Fierce (Wolf Ranch 5)

The kid turned pale, and I was a little worried he might piss himself. Good. If fucking with him now got him scared enough to wet his pants, maybe he was a good kid doing a dumb thing. Maybe this would steer him back onto the right path.

I lasered him with a stern look. “Selling drugs is just plain wrong. I am not exaggerating when I say it will ruin your whole goddamn life. This goes beyond legal consequences, though. Laws are in place for a reason, and they’re not just to impede your ability to party with your friends. You know that shit’s dangerous, right? What happens if the kid you sell that to dies? You’d be responsible. What if that kid who died was someone you cared about? How would you feel then? This is not something you fuck around with. Not unless you want to write your whole future off right now.”

Tanner turned to the side and wretched, losing his lunch in the dirt. I was wrong about pissing himself. Close enough.

Barnes gave me a knowing smirk.

Yep, my work here was done. But the kid still had to face the consequences.

I walked a few paces back toward Charlie and motioned Barnes to come my way. “See if you can find out where he bought it,” I said.

“He claims he found it at school.” Barnes rolled his eyes at the obvious lie because it was the middle of summer vacation.

“Right. Well, keep working him until his parents come to the station to get him. You might suggest they let him spend the night in the cell to get the full effect of the consequences he’s going to be facing.”

“Will do.” Barnes looked over at Charlie, who stood watching and wringing her hands, as if she were the one in trouble and not Tanner.

I tipped my head her way. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a date.”

Surprise flickered over Barnes’ face followed by a smile. Hell, I surprised myself. It wasn’t like me to publicly announce my interest in a woman. I was usually the hook up at the bar and never speak of it again type.

I was outright claiming Charlie in the human way.

And strangely, when I thought about claiming her in the wolf way—a way that wasn’t possible for me since my teeth had never once descended in order to bite a mate’s neck—my dick got hard.

Which meant it was time for us to go. I adjusted my package.

“Enjoy yourselves,” Barnes said.

“Will do. See you tomorrow.” I tipped my cowboy hat and walked back to Charlie. “Ready to head back to the ranch?”

She nodded, eyes still wide at what she’d witnessed. Which wouldn’t strike me as strange until much, much later.

15

CHARLIE

My stomach clenched in a tight knot on the way home. After hearing the dressing down he gave the teenager caught selling drugs, I couldn’t stop freaking out.

He’d face up to five years and a hundred-fifty thousand dollars in fines.

The way he’d growled the consequences at the kid, who’d been quaking in his boots at that point, proved he was more than serious. While he’d clearly been trying to scare the kid straight, he’d also meant every word.

I felt as if he hadn’t been speaking to the teenager, but to me.

Me, the adult. Me, the adult who was pretty much peddling ridiculous quantities of ketamine, better known as Vitamin K, on the streets. Well, I wasn’t on the street corner swapping it for cash, but it was pretty much the same thing.

I was the one who would be facing time behind bars if anyone found out. I still couldn’t believe I’d gotten myself backed into a corner like this with Dax.

A good-looking twenty-something still young enough to think life revolved around partying with his friends, Dax worked in Mr. Claymore’s stables. In the hierarchy of the place, he looked more like a street punk than ranch hand, but he was well-liked by everyone. He’d been working there since he was a teen, much longer than me. He was charming—a favorite of everyone, including me, until things went south.

I was so stupid. Collosally stupid. Dax had been his usual charming self—flirty and fun when he’d first approached. I’d known he was too young for me and not serious, but I’d enjoyed the male attention since my sex life had been nil.

I’d smelled marijuana around the stables before but hadn’t said anything. It seemed pretty accepted by all the stable hands, especially since it was legal in Colorado, so I went with the flow. Except when they smoked it in the stables. That was the biggest fuck no of all. There was no smoking of any kind in that building, and I’d let them all have it when I’d caught them once.

One day, completely out of the blue, Dax had cornered me in my office and asked a bunch of questions about ketamine. Told me he had a friend who’d tried it. He wanted to see what it was like—just once. I told him it was dangerous, and he shouldn’t mess around with it. For horses, which was the intentional use for it at the stable, it was as an anaesthetic. I ordered it, kept the clinic stocked. In humans, it was used for the same purposes, but also in other ways. As a date rape drug, for one. To help relax someone. To hallucinate. Lots of possibilities, and Dax wanted to know it all. Maybe minus the date rape part.