by Renee Rose
Okay, he didn’t love Murrieta. I could use that to my advantage.
“How did he get you into this?” I asked, feigning sympathy. “What’s he got on you?” I really wished I had a recording device on me, in case I got anything out of him that could be used in court. It would still be great to hear the whole plan from the horse’s mouth. While I had him with the drugs, the puzzle wasn’t complete.
“Let’s just say he didn’t understand the concept of risk in his investments.”
“When you were in New York you invested his money in a hedge fund and lost it,” I said, thinking aloud. Now the connection between the two men made more sense. “He holds you responsible.”
“Shut up!” he snapped, the gun wavering. “Get down on your knees. Keep your hands in the air. What agency are you from?”
“DEA,” I said to mollify him. He wasn’t a bad guy like Murrieta, only caught up and used as one of his many pawns. Sure, he was a dick and deserved to be behind bars, but he was a low-level thug and had little experience with this aspect of drug running. He was starting to lose it, and I didn’t want to get my head shot off because he panicked. I slowly lowered to my knees, hands in the air. I just needed a momentary distraction—time enough to reach for the gun at my back.
“Where’s your partner?”
I thought quickly. Should I pretend to have a partner? I wasn’t sure if it would buy me time either way, but I answered, “Searching your house.”
He spared a quick glance toward the open barn door, but it wasn’t long enough for me to reach for my gun. I had to keep him talking until that moment came.
“So, Murrieta has you running drugs for him,” I said, stalling. “Did he buy you this ranch? Or was this your idea? I bet you don’t even like Montana.”
“Shut up!” Markle shouted, stepping toward me. He held the gun right to my temple. “Shut the hell up.”
“I’m impressed. You’ve had even the DEA stumped. How are you doing it?” I wanted to play into his vanity, to his need for power.
“Cattle trailer.” His ego’s too big not to tell.
“Cattle trailer to Canada? Smart. Some way to get narcotics over the border. Where’s the holding location? I looked at the stack of crates beside me. Not here.”
HIs eyes narrowed. “How’d you connect me with him? What tipped you off?”
We were both trying to get information out of each other before he pulled that trigger.
“We traced a payment from his off-shore account to yours before you bought the place.” I fed him a bone. “So, you keep the shipments light and frequent to avoid suspicion. Selling just a few head of cows to Canada every other week.”
Markle pursed his lips, eyes narrowed.
I kept talking. “Why do you want the Shefield land so much?” I wondered. That was one thing I never understood. Why make trouble if he didn’t want to bring attention to himself?
“Murrieta wants a runway.”
Ah. The land was big enough for that, especially if he took down the fence at the property line. It would work for small planes to move drugs easily. They flew low and stayed off the radar.
He cocked the gun. “Enough talking.”
“You don’t want to kill me,” I said, my voice sounding more stable than I expected, even though my heart was beating double time and sweat dripped down my back. “You definitely don’t want to add a murder charge to trafficking of narcotics.”
“Oh, I’m not going to kill you. You’re right. I don’t need that kind of rap. I’m going to give you to Murrieta for his flesh trade. He has a special affinity for white women. Especially those he feels have crossed him. Torture is his specialty.” Markle gazed down at me with cruelty in his expression. Issuing threats had calmed him, though. The gun was steady now in his hand. He’d regained his footing.
That meant I was in big trouble.
27
ROB
I knew immediately Natalie—Willow—wasn’t in the house. I would’ve heard her breathing. Hell, even her pulse. Now that I’d made the choice that she was to be mine… officially, my wolf was attuned to her. Or the lack of her.
Her scent was in the air around the exterior of the house but not strong. There was a distinct path of the scent. She rarely used the front door. My wolf picked her up going in and out of the back door more. I followed across the back porch and back down the steps, across the grass and toward—
“Fuck,” I said, cutting through the night. She was at Markle’s.
I knew it. My wolf knew it. It was after eleven. Unless she was at his place to fuck, she was there for work. I didn’t even give the first any thought. I’d satisfied her. She didn’t need Markle for that. Besides, now that I could see past my anger at her secrets, I knew she would never cheat. She’d been just as invested in us as I’d been.
No. She was over at Markle’s because of her fucking job. Which meant she was all alone. The DEA didn’t send someone undercover unless they had just cause. That meant they had something on Markle. Something big enough that warranted constant surveillance. Even having someone pose as a friendly next-door neighbor and offer wine in order to get intel.
It was easy to follow her path. A human could have followed the knocked down grass in the moonlight, but my wolf followed her scent. Strong and leading me right to her. Right to Markle’s fancy new barn.
My wolf hearing picked up the voices even before I could see inside. The air was still, and I couldn’t miss their words.
“You don’t want to kill me,” Willow said. “You definitely don’t want to add a murder charge to trafficking of narcotics.”
Oh shit. Markle had found her. Or knew she wasn’t just a hot neighbor.
“Oh, I’m not going to kill you,” Markle countered. “You’re right. I don’t need that kind of rap. I’m going to give you to Murrieta for his flesh trade. He has a special affinity for white women. Especially those he feels have crossed him. Torture is his specialty.”
My wolf snarled. I saw red. It took all my will to keep from shifting right there. My mate was being threatened. Not just threatened, worse. But I needed to keep my head because Markle had a gun, and my mate wouldn’t survive a bullet.
I had no fucking idea who Murrieta was, but the words flesh trade and torture stood out. I’d thought Markle was an asshole neighbor for putting his cattle on the Shefield land.
I’d been blind to how evil he really was. Willow wanted to bring him down. Hell, the federal government did.
Now I did, too. There was no fucking way he was going to be breathing much longer.
I went to the barn door, staying in the shadows to peer inside. Willow was on her knees, Markle standing above her with a gun to her head. My wolf shoved to the surface again, trying to take control. He needed to save her, but I shoved him back down. The gun held me back from tearing out his throat with my fangs. If I startled him, he could shoot her in a second.
I had to redirect him away from her. I was a wolf. He could shoot me full of holes like Swiss cheese, and I’d heal. I looked around on the ground, found a small rock. I tossed it into the barn but lobbed it hard so that it hit well past them.
The thunk was loud when it hit the floor, both Markle and Willow whipping their heads toward the sound, their gazes away from me. Willow took the opportunity to push Markle’s gun to the side and hop to her feet. With both her hands, she gripped his wrist to keep the gun pointing away from her.
I ran into the barn to help, but Markle had strength and fury on his side. He bent his elbow and with his free arm, grabbed Willow by the back of her neck, yanking her toward him.
The gun went off before I made it halfway to them. I saw her wide eyes, the way her shoulders slumped and knew she’d been hit. Markle released her, and she fell to the ground.
I howled, my wolf taking over. I got to Markle and grabbed him, ready to rip his head from his body. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Willow lean to the side and grab her gun which she had at her back.
Sh
e raised it and fired, point blank at the center of Markle’s forehead. Bullseye. The shot had gotten within a foot of me, but I hadn’t been afraid she’d hit me. Sure, there had been no time to react, but there was no better shot than my mate. Like he had with Willow, I let Markle fall to the floor. There was no question he was dead. The back half of his head was missing.
I didn’t give Markle another look but dropped to my knees next to Willow, looked her over. Assessed.
“Fuck,” I croaked. Blood quickly spread across her torso. I lifted the bottom of her shirt, saw the entry wound.
She whimpered and her body shook. Shock. Fear.
“Willow, no” I breathed. Fear cut through me like never before. We were twenty miles from town. Twenty miles from the hospital, and she’d been shot in the gut.
I leaned over her, looked down into her face. Sweat dotted her brow, the color quickly leaching from her face.
“Hang on. Don’t you fucking die on me now,” I swore.
She panted, her hand coming to her wound to cover it. She hissed. “It hurts. Fuck.”
I grabbed my phone. Dialed. My fingers were shaking so bad I almost dropped the phone as I lifted it to my ear. “Boyd. Willow’s been shot. Bad. Bring Audrey to Markle’s barn. Now!”
I dropped the phone to the dirt and shucked my shirt, pressed it over her wound to stanch the blood flow.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, then winced. Her eyes were filled with pain. Regret. Fear. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t a lie.”
“Shh, angel. I know.”
“How I feel about you wasn’t a lie.”
I leaned over her again, so she could only see me. “Angel, you were doing your job. I know that. You did nothing wrong. I’m to blame. I shouldn’t have doubted you or pushed you away. It doesn’t change what I knew the first second I caught your scent—you’re mine. My mate. My heart. I love you. Now fight.”
Determination filled her eyes, but she moaned in pain. She pulled out her phone with shaking hands. “Call… Vaughn. My boss. Tell him…”
“Okay, I’ll call him. You just hang in there, angel.”
She was going to die. I knew it. There was no way I could save her. Audrey was a doctor and could help, but she wouldn’t be here for at least five more minutes. Then, we still had to drive to the hospital.
“I love you, Willow. You stay with me. Stay with me,” I said. I repeated it over and over as I held her gaze.
Then my wolf instincts prickled. Willow’s eye color changed from green to gold.
All at once, she moaned. Loud. Deep.
I stopped breathing.
Her joints cracked and snapped, her clothing ripped. From one blink to the next, Willow shifted from red-haired human to a ginger wolf.
My wolf did a double backflip of joy. Of relief.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
My mate was a shifter! Which meant she wasn’t going to die.
28
ROB
Willow struggled, rolling to her side, then emitting a yip of pain. She was panicking, her amber eyes wild and almost feral. This hadn’t been one of her secrets. I was sure of it. She hadn’t known she was a wolf—or part wolf—because she sure as hell had smelled like a human before.
Which meant… she’d never shifted before and only did so now because of the pain of being shot. Her biology kicked in to save her life. No one had seen her like this before. No one knew how perfect she was… human or wolf.
I stroked my hand over her soft fur. “Shh… settle.” I put alpha command in my voice. “It’s all right. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’re a shifter, like me. That’s why my wolf chose you.” I smiled down at her. “I know you hurt, but shifting is a good thing. You’ll heal and quickly. Your body knows what to do. Don’t be afraid, you’re going to be just fine.”
My words must have penetrated because she stilled. I felt the frantic beat of her wolf heart beneath my palm, the silkiness of her fur. I saw the gunshot wound, staining her cinnamon fur a fierce red. The blood wasn’t pumping from her now but slowed to a trickle.
That eased my own wolf. “That’s it. Just relax. Let your wolf heal.”
I looked into her eyes, just as I had a few moments before and tried to comfort her. “You’re so beautiful as a wolf. Didn’t know you had it in you, huh?” I smiled.
Finally, I was at peace. She wasn’t going to die, but she needed to be talked through the healing process, the shift back to human form. If she’d never done it before, she wouldn’t know how.
My parents had talked about our first shift for years. I never remembered a time when we hadn’t talked about it. What it would feel like. What I’d do when I shifted. How I shifted back. If a first shift came early, there was some danger that a teen wolf couldn’t shift back. Sometimes it took an alpha command to make it happen. I’d been called in a few times to help new wolves who got stuck.
I remembered what Willow had told me about being in foster care as a child. That part was probably the truth. She’d given me the truths she could. Maybe she hadn’t known one or both of her parents at all—that’s why she hadn’t known she was a shifter.
I wondered if she’d had any hints of wolf, if she’d had any clues to it. Signs she wouldn’t have known were the need of her inner wolf to be revealed.
“Holy shit.”
I looked up when Boyd and Audrey came rushing in but skidded to a stop as they stared down at us. Audrey had her assessing gaze on Markle for about two seconds, then to us. Dead was dead. No matter how skilled a doctor Audrey was, she wasn’t fixing Markle.
“Um… Rob,” Boyd said. “Is that—”
“Willow’s a shifter.”
He grinned. “No shit.”
No shit.
“Did you know?” Audrey asked, squatting down beside me. From what she and Boyd told me, she’d seen James get shot by Markle and shift, and she’d watched him heal so she knew what was going to happen. There really wasn’t anything for her to do to help.
“Had no fucking idea,” I said, continuing to stroke Willow’s body, pet her head, rub an ear, her belly. Stroking all of her to let her know I was here, that it was okay. “The pain from being shot must have triggered it.”
“The wound’s already closing up,” Boyd commented.
I looked down, saw that it was no longer bleeding.
“I’ll help her shift back.” I looked down at Willow on the ground. “Right, angel? I’ll help you when it’s time. You heal faster in wolf form, though, so we’ll give it a little longer. Then you can call your boss, and we’ll get this mess here sorted out.”
“Got a blanket in your truck?” I asked Boyd. Willow’s clothes were in bloody tatters beneath her. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel self-conscious after she shifted back… naked.
“I’ll get it,” Audrey offered, starting to stand.
Boyd set a hand on her shoulder, keeping her from getting to her feet. “No. You stay here. I’ll get it.”
“I’m not an expert on shifter healing, but she’ll be fine, right?” Audrey looked to me.
I nodded. “Yes. I’d say… oh, there it is.” The bullet was starting to emerge from the wound, and she whimpered. If I wasn’t used to seeing this kind of healing, it would have been weird the way a wolf’s body expelled foreign objects.
Willow whimpered but went silent as the bullet slid from her and onto the packed dirt floor.
Boyd returned, and I took the blanket from him. “Come on, darlin’,” he said to Audrey. He held out his hand, and she took it, rising. “Let’s give them a little privacy. We’ll go get some clothes for her. Let us know how she wants to play this. Audrey can be her doctor if she needs to go to the hospital. She’s used to fake injuries.” He gave Audrey a wink.
They walked off as I checked Willow’s wound. It wasn’t fully healed, but she could shift back now.
“All right, angel. It’s time. I know you’re scared ‘cause this is all new, but we shifters do this all the time. You’ll just ha
ve to catch up. To shift back, you need to close your eyes and think. Think about your human body. How you stand on two feet. Your gorgeous red locks.” I grinned. “Even between your luscious thighs. Think human, and you’ll just shift.”
I continued to stroke her as she stared at me. Blinked.
“Close your eyes now. That’s it. It’s no big deal. Relax and just let it happen.”
She finally closed her eyes, and I waited. I remembered my first shift, how weird it had been. Scary, too. Once I was back in human form and knew I couldn’t be stuck as a wolf, it came easier. I just had to get her to shift back this once, and I’d be able to guide her through the rest of being a shifter.
“Shift,” I commanded, putting an alpha push into the words.
She responded. The familiar sounds happened, and she shifted back. I sighed in relief, a little worried she might not be able to do it. She was probably twice as old as one normally was for a first shift. In fact, I’d never known someone whose first shift came so late.
“There’s my angel. Lie still, and the pain will lessen.” She sat up slowly, and I pulled her onto my lap, cradling her carefully and wrapping the blanket up around her. “I guess we now know where you’re from, huh?”
“Rob… oh my God. That was… I mean, did I just—”
“Turn into a wolf?” I finished for her. “I assume you didn’t know.”
She shook her head, her hair brushing my bare chest. “I was an orphan. I’ve been in foster care my whole life. I didn’t know anything about my biological parents. But, God, this explains things. My sense of smell was always… far too keen. I prefer the outdoors. My instincts are good. I like to run.”
“I like to look at you when you run.” I thought of her in those tiny shorts. “I like to run better in wolf form. Now you can go with me.”
“It was fate, then wasn’t it?” she murmured. “You and I?”
I smiled, cradling her face. “Definitely fate.” And that was the honest truth. I wouldn’t have cared if she wasn’t a shifter, but now we had more to share. More to understand about each other.
