Ruthless (Wolf Ranch 6)

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.