by Renee Rose
When Clint learned I was pregnant with his child? Well, he seemed like the kind of guy who’d want to “do right by me and the baby” and marry me before I gave birth. Just like with my parents. I’d been an accident and so was the baby I carried. I refused to be an obligation. He wouldn’t want me to have a bastard. He’d probably be all chivalrous and save my reputation or some old-fashioned crap like that. That was what made my parents’ lives miserable.
One thing I knew for sure—I wasn’t rushing into marriage again. And definitely not for the wrong reasons. Not even with a guy as hot and dick-skilled at Clint.
The longer I stood here with my lips tingling from Clint’s kisses and the need to beg for more of them, the worse this was going to get.
“Clint, listen.” I set my hand on his chest. His rock hard, broad chest. Bad move! “I really like you—a lot.”
His brow furrowed, wariness replacing the lust I’d seen there a moment ago.
I rushed on before I could take the words back. Because God only knew, I didn’t want to say them. “We obviously share a mutual attraction.”
He frowned.
“But I’m married.”
Clint reared back as if I’d punched him. “What?”
I glanced around to see if his roar brought out the neighbors. The word sliced through me like a hot wire, leaving me in two pieces—the one piece that desperately wanted to take my words back and the other that knew this was the right thing to do.
I swallowed. “Separated two years ago but still legally married,” I explained because I didn’t want him to think I was a cheater. “I’m not… not an adulterer. I’d have been divorced eighteen months ago if Todd hadn’t blocked all my petitions.”
I looked down at the wet driveway. It almost hurt to see the look on his face now.
“So, you see, I’m not really in a position to enter a relationship or keep kissing you. Whatever you want to label it. It’s just... bad timing for me.”
When he didn’t say anything for a long time, I glanced up. His expression changed to stormy. “Bad timing,” he repeated, taking another step back. His hands clenched into fists then released. Over and over. I didn’t get the impression he was trying not to punch me, but it seemed like he was holding himself back from grabbing me. Holding me close. “Definitely.”
I swallowed the urge to apologize. Sorry wasn’t going to fix this—it just was what it was.
I’d done the right thing. We couldn’t get involved now. My life and world were far too complicated, and Todd was going to continue to ruin everything. I had to wonder if I was divorced now, if Todd had signed, if I wouldn’t push Clint away. If I would tell him about the baby. Too many ifs.
As Clint tipped his cowboy hat at me and walked to his truck, I knew the answer would be yes. I felt the strange urge to cry at the loss of something that never really got started.
That was the hormones talking.
It wasn’t real.
Just like this thing between me and Clint could never be real.
6
CLINT
* * *
Married.
Fucking married?
I waited until I’d turned off her street before I demolished my dash with a smash of my fist. The wound at my side throbbed, as if in direct response to my agitation. Fucking hell. The burn was a reminder of exactly what I’d intended to do. Not go after Becky. But I had, and in the end, she’d given me the perfect excuse not to do so.
Then why was I fucking losing my shit? Fate was a cunt.
I seriously wanted to kill someone right now, and I wouldn’t have minded if it was her husband.
Soon to be ex-husband, I hoped.
I never touched a married or claimed woman. Ever. She didn’t belong to me.
But Becky did, though. My wolf didn’t care about a legal piece of paper. A marriage was a human bond, not a shifter one. The fact that she’d ended it two years earlier meant she wasn’t with her ex. She was fair game.
To me, the man, it fucking blowed. I couldn’t mate a married human!
No matter how much my wolf wanted to turn around and keep on kissing her, I drove straight to the ranch and shot off an email to the council data-digger, some hacker who lived in Arizona. I might have pretended it had to do with shifter enforcement rather than my mate’s marital status, but I had to know everything about Becky Nichols, and this was the easiest way to do it.
She got back to me in thirty minutes—thank fuck.
What I read both infuriated and appeased me.
Becky's been separated for two years—just as she’d said—following an incident that resulted in a restraining order being filed and a legal status of separated.
A prickle of fear ran up my spine at that. The only kind of incidents that required a restraining order were ones where someone was in danger.
I growled, stood and tossed my chair across the room. Pacing the small space, I thought about how my mate had been hurt by her husband. She’d had to file papers to keep him away. She’d said he wouldn’t sign, that he’d blocked all her petitions. Still. Two fucking years later.
God fucking dammit. I was seriously going to kill the asshole.
I froze, realizing I’d been a big fucking idiot. Standing in her driveway, it had been right in front of my face. Hell, I’d replaced the fucking thing.
The tire.
Could her ex have slashed her tire? He lived in Meade, about thirty miles away. It seemed beneath a—I skimmed the data for what type of doctor the ex was—gastroenterologist to drive to the next town over just to slash his wife’s tire, but it also seemed beneath a doctor to hit his wife.
Violence wasn’t reserved for blue-collar workers, was it?
It happened in every society and every type of household. He might have driven her to file for divorce, but since it still wasn’t final, it didn’t seem like he was inclined to let her go. He was fucking with her from afar. Or right in her driveway.
Goddammit! For the second time that day, I slammed my fist down and cracked the recipient of my force—this time my desk.
I took a deep breath and let it out. Another, but wished I could still breathe in her sweet scent, not the lemon cleaner that had been used in the room recently. Fixing the chair, I settled back at the computer and kept reading the information the data-hacker sent. Becky had filed for divorce two years ago, but Dr. Todd Nichols used various legal delay tactics to block a final divorce decree from being filed. At issue seemed to be their large debt and how it would be divided up.
I opened another email. Attachments showed a house in Meade had a sizable mortgage, and liens from several home improvement contractors were filed on it. The loan was in both spouses’ names, but I couldn’t miss a bill for kitchen renovations completed six months ago in Becky’s name.
Only her name.
Which meant the douche canoe was using her to pay for shit she didn’t even know about. I wasn’t up on the legalities of marriage in Montana. Hell, never had I imagined I’d be mated to a human, let alone consider marrying one. Unless Becky’s lawyer was a complete moron, the law had to be in Todd’s favor, meaning Becky would be liable for the new kitchen solely because they were still wed.
There was more. Lots more. All indicating that Becky was being fucked over by her husband.
I leaned back in the chair, tossed my hat off and ran my hands over my face. Shame filled me. I’d added to her shit by walking away. By freaking the fuck out over what she’d said. She’d been honest and as upfront as she could be.
During the night at Cody’s, it wasn’t as if either of us were in the right mind to talk about anything beyond a condom being used. Sure, she’d been married, but legally separated and in the middle of a divorce. She’d had every right for a fun fuck. She’d also had every right not to tell me about her ex.
A slow smile spread across my face. Becky shared that little gem with me now because she wanted more than a quickie. We’d been standing beside the evidence of her ex’s la
test dick move. He’d been right there at the forefront of her thoughts. She told me the truth, all of it, because she wanted me to know the truth, know what she was up against.
That meant she wanted me. I’d do more than change a fucking tire for her. I’d finish her ex, so she didn’t have to spend a second stressing about him ever again. That was my job as her mate, to protect her in all ways.
I stood, grinned. My wolf howled and circled, eager to get back to her. To pull her into my arms and tell her everything was going to be fine. That she was safe. That her ex was going down. She had a fucking council enforcer to take care of her. Fuck, yes!
Wait. Fuck, no.
She needed protection, but it couldn’t be from me. I was a fucking council enforcer. I dealt with rogue shifters not human assholes. I wasn’t even allowed to mess with the guy, not only because he was human but because it would give away my job and the fact that I had it and shifters in general.
Audrey and Marina were both human, and while I was sure they’d been stunned to learn shifters even existed, they’d embraced it. They were part of the pack now. Audrey was even pregnant with the start of the next generation of Wolf pups. Rob had allowed the match. Hell, he’d gone so far as to go after a human female of his own, but she’d turned out to be half-shifter.
Still, Boyd, Colton and Rob weren’t enforcers. They didn’t have shifter blood on their hands like I did. They didn’t have their purpose within the pack kept a secret.
What the fuck was I going to do? I couldn’t stay away knowing what I did about Becky’s ex. Not when I’d gotten a whiff of her scent again and confirmation from my wolf that she was mine.
I had to talk to Rob, the only one within the Wolf pack who knew the whole truth about me. I had to figure this shit out and soon. It might have been just a tire today, but what would be next?
7
BECKY
* * *
“I’m sorry, ma’am. This card has been denied.”
After waiting an hour in Bishop’s small waiting area for the tires to be replaced, the scent of old coffee and motor oil making my stomach queasy then desperate for forbidden caffeine. I was hungry and tired and cranky. Mostly cranky. While I’d played a stupid game on my phone, my thoughts had veered to Clint.
Why had he come by? He lived on the other side of the mountains at Wolf Ranch. It made no sense why he was on my street unless to see me. Had he driven over twenty miles just for me?
His kiss said yes. His response to the bomb that I was married not so much. Well, maybe even more so. It didn’t matter though. It was over. Very over. No honorable guy messed around with a married woman. Clint was honorable. I knew it. He might be a dirty-talking horndog, but when his dick wasn’t hard, he was a nice guy. I hadn’t had time to prove that, but I just knew.
No way would he be friends with any of the Wolf brothers otherwise.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked, blinking at the guy.
“Denied.” He held up the credit card and offered me an expression that screamed whoops!
After all this, the card machine was clearly broken. I hadn’t made it into work yet and would have to work over lunch to make up the lost time.
“Could you try it again please?” I asked, starting to feel panicked.
He gave me a sympathetic smile. “I did. Twice.”
He handed me the card.
“Twice?”
He nodded.
There was no reason for the card to be turned down. I paid my bill in full each month because I didn’t like to be in debt. At least, not in debt more than I already was being tied to Todd. The tires would eat into my budget, but I’d be able to pay for them if I watched my pennies this month.
I offered him a small smile and held up a finger. “I’ll be right back.”
Moving to stand in the corner of the small shop’s waiting area, I called the number on the back of the card. After pushing a whole bunch of numbers to get me to a customer service representative, the person finally told me that my husband shut off my card the day before.
My husband.
Bile rose in my throat at what Todd was now doing. Not only had he slashed my tire, he’d shut off my card, so I couldn’t pay for it. As my husband, he was able to do so. I just had no idea how he’d gotten the card number. It was a new card. I’d signed up for it after I’d left him.
I glanced out the plate glass window and down Main Street. There hadn’t been enough snow for the streets to need plowing, but there were big piles of it from the last storm. I saw the bank the next block down, and my blood ran cold. If he could get to my credit card, he could—
Dashing over to the desk, I shoved the small amount of cash in my wallet I had at the mechanic. “Here. This is good faith. I’ll be back to pay you. Keep the car. I have to run to the bank.”
I didn’t wait for him to reply but bolted out the door and down the street, my boots splashing through the small puddles. Thankfully, Cooper Valley was tiny, and most stores and businesses were within blocks of each other. I burst through the bank’s entrance with a gust of cold wind and definite dread.
It took ten minutes to learn that Todd had withdrawn all the money in my personal checking account, and I was, in fact, overdrawn since my electricity bill was set to auto-pay.
While the bank teller hadn’t done anything wrong, in fact, she’d been following the law, she looked really upset about my situation. Her pity only made me want to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to rip my hair out. I wanted to rip Todd’s head off and shove it up his tiny ass.
I went out onto the sidewalk because there was nothing else the bank could do for me. I’d checked to see if Todd had an account, wanting to take his money out like he had done with mine. But no. Of course not.
The cold breeze raced down the street. I didn’t care. I was already numb. Before Todd got another dime of my money, I called human resources at the hospital and explained the situation and asked them to immediately switch my paycheck off of direct deposit. If I had to hide cash in a can in the backyard, that was what I’d do to keep it away from Todd.
In order to get the money, I had to make it, which meant I had to get my ass to work. I walked back to the mechanic, trying to think about how I was going to pay him all the while hoping he’d be kind enough to drop me off at the hospital.
When I cut across the street, I stopped at the curb. Stared... then blinked. Leaning against a shiny black Mercedes was Todd. His arms were crossed, and he was smiling at me. He wasn’t quite six feet tall and had a slim build. He had a personal trainer although any money he spent was wasted since he didn’t look the least bit fit. On his feet were his signature loafers, even in the crappy weather. And his car… how the hell was it so shiny after the storm and the sloppy roads?
I looked like hell, having only eaten the avocado toast earlier. I was in my scrubs, my hair pulled back in a ponytail beneath my knit hat.
Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones. Maybe it was because he was a total fucking asshole, but I lost it. He’d stolen money from me. Money I needed to pay rent. Electricity. Food. He didn’t give a shit. No, he did. He gave a shit that I left, and he was forcing me to come back to him by bleeding me dry.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I screamed, waving my arms and approaching Todd, getting in his face. I hadn’t seen him in months, not since the last court visit, and that had been with lawyers present. And a judge.
“What’s the matter, honey?” His eyebrow rose in mock confusion.
“You know what’s the matter. You stole money from my bank account. You cancelled my credit card!” I practically shook with fury.
He frowned. “How could I steal from my own wife? It’s not your money. It’s our money.”
It was possible the top of my head blew off then and there. There was no our.
“Ma’am, is everything all right?” The mechanic must have come out when I started shouting. Bless his heart for checking on me, but there was nothing he could do for the hurt Tod
d had already caused me.
“My wife is being irrational. I will take her home.” He reached out to take my arm, but I wrenched it away.
“We are legally separated,” I snapped. “We’d be divorced if you just signed the fucking papers.”
“Language, honey,” he said in a patronizing tone.
“I have a restraining order for you to stay away from me.”
He held up his hands as if I was the one who’d messed with him. “You’re the one who approached me. How was I to know you’d be here?”
“You slashed my tire, asshole. That’s how you knew I’d be here. You’re a dead man, Todd. Dead. You’ve fucked with me for the last time.”
I spun on my heel and stormed off, not waiting to ask the mechanic for a ride. I doubted he’d give one to a lunatic like me, especially after the ridiculous threats I’d spouted. Several other people were watching my little tantrum, but I didn’t care. I was done. D-O-N-E.
I wanted to cry, but I was too angry. I knew I would, later, when the adrenaline wore off.
As I walked the mile to the hospital, I ate the crackers from my purse. The entire sleeve of them. I would normally have been freezing on the way, but I had my anger to keep me warm. I had no idea what the fuck I was going to do. Todd wouldn’t stop until I gave in, and that was the last thing I would ever do. I wasn’t going back to him. I saw him for what he was now.
Insane and perhaps even dangerous.
It wasn’t just me I had to worry about now. It was little peanut, too. I wouldn’t let Todd get anywhere near my child. It was only so long, though, that thick sweaters and heavy coats would hide my growing belly. If he was this crazy now, what would it be like when he found out I was having another man’s baby? Where would he stop? Slashed tire and empty bank account today. What would he do tomorrow?
8
CLINT
* * *
I couldn’t sleep. There was no fucking way I could while thinking about seeing Becky fix her own flat tire. Not just flat. Slashed. I’d respected her request that I leave, but that didn’t mean I was abandoning her. Hell no. Space, she got. She also got me, and I was going to figure out what the hell was up with her ex. It was how I could protect her. For now.
