Ruthless Read online

  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 aske
d.

  “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, n
o 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?