Wild (Wolf Ranch 2)

“You know how old that girl is, Colton?” he asked on a snarl.

I coughed a little because he’d knocked the wind out of me. “Twenty-one.”

“That’s right.” Boyd put his hands on his hips and nodded, his hat dipping in time with his head. “Twenty-one and still in fucking college. I don’t know what the fuck you’re thinking, but—”

“I’m thinking she’s my mate,” I countered. “No, not thinking. I know she’s my mate.”

He stared at me, wide eyed, then took off his hat and scratched his head. “Fuck.” He spat the curse in a short, punctuated syllable as he swung around to face away from me and stare up at the ceiling. “Fate’s a fucking whore, isn’t she?”

“I don’t know, you seem pretty fucking happy with the mate she sent you,” I countered, finally able to stand upright again. I rubbed my stomach. “It wasn’t all that long ago you found Audrey. You remember this feeling. Like a sucker punch to the gut.”

Yeah, that had double meaning, and he glared at me. Then his face softened for a moment, as if just thinking about Audrey could change his entire mood. Shaking his head, he pointed a stern finger at me, like he was suddenly the oldest brother and not the sorry pest who ran around here sulking for years on end because he wasn’t old enough to shift and run with us yet.

“She’s not ready for you,” he warned. “Jesus, you kill people for a living, and she’s just a coed.”

I ground my molars. I might actually have agreed with Boyd, but I sure as fuck didn’t like anyone telling me to back off my own mate. “I know,” I growled. “I told her as much. She’s young. I’m a jaded military man. What makes you the fucking expert on my mate?” I shot back.

“I know she’s still in college and practically a virgin. Or at least she was before you got a hold of her.” Boyd’s sourness stirred shame in my chest. “I had to drag Audrey from the house, so we didn’t have to listen to you two.”

Had I just corrupted an innocent? She definitely hadn’t been a virgin last night. The way she’d acted, it was as if she’d let her inner wild girl out instead of being experienced. I’d guided her to come from a man’s touch, and she’d let me. Hell, she submitted so fucking beautifully.

The vision of Marina tied up in my bed upstairs, her pink center weeping for my cock, her sweet lips begging me for release, rose up in my mind. My cock rose, too.

No, she’d wanted it. But that didn’t mean she wanted me. As in for keeps.

Once a wolf mated, it was for life. There was no such thing as divorce. A female could leave her mate, but if he’d marked her, he’d never let her go. He’d be compelled to follow her to all ends of the Earth and watch over her. Ensure she was protected, provided for, and kept safe. He might be restrained enough to keep a distance, maybe even ignore it if she took another lover, but he’d never let go. It would be a biological impossibility.

“She’s my mate,” I growled through clenched teeth. Those three words should’ve been enough to convince any shifter male she belonged to me. Whether the timing sucked right now or not. “She was standing in the middle of a fucking storm watching the creek flood over the road. I thought she might do something stupid and cross.”

“Instead she did you.” Rob’s lips twitched as he said it.

Boyd spun around and growled at him.

Grinning, I added, “I knew the second I breathed her in.”

That’s what sealed the deal. Boyd knew what it was like. I knew he did. He couldn’t argue with his wolf, and neither could I.

I was past thirty. Already feeling the pull of moon madness coming on because I hadn’t found and marked a female. It had been affecting my work for a while, which meant it affected my men. I was a liability to my team and one of the reasons I was on leave. I’d left to decide if I should even re-up because the last thing I wanted to do was get people killed by my negligence. I hadn’t expected to find my mate though. Now, I had to decide what to do with Marina in mind. There was no decision. I wasn’t going back. But she was.

“I’m running out of time.” I looked at Rob, who knew what I meant. He was two years older than I was. He had to have been affected by moon madness. Hell, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t already going half-feral.

Rob stood up from the desk and walked around, folding his arms across his chest. “So, what’s your plan, Colton?”