Tempted (Two Marks 1)

And, if there were crazy people out shooting, my tranq gun wasn’t going to offer any protection. The rifle on the rack in the back window behind our heads was a better option. So were two big, brawny guys.

Wade pulled the truck off the side of the road. I looked around. There was no parking lot, not even a hint that someone had ever stopped here before. Thick pines blocked the view on both sides.

“We’re… here?” I asked.

Wade shut off the engine and opened his door. After he climbed out, he turned back and undid my seatbelt. Landry got out of the passenger side and held out his hand to me.

Wade pointed down the road. “There’s a stream there. We’ll follow it north, and there’s a big clearing about a quarter mile away. I expect we might find them up there.”

A quarter mile? Eagerness coursed through me and I went to the back of his pickup, but Landry beat me to my backpack. After he slung it over a shoulder, he took my hand again, and we followed Wade to the stream. We moved in single file after that. I kept my eyes on the ground in front of me since we were meandering along the water, not any real path.

After a few minutes, I was sweating, even shaded beneath the thick canopy. Just when I was about to ask them to stop to grab a drink from our water bottles, Wade put his hand out. Landry and I stilled beside him, and looked where he pointed.

I couldn’t help but gasp at the sight. The clearing he’d mentioned was in front of us, but we were tucked back in the trees still. There, sunning themselves, were two wolves. Thick gray fur, perked up ears. I tore my gaze away from them and took in the environment. A sunny day. Mid-eighties. We were at around seven thousand feet. The clearing was about two acres in size, surrounded by a forest of lodgepole and ponderosa pines. There was fresh water and access to food such as squirrels, voles, rabbits, and other smaller creatures. I estimated we were four miles from West Springs, but still on West land.

These animals were protected here, not only by laws, but by Wade and Landry. No one bothered them… except me.

Landry held my tranq gun and I reached for it, but he shook his head and aimed himself. He frowned as he fired. The feminist in me wanted to protest but then he quickly and efficiently aimed and tranqed one, then the other.

“All right, then,” I said as both wolves went limp.

Landry held up a hand, like this was his operation and he was in charge, which I supposed he was. After a moment of watching the wolves, he nodded. “Let’s go.”

I didn’t love the grim expression on his face, like it pained him to have shot the animals.

“It’s a fast-acting tranquilizer but it only lasts an hour or so,” I assured him. “They won’t even know what happened.”

“I’m not sure that’s true,” he countered as he stalked forward on long legs. He didn’t seem happy about what he’d just done, or the fact that I was going to chip them, even though they’d been the one to guide me there.

I ran past him and dropped to my knees beside the two drugged wolves. I pulled out my phone to record the details.

“Male, grey wolf. Approximately eighty-five pounds.” I inspected him, gently moving his limbs to check for disease or wounds or identifying marks. “Subject appears healthy, no visible scars. White markings on the forehead and the right front paw.”

Wade dropped my pack by my side and I immediately got to work, pulling out the bag of tracking chips and reading the number off one of them into my phone recorder. I inserted the microchip, which was about the size of a grain of rice, into the end of a syringe, then injected it between the beautiful male’s shoulder blades. Then I drew a vial of blood for genetic testing.

I repeated the entire procedure with the second wolf, which was the biggest I’d ever tagged. “Male, grey wolf, approximately one hundred and five pounds.” Once the necessary business was complete, I stroked the second wolf’s fur. “Look at you,” I crooned. “Aren’t you gorgeous? I’ll bet you’re the alpha.”

“He is,” Landry said softly.

I twisted my neck to peer up at him. He stood a few feet off, a troubled look still on his face. “How do you know?”

Landry shrugged.

Wade answered. “We’ve seen him before.”

I simply stared. There was something terribly appealing about men who respected wolves as much as I did. I’d never met guys like this before—mountain men who seemed to coexist with nature rather than dominate it. Even if the whole punishment-pleasure thing hadn’t happened earlier, these two would have me swooning.