by Renee Rose
“Deal,” he said. “Last one to the showers is a rotten egg.”
I laughed and took off running, looking over my shoulder when it seemed he wasn’t following. Turned out he was giving me a head start. As soon as I looked, he sped into action, quickly catching up to me and smacking my ass.
“Oh yeah,” he rumbled as we kept running. “I’m definitely going to spank that ass some more.”
14
LEVI
“Pick one,” I told Charlie. We stood in front of the shoot ‘em up booth at the fair. I’d given over my money and shot all the ducks that had moved across the game’s backdrop. The toy gun had horrible aim, and there was something sticky on the trigger, but I had to prove to my woman that I could save her from anything. Stupid, caveman thoughts. I didn’t need to kill ducks to save her from anyone, and I had a real gun on my hip.
While Cooper Valley was small, the county was vast and people from all over came to enjoy the few days of the fair every summer. Besides the usual 4-H and other kids programs, there were contests for most attractive chickens and pigs, lambs and cows. Pie contests, cherry pit spitting competitions, even a small rodeo. Held over three days, it was always fun. I’d never been as sheriff before, so working the event all day had been different for me. But clocking out and taking it all in with a date… well, it made it a fuck ton more pleasant.
Especially when my date was the woman I’d gotten inside the night before. I knew what she looked like naked. What she looked like when she came all over me. Hell, I was the only one who knew what she looked like when she took a dick for the first time.
Mine.
I hadn’t seen Charlie this morning before I left, not since she walked out of my room the night before. She’d gone early to the stable for another round of breeding for Seraphina. I’d headed into town to work my shift as sheriff by the time she was finished. Although, knowing her as I did now, she hadn’t spent the rest of the day lazing about. That woman worked hard and had a lot on her shoulders. I couldn’t make her job any easier or help with anything going on with her grandfather, but I could help her take her mind off of all of it. Gladly. And often.
I’d done a pretty good job of it the night before, and no one had ever considered me to slack at my tasks.
“What should I pick?” An easy smile softened her face. She looked up at all the stuffed animals strung up around the edges of the booth.
I shrugged, enjoying her pleasure. It seemed I wanted to satisfy her in and out of the bedroom, which went beyond the whole two-week thing.
As she decided, the carnival guy took money from a dad with a little boy and handed him one of the game’s guns. Finally, Charlie pointed up over my head. “That one.”
I glanced up. Froze. A stuffed wolf. “That one?” I asked, stunned.
She nodded. The guy came back our way, and I pointed to the wolf. He used a long stick with a hook on the end and took it down then handed it to Charlie.
“Did you know the gray wolf was introduced back into the wild in Yellowstone twenty-five years ago?”
I raised a brow but said nothing, allowing her to continue.
“They were almost wiped out which meant the ecosystem was out of balance. Their reintroduction returned the balance. They’re amazing creatures. So misunderstood.”
She tucked the wolf under her arm and stroked the head as if she were a little kid.
I wanted to be stroked like that. My wolf, stuck inside, wanted that too. Real fucking bad. Her words soothed something in me, that she thought we were amazing. That there wasn’t tons of information about us. It was all true, but she was talking about the gray wolf, not me. Not anyone at Wolf Ranch.
She looked around. “Do you smell that?”
I frowned, lifted my head to sniff. “What?”
She gripped my arm as if suddenly overcome. “Funnel cakes. I’m dying for one.”
I couldn’t help but grin as she turned and followed the scent of fried dough. Like a fucking shifter following the scent of his mate.
The sun had set, and the lights from the fair cast a colorful glow over everything. The heat from the hot sun was gone, and it was a perfect Montana summer night. I probably wouldn’t have noticed any of that if I hadn’t been with Charlie. I was turning sappy with her around, which so wasn’t me. Hell, I’d never won a stuffed animal prize for a woman before in my life. Human or she-wolf.
I slung my arm around her shoulder as we stood in line for the fried treat, to order and pay. I was… content. Sure, I wanted to get her back in bed and take my time kissing and licking every inch of her, but this wasn’t just about sex. Well, not now. Maybe it had been before, but somehow, it had grown into something more. Hell, I was enjoying my time with a woman, with a human, and we had all our clothes on.
I got a few nods, a few hellos since people from town knew me, but I was left to my own devices. Everyone was enjoying themselves, as I was.
Charlie pulled money from her purse which she had slung cross shoulder. I stilled her hand and paid for the treat. “A date, remember?” I asked.
She gave me a smile, then a kiss on the cheek as she was handed the funnel cake on a grease-stained paper plate. She grabbed a metal shaker and sprinkled confectioners sugar all over it.
She couldn’t walk and eat, so we found an eating area with a bunch of picnic tables. We sat across from each other as she attacked the dessert. One thing about her, she wasn’t a prissy eater. She liked her food.
“Want some?” she asked as she held up a piece. I reached out, took hold of her wrist and ate the bite from her fingers, ensuring to lick some of the sweet sugar off the tips as I did so.
“Not as sweet as you,” I said.
My cell rang, and I pulled it from my pocket. “Barnes, what’s going on?”
Charlie looked to me as I listened to Barnes, the deputy on shift.
“I’ve got Tanner Wagner behind the stands at the fair,” he said. “Caught him buying E. Has a stash of pills that would set half the high school rolling.”
“I’m actually here but in the food area. I’ll be right over,” I told him.
“Oh, great. I know you’re not on shift, but I thought you’d want to know.”
“Thanks.” I hung up then met Charlie’s gaze. “I’ve got to deal with something over by the rodeo area. A kid with drugs—intent to sell.”
Her face lost all the amusement it held just a minute ago. I knew how she felt. Being sheriff was a pain in the ass sometimes, but having a shifter in the ranks would pay off for the pack in the long run. Having someone who knew about our kind without giving up the secret of who we were was important. We never knew when we needed help with the law. Selena Jenkins was a lawyer, but also a shifter, who’d come through for Clint’s mate, Becky, last fall. Having someone in the department was even better. I owed it to the pack. Everyone thought I was good enough for the role since I’d been voted into the position from the town council. Still, it seemed I was the only one who still held doubts.
“Do you want me to stay here?” she asked.
I stood, picked up her trash, tossed it in a nearby can. “Nah, this won’t take long.”
When she came around the table to join me, I took her hand. “Besides, when I’m done scaring the shit out of this kid, I want to take you home. Get you naked again.”
Yeah, this wouldn’t take long. Not if the look on Charlie’s face was any indication of how much she liked my idea of getting her naked.
We headed around to Barnes’ squad car at the west end of the fairgrounds. Tanner Wagner, who I pegged around fifteen, stood in handcuffs, slouched against the car, his head hanging. Charlie hung back as I approached.
“What’s going on?” I said in my deepest, most intimidating voice.
The kid’s head jerked up, and he stared at me with wide eyes. Yeah, he knew who I was.
Barnes held up a ziplock bag containing tiny plastic bags, each with a pressed white pill inside. “Found him with this. There’s twenty pills in t
here.”
“Twenty pills.” I looked at Barnes, as if I were making conversation with him, and not for the benefit of the kid. “That could get him, what? Five years and up to a hundred-fifty thousand in fines?”
“It would if he were eighteen,” Barnes agreed, picking up the conversation smoothly. He was a good deputy and in a few years would make a great sheriff himself. “Still could, if the judge thinks he deserves it.”
The kid turned pale, and I was a little worried he might piss himself. Good. If fucking with him now got him scared enough to wet his pants, maybe he was a good kid doing a dumb thing. Maybe this would steer him back onto the right path.
I lasered him with a stern look. “Selling drugs is just plain wrong. I am not exaggerating when I say it will ruin your whole goddamn life. This goes beyond legal consequences, though. Laws are in place for a reason, and they’re not just to impede your ability to party with your friends. You know that shit’s dangerous, right? What happens if the kid you sell that to dies? You’d be responsible. What if that kid who died was someone you cared about? How would you feel then? This is not something you fuck around with. Not unless you want to write your whole future off right now.”
Tanner turned to the side and wretched, losing his lunch in the dirt. I was wrong about pissing himself. Close enough.
Barnes gave me a knowing smirk.
Yep, my work here was done. But the kid still had to face the consequences.
I walked a few paces back toward Charlie and motioned Barnes to come my way. “See if you can find out where he bought it,” I said.
“He claims he found it at school.” Barnes rolled his eyes at the obvious lie because it was the middle of summer vacation.
“Right. Well, keep working him until his parents come to the station to get him. You might suggest they let him spend the night in the cell to get the full effect of the consequences he’s going to be facing.”
“Will do.” Barnes looked over at Charlie, who stood watching and wringing her hands, as if she were the one in trouble and not Tanner.
I tipped my head her way. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a date.”
Surprise flickered over Barnes’ face followed by a smile. Hell, I surprised myself. It wasn’t like me to publicly announce my interest in a woman. I was usually the hook up at the bar and never speak of it again type.
I was outright claiming Charlie in the human way.
And strangely, when I thought about claiming her in the wolf way—a way that wasn’t possible for me since my teeth had never once descended in order to bite a mate’s neck—my dick got hard.
Which meant it was time for us to go. I adjusted my package.
“Enjoy yourselves,” Barnes said.
“Will do. See you tomorrow.” I tipped my cowboy hat and walked back to Charlie. “Ready to head back to the ranch?”
She nodded, eyes still wide at what she’d witnessed. Which wouldn’t strike me as strange until much, much later.
15
CHARLIE
My stomach clenched in a tight knot on the way home. After hearing the dressing down he gave the teenager caught selling drugs, I couldn’t stop freaking out.
He’d face up to five years and a hundred-fifty thousand dollars in fines.
The way he’d growled the consequences at the kid, who’d been quaking in his boots at that point, proved he was more than serious. While he’d clearly been trying to scare the kid straight, he’d also meant every word.
I felt as if he hadn’t been speaking to the teenager, but to me.
Me, the adult. Me, the adult who was pretty much peddling ridiculous quantities of ketamine, better known as Vitamin K, on the streets. Well, I wasn’t on the street corner swapping it for cash, but it was pretty much the same thing.
I was the one who would be facing time behind bars if anyone found out. I still couldn’t believe I’d gotten myself backed into a corner like this with Dax.
A good-looking twenty-something still young enough to think life revolved around partying with his friends, Dax worked in Mr. Claymore’s stables. In the hierarchy of the place, he looked more like a street punk than ranch hand, but he was well-liked by everyone. He’d been working there since he was a teen, much longer than me. He was charming—a favorite of everyone, including me, until things went south.
I was so stupid. Collosally stupid. Dax had been his usual charming self—flirty and fun when he’d first approached. I’d known he was too young for me and not serious, but I’d enjoyed the male attention since my sex life had been nil.
I’d smelled marijuana around the stables before but hadn’t said anything. It seemed pretty accepted by all the stable hands, especially since it was legal in Colorado, so I went with the flow. Except when they smoked it in the stables. That was the biggest fuck no of all. There was no smoking of any kind in that building, and I’d let them all have it when I’d caught them once.
One day, completely out of the blue, Dax had cornered me in my office and asked a bunch of questions about ketamine. Told me he had a friend who’d tried it. He wanted to see what it was like—just once. I told him it was dangerous, and he shouldn’t mess around with it. For horses, which was the intentional use for it at the stable, it was as an anaesthetic. I ordered it, kept the clinic stocked. In humans, it was used for the same purposes, but also in other ways. As a date rape drug, for one. To help relax someone. To hallucinate. Lots of possibilities, and Dax wanted to know it all. Maybe minus the date rape part.
“Well, that’s why I’m talking to you about it,” he’d said. “I mean, you’re a doctor. Can you give it to me straight? Like what dose is safe and what’s dangerous to make me feel good?”
God. I’d felt uncomfortable immediately. I was an animal doctor. I didn’t treat or prescribe medications for humans. His questions weren’t tied to working with the horses.
I hadn’t liked it. Not at all, but I hadn’t wanted him screwing around with his friends and overdosing. Or worse, to harm someone unsuspecting. So I gave him the facts—calculated a safe dosage by his weight and wrote it down for him, so he wouldn’t get it wrong, but told him I didn’t like it. That it was dangerous. Illegal.
In retrospect, I saw how dumb I’d been. Soooo stupid. I’d written it on a prescription pad like I was dosing him. And he’d gone into the clinic at the stable and taken the supply of ketamine right out from under my nose without me realizing. It wasn’t like all meds were locked up.
That was when things had turned ugly.
When I confronted him, he’d shown me a photo of my note on his phone. My handwriting, the proper dosage for him—a human. He told me it was evidence of my abuse of my license and if I didn’t order more ketamine—a large quantity—he’d show Mr. Claymore and the police. Tell them I’d been offering him drugs. Drugs that were meant for horses not humans. That I’d been abusing my credentials, my position on the ranch.
This had been a month ago, the same time Pops started really going downhill. I hadn’t been thinking straight at the time. I hadn’t known what to do, not with Dax, not with Pops. Even now, I honestly wasn’t sure Mr. Claymore would believe me and the truth over Dax. This was why I hadn’t said anything and done what Dax had wanted. I needed the job. Hell, I needed my vet license I’d worked so hard for. The school debts for it I was still paying off.
Mr. Claymore loved Dax. Everyone did, even though he was a two-faced piece of shit. He was like a chameleon, changing his moods and emotions, his personality to each situation. As for me, I was just the one who kept her head down and spreadsheets up to date. Yeah, I was the upright vet no one really knew much about. I was the newcomer on the job—I’d been there less than nine months. An outsider, by race, gender and my buttoned up personality.
I’d made my second mistake and ordered the ketamine.
That was when I became what he’d said he would accuse me of—a drug dealer. I didn’t deal the drugs. I didn’t stand on a street corner and peddle them. No, I was worse. I got t
he drugs under the guise of legitimacy.
I swallowed down the ever-present anxiety and looked to Levi in the dark truck, whose eyes were squarely on the road as we cut through the canyon out of town.
“What do you think will happen to that kid?” I asked.
“Who? Tanner?” he asked, glancing at me for a second. “Probably just community service. He’s only fifteen. His parents will have to come to the station and pick him up. He’ll hopefully get more punishment from them.”
I bit my lip. “If he was eighteen, it would really be five years?”
Levi shot me another curious glance. “You interested in law enforcement?”
“Oh! Um, no. I just feel for the kid, you know? Sometimes people get themselves into things without fully understanding the consequences.”
People like me, who couldn’t figure out how to get out. Maybe Levi would give me some ideas.
“I know.” His broad shoulders went up in a big shrug. “But wrong is wrong. That’s why I went hard on him back there. Scare him away from the dark side. Today, E. Tomorrow… who the hell knows? Choices he makes now could completely ruin his life. Destroy all his potential for a decent future.”
My stomach bunched up even tighter.
“H-how did you get into law enforcement?” I asked. “Did you always want to be a cop?”
Levi considered, like no one had asked him this before. “The people who killed my parents were never brought to justice. I guess that’s been sitting on me for the past fifteen years. So when the sheriff’s department was short a deputy last year, I decided to give it a go. Rob’s wife, Willow, as I told you, came to the area as an undercover DEA agent—that’s a long story there—and we’d found out our neighbor had been a big time drug dealer. It didn’t sit well with me, you know? I didn’t like feeling powerless against the bad shit going down in my valley. The guy was an asshole and was messing with people from the ranch.”
