by Renee Rose
I was going to kill the punk.
Charlie had been using a shovel, a fucking shovel, as protection, but it had been rendered useless. Some guy had both hands wrapped around her throat. At least he had until I pulled up. In the moment of distraction, Charlie wrenched herself free and grabbed the shovel again. I could see the marks on her neck from the assault, knew that if I hadn’t arrived when I had, she’d be dead within seconds.
An animal-like snarl issued from my throat as I threw open the door.
She shouldn’t be in a situation like this. Not her. She was meant to have her nails done, her clothes pressed crisp. Hell, cute little earrings in her ears. It looked as if she’d slept in her clothes, or maybe hadn’t slept at all since she’d had to drive all night to be here. There was terror in her eyes. Shock, too.
She’d been on her own long enough. I’d take care of this fucker. With pleasure. My wolf was very pleased with the idea.
I shot from the car and ran for the guy. He had enough sense to recognize I was now a bigger threat than Charlie and her shovel. He was ballsy enough to keep a slick smile on his face although when I didn’t slow down on my approach, it slipped.
I punched him in the face, and he went down hard. I was pleased to hear the sound of his nose breaking. Blood spurted down his chin.
“You messing with my mate?” I asked, my voice deep and gravelly. The only person I’d spoken to since I’d left Montana was the fucking rental car agent.
“Levi,” Charlie gasped as she coughed and choked, trying to regain her breath. While she was standing, she was wobbling a bit. “What are you doing here?”
I took a deep breath and for once, for the first time in my fucking life, I smelled my mate. Sweet, bright like sunshine. The sharp tang of fear that accompanied it was what pissed me off. Nobody fucked with my mate. My wolf howled and growled at the same time. She was here with me but in danger.
“We’ve got some unsettled business, doll. Starting with this fucker.” I pointed down at the asshole.
“This doesn’t concern you.” He scrambled to his feet, nose bleeding, and produced a knife from his pocket. He opened it and swiped at me with it. “You need to leave.”
I wanted to laugh at the attempt to scare me. As if the knife would do me any kind of damage. “You think I’m asshole enough to walk away from a woman in danger?” I asked him. “My woman?”
He swiped again, his blade nearly connecting with my ribs, and I growled. It wouldn’t matter if he cut me. My wolf had emerged when Rob had goaded and prodded it to come out. My shifter genes had surfaced, and I’d spontaneously heal. But Charlie… she was in danger. From this guy.
“You think I’m going to let my woman, my mate, be threatened? What’s that you have there?” I indicated a cardboard box on the ground nearby. “Let me guess. Ketamine.”
Charlie gasped. That little sound was all the proof, all the indication I needed to know I’d been right. Clint had put it together. It made sense, even though I hadn’t wanted to admit it. All of it. Except for this fucker. She hadn’t been doing it because she wanted to. She’d done it because she had to. No woman wanted to do things against her will or be forced to defend herself with a fucking manure shovel.
The guy looked at Charlie and shook his head. “You shouldn’t have told. You’re dead now.” Spittle flew from his mouth in a rage. He charged—not for me, for Charlie again.
No fucking way. My mate was in danger. Mortal danger. I wasn’t used to the intensity of feelings coursing through me at the split second vision of my mate being attacked. I was still trying to process it as my wolf took over. He snarled and between one blink of an eye and another, I shifted.
Then attacked.
Charlie raised her shovel as if to strike his arm, to knock his knife away but I flew through the air and sunk my wolf fangs in his forearm. The forward momentum took the asshole sideways and to the ground. Charlie fell back onto her butt.
He screamed because I didn’t give him any mercy, the bite snapping one of his arm bones. I felt the crunch between my teeth. I released, then turned to look him in the eyes. He was the one who was scared now. That was the last thought he had because I went for his throat and finished him.
He’d been trying to kill Charlie. My mate. I would protect her, no matter what. Even if it meant her discovering what I really was… and risking her running away.
28
CHARLIE
Levi was a wolf.
A wolf.
A wolf.
Holy shit. He was a black wolf bigger than any dog I’d ever seen. With huge paws. Amber eyes. Big teeth. A bloody muzzle.
Dax’s blood.
A wolf. I had no idea how long my brain was going to be stuck on that because in a million years, it wasn’t something I would have ever guessed. Married, maybe. He was really a CIA agent. He had a kid. Any possible option but that because… a wolf.
He stood beside Dax’s prone, unmoving body staring at me. Into me. Somehow, I saw Levi in the gaze, which was insane.
Maybe I’d been dosed with ketamine. It was known to produce hallucinations. I’d just seen a guy, my lover—ex-lover—turn into a wolf and rip out Dax’s throat.
I dropped the shovel handle and crawled across the ground toward Dax to see if I could help. I wasn’t thrilled to have Dax blackmail me, but I hadn’t wanted his throat ripped out either. I wasn’t a human doctor, but I could—
Levi… the wolf, leaned into me, putting his weight into it, pushing me away from Dax. I didn’t touch Dax, but I could see it was too late. Doctor or not, it was obvious. Blood pooled beneath his head and upper back. His gaze was fixed and up at the sky.
He was dead.
Levi had killed for me. To protect me because there was no doubt Dax had every intention of stabbing me.
I turned my frightened gaze on Levi. I wasn’t scared of him, specifically, but he had just gone all Incredible Hulk and turned into a fucking animal. And I’d thought we’d bared all at the overlook the other day. But this? Yeah, he’d left this out. He licked my hand as if to comfort me.
“Levi?” I croaked. “Holy shit. You’re… um, yeah.”
He licked again. I buried my fingers into his thick fur and choked on a sob. And then I had my whole face buried against his soft neck, and I was bawling. Not for Dax. Well, maybe a little for Dax. But mostly releasing the trauma of the past month, since this whole ordeal with Dax began. Especially the last twenty-four hours, believing he was going to do something awful to Pops and then to me. Leaving Levi.
But he was here now. And he was a wolf. And oh, God, he’d just killed a man.
What had I done? What had I set into motion with my actions? “What am I going to do?”
The weird sound of bones and cartilage and other things I couldn’t even process had me blinking past the tears and seeing Levi switch back from a wolf to… a huge naked guy. The guy I recognized. The one I knew every inch of… or thought I did.
Seeing the blood on his face made me gag. The very idea of killing someone with my teeth… I started laughing. I was definitely a touch hysterical because I was thinking I really did have a gag reflex after all.
“Are you all right?” Levi asked, stroking my hair back from my face, his touch so gentle in comparison to what I’d just witnessed.
He looked a mixture of rage-filled and worried.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted truthfully. Was I all right? I glanced at Dax, swallowed. “This is bad. Levi, I killed a guy.”
He shook his head. Hard. “No. You didn’t kill him. You were defending yourself and then a wolf came out of nowhere and attacked.”
I knew he was trying to make up some kind of story, but it wasn’t a story because it was true.
Glancing around I popped up to my feet. “The cameras. Claymore has some out here.” I searched the top corners of the stable beneath the eaves. I didn’t see the black orbs like at the airports or in the ceilings at a store that my boss had installed around the outside of
the property. Nothing since we were in the back where the only thing that usually happened was open and close a paddock gate or pile manure. We were at the far edge of the property, the land saved for open pasture where Seraphina was casually grazing. I exhaled in relief. Dax’s trip to my office would have been seen, but he entered my office alone. “There aren’t any back here.”
Levi grabbed his tattered shirt, the one that had fallen off of him when he’d turned into a wolf and wiped his face. He went bare assed over to his car, leaned in and emptied a water bottle onto the shirt, then wiped his face and neck clean. When done, he tossed the sodden mass onto the ground. He grabbed for a small bag next, pulled out some clothes.
All the while, I stood there dumbly, staring. I was enthralled, but not aroused. God, how could I be? My lover was a wolf who was wiping another man’s blood from his body.
This was nuts.
“Um, Levi… I think you might need to explain some things to me.”
He looked my way as he tugged a pair of jeans up over his lean hips then zipped them up. “I’ll tell you everything later. Now we’ve got to deal with this.” He glanced at Dax.
I bit my lip. Lost. “Why… why are you helping me?”
He came over to me, cupped my face. All traces of Dax’s blood were gone from his skin, and if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed he’d even done what he did. “Did you give this fucker ketamine to sell on the streets?”
I licked my lips, tipped up my chin. “Yes.”
“How long has it been going on?”
“A month.”
“Are you doing it for the money?”
I shook my head. “No. He was blackmailing me. I have proof. Oh, my phone. I recorded all of this to try to get out of it, to take to the police along with the ketamine I’d ordered. That’s why he attacked me.” He dropped his hands, and I dashed over to grab it from the trailer. I looked down at it, saw that it was still recording. Minutes and minutes of everything that had just happened.
“Delete it,” Levi said, his voice calm and even.
I stared at him, mouth open and wide eyed. “I’m going to go to jail for murder.”
“Do you think I’d let my mate go to jail? That I won’t protect you from anything?” He glared at Dax even though he was dead.
“Mate?” I squeaked. I remembered the words Rob had used. Happy mate, happy fate. Oh God, they were all werewolves, weren’t they? All of them knew. Had kept the secret.
“Yeah, mate, and I won’t let anything happen to you.” He tipped his chin toward my phone. “Deleted?”
I glanced down at the device, swiped my finger a few times. “Yes.”
“Good girl. Now call the police.”
My mouth fell open once again. Was my brain slow or was what he was asking so confusing? I couldn’t keep up with what he was planning. “What? Why?”
“Call them. Tell them you came across a dead body. It looked as if he’d been attacked by an animal.”
I blinked, processing.
“Make the call, doll. Everything’s going to be fine. I promise.”
29
LEVI
It took two hours of questioning before the police allowed us to leave. They’d asked us all kinds of questions about what had happened, and we’d told the truth. Minus the blackmail. Charlie had called her boss, Mr. Claymore—I’d never found out his first name—right after the police, and he’d come down from his fancy mansion. He’d ensured Charlie was all right and waited with us for the police. Once the questioning started, he’d listened to every word. I saw how Charlie was a good fit for the very precise older man. He seemed as worried for Charlie. Thankfully, the guy wasn’t an asshole. In fact, the opposite, more concerned about my mate than anything else. I had no doubt news would spread, but he didn’t give a shit. That either made him a decent guy or rich enough to not care.
I’d told Charlie to stick to the facts, to tell as much truth as possible, which she’d done. While she was still shaken up, she’d given a thorough report. She’d just returned from Montana and had parked at the back of the stable to put Seraphina in the paddock after the long ride. She’d found Dax, her co-worker on the ground. Dead.
The medical examiner had taken one look and agreed with Charlie’s professional opinion about an animal attack, possibly a wolf. They’d been seen up in the mountains and while unlikely, there was no other plausible explanation for what happened to Dax.
It wasn’t as if they’d expected Charlie to be a wolf. The idea of anyone shifting into an animal was only something humans expected in fiction or the movies. Even if the police detective had been unconvinced, she had an alibi. She’d been seen in Montana the night before and had a credit card receipt for gas in Wyoming in the middle of the night. As for me, I’d been on a plane and had chased Charlie down because I was madly in love with her, and she’d left in such a huge hurry—her grandfather had been unwell, and she’d returned home in a rush to get to him—she hadn’t said goodbye.
Charlie’d given me a wide eyed stare as I professed my love for her to the local police. Claymore had smiled. Yeah, he wasn’t an asshole. Between that pussy-whipped statement and the fact that I was the sheriff in Cooper Valley, Montana, the detective was on my side.
The only thing Charlie had thought of was the box of ketamine that Dax had been holding. She’d told me it had to go back to her office, that it was supposed to be there, and she had a co-worker justify its presence. She’d given me a twenty second explanation that a coworker named Bob had believed she’d added an extra zero to the quantity by mistake. The vials would be put to use, but wouldn’t need to have another shipment for a while.
The body had been taken away. Mr. Claymore told Charlie to take a few days off with her man while he dealt with everything else. It was his problem to deal with... not Charlie’s. After all that, we’d been free to go. Since the truck belonged to Claymore, Charlie rode with me in the rental. Once we cleared the gates to the property, I pulled over.
“You okay, doll?” Since the vehicle was so tiny, Charlie was right there. Our shoulders practically brushed.
I saw her throat work as she swallowed. “I think so. How did you even find me?” she asked, a furrow creasing her brow.
“Clint had the info for your boss. For where you worked. I figured you’d have to show up because of Seraphina.”
“How… how did you get here? I mean, didn’t you stay in town last night? I haven’t wrapped my head around what I saw, and I guess after that, it’s possible that you can teleport or something, but… how?”
I gave her a smile, wishing I could fucking teleport. “Plane… and fate.” There weren’t a shit ton of flights out of Montana. I just happened to luck upon one in nearby Bozeman heading to Denver. Some people might call it luck, but it was definitely fate.
I’d been fucked for years, not ever being able to shift or scent a mate. But now… now it seemed as if I’d earned the chance to be with Charlie. Fate had intervened, so I could save her. To make her mine. Although fate was also a bitch because she’d cut it damned close. A few more seconds, and Dax would’ve strangled her dead. I’d have to live with that image for the rest of my life.
Still, I wasn’t going to fuck with what fate had given me.
“I don’t know where to go,” I told her, not pulling out onto the road. I’d used my cell’s map directions to get to the place from the airport, but now I had no idea where we even were besides west of town.
She blinked, looked around. “Oh. We can go to my place. My grandfather’s at a church thing for most of the day.”
“Lead the way.”
“Only if we talk. About you. Stuff.”
“About the fact that I’m a shifter?” I stated plainly.
She blinked. “Oh yeah.”
30
CHARLIE
Levi parked in the driveway. We didn’t go inside. Instead, we took a walk to my neighborhood park and sat under one of the beech trees, our backs against the grey bar
k. Levi hadn’t said anything the entire way, only held my hand in his big one. It was comforting and reassuring, but I really wanted a hug, something all encompassing, so I could feel him all around me. But not yet. We had serious things to talk about. I had no doubt he wanted answers from me, even though most of them had been made clear at Claymore’s. But I had questions. Lots of them.
“How crazy is it that I picked a stuffed wolf at the county fair?” I asked inanely.
“Not crazy. It was fate.”
I wasn’t sure I believed in fate, but he was right. It certainly seemed like fate.
“Are you really a werewolf?” I blurted, my mind still stuttering on the facts that made no sense.
He set his hand on my thigh, gave it a little squeeze. “Shifter. Yes. But only because of you.”
I frowned and turned my head to look at him. Our sides touched, we were that close. “What?”
“I was the product of a mixed-mating. A human with a shifter. I told you my grandparents hated my dad for marrying my mom. It’s because he was a shifter. My mom was human, and they thought she was tainted. The match is still generally frowned upon in the shifter world. It even goes against shifter law in most packs, and that was the case in my dad’s pack although the law hadn’t been enforced in several generations. My parents mated, and I was born, and we were a happy little family until I hit adolescence.”
I tensed, sensing the part of the story I wasn’t going to like. I remembered he’d told me his parents had been murdered.
“I hadn’t shifted for the first time yet. First shift usually comes on around puberty, but fourteen wasn’t particularly late. Still, it got people in the pack talking. The gossip was that I might not be able to because my mom’s blood had tainted me.” He paused for a second. “See, the prejudice goes both ways. The more the talk got going, the more some radicals got riled up. There's a lot of anti-human sentiment in the shifter world, especially in the less educated populations, and to be honest, most of the shifter population falls into that category. We like to stay up in the hills or mountains where we can run free. That means there’s a lot of isolation. And with isolation sometimes follows close-mindedness.”
