Enticed (Two Marks 3)

I wanted to be a rancher. But I didn’t want to do it alone any longer, and I wasn’t thinking of doing it with my father, not after this week. I wanted to have Holt and Theo with me. I doubted they’d be pulling calves or rustling livestock any time soon, but I wanted to see them drive up after a day protecting West Springs. To return to me at night. To share a bed with them. A life.

Yes, even have children.

All of that was new and crazy. I never expected to find The Ones—yes, plural—right in my home town. But these seemingly perfect men were at odds with my father. The man I’d looked up to and respected my entire life. While they hadn’t said I had to choose between them and my father, I felt as if I were being pulled. My father hated the lawmen, and had outright told me to stay away from them. Theo and Holt had snuck onto my land to search for meth, they were so driven to bring down the bad guys, even if it meant arresting someone close to me.

I’d ignored my father’s very clear wishes, and gone and fallen for them. Or I was definitely on my way to doing so. It had only taken a few days and a whole bunch of orgasms, but I was considering long term. And I wasn’t even thinking of their secret, the one Theo had revealed by mistake.

They were shifters. Part wolves. Wolves! Yet I still wanted them. They mentioned forever, but I was taking it one day at a time. One pleasurable day—and night—at a time.

Still, when my father learned that I was with Theo and Holt, he’d flip. Our relationship would be ruined because things were black and white with him. His enemies, or him.

Except it seemed he’d already done that. Holt and Theo had only nudged it along. I’d have liked to imagine I’d have discovered what was going on by myself since I was back to working the ranch, finding the trailer at some point. The burned out cabin. The only reason they had been hidden was the size of the property, and maybe that had been their plan all along.

I’d have felt this exact same way, except with my dad no longer on the pedestal on which most daughters placed their beloved fathers. He’d knocked himself off when he’d chosen to track and shoot wolves the year before—even further now that he was somehow caught up in meth being made on our property.

It was against the law, which was bad enough, but he’d done it on land that I was supposed to work. My safe place. My job. My life. He was putting all of that—and me—at risk!

My respect for him was gone, due to his choices, and the consequences I knew were soon to come.

They would come in part because of me. I’d told Holt and Theo he was involved, at least partially. They could arrest him on that, and I could be forced to testify against Dad for what I’d overheard. He could go to jail and I had to be okay with that.

I just didn’t know why he would allow drugs to tarnish our land and our family name. How he could get caught up in it. I wasn’t an expert on meth addicts, but I’d seen pictures, knew the signs of someone strung out on drugs. My dad didn’t show any of those signs. Was it money? We weren’t poor. Our ranch was worth several million, at least.

After the late breakfast at the diner, I’d returned home to shower and ride Daisy, remembering the guys’ concern for my safety. I’d stuck close to the stables and in sight of the near pasture, not riding anywhere near the pond or the trailer.

I’d hoped to see my father, to confront him right away, but he’d been nowhere I could find. He didn’t return until dinnertime. I was in the kitchen, pulling a meal together. When he came into the room, I stopped chopping the carrots for the beef stew. He looked haggard and panicked, running a hand through his hair.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. I set the knife on the cutting board and reached over to turn down the flame beneath the simmering pot on the stove.

“Nothing,” he grumbled, going to the coffee pot, lifting it, and studying the dregs at the bottom.

“Why is Hollaroy on our land?” I asked.

He dropped the carafe and spun around, finally looking at me. His usually calm, hard gaze was wild. “I told you, because he’s having a fight with his wife.”

I frowned. “That puts him on the couch or in the dog house, but not a brand new single-wide on our back forty.”

“Why does it matter, Alison?” he asked.

I raised my hands in frustration. “Because this is my land too!”