Wild (Wolf Ranch 2)

I couldn’t go combing over every event, trying to figure out what I screwed up this time. How I wasn’t exactly what he wanted.

I was enough, dammit. I was enough for me. Audrey was right. I deserved all the love in the world. Someone who wouldn’t jerk me and my feelings around.

If Audrey knew what a dick Colton had been, she’d be on a warpath, but I wasn’t ruining anything for her. I sat on the edge of the bed, shoved my feet into thick socks, then put on my sneakers.

Right now, I was going to take care of myself. And that meant going somewhere I felt comfortable.

Away from this house. This ranch. The nearest place I could think of was that stupid motel from a few nights ago. It was on the way to the airport. In the morning, I could get a flight out of Montana and figure out the shit show of my life.

Audrey would be there for me, I knew. Hell, she’d even offered to pay for college. But I had to figure out me. What I wanted. I’d thought it was to be an engineer and make my dad happy. That had been dumb. Here, I thought maybe I made Colton happy. Clearly not. I needed to make myself happy. And tonight, that was to get the hell out of here before Colton came back.

I saw Audrey get married. My job here was done. She was going to be in bed with Boyd for longer than I wanted to wait. They could eat the untouched wedding cake when they came up for air. I’d be doing us both a favor if I changed my flight to tomorrow morning and just made a clean break.

Yes. That was exactly what I needed to do. I shoved my things in my suitcase and zipped it shut.

It only took a few minutes before I was tripping down the stairs, the suitcase banging against the wall as I ran. Outside, the air was cool and damp, but the rain was over, like God approved my plan. Good, that meant I should be able to get through the roads to the motel. At least I hoped it could. I hustled out to my car, tossed the bag in the back seat, started it up and took off. As I sped away down the muddy road, I saw Levi come out of the bunkhouse to look down the drive at my retreat.

Well, good. He could let them know I left.

As I made my way through the dark down the long drive and beneath the Wolf Ranch entry arch, I realized I didn’t care if I ever came back.

COLTON

* * *

It was long past midnight when I’d finally run my wolf into the ground.

Some of the ranch hands and other unmated members of the pack had joined us, needing the release on the full moon, like we had. But most had stayed home with the storm and the wedding events earlier.

All but Rob had gone home. I’d pushed too hard, too far for any of them to want to keep up. He had been nipping at my flank for hours, trying to get me to return, but he wouldn’t leave me.

I ran down the mountain for the ranch house. Even exhausted, that underlying mania still there.

Mate her. Mark her. Make her mine.

The fucking full moon. No. Not. Happening.

I’d get Rob to lock me up tonight, if he had to. Even though I desperately needed to talk to Marina, to explain why I’d left, I couldn’t risk getting near her. Tomorrow, I’d explain it all. Hell, grovel even.

I shifted when we got to the back door, then picked my clothing up from the mud. Jesus. It looked like a car had driven over them. I’d been so out of my mind when I ran down here, I hadn’t even noticed if anyone had seen me shift.

At least all the humans had gone.

Levi walked up from the direction of the bunk house, like he’d been up waiting.

“Hey, Colton.” He stood back, kept his hands in his pockets.

I ignored him, stalking into the house. If he wanted to stand there, he could check out my bare ass. “Not now.”

I didn’t have it in me to focus on anything but keeping my wolf under control until morning, when I could fix things with Marina.

“She’s not up there, man,” he called.

I froze, a violent tremor running through my body.

I spun on my wet heel on the wood floor. “What do you mean, she’s not up there?”

There could only be one she he was referring to. Marina. My mate.

“She drove away, man. Right after the rain stopped. Didn’t say anything, not that I was out here. I don’t know where she went.”

Audrey. She’d gone to Audrey’s. It made sense. She’d want to talk to her sister. I shook open my muddy jeans and tried to step into them, but Rob stopped me. “Go get some clean clothes on, Colton.” His voice was low and even. Like he was trying to calm me.