Ruthless (Wolf Ranch 6)

What he’d gone through. God, it had been close. Too close. “I love you, Rand Tucker.”

I felt the rumble of a growl from his chest.

“I love you, Natalie Shefield. Now and forever. Human love. Wolf love. Every fucking kind of love there is, I’m in it with you. You’re mine, and nothing’s going to change that.”

I let out a happy sob. “No, nothing will change it for me, either. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure it out.”

“Darlin’, I know these ladies are going to want to do their doctor-veterinarian shit to me when we get back, but can we please just sneak away to my place and skip all that?”

I groaned with a smile. I wanted that so much, for us to be together. Alone. But… “No. You’ve got burns all over. I would really feel better if they looked at you.”

He grumbled. “I’m fine. But whatever you want, Red. You’re the boss of me.”

I cleared my throat. “Except when I’m not,” I murmured, remembering how much I liked when he took charge.

Rand stopped walking for a moment. “Aw, darlin’. Now is not the time for me to get a hard on for you. I’m wearing a fucking sheet around my waist.”

I giggled. He was all right. Injured, but he’d heal. “Right. Later.”

“Later, yes. Later I am going to boss the hell out of you, and you are going to scream my name until you’re hoarse.”

“I already did that tonight,” I reminded him, sobering.

His eager expression slipped. “Scream in the good way,” he amended. “Don’t think about that again tonight. We can’t. Nathan Brown is lucky he’s spending the night in a jail cell, or I would rip him to shreds.”

“I don’t want to think about it, either,” I said, resting my head on his shoulder.

The warmth in my chest, having his arms around me, savoring the words of love we finally shared… the sense of rightness that flowed through me was undeniable. How could I have ever doubted that what we had was real?

27

RAND

I let Audrey look me over, flushing out some of the worst burns with water, but there wasn’t more she could do. I was fucking lucky my lungs were clear, and my skin was healing quickly. It still hurt. Fuck, did it sting, but I knew it was temporary. But Natalie was with me.

She loved me.

She was mine.

That would last forever.

Even though Audrey was a doctor who treated humans, she agreed the best thing for me was to shift to my wolf and stay that way until the worst of the damage had been repaired.

“I agree with the doc. Based on the way those blisters are healing—” Rob said, leaning against the kitchen island. “—a few hours in wolf form, and they’ll be mostly gone.”

I didn’t want to wait a few hours to make Natalie mine, but I wasn’t going to be able to claim her like this. The burns were all over my body, and there was no way I could fuck her now. I wanted to focus on her. Her silky soft skin. Her cries of pleasure. I still hurt, and she’d worry.

That was not the way to claim a woman.

I looked to Natalie, who nodded.

“Fine, but I want to heal at home.”

No one argued, probably knowing that once I was better, nothing was going to keep me from my mate.

Rob nodded. “I’ll drive you to your cabin.” He said nothing more, just narrowed his eyes. Waited.

I met Red’s green gaze, leaned in and kissed her, then whispered in her ear. “I’ll heal in my bed, then I’m claiming you. Yes?”

She pulled back, studied my face. “Yes.”

My wolf soothed. I exhaled. Fuck, I did hurt. I nodded, then shifted back to my wolf. Let shifter biology work as Rob drove me and Natalie back to my cabin. I hopped onto the bed, circled, then settled, but didn’t close my eyes until she climbed beneath the covers. Her scent surrounded me, in a way healing me as much as time, and I slept.

I had no idea what time it was, but just after dawn. The sky was soft, the sun not having risen over the mountain. The air was cool coming through the open windows, the scent of smoke was redolent. I shifted back to human form and carefully sat up, not wanting to wake Natalie. She was asleep on her side, her hand tucked beneath her cheek.

Fuck, just seeing her here made me smile. I shrugged my shoulders, looked myself over. Besides being filthy, I was mostly healed. The minor burns were completely gone, no sign of them on my skin. The spots where there had been blisters had hints of pinkness, but I didn’t hurt anywhere.

I ran my hand over my head, felt a spot where my hair had singed. On my chest, there were some bare spots, but that would all grow back.