by Renee Rose
“Another push when you feel the urge. No, wait for the urge,” I coached. The monitors showed another contraction, and Alana pushed. “That’s it.” A tiny dark-haired head slid out, and I cradled it in my gloved hands.
“Oh my God!” Alana’s husband gulped, tears in his voice. He stood by her side holding her hand. “The head is out, angel.”
Alana gave a sob. Her body pushed again, and one shoulder slid out, then another.
“You’re there!” I told her. On the next push, the slippery bundle slid into my hands. “You did it! It’s a girl.”
“A girl! Oh my God, we have a girl!” Alana wept, as I set the newborn on her chest. Becky covered her with a warm blanket and rubbed her back. Her husband wept.
Becky wept.
I blinked back the film of tears from my eyes and gave a watery laugh.
This moment was why I’d chosen to be an ObGyn. Even as grounded in science as I was and always have been, I was always moved by the miracle of birth. Nature at its most beautiful. Most joyful. It didn’t mean every situation was happy, and I didn’t encounter my share of sad tears, too. For the most part, it was an upbeat profession.
I helped Alana with the afterbirth, then waited to cut the cord. Alana was one of those all-natural-kind-of women who knitted their own baby caps before birth and had strong opinions about how much medical intervention they wanted. She’d read that her baby needed its cord blood, and it was better to delay the cutting. I saw no harm in delaying. Instead of untethering the baby and giving her to Becky to clean up, I let Alana continue to hold her.
Becky and I quietly picked up and set the bed back to rights. I chucked my gloves in the biohazard can, then washed my hands at the sink.
“We’ll give them a few minutes, then we can cut the cord and get the stats,” I murmured to Becky as she came over.
I had the luxury of time in Cooper Valley. It was one of the enormous perks of the job. Sure, sometimes things got hectic at the hospital, but for the most part, we could take time with our patients, unlike where I’d done my residency in inner city Chicago.
“I told you this before, but I like the way you do things, Dr. Ames,” she whispered.
“And I told you before, you need to quit that and call me Audrey,” I replied, with a wry turn of my lips. It was a small town, and Becky had worked at the hospital for almost a decade. I wasn’t going to insist the hospital staff call me Dr. Ames. I wasn’t here for a power trip. Besides, she wasn’t more than two years older than me, and I thought of her as a friend.
She smiled and waggled her eyebrows. “I forgot to tell you there’s a giant bouquet of flowers at the nurses’ station with your name on the card. From Jett Markle. Guess he’s really smitten with you.”
“Ugh.” Why wouldn’t he stop?
She snorted out a laugh. “Did you just say ugh?”
“Yes,” I moaned, then remembered to keep my voice down. I moved to the doorway, and she followed. We didn’t need to ruin a new family bonding moment detailing my unexciting dating life. “We had one date, and it wasn’t great. I don’t know why he won’t get the hint.”
“Not interested in the big shot rancher, huh? I thought you’d make a great couple.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Why?”
She laughed and shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re the cute new doctor.”
My scoff cut her off. As if. Doctor, yes. Cute, no.
“You heard me, the cute new single doctor in town, and he’s the rich new rancher. I guess that’s stupid.” She gave me a thoughtful look. “If not him, then what’s your type?”
The image of Boyd Wolf rose up in my mind, unbidden. Tousled sandy hair, sly smile, pale eyes, shoulders as wide as a doorway and abs ridged enough to climb. I couldn’t forget those clever lips of his or that tongue…
Oh gawd. My nipples got hard beneath my scrubs just remembering all the things he’d done to me yesterday, and I crossed my arms over my chest. It was crazy. No, I was crazy. I had been then, letting him open my jeans, tug them down and get me off with a speed that had to be a record. In a barn. While there was lots of space on the property, I hadn’t been all that quiet. I blushed, even now, with the possibility someone had overheard. I’d barely slept the night before thinking about it all. Reliving it. I’d even pulled out my vibrator to ease the ache, but the orgasm had been weak in comparison to what Boyd had wrung from me.
I was ruined for all other orgasms, that was for sure.
As for Boyd himself, he’d been into me. I remembered the way he touched me, kissed me, licked me. He’d been practically ravenous. For me. I doubted he was hard up for female companionship, and there were much more appealing women out there than me. I wasn’t ever going to grow the extra seven or eight inches to be a supermodel. I could train for a marathon and still have a big butt. And unless I stopped down at the plastic surgeon’s office, I wasn’t ever going to offer more than small B boobs. But I’d seen how hard he’d been through his jeans. How pleased he’d been when I’d come. How he’d licked his fingers. Licked his fingers!
“Um, I like a cowboy, in theory, just not Jett. He was overbearing, condescending and a bore.”
Becky huffed out a laugh. “Well, don’t put too fine a point on it!”
“No kidding, right? You can have a volunteer take the flowers to one of the floors and give them to a patient without any visitors or family.”
“You should come to Cody’s tonight. You work way too many hours and haven’t once joined us out for fun. How will you ever meet anyone if you only stay within these four walls? Wait, how did you meet Jett Markle, anyway?”
I rolled my eyes, gave Alana and family a glance, then looked to Becky. “Produce section at the grocery store. What’s Cody’s?” I asked.
She gave a light scoff. “See? The fact that you don’t know the best—and only—local haunt for nightlife tells me you’ve been living like a hermit. Come out with me tonight. I’ll introduce you to the nice cowboys. It’ll be fun.”
Once more, I tried to push the image of Boyd out of my mind. He wouldn’t be one of the nice cowboys she wanted to introduce me to. Maybe someone like Abe. He was handsome and nice. And that was a good thing. Why then, was I so unexcited about the prospect of meeting anyone else? Why was I no longer interested in nice? That was so stupid. I definitely had to get out, get my mind off the sexy rodeo champ and meet the man of my dreams.
I glanced at the new family again. That was what I wanted. A doting husband, a new baby, the promise a brand-new family of three had for the future.
“You definitely should go,” Alana said. I looked over in surprise to see her grinning at me. Her hair was slicked back with sweat, her cheeks flushed.
Her husband, who had his arm draped gently around his wife’s shoulders, gave her a squeeze. “That’s where we first hooked up.”
I frowned in confusion.
“Yep. At Cody’s. After my sister puked all over the dance floor.” She laughed.
I went to grab a tiny knitted hat from a drawer. “All right,” I said to Becky, surprising myself. “Let’s do it, minus the throw up. What time?”
Becky smiled. “Let’s say eight o’clock. Wear your cowgirl boots.”
My smile drooped. “What if I don’t have cowgirl boots?”
She elbowed me. “Kidding. I was kidding. You can wear anything you want, except scrubs.”
I looked down at myself. “No problem.”
“You should get a pair of cowgirl boots,” Alana said, then kissed the top of her daughter’s head. She had lots of dark hair like her father. “Don’t you agree, Anabelle?”
“Anabelle,” her husband choked. “It’s perfect. She’s perfect.”
“She sure is.” I went over and gave the hat to dad to slip on the newborn to help her stay warm. I grabbed new gloves from the dispenser on the wall, then clamped and cut the cord. Their happiness lifted me out of all my misgivings about proper attire or good-looking rodeo champs.
There was a n
ew baby in the world, and her name was Anabelle. She was going to continue to bring endless joy to the world, simply by being alive.
If only everything was so miraculous and beautiful.
10
BOYD
“Here comes trouble,” Levi, one of the ranch hands, muttered at the sound of hooves trotting up our drive. A bunch of us were sitting on the corral fence watching Sam, another of the ranch hands—and fellow pack member—tame the new stallion he’d bought.
It was always tricky at first. Horses that weren’t foaled on the ranch had to get used to the shifter scent. Even the tamest of horses acted wild when we first brought them in. They didn’t want to submit to humans that smelled like wolves.
I thought of Audrey, of how skittish she’d been the day before, how quickly she’d bolted after I’d tried to tame her. With my tongue. I shifted on the top rail, my dick getting hard without any room for it to fit.
I looked down the drive at the man riding toward us, squinting slightly into the bright sun. The day was hot, the sky blue. At least for now. Later in the afternoons, clouds usually built up over the mountains bringing storms.
Under the brim of his hat, I saw an unfamiliar face. I pegged him at late thirties. He rode stiffly, his spine straight, his hold on the reins too taut. He sure as fuck didn’t know how to ride a horse.
“Who is that?” I murmured in case he was a shifter and had hearing as good as ours.
“Jett Markle,” Rob replied, his voice as flat as usual. “He bought Didi’s Double D ranch awhile back. The spread on the other side of Old Man Shefield’s place.”
I hadn’t been back much in the decade since I’d graduated and bolted like a wild mustang, but I remembered Didi and why her place was called the Double D. I’d heard from Rob the place had sold but hadn’t given it more thought. Until now.
“He’s an asshole,” Rob added, tipping his chin down but kept his gaze on the visitor. Markle was a human on pack land. Rob might appear calm, but I sensed the tightly coiled tension in him.
I took his comment with a grain of salt because shifters didn’t think much of most humans. Rob, especially. He’d liked Old Man Shefield, our next door neighbor, but that was only because we’d known him since we were kids. We’d swam in his swimming hole. He’d been a good neighbor to our parents and offered a lot of support to Rob after they died. Even at eighteen, Rob hadn’t accepted much help, but the guy had offered it nonetheless.
Markle trotted up and sat on his horse instead of dismounting. He didn’t loosen his hold on the reins, despite the fact that they were no longer moving. “Howdy.”
Rob sniffed, and I knew he was taking in the man on the wind. I picked up heavy cologne, soap and the tang of his sweat. Looking at him, I knew he wasn’t from around these parts. While his clothes looked casual, they were expensive and too clean. No way he’d saddled the animal nor would he brush him down when he returned to his stable. Nah, he wouldn’t want to muss his manicure. What fucker buffed his nails?
Levi and I waited for Rob, as our alpha, to respond first. Rob waited a beat, then another, like Markle wasn’t worth his time. “How’s it going?” Rob asked in the bored tone that implied he didn’t give a shit how Markle answered.
“Not good. I think there’s a wolf or wolves in these parts.” He glanced behind us at the open land, as if he were looking now for the animals. “I saw prints on my land, and I’m missing one of my herd.”
Rob bristled and the ripple of irritation ran through all of us. We were a pack, and pack animals were completely in tune with their alpha. Rob was blasting annoyance, and we’d all felt it.
Of course, Markle hadn’t because he was just a human. Frail and inferior. And, clearly, an asshole.
I thought of a different human, much smaller and curvier. Sweeter and not an asshole. Audrey, my wolf whispered, missing her. I was going to do as Rob commanded and stick to her like fucking glue, but I knew she’d need some time. I’d got her off real good and needed to be patient for the chance to do it again.
I still didn’t understand how it could be that my wolf had picked a human for us to mate, but the message was undeniable. Audrey Ames was mine.
“You found a carcass?” Rob demanded, stirring me from my thoughts. For once, I was thankful for his gruffness because it did a damned good job of killing the hard-on the thoughts of Audrey had brought about.
“No, but I’m missing one head.”
“Probably wandered off.”
Levi and I nodded our agreement.
No fucking way a wolf killed one of his cattle. There weren’t any lesser wolves—what we called the plain wolves, the non-shifting variety—in the area because our pack had marked its territory. Sure, there were plain wolves in Montana, especially now since the rangers had released some in Yellowstone National Park, but not on Wolf Ranch. Not anywhere near Cooper Valley.
Shifter wolves were the dominants in the species. Lesser wolves would never hunt on our grounds. And a shifter would never kill a cow. We liked to eat beef, but on a roll with some cheese and ketchup like everyone else. Most of the pack were ranchers like us, and they knew better than to cause trouble with the locals that way. They might go out hunting, but they’d be killing deer or rabbits, not cattle.
The asshole was lying.
“It did not wander off,” Markle snapped and his horse sidestepped in fear. He tugged on the reins which yanked at the bit in the animal’s mouth. I had to stop the growl in my throat. None of us liked to see a horse mistreated, even through ignorance.
“I’ve never seen a wolf in these parts,” Levi drawled, his outright lie bonding the rest of us to him. It was always us against them as far as pack policy with humans, and right now, we were very much against Markle. I couldn’t see the city slicker out there on the range counting head every day. Unless he had three cows, I doubted he’d be able to tell one was gone.
“Yeah, me neither,” Johnny said, the youngest of our pack, as he strode over from the stable. With him were two other guys, Clint and Joe. They must’ve heard the approach, heard some of the conversation, or at least their alpha’s anger, from wherever they’d been working.
Markle glanced down at the twenty-year old and spluttered in anger. “I saw prints on my ride over here.”
“On your property?” Levi asked in disbelief because none of us would’ve run on a human’s land.
Rob shot Levi a look because his question was the wrong one to ask. Our story was that there were no wolves not that wolves hadn’t been on Markle’s property.
“Probably a dog’s,” I offered, to cover the mistake. “Our border collie might have ventured over your way. I think there’s a bitch in heat down the road he’s been howling to get at.”
Markle shook his head. “It’s a wolf. I came here to let you know because you have cattle, too. We need to organize a party and hunt the thing, or he’s going to cull both our herds.”
Levi let out a low growl beside me. I elbowed him in the ribs.
“I don’t think that’s necessary.” I jumped off the fence and sauntered over to the asshole, turning on my charm. I tipped my hat back and looked up at him, absently patting his animal’s sweaty neck. “But we’ll keep an eye out. If we see any signs of wolf, we’ll let you know.”
Markle frowned at me. “Who are you?”
“That’s Boyd, my younger brother,” Rob said, stalking over to stand beside me. Even though I’d grown up and left the ranch, stood shoulder to shoulder in height, he still thought he needed to protect me.
“The rodeo champ,” Markle commented, studying me in a different light. It was as if I had value, if only for being famous. “I’ve heard of you.”
I wasn’t surprised. It was a small town, and there wasn't much to talk about. The fact that the nation’s champion bull rider came from Cooper Valley was a source of pride for the human locals. The ones who didn’t know there was no real reason to be impressed because I had nothing to fear from a pissed off bull. I actually had to ho
ld myself back, or I’d give away that there was something very different about me. I’d been fine with it for a while, back when I was young and cocky. Well, cockier than I was now. It lost its appeal pretty fast when there was no goal besides having fun. Sure, the money was great, but my life had been… shallow. Just like the women I’d fucked.
I had a different goal now, and she wasn’t shallow at all.
I tipped my hat. “Nice to meet you.”
He scowled like the feeling wasn’t mutual. Which was fine since I’d lied through my teeth, anyway. He turned his attention back to Rob. “We need to hunt this wolf. Now. I’m about to double the size of my ranch and—”
“What do you mean double?” Rob interrupted.
“I’ve got an offer in on the Shefield property. Old Shefield left it to a young niece who has no interest in ranching. From what the Realtor said, she’s still in college and most likely won’t be able to cover the cost of the taxes to keep the place. She’ll take my offer. And then I’m going to double my herd.”
I detected another growl from one of the guys behind us.
If I weren’t standing so close, I’d be growling too. I hadn’t taken much interest in Wolf Ranch since I’d been gone, but I sure as hell felt strongly about this. No fucking way we wanted Markle to be our next-door neighbor. Having one property between us was going to be bad enough, especially not with his stance on wolves.
We had to make sure that deal fell through.
“Well, if you guys won’t track some wolves with me, I’ll rustle up some hunters at Cody’s tonight,” Markle said, scanning all of us. We weren’t all here, but there were six of us, and we were all big. None of us liked him. He had to sense that, or he was as dumb as a nail in a fence post.
“Keep off this property, or we’re going to have a problem,” Rob growled. Yeah, Markle’d be pretty dumb to not miss his lack of welcome either.
