Ruthless (Wolf Ranch 6)

Clint’s hand shot out, and he gripped a fistful of Nathan’s shirt.

Growls went up all around the large meeting room until Rob’s voice cut across the room in an alpha command, “Enough.”

The lodge went silent.

Boyd stepped forward, using his signature diplomacy the rest of us had never mastered. “Hey, now. Everybody take a breath.” To Nathan, he said, “I’m sure you don’t want to goad a former council enforcer into thinking you’re insulting his mate and pup, right? Because that would be ill advised.” His words reminded the pack that my brother had been chosen by the shifter council and had enforced their laws secretly for years. He probably had more kills counted than Colton had while serving as a Green Beret. Boyd’s words sobered the room.

“Take your seats,” Rob ordered, forestalling any response from Nathan.

Everyone immediately moved and settled. I sat beside my brother—not that he required my back up. The reminder of him being an enforcer without any of us knowing for so long still stung a bit. I knew it had been for his safety and ours that his role had been a secret, but it bugged the hell out of me that Clint had lived a double life.

With Becky and Lily, it was long behind him now.

Rob ran through the usual pack agenda and then opened the floor for new business.

“I have new business,” Nate Brown said, standing up.

Aw, fuck. Seriously, every time this guy spoke up it was to take a pot shot at Rob’s leadership. The guy was open about his dissatisfaction over the direction the pack had taken allowing us to mate humans and whatever else he could stir up shit about.

There was always something.

I swore I heard Rob’s teeth grinding from my seat. “What is it?”

“Were you going to tell us about the threat to our pack from your neighbor?”

“What neighbor?” I couldn’t help my angry outburst. If he was talking about Natalie, we were going to have more than words.

I was gonna tear his head off.

Rob held up a hand in my direction, his stern glance conveying his displeasure. At me, even though Nathan was the one being a pain in the ass.

Fuck.

I shut up, and Nathan waited. I could practically sense his giddy excitement over the trouble he was about to cause.

“You heard the question,” Rob prompted. “What neighbor?”

“I think you know exactly who I mean. Natalie Sheffield and her plans to open a bed and breakfast right next to you. To the entire pack.”

What the fuck? How did he kn—oh shit. We were talking on his roof when we’d fixed his chimney! What a dumb-ass move. Fucking shifter hearing.

A stir went around the room, and I muttered a curse. Clint wrapped a hand around my forearm to prevent me from leaving my seat. My wolf was pissed. Natalie wasn’t here. She wasn’t in danger, but I wanted to protect her still.

“Keep your cool,” he muttered under his breath. Not that muttering worked well with shifters.

Keeping my cool was an impossibility. My wolf wasn’t going to sit on my ass when a threat to Natalie was being made. I was ready to tear out throats. One specifically.

Rob frowned. “That situation is being handled,” he said curtly.

“I think this pack deserves to know how it’s being handled. Having a revolving door of humans adjacent to pack land is a problem. A big problem,” Nate said.

There were a few murmurs of assent around the room.

A low growl started in my throat.

“Knock it off.” Clint tightened his hold on my arm.

My parents, who sat a few rows ahead of us, turned to look at me, taking in Clint’s hand on my arm.

“It’s being handled,” Rob repeated.

“But how?” This time it was someone else who asked the question, which meant Rob would probably have to address it. If it wasn’t my mate who’d moved in, I’d have been rational and thought the question reasonable. A human next door, especially one who might open a B&B, could make trouble for a pack.

Dammit.

Rob closed his eyes as if begging for patience. “We are working with Natalie Sheffield to find another solution for the property.”

“I’ll gladly go by the place and—”

“You won’t,” I snarled. Clint couldn’t stop me from flying to my feet. I jabbed a finger in Nathan Brown’s direction. “Nobody goes near that place, do you understand me?”

“Rand!” My mother sounded shocked.

“Enough, son,” my father used his quiet authoritative voice on me. The one that usually worked.

Rob’s nostrils flared. “Sit.” His alpha command might have worked under different circumstances. I felt my knees start to bend, but my wolf responded with a surge of energy to combat it.

Clint seized the moment of weakness to yank me back down to my seat.

A rumbling went around the room.

“As you can see,” Rob cut over it, and the room fell silent again. “One of our pack brothers has a horse in this race.” He paused a moment for that information to land.