Desert Moon (The Wolves of Twin Moon Ranch Book 1)

by Anna Lowe

  The wooden building stood a few feet above ground level to let cool air circulate underneath. A low, sloping roof kept out both the sun and prying eyes. Benches lined both sides of the interior, while the middle was left open. He glanced around the uncluttered space, wishing everything in his life could be that way.

  Tina, his sister, was already there, wearing her trademark no-nonsense look. She sat in her usual spot to the right of their father’s heavy oak chair. Ty stood stiffly in front of the empty chair while Cody filed into the room, followed by several of their senior packmates.

  Ty nodded to Atsa to start, and their visitor came right to the point.

  “You’ve heard the reports.”

  Oh, he’d heard the reports, all right. He reminded himself not to growl in frustration. Atsa’s coyote pack were good neighbors. Although the wolves were relative newcomers to this region, having only staked their claim two centuries ago, the packs had learned to coexist. Keeping humans ignorant of their true nature was one common interest; controlling any incursions by rogue shifters was another.

  “Yes, I’ve heard.”

  Over the past two weeks, reports of rogue activity had been trickling in: a few dead sheep here, a human murdered there. Ty knew as well as Atsa did that most shifters were peaceable and law-abiding souls who lived by a strict code of honor—one that many humans could stand to emulate. Rogues, however, recognized no laws, pack or human.

  “You remember Yas?” The name thudded off Atsa’s tongue.

  He nodded. The white coyote—hence his name: Yas, or Snow. Yas had always stirred up trouble. White men invaded our land, he’d rant. They must be driven away. Wolves are arrogant bastards who don’t deserve to share our ancestral lands. Yas had even struck out at his own kind within the coyote pack. Eventually, things went too far and a fellow shifter was killed. As great-grandson of the coyote alpha, Yas received the relatively light sentence of banishment. Death would have been the wiser choice.

  “I remember,” Ty grumbled, grinding his teeth over every word.

  Atsa sighed, and every line on his ancient face deepened. “It is he who stirs up trouble. Scouts believe they have caught his scent to the west. Yas, and others who are…unclean.”

  “Rogues,” Ty corrected, and all eyes jumped to him. Why dance around the point? Rogues were rogues, and the danger was real. He returned each look with his own burning stare until each and every man dropped his eyes in submission. Then he glanced back at Atsa, tempering his stare for the old man. An elder was an elder, to be respected and revered even if the old man didn’t keep his pack as tightly disciplined as Ty would have liked. “Where are they now?”

  Tina folded and re-folded her hands at the periphery of his vision, signaling for him to stay cool. His sister, the diplomat.

  Atsa’s expression conveyed the weariness of a man betrayed. “They cover their tracks well and move quickly…”

  If it had been a man of lesser standing beating around the bush, Ty would have snapped. He settled for a pointed stare, feeling his packmates’ scrutiny. It had become so familiar, this sense of a collectively held breath, of an audience leaning forward, hoping to see the trapeze artist fall. Would Ty prove himself a worthy successor to his father?

  “And?” His prompt came out as a bark, aimed more at his packmates than Atsa.

  “And…” The senior coyote shook his head. “I fear he plans to come home. And not alone.”

  “Home.” He made it a statement, not a question. Yas hadn’t been seen or heard from in years. And coming back… That shouldn’t be possible. Yas could never come home. If he tried, there’d be more trouble, more bloodshed. Then again, that might be just what Yas was after.

  If the threat had come from any other rogue, he wouldn’t be as concerned. But Yas was ambitious. Clever. Pure evil and only half sane. Oh yes, Ty remembered him well.

  He let Atsa’s silence say the rest. The coyotes had no idea where or when the rogues might strike. Coyotes were notoriously hard to track—harder even than the cleverest wolf.

  He turned to Cody. “When are Zack and Rae due back?” Surely the pack’s best tracker and his skilled huntress of a mate could root out the rogues—if they got back from Wyoming in time.

  Cody gave an apologetic shake of his head, side to side. “Not for another week. And we haven’t been able to get in touch.”

  He bit back a curse. Just when the pack needed their expertise most…and he could use Zack’s steady presence just about now. Hell, he could use a trip of his own sometime, and a mate to go with him.

  He jutted his chin left, then right. No use wishing for what he couldn’t have. An alpha led, and led alone.

  “Send out the scouts,” he told Cody, cold and curt, just the way his father delivered orders. “Double the patrols.”

  When Cody nodded and strode out of the council house, Ty made a mental note to check his brother’s thoroughness the minute the meeting ended, just in case. Because with Cody, you never knew.

  The door to the council house opened, emitting a thick shaft of sunshine that spotlit the knotted pinewood floor. Ty let his eyes drift for a moment, then cleared his throat. “We’ll keep each other informed,” he grunted then dismissed Atsa with a nod and a downward flick of his eyes. Ty’s father wouldn’t have bothered with the gesture. As alpha of Twin Moon pack and host of this meeting, he didn’t have to offer old Atsa that extra sign of respect. But the coyote was as old as the hills, and Ty had been taught to respect that generation. In part, he had to admit to some fascination, too. Atsa’s inner calm intrigued him, the antithesis of his father’s blustery style.

  He sensed Atsa studying him, and wondered whether the old coyote approved of him as Twin Moon’s new alpha. Of course, his father was still nominally in charge, but everyone knew the handover of power had already begun.

  Atsa gave a cryptic nod and made for the open door then for his truck outside. In forty minutes, the old coot would be back on his home turf, west of the ranch. South of their territories was Seymour Ranch, whose human owners were ignorant of their neighbors’ special abilities. The northern edge of wolf country melted into the rugged hills, unclaimed and largely unwanted land, and the highway delineated the eastern edge of their realm. Trouble in the form of rogues could come from any direction, and the pack would have to protect everyone. Humans, too. If the rogues started taking outside victims, there’d be investigations, unwanted attention.

  He ignored Tina’s hint of a cough. The others assembled in the council house could wait for his dismissal until he was good and ready to give it.

  As the coyotes drove off, he shook his head. Had he really been wishing for a challenge? Now he had it—trouble on two fronts. His eyes slid in the direction of the guest house.

  There couldn’t have been a worse time.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The dining hall was filled with aroma and noise: the honey-tinged fragrance of roast ham, the sugary smell of sweet potato, the babble of voices. But all Ty heard—or tasted—were hushed tones and whispered warnings. Communal dinner night was a twice-weekly event at the ranch, and for him, it was a chance to discretely touch base with his most trusted men. Ty wanted them to be ready for the worst while keeping news of the rogues quiet. There was no need to alarm the others.

  Yet.

  Around him, voices chattered, plates clattered. Most of the hundred-plus shifters living locally were in the dining hall, plus a few from more isolated parts of the ranch. Like Kyle, the cop turned shifter who was approaching the head table now. Kyle was the newest member of the pack, and he hadn’t settled in yet—if he ever would. You could tell from the twitch of his eyes, his constantly clenched jaw. If it hadn’t been for Tina’s soft spot for outcasts, a loose cannon like Kyle would never have been admitted to the pack. But Tina had been right to back him. Kyle hadn’t caused any trouble, except maybe for stirring up jealous rivalries among the women. He’d proven valuable time and time again, providing inside information from state law enforceme
nt agencies.

  “You’ve got nothing?” Ty demanded, keeping his voice pitched low. Not that anyone dared sit close enough to him to overhear…at least not without an invitation. Only Tina, who tilted the vegetable bowl at him in another hint. Although she was younger than him, she’d started mothering him a long time ago.

  Kyle shook his head bitterly. The man hated failure nearly as much as Ty did. “Nothing to pin down the rogu—” he broke off the word sharply, perhaps considering how close he himself had come to turning rogue. He looked around, then leaned closer. “Not yet.”

  “Not yet,” Ty muttered, then dismissed Kyle with a curt wave.

  A little too curt, maybe. He caught the sag in Kyle’s shoulders, the tightening of his jaw. A reaction he’d seen a thousand times when packmates turned away with his father. His shoulders stiffened. Did he really want to be the same way?

  “Just keep on it,” he added, a little softer than before. His version of soft was still on the pebbly side, but hell, at least he was trying.

  Kyle’s cheek quirked—the closest either one of them ever got to a smile—and he turned and left.

  Ty glanced down to find mere scraps on his plate and tried to recall what he’d just shoveled down for dinner. He could barely remember going through the motions of eating. Well, rogue or no rogue, he wouldn’t let dessert get by him that easily. Not with key lime pie on the menu. He shoved back from the table and stalked across the room, barely acknowledging the packmates scurrying out of his way.

  Cody was already at the dessert table, helping himself to a double serving as he joked to the person next to him. “Aren’t you worried about getting fat?”

  Ty stiffened when he saw who it was: Lana, waiting her turn. She crinkled her nose at the comment. “You’re the one with two pieces.”

  Sassy thing. She’d probably burn through a thousand calories just fidgeting at the table.

  Sensing his presence, Cody froze, then grabbed the nearest woman and made a quick exit. “Beth, honey! Going to the movie tonight?”

  Lana watched them go with an amused expression that faltered the moment she spotted Ty. “Hi,” she mumbled, her eyes meeting his. The blue hues of her irises were so varied and vivid, he could swear they were swirling and changing as he looked on.

  “Hi,” he said. Well, he tried to. His lips moved but the sound didn’t quite make it out. He struggled to remember where he was and why.

  Right, dessert. He reached for a piece of pie exactly when Lana did. Their hands froze halfway to the platter, both wavering over the key lime pie. The last slice.

  “Cody!” He cursed under his breath.

  Lana pulled back. “You take it.”

  “No, you.”

  Her eyes narrowed at him. Crap. He hadn’t meant for it to come out as an order, but she was already gritting her teeth.

  “No, you,” she ground out.

  “I’m good.” He tried taking the edge off his voice, but he was badly out of practice.

  Lana studied him so closely he would swear she could see into his childhood memories. Her nostrils flared, and he saw her catch a breath and hold it. Then she slowly exhaled and turned to the platter, scooping the last piece onto the last plate. She forked it roughly in half and held it between them with icy determination.

  “We’ll share,” she growled.

  The alpha in him both bristled and admired her pluck. The wolf licked his lips—and not for the pie.

  Her eyes flickered, focusing on something in his. He noticed an outer edge of green in her eyes that he’d missed before, like the foam that slid off the crests of waves.

  “Trouble today?” she asked, keeping her voice down.

  Trouble? So she’d noticed the meeting. “No trouble,” he insisted.

  She snorted. “I do that, too.”

  “Do what?”

  “Pretend.”

  Ty blinked. “I don’t pretend.”

  “Then what’s the trouble?” She took a bite of pie and licked a smudge of cream off her lips.

  A breath caught in his throat, and a word slipped past his lips before he could catch it. “Rogues.”

  Her face hardened as some dark memory rocketed through her eyes. “Confirmed report?”

  “Not yet, but…”

  She nodded, letting him trail off. In an absent movement, her right arm rubbed briefly over her left, where a wicked scar trailed out of her sleeve.

  “Trouble?” he murmured, eyes on the scar. For a shifter to scar, it must have been bad.

  She yanked the sleeve down. “No trouble.”

  I do that, too, he wanted to say. Pretend. His gut warmed with something strangely close to pride. This East Coast wolf wasn’t just sassy; she was tough.

  Lana shrugged and brought her fork up to her mouth. “You should see the rogue who gave me that scar. Except he’s dead, along with his pals.” She took a vengeful bite.

  He wondered just how many rogues there’d been against how many on Lana’s side. He was about to ask when a voice shoved between them, wielding a sledgehammer.

  “Ty! Ty!” He felt a soft arm slink around his and fought the instinct to flinch. “Ty, I’ve missed you,” Audrey murmured, her tongue all but making contact with his ear. He eased out an elbow, trying to edge away from her fleshy breasts. The bleached blonde turned to give Lana a predatory smile. “Aren’t you going to introduce us, Ty?”

  He cast a desperate eye around the dining hall. Where was Cody when he needed him? “Audrey, meet Lana,” he murmured, searching for a way out.

  “Hmpf,” Audrey said by way of greeting. “You’ll get fat eating all that pie.”

  He could tell a retort was trying to itch its way out of Lana, but she swallowed it along with another bite of the pie. He needed to brush Audrey off, pronto. What if Lana thought he actually went for Audrey’s type? He shot a mental command across the room. Cody, get your ass back here now!

  “Staying long?” Audrey asked of Lana. His ears leaped to attention.

  “Just a few days.”

  Why the rush?

  “Will we see you later?” Audrey asked. “It’s movie night, you know.” She nestled closer and gave him a bedroom look, like she couldn’t wait for the lights to go down. “You’re coming, aren’t you, Ty?”

  He shook his head. “Work.” Thank God.

  “We have our own little theater, you know,” Audrey boasted to Lana. “The boys converted the old barn.”

  “Nice.” Lana nodded. “But I prefer open space.”

  His wolf perked up his ears, liking what he heard.

  “So you won’t be coming?” Audrey didn’t sound disappointed. “Too bad. You could stuff your face with all the popcorn you like.”

  Lana sidestepped the jab. “I need to run.”

  God, I could use a run, too.

  “Are you sure that’s safe?” Audrey asked, looking hopeful that it wasn’t. “Just keep to the property.”

  Lana nodded, venturing the slightest smile. Ty itched to reach out and coax the rest out of her, but his fists stayed clenched by his sides.

  “Audrey!” Cody appeared, flashing a Broadway grin. The cavalry had finally arrived. “How’s my girl?” he said, stooping to give Audrey a peck on the cheek.

  She gave him a halfhearted kiss. “One of your girls, you mean.”

  “Life is short, sweetheart.” With a wink that could have been aimed at Ty, Lana, or Hollywood, Cody danced Audrey away, murmuring about back row seats in the theater.

  They slipped out of the periphery of his vision and immediately ceased to exist, at least as far as he was concerned. The room began to hum and throb, and his vision narrowed to a tunnel that pushed out everything but Lana. Her eyes pulled him in and made his heart thump low and hard. Or was that her heart? They were only inches apart now. The air shimmered around them like noontime heat over the desert. When she leaned closer, his wolf whined. What he wouldn’t give to circle her now, rub along her side—

  “Ty!” A cacophony of voices
and clinking tableware suddenly filled his ears. Kyle was approaching him, and the room was pulling back into focus. “Ty, about the patrols…”

  In his haze, he felt Lana press the dessert plate into his hands and slip away. He reached for her too late, his hand clutching air, then balling into a fist. His body ached with every step she took, and he willed her eyes to touch him one more time. He wished for it the way he’d once yearned for the freedom to be his own person, to choose his own destiny.

  Destiny, however, had just turned its back and was walking away.

  Just as he was about to give up hope and tune in to Kyle, though, Lana turned and pinned him with a steady gaze.

  A shot of warmth flooded through him and without thinking, he put the fork into his mouth, licking past the key lime pie to the last hint of Lana. She turned away then, and he spent the next half hour buzzing from the high.

  She’d felt the pull, too. Which could only mean one thing.

  Trouble. Pure trouble.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The desert was dark and inviting, the perfect night to run. Lana stripped, then shifted just outside the guest house, needing the run badly. Anything to escape the feeling that heartbreak lurked behind every corner.

  Little bits of cottonwood fluff stuck to her fur, tickling her nose as she ran ever higher and farther into the hills. She splashed across a thirsty creek and scrambled up a gully, then paused to shake out her fur. It was a glorious, full body shake that started at her nose and traveled all the way to the tip of her tail. What yoga did for her human body, a good shake did for her wolf.

  She’d never felt this off-kilter before her arrival in Arizona. Make that since meeting Ty. The hum that had filled her ears in the dining hall was just an echo now, but it was still too loud to ignore. For years, she’d schooled her emotions, but now she was sliding off the edge of control—a feeling her wolf welcomed as much as her human side feared.