Savage (Wolf Ranch 4)

Nothing appeared off, yet the sense of unease got stronger even though her house was dark except for a porch light. I glanced around once more. The snow made the night brighter, not that I needed it with my shifter vision. There were no new cars parked around—I’d taken note of all of them that morning when I’d been by.

I stepped on the brakes, hard, right in front of her place.

The fuck?

A shadow moved under her window. A figure. I threw the truck in park, right in the middle of the street and flew out of my seat.

“Hey!” I barked, stalking toward the fucker.

I didn’t know what I expected. For the guy to run, maybe. That I’d scare him away with my voice before I got there with my fists.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

The asshole just swiveled and stared at me, like he belonged there, under her window, looking in.

A light went on in the room where the guy was peeking, and the shades parted. Becky looked out her window and screamed. It was muffled by the glass, but I sure as fuck heard it.

Don’t kill him. Don’t kill him. Don’t kill him.

I had to keep reminding myself because I was a hair’s breadth away from shifting to tear the guy’s throat out.

Some rational part of my brain remained, telling me to cool my jets. To follow the code and not betray my species to humans. Not to harm a human. I was on a quiet street in Cooper Valley—not the place for a wolf to appear. Especially not one who was ripping out a guy’s throat. That couldn’t be explained away.

Oh fates, but I wanted to.

Becky yelled through the window. “Todd! You asshole. I’m calling the cops right now.”

Todd. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved it was her asshole ex or not. It only proved what I’d told Selena. The guy wasn’t done with Becky.

I was proud of my woman, keeping her shit and getting on the horn with the police. I made my way over to him, my feet crunching through the snow at the side of her house. I’d hold him until they got here. The fucker wasn’t getting away on my watch. This was trespassing and whatever the fuck the law was for being a Peeping Tom. I was on him in seconds, my fist wrapped in his jacket to bunch it into a ball as I shoved him back against the house, hard.

His head connected with the windowpane, and he yelped.

That made my wolf howl, so did the twinge from the healing wound in my side. It was taking fucking forever to go away.

“Ow! Who the fuck are you?”

I got right in his face. “I’m the guy who’s about to fuck you up, creeper.” Despite my obsessive need to publicly claim Becky, something told me not to show my hand with her ex just yet. To let him think I was just some guy driving by.

Not her fucking wolf mate ready to rip him to shreds with my teeth.

“I’m her husband!” Todd protested, eyes wide. “I was just checking to make sure the windows were locked.”

Becky came barreling out the door in a pair of boots and a coat thrown over her pajamas.

“Bullshit!” she snapped from the porch, peering into the darkness toward us. “He’s my ex, and I have a restraining order against him.”

The only thing that kept me from savaging Todd was the fact that Becky sounded more angry than scared.

I dragged Todd away from the window and closer to the porch light, so she could see my face. Know I was here to keep her safe, to take the trash out. My wolf preened as I watched recognition and relief bloom in her expression. The way those berry lips parted and uttered my name did a lot to calm my wolf. Yeah, she might’ve pushed me away, not once but twice, but she trusted me and knew she was safe. I’d walked away this morning, but I wasn’t doing it again.

Of course, it brought Todd to a rage. “You know this guy?” he snarled, his smugness falling away.

“I know everyone in this town,” she snapped.

Ouch.

Even though I figured she didn’t want to share our relationship with him, it still stung to hear her downplay what we were.

At least I fucking hoped that was downplay and not the way she thought of me. Although, to her, I was a guy she fucked at a bar one night over the summer, who’d randomly run into her again. The kiss we’d shared at her car should have been a big fucking clue that we weren’t done, even to a human.

Becky held up her phone. “The sheriff is on his way, asshole. And he’s not going to buy your checking the locks on the windows story.”