by Renee Rose
He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I was an asshole. You were here on a job, and you couldn’t tell me the truth. I get it. You’re an incredible agent.” He kissed me again. “But please tell me you’ll quit. I couldn’t fucking stand knowing you might have a gun pointed at your head again.”
“I gave notice to Vaughn when I was finishing my reports,” I said, and I’d had zero hesitation. “I realized it wasn’t my life. Coming here brought me full circle somehow. This is where I belong. Like you said, I was good at my job, but it was just that. A job. I had no life. I do now, with you. With the Wolf pack.”
It was true. I think I’d known it from the moment I’d arrived in Cooper Valley, I just hadn’t understood it until now.
I was a shifter. I belonged with a pack. And Rob was my alpha.
My pack.
My everything.
30
WILLOW
“You ready?” Rob asked. We stood side by side, naked on the porch of the lodge. No one was around for miles.
My pulse raced with excitement. I was going to shift. Into a wolf!
Finally.
But right now, I was going to test out my paws. “Ready. Okay, so what do I do?” I asked for the fifteenth time, turning my head to look up at him.
He smiled at me. Smiled. Soft, gentle, for once he looked at ease. As if the weight of the world was off his shoulders. As if here, now, with me was his world.
“You don’t do anything. You just let it happen. Remember how it felt to be a wolf. Bring your awareness to that energy and let go.”
I closed my eyes and drew a breath and tried. All I remembered, though, was my panic. Not understanding what had happened. What I was.
Not until Rob had commanded me to be still.
I opened my eyes. “I remember you did something. To help me shift. You made me do it.”
He nodded. “I helped you. An alpha’s command is that strong. But you can do it on your own. You don’t need my help. You never have. Just be the wolf.”
Be the wolf. Right.
I tried again.
Still nothing.
I turned to Rob, sliding my palms over his hairy chest, pressing my breasts up against his ribs. “Please? Make me do it?”
That, too, made sense. My request. I loved when he was in charge. In control. Perhaps my wolf wanted that from him too.
His arm curled around my back, and he pulled me up tight against his body. We hadn’t had sex since I’d been shot—he wanted to be sure I healed fully, but he’d promised after I shifted to wolf form once more, the rest of healing would take place.
He squeezed my bare ass in his large palm then released the flesh and slapped. “Shift.”
One word.
A command.
In a flash, I was on all fours, looking up at him, then watching him shift, too. Then running together. I laughed—well, the wolf version of laughing—and looked over my shoulder at him. He was right behind me, huge and gray furred, nipping at my flank.
I picked up speed.
It felt incredible.
I was so fast! So nimble. I jumped over a fallen log, sailing well above it, way past it. My strength and agility were incredible. I felt… whole. And with Rob by my side, I am safe and protected. As if he was letting me do my thing but would be there if I needed him.
I caught a scent of something interesting. My instincts told me it was a rabbit. I followed it until I found a hole and started digging.
Rob nipped my hind quarters to make me leave it.
I’d probably thank him later, but at the moment, it riled me up. I turned and tussled with him. He quickly dominated me, bringing me to my back and standing over, his jaws loosely caged around my throat. I went slack and gave him my belly, and he let me up, so we could run again.
Submitting to him was as natural and instinctive as breathing.
I ran and ran through the forest, my senses all heightened, my pleasure off the charts. It felt wonderful.
Rob stayed with me as my guard, herding me when he wanted me to change direction, tussling with me when I wanted to play, until at last, he chased me back to the lodge.
He shifted first and stood on the porch, looking down at me.
“You can do it,” he encouraged. He wasn’t going to command this time. He was going to make me find it on my own.
I brought myself back to the last time. When I’d been lying in the barn, and he’d stroked my fur. What he’d told me then. I closed my eyes, remembered his voice.
And just like that, I found myself crouched on the ground in human form.
“I did it!” I beamed.
“You did.” Rob’s smile brightened his rugged face. He held his arms out, and I fell into them.
“I love you, Rob Wolf,” I said. And I meant it. With all my heart.
He cupped my face. “I love you, Willow Johnson.” He cocked his head. “Johnson-Wolf? Or just Willow Wolf?”
I smiled. “Maybe just Willow Wolf. It has a super-hero ring to it, you know?”
He stroked his thumb down my cheek. “Definitely.”
Epilogue
ROB
New moon pack meetings were formal. Organized. There was a schedule. An agenda. Everyone attended.
Full moon runs happened organically. They weren’t required, but they were still tradition. A constancy that every wolf could attend if they wanted to run with others, and they almost always did. Wolves needed to run when the moon was full. There was aggression that had to be let out. Sexual tension. It was unavoidable, especially if unmated and definitely if leaning toward moon madness.
Tonight was the first time I’d run mated. No wildness haunting me. I wanted to run now not out of desperation but out of pleasure.
The mountain was the safe place to roam, so that’s where we usually found each other, up in the hills above everyone’s homes. We had the pack lodge most started from. Everyone of shifting age kept a change of clothes there in case that’s where they ended up.
Willow and I had arrived early, so she could practice shifting without an audience. The more times she tried, the easier it came, but she’d only done it with me in observance. Having an entire pack watch her, not just because she was a new shifter but because she was my mate, would be daunting. In this freedom, we ran and played. I showed Willow all the best places to roam—my favorite spots.
Eventually we headed back toward the lodge and found most of the pack gathered. The Wolf Ranch shifters—Boyd, Colton, Clint, Rand, Nash, Johnny and Levi—circled up with us right away. Our royal guard, making a horseshoe around us. Willow had not seen anyone else in wolf form and didn’t know one from the other. Yet.
The rest of the pack scrambled to assemble as well, many dropping to their bellies to show submission to their mysterious new alpha she-wolf, the beautiful ginger by my side. I waited until they’d all formed a cluster around us, then trotted through them to the lodge, Willow at my side.
We shifted inside and dressed privately, in the bedroom. I wasn’t normally shy—shifters were used to being naked around each other, but none of them were going to see my mate’s gorgeous body naked. Not without them losing a big hunk of fur from their hind quarters.
Besides it being awkward with my brothers.
When we walked out to join the others, I heard gasps of surprise and whispers like That’s the Shefield girl, and I thought she was human.
Janet was the first to approach, gathering Willow up in her arms. “Well, didn’t you surprise us all?” She leaned in to sniff Willow’s neck. Willow stared at me over Janet’s shoulder, eyes wide. Her hands were at her sides as if she’d never been hugged before. “Your scent has changed. Your shifter DNA just surfaced? Are you a half-breed?”
“Come on, mom, give the female some space,” Rand coaxed, throwing a muscled arm around his mother’s much smaller shoulders and tossing Willow a wink.
“I’m sorry. I’m just so excited to finally have a daughter.” She waved a hand at me and Rand and Clint,
Boyd and Colton behind us. “I had all these wonderful boys, two of my own and then the Wolf trio. But now I’m getting daughters. I’ve got Audrey and Marina… and now Willow. Welcome to the pack, sweetheart.” She kissed her cheek. “You’re exactly what we needed.”
Janet let Willow go, but when she moved to step away, Willow gave her a quick hug of her own. Never knowing a mom, I knew Janet was going to fill that role for her now.
I cleared my throat and the room went silent. Everyone was dying to know what was going on. How I’d ended up mated to this lovely she-wolf who hadn’t been a wolf at all just last week. She’d been at the picnic as the Shefield niece and now...
“I’d like to introduce you all to my mate, Willow Johnson. Fate brought her here to me as an undercover agent with the DEA.” I set my hand at the back of Willow’s neck. It was a show of possession but also of protection. There was no doubt to everyone witnessing that she was mine. “She will be staying on as my mate. I expect you will make her feel welcome.”
Excited murmurs rippled through the room and everyone filed forward to offer their welcome and congratulations. I noted they were all here—none of my pack had defected, even knowing I’d planned to mate a human. Not everyone had heard my threat on my porch, but I had no doubt word of it had spread.
Even Nathan Brown came up, tail tucked, throat bared. “Forgive me for questioning your judgement, Alpha,” he said. “Looks like it all turned out fine.”
I didn’t believe he meant the apology, but I didn’t care. He knew his place, and while I doubted he’d be any less difficult in the coming years, he wouldn’t doubt me again. I had Willow. Everything would be perfect, even if she wasn’t a wolf.
I knew my thoughts leaned toward sappy romance and poetry, but hell, I was fucking happy. I’d expected the worst, moon madness to finish me. Alone.
Instead, I had my mate by my side. My parents would have been pleased with Willow. She was strong, independent. Feisty. Brave. Everything to keep me on my toes, just as Mom had with Dad.
I wished they could have met her. Audrey and Marina, too. To know all three Wolf boys were home and leading the pack into the future. With Audrey, one baby at a time.
Tom came over and hugged Willow. “Welcome to the family, Willow. Clint tells me you don’t know who your kin is?”
She offered him a smile but shook her head. “That’s right. I grew up in foster care here in Montana.”
“Here in Montana, hmm?” He rubbed his face. “I’m thinking—ginger wolves are pretty rare. I know a pack that has a streak of ginger near Helena. If you’re interested, I could arrange a meeting. Maybe you could find some answers. Up to you, of course.”
Her green eyes widened. “Wow. Okay. Yes, I’d like that very much. Thank you, Tom.”
He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Anything for our new alpha female.” He winked.
I pulled Willow in tight against my side and kissed the top of her head. “You’re their new queen, angel. How does that feel?”
She turned and pressed her body against mine, wrapping her arms around my waist and lifting her face to meet my gaze. I saw happiness there, too. We’d been two lost souls that fate brought together. Made us whole in each other.
“It feels right.” She nodded her head like she was affirming something important. “Like this is where I belong.”
I brushed my lips across hers and held her as if I’d never let go. “That’s right, angel. It’s exactly where you belong.”
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Pack Rule #4: Guard your pups with your life
We hooked up one night at Cody’s Saloon.
The beautiful nurse wanted a ride and I’d given it to her.
Made her scream and sent her home happy.
She didn’t tell me there’d been consequences.
She’d kept her secret close. For months.
But what she didn’t know could change everything.
That baby she carried wasn’t human.
And this wolf would never walk away from his pup.
She may not want me in her life, but that was too bad.
I was moving in—watching over her and providing for my family.
She was under my protection now.
Whether she wanted it or not.
Whether she wanted me or not.
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