Feral (Wolf Ranch 3)

As I pushed into the house, my legs trembled. And it wasn’t from fear.

Damn.

Maybe I should’ve invited him in because the ache I’d felt for him before was nothing compared to this. One taste of Rob Wolf, and I was hooked. I was a DEA agent, but he was my drug. And I wanted more.

6

ROB

I walked back to Wolf Ranch with the taste of my mate on my tongue. I hadn’t intended to go to her. After the pack meeting, I’d realized how fucking impossible this situation was and let my wolf lead.

I’d seen Markle’s truck pulling away from her driveway, and my entire thought process changed. My wolf howled, knowing he’d been anywhere near our mate. Breathed in her scent, seeing her smile. Her scowl. Anything from her.

No matter the situation with my pack, this was personal. Markle might be a pain in the ass, but he wasn’t getting Natalie. No. Fucking. Way.

I’d run the rest of the way to her place without even thinking.

I’d had a taste of her, and my wolf had been right. She was ours. I licked my lips then grinned. She tasted like strawberries and honey.

I’d just kissed my mate.

I chuffed a low laugh in the darkness. Yeah, my situation was as fucked as it could be with the pack demanding I mate a she-wolf and my true mate turning out to be the human next door, but that didn’t stop the buoyancy in my chest at having been near her. Having kissed her. I felt like a middle school boy who’d had his first smooch or copped a quick feel.

My wolf wasn’t happy I hadn’t parted her robe, lifted her up so my dick was at her entrance and plunged into her, fucking her against the side of her house. My wolf wasn’t happy I walked away at all. If it were the full moon, I wouldn’t have been able to leave.

I might have lost control and done something regrettable because she wasn’t a wolf and didn’t know our ways. Didn’t know it had been one deep breath, and I was done for. She was mine, forever. Somehow, I’d forced myself to leave her place tonight.

Humans didn’t take kindly to being claimed before they knew a guy. At least that was what my brothers found, and I’d watched them fuck up. I didn’t want to do the same. Oh, I’d fuck up. There was no help for it. The pack was going to lose their shit when they learned the truth, especially Nathan and anyone else who thought I was steering the pack wrong. It was the outcome, besides having Natalie for a mate, that was uncertain. I hadn’t been alpha eighteen years to have it yanked for petty shit now. Who I mated wasn’t petty, but the concept of it dividing the pack… that made me the only one to resolve it because I was the one who was causing the problem.

As I arrived back at the ranch house, I realized something was up. I paused, glanced at the place with all the lights on. No one should be there.

I jogged up to find Clint’s parents’ car parked in front, along with my brother Colton’s. He and Marina were back from North Carolina. Funny how that brought a sense of relief, knowing I had both of my brothers home. Having my family back was huge.

It was as if this whole time—years—I’d been treading water, keeping the ranch going, leading the pack, doing everything expected of me except taking a mate, but none of it was for me. It was for them. For their future.

Now that they were back, I could breathe. Figure out my own future. I could think about myself and what my wolf wanted for five fucking minutes.

Although it didn’t seem like that was going to start right now because something was fucking wrong, which meant my life was about to implode.

“There he is,” Tom said from the front door, looking concerned. “You go for a run, son?” He glanced at my clothes because shifters didn’t usually run in human form.

Tom moved to the side, and Colton came out onto the porch. “Heard about the meeting.”

I growled. I really didn’t want to fucking talk about the meeting. I wanted to thump my brother on the back and welcome him home.

Like everything else when it came to being alpha, I didn’t get a break until the issue was put to bed. I said nothing, only nodded, and went past them into the house, heading straight to the kitchen. I paused in the doorway, took in the small group around the table. Clint, Levi, and the rest of the ranch hands sat with Janet and Boyd.

“What the hell are you all doing in my kitchen at midnight?” I demanded.

“Nathan Brown met with pack elders after the meeting,” Janet said in a tight voice. “We weren’t included, of course, because he knows our relationship with you, but the Thompkins told me. The elders are very concerned about your mating status and moon madness destroying the pack. Of course, they don’t want to be absorbed into the Madison Range pack—it’s not like they’re getting into bed with them. At least not the way Ginny Thompkins portrayed it. But there’s a lot of concern.”