Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Fuck, my dick 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 fucking 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 fuck-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 fucked. 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 tits 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 fucked 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 fucked 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 fucking 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-fuck attitude. The second I graduated, I’d also left the ranch, made my own way. Became the champ on the back of a bull.