Fierce (Wolf Ranch 5)

Goddammit. Now that I reviewed that conversation, it sounded like she’d ordered ketamine to be delivered in Colorado, too. What the fuck? Who the hell had she been talking to?

And then there was the way she’d gone quiet after I talked to the aspiring drug dealer at the fair. The questions she asked about what sentence he’d face.

Sometimes people get themselves into things without fully understanding the consequences.

I picked up the chair I’d kicked and smashed it against the wall. It splintered into all kinds of satisfying pieces.

“Whoa,” Rob said as he came in, his voice low, hands out in front of him. Like I was a horse that needed calming.

I whirled and glared at him. My vision had strangely narrowed and sharpened. My focus was razor sharp. My hearing honed in on his heartbeat.

Rob flicked his brows. “Heard Charlie left,” he said mildly.

My stomach tumbled like towels in a dryer. My brain did the same thing.

I gave the wall a thud with the soft part of my fist although punching a hole through it would be more satisfying. “Did you hear about the ketamine?”

He nodded.

I wasn’t sure if Clint and Willow were tattletales or saviors because I didn’t feel like explaining the horse tranquilizer shit to Rob. I didn’t even understand it myself.

“Sounds like she got herself in trouble,” he commented. While I took it as an accusation, he was only stating fact.

“Charlie’s not a fucking drug dealer,” I snarled, too defensively. But she couldn’t be. I was sure of it. She was too good for that. I knew her. Didn’t I?

“No, but a drug dealer needs a supplier.”

I clenched my hands into fists. “You met her. We all did. Hell, have you ever met anyone else who has ironed jeans? Or wears makeup and jewelry to breed a horse? Tell me why the fuck she would be anyone’s fucking supplier.”

Shaking his head, he dropped his hands to his hips. Sighed. “People do it for different reasons.”

I thought about her grandfather. What she’d said about needing to keep her well-paying job to afford a caretaker for him. But she still wouldn’t sell drugs to see that happen. No way.

I was so angry I saw red. I saw every ridge of the plaster on the far wall. My wolf snarled, ready to go after Rob. He didn’t like a word Rob was insinuating, even if Clint had started it.

He tipped his chin. “Want to take that gun off your hip?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why? Are you going to tell me something else that will want to make me shoot you?”

He scoffed lightly. “Like that would kill me.”

Only because he was my alpha and his command held a physical compulsion, I unhooked my utility belt and dropped it on the back of the couch. They’d been put back in place when Willow and Marina insisted Shadow and the puppies be moved to the laundry room at the main house.

“Here’s what we do know,” he told me. “She had a big order of ketamine delivered here. A place where it could go unnoticed. Now she’s gone. Left before the breeding was done.”

“Yeah, I got all that,” I snapped, not eager to listen to a thing he said.

I took a step toward him, slapped my hand down on the counter. “You’re so fucking calm. Don’t you care?”

“Do you?” he asked.

“Stop being such a fucking asshole.”

He gave a slight shrug. “She was a fling, you said. Two weeks. Why should it bother you if she’s mixed up in something with ketamine. She did you a favor leaving as she did. She’s a drug pusher. You’re the county sheriff. This way you don’t even have to say goodbye. Or arrest her.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. He was pissing me off. My wolf stood up and howled.

“No hooks to pull out and escape from,” he added.

My wolf snapped.

“Don’t speak of her that way,” I snarled.

I leaned forward a little, ready to stalk over to him and wipe that calm look off his face.

“Why not?” He shrugged, as if he was talking about the weather, not Charlie. “So you had a little fun. She’s got secrets. Big ones. She’s not your mate.”

Yeah, we had fun. I thought of how she’d laughed when I’d tossed her over my shoulder and carried her upstairs. The way she’d looked up at me from beneath her sooty lashes as she sucked my dick down into her throat. How she’d looked handcuffed to my bed, my hands holding onto her lush hips. The kindness she showed with Shadow. The way she stroked Seraphina.

“She’s mine,” I snarled, breathing hard.

He shook his head. “She’s not your mate. She’s gone. Back to Colorado. You were a quick fuck to her.”

And that was it. Those were the words that pushed me over the edge.

I lunged toward Rob, and the next thing I knew I felt pain in my muscles, my bones. Things shifted and moved. The sound of ripping cloth, cracking joints filled the air.