Werewolves and Wranglers
Witch of the Wild West
Kristen Banet
Contents
1. Adalyn
2. Remy
3. Adalyn
4. Tobias
5. Adalyn
6. Adalyn
7. Easton
8. Adalyn
9. Adalyn
10. Adalyn
11. Valen
12. Adalyn
13. Adalyn
14. Remy
15. Adalyn
16. Adalyn
17. Adalyn
18. Valen
19. Adalyn
20. Easton
21. Adalyn
22. Tobias
23. Adalyn
24. Adalyn
25. Remy
26. Adalyn
27. Valen
28. Adalyn
29. Adalyn
30. Adalyn
31. Maxwell
Dear Reader,
About the Author
Also by Kristen Banet
Copyright © 2019 by Kristen Banet
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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To everyone that sticks with me.
Readers, betas, editors.
Friends and family.
Thank you.
1
Adalyn
“Wouldn’t have taken this damned job if I had remembered there was this much paperwork,” Adalyn muttered to herself. Her fountain pen moved on its own, spelled to write what she needed. Her hand was tired. She had been filing these reports all morning, and it was nearly lunch time.
Three weeks in, and she was finding the mess of being sheriff was much less enjoyable than she remembered. If anything, she realized she was an idiot for thinking the job would be easy. William used to come home and laugh at the weird things their neighbors would get into. She would spend hours listening to his stories while they meandered around the kitchen together.
Now I just want to strangle half of these gods-damned supes. We’re supposed to be better than plain old humans, not engaging in their pathetic style of drama.
She gave up, waving her hand so the fountain pen moved to rest at the top of her desk. The things she dealt with covered just about everything: from marital disputes, to humans roaming through town, and someone needing a mediator for trade. The small shit just never ended.
At least there’s no shortage of help. She smiled a little. Easton and Remy. Her deputies. While the work was new to all of them, she knew it was better because they were doing it together, finding their rhythm for it.
Her door clicked open, but she didn’t glance up to see who it was. There were only two options. It was like flipping a coin.
Am I getting the Nephilim or the hellhound?
“You look hungry,” a man said softly, closing the door behind him as he walked in.
The Nephilim. I wonder what sort of treat I’m in for now.
She looked up at that, smiling as best she could, hoping he didn’t see her exhaustion. His sapphire eyes twinkled as he returned it. Her deputy was a gorgeous and enigmatic man, with powers she couldn’t comprehend. His blonde hair was styled just so, and she was dying to run her hands through it.
With a small smirk, she considered that. He would let me. Her deputy was also her gorgeous roommate and lover.
“I am,” she replied. “Did you bring me anything?”
“No, but I was considering sending Remy to the saloon or heading over there myself to get us something.” He walked around her desk and leaned over, bringing his face level with hers. “What would you like?”
“Whatever Valen can get me. He knows what I like.” She shifted, and as she spoke, her lips grazed his.
“I want to know what you like,” he crooned. “Just tell me what you want.”
“You already know what I like,” she retorted, running a hand up one of his thighs. It traveled upward until he grabbed her wrist and yanked her up from her chair. Pulling her against his chest, he claimed her mouth.
In a second, the suggestive comment turned sweet flirtation into a hot need. He lifted her and set her on the desk, standing between her legs, already hard. “You tease,” he murmured, kissing her jaw up to her ear. His hot breath made her shiver.
“I do,” she agreed in an airy gasp as his hands squeezed her ass. They were so close, her breasts brushed his chest.
“You know I will always take you up on the offer,” he reminded her. He did. Teasing Easton was asking for more, daring him to react. “You should know better by now.”
I do, but fucking you is so much better than paperwork.
She would have said it, but he claimed her mouth before she could get a word in edgewise. She started to unbutton his vest and clean shirt, just so she could touch him. She wanted to run her hands over his smooth chest. She wanted to delight in him.
So much better than paperwork.
He moved, stopping his kisses and removing his hands slowly. He groaned as she nibbled on his neck, biting down when he tried to pull back. She bit hard enough to keep him right where she wanted him, and he responded, grinding against her, reinforcing the knowledge that her deputies loved it rough.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she demanded, realizing he was trying to break away.
“I just realized your husband is watching.” He sounded like it was funny, but there was obviously something about it that made him uncomfortable. Like it did every time.
She laughed and reached to put the photo of her and William face down, something she should have done when he dropped her on the desk. He didn’t know that William was a ghost on the property, and she wasn’t going to tell him. She also wasn’t going to tell him that her late husband knew all of the things she got up to with her deputies. She and William spoke once a week, actually, under the guise that she just needed a little time away from the house with his grave, undisturbed. Her new roommates never bothered her. They stayed locked in the house to give her privacy.
William loves hearing about them, which in the end is much stranger than Easton feeling uncomfortable with William’s picture.
He returned to devouring her the moment it was down. A very masculine groan came from him when she began to toy with his belt, hoping to take out the star of many of her best dreams.
Then he paused again, grabbing her hand with a swiftness that startled her enough to realize something serious had happened.
“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately. He did this whenever someone was walking into the building. Something she was grateful for, since they oftentimes found themselves in compromising positions.
With deputies like these, who wouldn’t want to be distracted from work all the time?
“Someone just walked in. He has magic.” Easton pulled away, giving her the space to jump off the desk. Together, they walked out, going to investigate the new magical man who walked in. She heard him fixing his pants as they went and tried to stop smiling. She nearly had him.
I’ll deal with this and get back to it.
“I’m looking for Adalyn Lovett?” She knew that voice. She knew it better than anyone’s. Rich, gentle, and sweet, those words could only belong to one man.
“And you are?” Remy posed the question politely, but she wanted to laugh.
She rounded the corner and her heart began to jump wildly at the sight.
“Tobias!”
He looked over from Remy and smiled. Tobias had his unique dark auburn hair pulled back from his face, a face she knew well with its high cheekbones and clear hazel eyes. The hazel of his eyes was a gorgeous mix of greens and browns, an earthy combination that suited him.
And just because I can’t see it doesn’t mean I’ll ever forget that ass, shaped by the hands of the gods.
Really, she was happy to see him, his stunning eyes and his perfect ass aside. This was one of her best friends. She had missed him so much.
“Oh, this is Tobias?” Easton stopped casually next to her, sliding an arm over her shoulder. She resisted leaning into him in front of Tobias, as she realized just how much her friend had missed since she last saw him in Fort Lackey.
“Tobias, you have so much catching up to do. First, I’m the new sheriff. Second, these are my two deputies, Easton.” She gestured to the Nephilim next to her. “And Remy.” She pointed to the orange-eyed one behind the desk. Her hellhound straightened at his name. He was very much like a hound in that way. He always came when called. He jumped at the mention of his name, just because it meant he could get a little love if he played his cards right. “They’re also my roommates now.”
Tobias sighed, taking it all in. She waited, hoping to see his reaction to it all. Easton kissed her cheek, nuzzling in just a little before straightening back up to his full height.
She didn’t say or do anything. Right as Tobias opened his mouth, a young shifter ran in. She wanted to groan at the sight.
Of course something serious has to happen right now. What’s a witch got to do for a break around here?
“Sheriff, there’s a few humans loaded with silver bullets! They’re going after the werewolves! Something about grazing rights!”
She didn’t take time to think on that for more than a second. Tobias and his return to Redstone would have to wait. With Easton on her heels and Remy jumping over the desk, she ran out of the building and to her horse, the black stallion Dark Prince.
She jumped on him and he sprang into action, kicking up dirt and sand as he began to head out of the town. “The Ranch!” she told him, holding tight to the reins.
The werewolves lived north of Redstone, on a huge piece of land everyone called the Ranch, with their seemingly massive herd of cattle. She knew that shifter must have been visiting the werewolves when things started if he was in town now with the news. It was quite a ride to get there and back.
They were nearly there when they heard gunfire. Adalyn wondered for a moment how this became her day. It was just any other day. There had been no reason to think at breakfast that humans were going to try and kill the pack of werewolves in the middle of her reunion with Tobias.
“Gods damn it,” she snapped, seeing humans out in the fields and the werewolves bunkered behind boxes. She pulled her revolver and fired into the air. “Break it up!” she roared. “Before I haul all of you to jail!”
“Adalyn!” Lawrence called. “Over here!”
She saw him with two females flanking him, all of them behind a bale of hay with their rifles out. She jumped off Dark Prince, letting him run on. She didn’t need him getting hit.
Remy and Easton joined her in a second, staying close.
“Stay out of our business, little bitch. This is between us and the mangy dogs!” a human yelled back.
“Since I’m the sheriff, you might want to watch your tone with me, boy!” she roared back. Mangy dogs. No one called her werewolves mangy dogs.
“Oh, they have a little lady as sheriff!” one human laughed. Next to her, Lawrence groaned. “I wonder if she bakes people in jail cookies!”
“You shouldn’t have said anything,” the werewolf Alpha whispered to her, reloading his gun. “We just need to run them off, but since it’s not a full moon, they don’t find us particularly threatening. Care to help?”
“Then you’re going to explain to me why they’re here.” She would help them get the humans out of there. As sheriff of Redstone, she had different rules to play by than most others in her position. Since these were humans, the best bet would be to get them away from the town as quickly as possible, before they became a snack or cursed in some way themselves. Humans and Redstone didn’t mix.
And now she was pissed off. Cookies? They think I bake cookies? I’ll show them what I can do.
She jumped up and aimed for the biggest hay bale in the field, where she knew some of them were hiding. With a flick of her wrist and a blast of power from her hand, the bale exploded into millions of tiny pieces, leaving four humans vulnerable, screaming in fear.
With another wave of her hand, she blew up two more of the bales, smiling as the humans realized they were dealing with someone they couldn’t write off because it was the wrong time of the month.
“Witch!” one screamed. “She’s a witch!”
“Everyone keep them moving! We don’t want any bodies!” Lawrence called out. “Run ‘em off!”
She stepped out from behind the cover and began a steady walk towards the running humans, continuing to destroy their cover with relative ease. Next to her, Easton stayed close to her, his rifle raised. She knew he was making sure no one decided to take a shot at her. Remy was running further ahead of them, snapping and snarling as the humans pulled back and retreated. He left fiery footprints in his wake, smoke coming out of his nose. He was sight to behold in his hellhound form.
While they ran, she stopped scaring them and dropped her hand. Instead, she paid attention to what they looked like. Cowboys, ranchers. These weren’t bandits, by any means. This had been an inexperienced lot thinking the werewolves were easy targets.
How did they know the Pack was even here? Do they know about the rest of Redstone?
They obviously hadn’t known about her, but she had changed that quickly enough.
Now, they were all just watching the humans jump on their horses and hightail it off the property. Several werewolves on their own horses gave pursuit, keeping the humans moving as if they were herding their livestock.
Adalyn narrowed her eyes at the scene. Where had this come from? She needed answers. “Easton, check for any wounded. Silver poisons the wolves and any trace of it needs to be removed if they got hit.”
“I can’t heal,” he reminded her softly.
“So? Yank the bullets out with your fingers if you have to. I’m going to talk to Lawrence. Tell Remy to follow the humans away from town, so we know they’re gone.”
“All right.” Easton pulled his hat off, fanning his face for a moment. She walked away, letting him get all of that done. She headed straight for Lawrence and his second, a rather intimidating werewolf with a nasty scar on his face.
“Care to tell me why those humans were here? And how they knew you were werewolves?” She crossed her arms as she positioned herself in front of the Alpha, not letting the second force her to back away.
“There’s been some trouble…” the Alpha admitted slowly. He groaned, pulling off his cowboy hat to run a hand through his hair. “Been going on since before the little demon incident last month. Haven’t wanted to bother you with it, since you’re new to the job.”
“Well, it’s time to start bothering me. A shifter came to tell me, not even one of your werewolves. Want to explain that?”
“He was here talking about a deal about shipping out some of our stock onto the market. You know the shifters. They love the human business stuff. We let them manage it all. It’s a deal I made with them years ago. We were talking semantics. I sent the shifter because if he got hurt, Pack talks would die.” Lawrence waved her to follow him inside the house at the center of the ranch. It was practically a mansion, surrounded by several other smaller homes. The werewolves lived on what amounted to a commune. They did some vegetable growing, but for the most part,
they were all hands for the Pack’s ranch and they all answered to Lawrence, the strongest of them.
“So you sent the shifter. What about the rest? Grazing rights?” She remembered that little mention from the shifter before running out of her office to get to the ranch.
Lawrence groaned as he collapsed into his seat behind his desk. She sat across from him patiently. She and the werewolf Alpha knew each other well enough that she didn’t feel the need to stand on principle. He didn’t answer her immediately, pouring himself two fingers of whiskey and knocking it back with a single swallow. Pouring another glass, he looked at her evenly.
“Those humans are pro-free grazing. They think all land in the west should be free to have their herds on. The Pack holds a choice bit of land in the area, but we’ve fenced it all off. It pisses off a lot of their type. We keep finding their cattle in our empty fields, screwing up our rotation.” Lawrence growled. “We started killing the cattle, because talks with them never work. While William was alive, we tried to stay engaged with them, returning their property, but they never listened.”
“So you’ve been destroying their property.” She sighed heavily. “Lawrence.”
“They’re destroying mine!” he snarled. “We have a herd too large to keep on part of the property and we can’t sustain another rancher’s herd when ours needs to be moved every month or so to give the land time to rejuvenate.” He slammed his glass down on his desk. “So, things have gotten more violent. These things often do. It’s a problem all over the West.”
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