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.”