me, too. Then surprised me. I mean, you turned into a wolf. It was a lot for a little girl.”

I slowly shook my head and opened my eyes. “No, Red. You were brave even then. Braver now.”

We looked at each other, just stared as her fingers traced over my torso. “Red,” I whispered. I was hard for her. My wolf was eager. Ready.

This was the moment. Our entire lives brought us here. Me working on the Sheffield land. Natalie being there with her uncle. The secret she’d carried. Her scent that made her mine. The fire.

Everything.

Fate had put us together, and it was time to make it official. Before, I’d wanted it so everyone else knew who she belonged to, that she was mine. Now, I didn’t give a shit what anyone else thought. I wanted to claim Natalie because she was mine.

No, I wanted to claim her because I was hers.

“Rand,” she whispered right back.

“If you’re better, then—”

“—then I want to be yours. Forever. Will you let me claim you because you’ve already claimed my heart. My soul. My wolf.”

Tears filled her eyes and slipped over. Her chin wobbled, and she threw her arms around me, kissed my face. “Yes. Yes!”

I climbed from the bed with her still wrapped around me, carried her to the bathroom and set her on the vanity. Going to the shower, I turned the water on to warm, then helped her from her clothes. I dropped the sooty items onto the floor, then picked her up once more and climbed beneath the hot spray.

“I’m not claiming you covered in dirt and soot.”

“We smell like the biggest campfire in the world.”

She wasn’t wrong.

I grabbed the bar of soap. “The only scent I want on you is mine.”

My attention was on cleaning her. I didn’t miss a spot, taking my time to lather and wash every inch of her. I paid special attention to her hair, washing it with my shampoo and rinsing it free of soap and fire.

When I was done, she took the soap from me and did the same. By the time she was done, I was sensitive from her touch, needy for more. My dick was so hard it ached. My balls were full, so full for her. To fill her, to make her mine in the most binding of ways. I wanted to see her pregnant with my pup, to know our love overflowed and made new life.

We hadn’t talked about that. I wasn’t ready for a child. Hell, I was too selfish to share Natalie with anyone else, even a baby. Soon though. When she was ready.

I took the soap from her, set it back on the shelf built into the tiled wall. Cupping her face, I kissed her. Finally. I didn’t linger but kissed down her neck, along her collarbone, over one breast to the other, before dropping to my knees. Her pussy was right there, bare and pink and when I took a deep breath, I knew she was wet.

I glanced up at her, and she was watching me. Her fingers tangled in my wet hair. I didn’t say anything, just lifted her leg over my shoulder to open her up for me.

Then found my home. Put my mouth on it. Got her sweet flavor on my tongue. My mouth. My chin.

“Rand,” she cried.

The prettiest sound in the entire world.

I wasn’t going to torture her. No. She was a good girl, my girl, and I needed to please her. Needed to give her an orgasm with my mouth and fingers to take away last night as much as the soap and hot water.

She’d never lose me again.

I worked her pussy with my fingers and my mouth to show her this devotion. This need I had. It would never stop.

28

NATALIE

I was so done in by the orgasm that Rand had to steer me out of the shower. Dry me off. Lead me to bed. All the while, he told me what he was going to do to me.

I’m going to see if you can come from sucking and licking those gorgeous nipples. You’re going to take my dick for a ride… as I play with them. Then I’ll take you from behind, you holding on tight to the headboard. Want me to claim you that way? Maybe I’ll surprise you.

My pussy was swollen and achy, eager for his dick. My nipples were hard and tight, ready for all that he’d promised. I was in a haze of desire that he’d built. One orgasm wasn’t enough.

I needed him in me. Filling me. Making me his.

He stood at the foot of the bed, grabbed the sheets and blankets and yanked them off and onto the floor. I could smell the smoke that clung to them. I had to imagine how strong it was for Rand.

He jumped onto the bed, rolling onto his back, head on the pillow. His body was perfect. Tanned. Muscled. It was his dick I watched. It bobbed as he moved, thick and a dark plum color. The crown curved toward his navel. He was virile, potent. All mine.

He crooked a finger, and I crawled up toward him. When I got close enough, he hoisted me up and over him, his hands on my hips. “Rand!”

Hooking the back of my neck, he pulled me down for a kiss. I sank into it, into him, our bodies pressed together. The heat from him would have kept me warm if I had been cold. I was far from it. I was burning up.

Just for Rand.

I began to squirm when the kiss wasn’t enough and worked my way down his body, kissing the bare spots on his chest then lower, feeling the tight quiver of his abs as I licked the head of his dick.

“Mmm,” I said, tasting the salty burst of pre-cum on my tongue.

His hand settled on the back of my head, held me gently. “Fuck, Red.”

I liked hearing him coming undone because of me. I took him into my mouth, but he was too big, and I wasn’t a porn star. There was no way I could take all of him down, so I gripped the base in a tight fist and began to work him.

With a growl, he grabbed me and flipped us, so he was looming over me. His spit-slick dick brushed my thigh. “I was having fun,” I said with a pout. “You got me off in the shower, I wanted to repay you.”

He pushed my damp hair back from my face. “Red, there is no repaying me. You come and you come often with me. I’m not keeping count as long as your tally’s always higher than mine.”

“That’s not fair.”

He laughed, and that made me laugh with him. “You’re going to argue with me about too many orgasms?”

I could feel myself blush.

“I don’t want to come in your mouth… this time because I need to be in your pussy to claim you. My dick buried nice and deep, my bite here.”

He tapped the spot where my neck met my shoulder.

“Or here.”

He dropped his head and licked the side of my breast.

“Or here.”

He did the same on the other side.

I shivered as he watched me and waited. “Here,” I replied, tapping the spot at my neck.

He began to climb off me, but I tugged him back. “Where are you going?”

He grinned. “Not far. Just have to get a condom.”

I tightened my hold. “No. Nothing between us.”

He moved back, looked at my lips. “We never really talked about birth control. I’m fine with condoms until you’re ready for more.”

“I’m on the pill.”

His gaze lifted to mine. “You’re okay if I go bare?”

I licked my lips, and he groaned, then shifted my hips, so his dick brushed over my folds.

I moved again, even reached between us and held him tight as I positioned myself, so he was right there. All he had to do was sink deep.

“I love you, Rand,” I said.

He didn’t look away. Didn’t blink. Didn’t even breathe as he slid into me.

It wasn’t the first time, but it felt like it. So tight. So full. So right.

I bent my knees, squeezed his hips to pull him even deeper.

“Fuck, Red. You feel so good.”

He pulled back, thrust deep. My back arched, head going back. “Rand! Harder.”

That was all it took. He lost control then, taking me hard. He was ruthless. I was so wet the sound of it filled the room as our skin slapped together. So hard. So deep.

I loved that he could lose control for me. That he held nothing back from me. So I gave him everything in return. I met him with my hips, clawed his back with my nails, cried out his name when he reached between us and played with my clit. Pinched it, and I came.

My inner walls clenched and squeezed, tried to pull him deeper. Tried to get him to come and feel as I did. Lost. Wild. Desperate.

He dropped onto his forearms, kissed me through my orgasm, then my neck as he continued to take me.

“I love you, Natalie Sheffield,” he said as I rode out my pleasure. “You’re mine. I claim you.” With the deepest growl I’d ever heard from him, he thrust deep and came, his body tensing, his mouth claiming. He bit my neck, his teeth sinking into my skin.

I cried out again, at first from the sharp hit of pain but then from another orgasm, this one even more intense than the last. Than any I’d ever had before. I felt him swell and spurt inside me, his cum marking me as much as his teeth.

He pulled back, then licked my neck as he panted above me. I could feel his dick continuing to pulse. The hot slide of his cum seeped out and down between us. I’d never had sex without a condom before.

Never wanted it. Now, even though we hadn’t made a child, I knew this was a bond that was forever. I’d almost lost him the night before, but this soothed something in me—that he was alive. Whole. Mine.

Just as I was his.

He pulled out and tucked me into his arms where I was lulled toward sleep. Safe. Happy.

Mated.

My last thought before I slept was if Uncle Adam would have been pleased I’d found a mate. If he’d put us together somehow. That he’d wanted me to be the human who’d protect the shifters, just as he had for all those years. He hadn’t found love, but he’d obviously wanted it for me.

I’d cherish it always. Him, his guidance and this land, where I found Rand.

29

RAND

That afternoon I drove up to the pack lodge. I’d left Natalie at the cabin, mainly because I didn’t want her to witness the ugliness that might go down in dealing with Nathan Brown.

Rob called an emergency meeting of the pack elders. I wasn’t one, but his actions affected my mate. He’d burned her fucking house down.

Levi was to bring Nathan Brown from the jail in town to answer for his crimes. Trying him through the human legal system wouldn’t work well.

Human law didn’t fit shifters. While he might have kept him there overnight, no one could keep a shifter in a cell or hold them captive for long. They’d easily overpower guards or other inmates in a prison. Shifters almost always escaped law enforcement and went into hiding when they’d committed a crime.

It was why we had a shifter council. My brother Clint used to be a council enforcer, carrying out their form of justice, which often was death. He’d retired when he mated Becky, but if anyone had seen what happened when a shifter committed a crime, it was he.

I didn’t know whether Rob would take Nathan to the shifter council or deal with him here in the pack. There weren’t strict laws governing these things. Most packs dealt with their own, and the council only got involved if they couldn’t or wouldn’t.

Levi’s sheriff car was already parked out front, and Nathan Brown sat in the back seat behind the cage. Again, it wasn’t the handcuffs or cage that held him, but Levi’s presence. He leaned against the car, guarding his prisoner.

I had to shove down the rage that flared in my gut toward the fucker. He’d nearly killed my mate. I wanted to tear his fucking head off and pitch it like a bowling ball off the side of the mountain.

But Rob was in charge, and we were dealing with this thing formally. Pack law would take care of Nathan.

Rob and Willow stood at the doorway, and Rob lifted his hand when I climbed out of my truck. I walked over and shook his. He pulled me in for a man-hug, thumping my back. “You look a helluva lot better than you did last night.”

“Much better,” Willow agreed.

I let out a shaky laugh. Yesterday had been harrowing for me, but it wasn’t because of my own burns. It was thinking Natalie had been in the burning house.

“You gave us all a little scare,” Rob said.

I shook my head. “You weren’t worried about me, were you?”

“Well, not entirely, but I was the one holding your screaming mate back from running in to find you, so some of her fears got under my skin, I have to admit. And then when the place collapsed, and you still didn’t come out…” He shook his head.

I blinked, my eyes burning a bit, my love for both my mate and my packmates overwhelming me. This time I pulled Rob in for a man-hug-shoulder-thump. Willow embraced me when we were done.

“She yours now?” Willow asked. I’d showered since claiming her this morning, and my scent was embedded in her instead of the other way around, but it had been pretty fucking clear how things stood between us. Everyone who’d been at the fire knew.

I nodded.

“Go on in, most everyone is here,” Willow said, a brilliant smile on her face.

I stepped inside where a semicircle of chairs had been set up. My parents and brother were there, along with all thirty or so other pack elders—mostly shifters my parents age or older. Nathan’s mate was there, along with his grown daughter, who was mated to another pack member.

My mother got up and hugged me tight. “I heard everything,” she said in a teary voice. “I’m so glad your mate wasn’t hurt.”

“What about me?” I teased. But of course, they knew I’d be all right.

She cupped my face. “The house is gone, but that’s not what’s important, is it?”

It wasn’t. I hadn’t even thought to ask Rob after it, just assuming it was gone. I had what was important from that place. We’d rebuild, make it a home again.

“Have a seat. Levi’s bringing in the accused,” Rob rumbled from the door, stepping in and taking his seat at the front, facing the semi-circle.

I sat down and Clint and Colton flanked me. I had to guess they’d positioned themselves to hold me back if I insisted on exacting my own justice. I didn’t plan to, but I wasn’t ruling it out either. Especially after Nathan Brown stepped in, handcuffed, but holding his head up proudly, as if he had nothing to be ashamed of.

Levi walked him to an empty place, apart from both Rob and the semi-circle.

“Nathan Brown, you stand accused,” Rob’s alpha timbre boomed in the lodge. “You burned down a pack member’s property.”

Nathan sputtered. “The fuck I did. That property belonged to a human.” He spat out human like it was a bad word. “A human who intended to open a bed and breakfast right next to pack land.”

“A human who is now mated to a pack member,” Rob countered. “Which makes her an honorary member of this pack as well.”

Nathan scoffed. “She wasn’t mated at the time,” he sneered.

“Silence!” When Rob put alpha command in his words, everyone felt it. The room rang with silence, all of us instinctually going still to appease him. “You could have killed her, and you nearly killed Rand, who was trapped inside the house searching for his mate when it collapsed.”

“The girl wasn’t in the house when I set fire to it,” Nathan said, as if that excused everything. “If she hadn’t left on her own, I would’ve made sure she was out before I lit the match. I meant her no harm. Rand, of course, will heal.”

Many of the elders murmured in their seats. I didn’t think they expected Nathan to so openly admit his crime.

“Was the house insured, Rand?” Rob asked.

I nodded. Natalie and I had talked about it this morning, and she’d had to put it on her credit card, but she’d paid the insurance bill last month.

“That’s good. Of course the personal effects in the house will never be recovered,” Rob said.

“Why did you do it?” someone asked Nathan.

Nathan scoffed. “Well, isn’t it obvious? Our alpha here is too weak to deal with human encroachment. Not only did he refuse to shut down the bed and breakfast idea, he invited the weak human into the pack. That makes her what-—the fifth human you’ve brought in in the past two years? Is no one else concerned about this trend? About an alpha who apparently wants our kind to die out through matings that go against nature?”

“Enough!” Rob ordered, silencing the menacing growls that had gone up from me, Clint, Boyd and Colton.

Levi hadn’t growled, but he shoved Nathan to his knees, a ferocious scowl on his face.

“Nathan Brown, because you did not intend Natalie Sheffield direct harm, I will not demand your life. But for breaking human law and endangering pack and humans, as well as for your continued lack of respect for my position in this pack as alpha, I hereby banish you and all your kin from this pack. Your house will be sold to another pack member and any expenses not covered by Natalie’s insurance will come from the proceeds and the remainder sent to you. If you ever return to these parts again, I will take it as a direct threat to the pack and send my enforcers to end you. Understood?”

Nathan’s wife gasped, and his daughter let out a small sob of dismay.

“You have twenty-four hours to leave. During that time, I will keep my pack members from exacting their own revenge.” Rob glanced my way, and I let my upper lip curl to show Nathan some fang. “If you delay your departure, though… I will not stop them. Go now.”

Levi unlocked his handcuffs and gave Nathan a kick.

Nathan’s wife, daughter and her mate all stood and congregated at the door to the lodge, waiting for Nathan to join them and leave together. Nathan’s wife was crying as they left the building.

The rest of the pack members stood and began to talk and mingle. I didn’t sense any dissent from them over Rob’s ruling. The elders remembered the pack with Rob’s father as alpha. Some even remembered his father before him. Traditions had been upheld, but Rob was his own man, his own alpha and was forging the future for the pack in his own way. While some elders may resist or not like everything Rob did, only Nathan had been so outwardly hostile.

Hopefully a meeting like this would be the last.

“Are you gonna be cool?” Rob asked me as he came over, a warning in his tone.

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m cool. I would’ve preferred to get a few swings in first, but I can live with his banishment.”

“I got a few swings in for you last night,” Levi said. He raised his eyebrows. “Quite a few.”

I grinned. “Good.”

“Everything okay with Natalie?” Clint asked, dropping a hand on my shoulder.

My smile grew wider. “My mate?” I couldn’t help but gloat by calling her that. It felt so good to have claimed her. To be able to legitimately call her that. “She’s great. In fact, I need to get back to her.”

The guys all chuckled. “I’ll bet you do,” Clint said.

“Yep, you get back to your mate,” Boyd said, thumping my back.

“Give her a big hug from me,” my mother said. “We’ll have you both over for lasagna later this week.”

“I will,” I promised and walked out to my truck.

Nothing—not even Nathan Brown—could keep me down today.

Not when Natalie was in my cabin waiting for me. Not when she’d be there again tomorrow, and the next day and the next day after that.

Epilogue

NATALIE

The insurance adjuster’s truck turned onto the main road, leaving Rand and I to stand in front of the rubble that was my house.

“So, know a good builder?” I asked, not looking at him.

“How will you pay, Red? I only take payment in sexual favors.”

I spun and faced him, poked him in the ribs, which made him grin.

“From all your clients?”

He pulled me into his arms, planted a kiss on my lips. “Only you. Guess we’ll have to get some plans drawn up. Time to build your dream house.”

“Don’t you mean our dream house?”

It had been five days since the fire-—not that I was counting—and I’d spent almost all that time with Rand. I wasn’t sure if it was because Rand didn’t want to let me out of his sight or if we were newly mated. Either way, I didn’t care. Either way, I agreed. I wanted Rand to be where I could see him at all times, waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares.

He’d soothe me with his touch, making love to me which always put me back to sleep. And when we were awake… it was almost impossible to keep our hands off each other.

But with the sobering sight of the house, all that history of Uncle Adam that had burned to rubble and ash, reality was right in front of us.

“Our house,” he replied. “Got something in mind?”

I pursed my lips. “Besides no creepy basement with spiders…”

He grinned. “Besides that.”

“I’m thinking log. One story. Big windows across the back to take in the view.”

He slung an arm around my shoulder and stared at the rubble, as if he could picture what would be put in its place.

“A three car garage,” he added.

“A deck off the back.”

“Five bedrooms.”

I turned in his arms to face him, tilted my chin back to meet his eyes. “Five? I thought you didn’t want a B&B.”

“I don’t. I was thinking more along the lines of kids.”

I did the math. “You want four kids?”

“That’s if they have their own rooms. But if they shared…”

I punched him in the stomach. “Rand Tucker, what you want is a football team.”

He laughed, and I loved that sound.

“How about we start with one.”

He went still at my words, his dark eyes meeting mine. “You ready?”

I shrugged, and my cell rang. I pulled it from my jeans pocket. “Hello?”

“Hey, Natalie, this is Kurt from the Barn Cats.”

“Hi, Kurt,” I replied and Rand nodded, knowing who it was.

“I heard about your house. I’m glad you’re all right.”

“Thanks. I’ll rebuild.”

“That’s good to hear. I was hoping you wouldn’t leave town after that.”

“Oh?”

“Not sure if you know, but I’ve been the music teacher at the high school for the past twenty-six years.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Well, I’ve been planning to retire, even bought an RV to go roaming the west. There just haven’t been any replacements, being that the school’s so small, and Cooper Valley isn’t exactly a metropolis. But now, I’ve got one.”

“That’s great! Congratulations on your retirement.”

“It depends on you, though.”

I frowned. “Me?”

“I think you should be my replacement. You have the qualifications. You know your way around an instrument, and the kids will love you. Know how to lead a marching band?”

I stepped back, and it was Rand’s turn to frown. He snatched the cell from me. “Kurt, why are you upsetting my woman?”

I bit my lip at his protectiveness.

“Uh huh, uh huh. Oh. That’s good then. Here.” He thrust the phone back at me.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I took the phone back.

“Kurt?”

“You got a good one there, Natalie. A little bit bossy though.”

I laughed some more which made Rand frown.

“The job’s yours.”

“I know nothing about a marching band. I don’t even have a teaching license.”

He made a funny scoffing sound. “The job’s yours,” he repeated. “Think about it and get back to me. School starts in a few weeks.”

I thanked him and ended the call.

“Well?” Rand asked, pulling me back into his arms again.

“Well, it’s a job. Doing music. Here.”

“I think you’d be good at it.”

I’d never considered teaching high school before. But the idea was appealing. Kids were the ones who needed the nudge toward music, to discover how it could enrich their lives. God, there was so much I could do with a music program although I wasn’t sure about the marching band part.

“I wouldn’t have to open the B&B after all.”

Rand chuckled. “Do I get to call you Miss Sheffield now?”

I felt the hard prod of his dick against my belly.

“Got a school teacher fetish?” I asked.

“I’ve been bad.”

I hopped up into his arms, and he made a funny sound of surprise as he caught me with his hands on my ass. I grinned at him. “You want sexual payment to build my new house, and you’ve got a teacher thing. Any other kinks I should know about?”

He squeezed my butt playfully and walked me back toward his truck. “Let’s get back to the cabin, and I’ll show you every single one.”

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About Renee Rose

USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR RENEE ROSE loves a dominant, dirty-talking alpha hero! She's sold over a half million copies of steamy romance with varying levels of kink. Her books have been featured in USA Today's Happily Ever After and Popsugar. Named Eroticon USA's Next Top Erotic Author in 2013, she has also won Spunky and Sassy's Favorite Sci-Fi and Anthology author, The Romance Reviews Best Historical Romance, and Spanking Romance Reviews' Best Sci-fi, Paranormal, Historical, Erotic, Ageplay and favorite couple and author. She's hit the USA Today list five times with various anthologies.

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Vanessa Vale is the USA Today bestselling author of sexy romance novels, including her popular Bridgewater historical series and hot contemporary romances. With over one million books sold, Vanessa writes about unapologetic bad boys who don't just fall in love, they fall hard. Her books are available worldwide in multiple languages in e-book, print, audio and even as an online game. When she's not writing, Vanessa savors the insanity of raising two boys and figuring out how many meals she can make with a pressure cooker. While she's not as skilled at social media as her kids, she loves to interact with readers.

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Table of Contents

- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Want FREE Renee Rose Books?
- Get A Free Vanessa Vale Book!
- Contents
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 25
- Chapter 26
- Chapter 27
- Chapter 28
- Chapter 29
- Epilogue
- Note From Vanessa & Renee
- Want FREE Renee Rose Books?
- Get A Free Vanessa Vale Book!
- Also by Renee Rose
- About Renee Rose
- Also By Vanessa Vale
- About Vanessa Vale