Wolf Ranch Complete Boxed Set

Chapter 5

5

AUDREY

I’d made it all the way down the long drive and to the main house but hadn’t gotten out of the car. My pep talk had gotten me this far but had fizzled out just shy of the front door. I sat in my idling car when a rap sounded on my window.

I shrieked a little and nearly wrenched my neck looking out at the… wow. Those were some broad shoulders under that cowboy hat. It was another very good-looking cowboy. He didn’t look happy. Where the hell had he come from? I’d been staring at the house—a full on farmhouse of epic proportions—but not too focused to have missed someone of his size approaching.

I quickly shut off the car and opened my door. The man stepped back, still frowning. He resembled Boyd, except a little older, and everywhere Boyd radiated happy go lucky, this guy radiated grumpy. I took a guess at him being an older brother.

“Hi! I’m Dr. Ames.” I reached back into the car, fumbled with my purse and medical kit and pulled them out, spun back around to face the guy, then stuck out my hand. Yeah, I was flustered. “I’m here to check in on Boyd.”

He looked down at his own hands, dusting them on his jeans, then held them up. “I’m not fit to shake,” he said, although I suspected he just didn’t want to touch me. Which was stupid, and I was certainly reading way too much into it. “You’re… what did you say? A doctor? Why would you need to come all the way out here to check on Boyd?”

I didn’t know why, but his skepticism or confusion offended me. I frowned, stared him down, then squared my shoulders. “Yes. I attended Boyd when he was injured at the rodeo the other night. He left the hospital without completing the proper discharge papers.”

Shock and disbelief flickered over the man’s face, then his scowl deepened. “I see. I’m sorry, my little brother does have a habit of operating outside the rules.”

Okay. It seemed there was a little family tension here. I gave a bland shrug to make light of it all. “It’s fine. I just wanted to check on his wound. Is he here?”

I looked away from the gorgeous grumpy guy. The long dirt drive where I’d parked sloped down to a giant barn, a stable and corral. In front of me stood a large ranch house with plenty of windows and a wrap-around porch. A beautiful place to raise a huge family. Lots of rooms, lots of places for kids to run and play while the parents sat in rocking chairs on the front porch and watched. A pang of envy filled me. I couldn’t imagine growing up in a place as idyllic as this, and I was… jealous.

I’d been raised by a single mom with depression. It hadn’t been a Norman Rockwell painting like this place probably was.

To the left, a long two-story building stood with a similar porch on the ground floor and a balcony running all along the top floor. Doors opened to the top balcony, almost like the ranch version of a dorm or apartment building. A bunkhouse, perhaps? How many people lived and worked here? On a piece of land this size, I assumed a fair amount.

“I’m right here, Doc.”

A deep voice had me spinning on my heel in the direction of the road that led to the barn. Boyd came jogging up in a pair of ripped jeans and fitted t-shirt in hunter green, a few flecks of straw on the shoulder. There wasn’t a hint of effort in his gait as if he was injured. The relaxed smile on his face didn’t indicate pain or discomfort. The snug shirt couldn’t hide any kind of bandage.

He tugged off a pair of work gloves as he came up, his smile as wide and charming as I remembered it. For one moment, I forgot everything under the glare of that magnetic white-toothed grin. Heat blossomed between my legs, my n*****s tightened in my bra. This feeling was why I was standing here, why I’d driven all this way. I felt like I’d been hit by a charging bull, and I’d never, ever felt like this before.

Not over a man. Not over a man I didn’t even know. Gah.

But then reality came crashing back.

What in the hell was happening? How was it possible?

I’d have sworn on a stack of Bibles this man had been a bloody mess just two days ago. Now it looked like he’d been throwing hay bales out in the barn. No way could a guy with a sucking chest wound be able to twist his body, let alone throw hay.

As if he was suddenly reminded of his injury, he sagged a bit, bracing his ribs with his forearm with one hand, then took off his hat with the other. His light hair was damp with sweat and had a crease from his hat. I wanted to ruffle it with my fingers.

“Awful nice of you to come check up on me.”

Again, that devastating grin.

Again, the ruined panties.

“What the hell happened to you?” Boyd’s brother demanded.

“Doc, this is Rob, my brother.”

I nodded as a way of hello. I couldn’t tell if Rob was bothered by my presence or bothered by Boyd or just all around a cranky person, but I didn’t want to find out.

“You didn’t answer my question. What happened?” Was that a growl in Rob’s voice?

Boyd rolled his eyes. “Nothing.”

Boyd grabbed my wrist and tugged me away from Rob and back in the direction he’d come. I had to practically run to keep up with his long gait. The sun was warm, and my shirt began to cling to me. I glanced back at Rob who stood where we’d left him by my car, watching us.

“Where are we going?” I asked, trying to catch my breath.

“Somewhere alone.” He slowed down and glanced down at me. His gaze held heat. Promise. Need. All of it was potent and made me catch my breath in a way a dash across the property ever could.

Somewhere alone. My body was thinking that was an incredibly good idea. My mind… not so much.

BOYD

I didn’t shut the barn door behind us, although I wanted to lock it up tight to keep Audrey in… and everyone else out. My wolf howled with enthusiasm that she was here with me. She’d shown up, just as I’d assumed, but it had taken two f*****g days. I’d rubbed one out in the shower morning and night, my d**k getting hard just thinking about her. The curve of her cheek, the lush swell of her t**s, the roundness of her hips, the berry color of her lips. The thought of those lips trying to wrap around every inch of me. I was big, and she was a little thing and would have a hard time. At first.

Fuck, my d**k was punching against the zipper of my jeans, and all I wanted to do was push her up against the wall, tug down her pants and drive into her. Or, I could bend her over a saddle stand and take her from behind, spank her ass for making me wait two days to see her again. To breathe in that sweet scent.

That was what had pulled me from my chores. Peaches. I knew she was here the second I breathed her in, even from afar. I’d know her anywhere by that alone. And then she’d been talking to Rob. The fucker had not been happy to see her. Hell, he wasn’t happy to see anyone. As alpha, he was protective of our land, of our way of life. Any outsider, no matter how f*****g gorgeous or perfect for my wolf, would get a cold shoulder. Plus, he kept his distance from all females—shifter or human. He wouldn’t say why, but I suspected he might be getting a trace of moon madness. It could overcome male wolves—particularly alphas—when they haven’t mated by a certain age. Turned them wild—feral. If it went on too long, the shifter could lose his humanity altogether.

“Um… what are we doing in here?”

Her voice was soft and gentle, although there was an underlying hint of command to it. It was the same tone she’d used with me at the arena, one that said she wasn’t amused. She might be a foot shorter, but somehow, she seemed to look down her nose at me. If I hadn’t known she was a doctor, I’d think her a stern librarian, with those f**k-me glasses and all.

“Getting you away from my brother. He’s somewhat of an asshole.”

She glanced over her shoulder toward the open doorway, which practically glowed from the bright sunshine. We stood in the darkened interior, the air cooler here. I’d spent the morning tossing hay bales into the loft with the other pack members, who’d made themselves scarce now. Wolf Ranch was huge, over ten thousand acres. Plenty for a pack of shifters to roam without veering onto someone else’s land. The pack totaled about forty members. Ten lived on the ranch. All males. All unmated. Other mated wolves lived nearby in the hills, preferring an even more remote location or their own space because they had a family. Pups.

It was only a matter of time before all of us would succumb to the urge to mate, where the need overrode anything else. I’d felt hints of mine, the need to find The One growing stronger. It was when that urge wasn’t obeyed—when someone held out for The One but didn’t find her and didn’t take another instead—that there was trouble with moon madness. Lucky for me, I met Audrey, and I knew she was it. My mate. My wolf knew, all but pushed me to claim her here and now.

But she wasn’t a shifter. She was human. She didn’t know we even existed let alone want to mate with a wolf.

I was totally f****d. The way she was looking up at me, expectant and filled with a degree of annoyance, was hot as hell. Everything she did turned me on. I couldn’t miss the way her t**s rose and fell as she breathed. The pulse point in her neck throbbed with her life blood at the spot I wanted to sink my teeth into as I f****d her hard. Made her mine.

Fuck!

“I didn’t tell him about the accident in the arena,” I explained. “I didn’t want him to worry—you know?” More like, I didn’t want him to know how I’d f****d things up by getting myself taken to a hospital. Having my healing witnessed by Audrey. I’d recovered completely by the time I’d driven to the ranch, grabbed a shower and threw out my bloodied clothes.

I aimed my most charming smile at her. “He already thinks I’m wasting my life in the rodeo.”

I give her a wink, stepping into her personal space.

She responded to my nearness, some of her disapproval dropping away and sympathy creeping in. “Yes, I did pick up on some of that.”

I knew she was a smart one.

I give her a lazy shrug. “I’m the black sheep of the family.”

I was the third Wolf son. Rob was the alpha and Colton was the beta. He was two years older than me and had enlisted fresh out of high school. He was off saving the f*****g world as a Green Beret, but he knew his place, knew he’d have to return to the ranch eventually, especially after the urge to mate hit. Rob and Colton were the heir and the spare. I was the third wheel. I would never hold rank in the pack. I’d known that forever. And when our parents had been killed… I’d hidden the pain with a who-gave-a-f**k attitude. The second I graduated, I’d also left the ranch, made my own way. Became the champ on the back of a bull.

My last name might be over the archway at the entrance to the ranch, but I wasn’t needed here. I was just the f**k up. I’d proven that again coming back. Audrey wasn’t here to get in my pants. She’d made that clear as f*****g day. She was here because she was smart. A doctor. She questioned. She wanted to know the truth.

I couldn’t tell her the truth. It would destroy the pack. While I didn’t feel like I belonged, I’d do nothing to hurt the Wolf pack. Nothing. So while I needed to push Audrey away, to get her back in her little car and on the road back to Cooper Valley, she wasn’t going to go without answers.

Answers I couldn’t give.

There was only one way I could think of to keep from telling her the truth.

Distraction.

It was time to lay on the Wolf charm because one way to make a woman forget that she’d encountered a quick-healing wolf was to make her forget her own name.

I might be a f**k up in some things, but I certainly knew how to do that particular trick. My wolf? He thought that was a mighty fine idea.

I grinned and her blue eyes widened. “Besides, I wanted you all to myself. What brings you here? Couldn’t resist Boyd Wolf, darlin’?”

She frowned. “I came to see to your injuries, just like I said.”

I tucked my forearm against my side, like I was covering the wound. “Nah, I told you, I’m fine.” I inched closer. “I’ll let you in on a little secret.” I was using my best bedroom voice. “I’m not the kinda guy who submits for examinations. In fact—” I let my hands settle lightly on her waist. “I prefer to be the one in charge.” I dropped my head, bringing our foreheads close. “Doing the examining, I mean.”

Her mouth fell open. She quickly shut it, licked her lips. The way her little pink tongue flicked out… f**k. This was supposed to get her distracted, not make my balls tighten and turn blue.

She lifted her hand as if to touch the spot where the horn had pierced but stopped just in time. I took hold of her fingers, pulled them to my chest. She gasped.

I growled, and she whipped her head up to mine at the sound.

“I… um.” She tried to tug her hand free, but I wasn’t letting go.

When she stopped trying to pull away, I loosened my hold but moved her hand over my chest so her fingertips could graze the line of my pectoral muscle. Goosebumps rose, my c**k swelled. My wolf howled.

She was watching her fingers, and I couldn’t miss, even in the dim light since I had excellent vision, that her pupils were dilated. That thrum at her neck… it had picked up.

I inhaled deeply, breathing in that peach scent. And more. “You’re sweet everywhere, aren’t you, darlin’?”

Yeah, her p***y was going to be so f*****g sweet. Sticky sweet because she was wet. I didn’t have to slip my hand into her panties to know for sure. This close, with only the earthy scents of the barn as a distraction, I couldn’t miss her arousal.

“I… I came to—”

“You haven’t come yet, Audrey,” I murmured, cutting her off. Keeping her hand, I walked forward a step, forcing her to retreat. I turned, so we were facing the opposite direction, then walked her so her back was pressed against the side of the barn. “But you will.”

“Um.”

That was all she said before I lowered my head and kissed her. A gentle brushing, soft, as if to learn the feel of those soft pillows of flesh. I kissed one corner, her mouth open as she began to pant, then the other. I ran my hand down over her hair, silky soft, then gripped the thick strands at the nape of her neck and tugged. Not too hard, but she gasped, and her eyes opened wide. But blurry.

I didn’t say anything, just kissed her again. This time, she knew I was in control. My tongue swept across her lip, then delved deep, finding hers. Her free hand went to my biceps, held on.

She tasted sweet, perfect. Leaning forward, I pressed into her. Her soft t**s plumped against my chest, and my d**k nestled against her belly. My back bent to reach her, our height difference so great.

I growled, grabbed her hips and lifted her up, then pressed her back into the wall again now that our mouths were lined up. Her dangling legs came up and around, behind me, not long enough to hook her feet together, so her heels hooked against my lower back. Her p***y, f**k… her p***y was pressed right against my length now, and I felt her heat through both of our jeans. My hips jerked into her, and she moaned.

I took advantage and nibbled along her jaw, down the line of her neck. She angled her chin up, offering me access. Her sharp little nails dug into my shoulders. f**k, she was a little wildcat.

I lifted my head enough to take her in. Wet, swollen lips, flushed cheeks, hazy gaze, ragged breath. Her hair was mussed from my hand, and her glasses were crooked. f**k, yes.

Except, for the first time in my life, I experienced a stab of guilt at seducing her so quickly. My wolf was down—oh boy, was he down, but there was something behind it all.

Maybe because I knew this was so much more than the figurative and literal roll in the hay. This female was my mate—even though it made no logical sense. I hadn’t dared even think that one word… mate. I’d said from the first time I saw her that she was mine, but mate? That word was powerful.

Too f*****g powerful because she was human and didn’t belong here or in the pack. Yet I couldn’t deny the rightness of kissing her. Of touching her. Having her press against me, hearing the sweet sounds of her pleasure that me and my wolf brought out. In the past, I’d felt cocky knowing I could get a woman all hot and bothered. With Audrey, it was different. Hot as f*****g hell, but reverent somehow. As if the sounds she made were precious, were just for me.

And instead of asking her on a date and taking my time to get to know her, I had her pushed against the barn wall, drunk on pheromones. I was everything I didn’t want to be. This wasn’t happy-go-lucky wham bam thank you, ma’am. This was so much more.

I hated myself in this moment because while it was special, I had no other choice. I couldn’t very well lift my shirt and show her there wasn’t even a mark where that bull’s horn went through my side. I had to be the asshole who seduced her for a reason, and it wasn’t only because she was mine and I wanted to hear every desperate sound she made, to feel the prick of her nails, the catch to her breath. No, it was because I had to make her forget all about the fact that I was a f*****g shifter and she was human and we’d never be right, no matter how much my wolf said so.

Because of all that bullshit and not because I needed to with every cell in my body, I went back to kissing the hell out of her. Making her forget all about that unfortunate incident. I could get her off and get her back in her car in under a minute.

I lifted my head. She was my mate. I couldn’t be a d**k. She might not be able to be mine and I might not be able to claim her, but I could show her what it could be like between us. I wouldn’t fake anything. Hell, I’d give it my all, so she’d come like never before. If this was it, then I wanted it to be as special as I could make it, so I could remember. Could make it the top of my spank bank file for the rest of my life. This was perfection, and I had to savor every second.

My tongue swept between her lips, danced against hers. My palms slid down to cup her ass. I squeezed and kneaded those perfect globes as I took my fill of her mouth.

I had to scratch that. I probably would never get my fill. Because tasting her was like an arrival.

The achievement I’d been searching for without knowing it all these years. My wolf nudged me, snarled, agreeing with me not to be a d**k and do this right. I couldn’t take from her for a reason.

I had to give.