Savage (Wolf Ranch 4)

“Give the lady some space,” I growled. Rob, our pack alpha, my boss and best friend, didn’t like us picking fights with humans. Sure, he and the Shifter Council sent me out to deal with rogue shifters or anyone who needed reminding of the rules, but this was different. This was Cody’s on a crowded summer night. The temptation to show wolf superior strength was fucking strong, but the chance of truly hurting a human or worse—revealing our nature—would increase. I was careful to keep our ways a secret, but no one fucked with a female, shifter or human.

No way was I backing down.

Especially not when nutsack gave me a shove. I tried not to laugh at his meager strength. I had to be six inches taller and a bag of feed heavier. He did have balls though. I had to give him that. Still—

I wrapped a fist in his shirt and used it to pick him up and shake him. “Get lost, asshole. The lady asked you to let her through.”

He threw a punch. I couldn’t miss the windup, and I was tempted to dodge it. To throw one back. But the thought of pissing off my alpha ran through my head, so I held still and took it—right in the nose.

Meh. He’d broken it. Whatever. It hurt a little, but I’d heal in a few hours. No biggie.

The worse blow was to my ego, which really wanted me to pound the fuck out of said asshole right here in the bar. But what I wanted to do to him would put him in the hospital, and that was a big no.

Fucking humans.

I sighed and settled for my fingers around his throat. My hands were big and strong. I could squeeze and lift him off his feet at the same time. Blood ran down my face, but the dude was turning purple, gasping and kicking out to reach the floor. I waited a couple beats until Becky closed the distance between us, plucked my sleeve with a sweet little, “Clint.” Only then did I drop the guy.

I let him fall and immediately ignored him, turning all my attention to the little blonde. “You okay, sugar? Come here.”

I didn’t plan on doing anything dramatic, but one minute she stood before me, her head tilted back so her blue eyes met mine, looking adorable in her pink boots and mini skirt, the next she was up in my arms in a honeymoon carry.

“Clint!” she shouted, laughing.

I pushed through the crowd toward the bathrooms because I was going to have to clean up. I didn’t give a shit about blood. Being a nurse, I doubted she did either, but still. On the right were the doors to the restrooms, to the left a storage room. I chose the left where we wouldn’t be interrupted.

My sudden flare for the dramatic continued because I didn’t feel like dropping her after I opened the door and carried her right inside. Only when I’d found the switch to illuminate the shelf-lined walls did I tip her back onto her feet. I locked the door—not because I was planning on doing anything with her. I just didn’t want to be bothered. Yeah, that was all. It wasn’t that I wanted uninterrupted alone time with the little nurse.

“Wow, are you all right? That guy was a total jerk.” Her breathless voice wound around my trunk like honey and silk. She looked up at me with the prettiest wide blue eyes I’d ever seen. “We should probably get you to the hospital to have that set.”

I smirked at her because her concern was damn cute. The bleeding had already stopped, so I went over to the utility sink, pushed a mop handle out of the way and quickly washed. Tugging a few paper towels from the dispenser, I dried my face. There was some blood on my snap shirt, but that wasn’t going anywhere until I got it in the washer. I would take it off though, if she wanted. Fuck, yeah, I would.

I leaned down to put my face close to hers. “You can set it for me, sugar, and we can skip the doctors. Hell, we can play doctor if you want.”

I grinned at her blush, which I couldn’t miss even with the single light bulb lighting the room.

“Oh, well, I don’t know—” she said, but still reached up to line her thumbs along the bone of my nose. One quick move, and she snapped it back in place. She didn’t flinch, didn’t even blink at the task.

I wiggled my nose like a rabbit. “I knew you could do it for me.”

“Are you okay?” Her hands slid to my chest. The touch set off something strange inside me. Sure, it made my dick hard, but it was more. A connection. It must’ve had something to do with the whiskey. Shifters sobered pretty damned fast, but still. I didn’t usually react so… viscerally to human women. “That was very gentlemanly of you to step in.”