Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 62314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
“Yes.”
“They’re not just ranchers, they’re all sh—”
A whistle pierced the air and Rob’s alpha voice carried over the rain and music. “Everybody, listen up.”
The Barn Cats stopped playing.
“I hate to break up a party, but I have no doubt the creek along the canyon road back into town is rising pretty fast. Might even flood.”
There was complete silence as everyone remembered what had happened to our parents in a storm just like this one.
“We don’t mess around with that,” he added, for those who didn’t know our sad history. “Don’t want you all in danger or stuck here all night. So, anyone who needs to get back into town better leave now!”
“Oh my gosh,” Marina exclaimed, scrambling down from my arms.
“Hang on, little girl,” I said, but it was too late. Becky, Anna and Leigh came over to say goodbye. It was a parade of flurried greetings, and then Marina wanted to send them with slices of cake since they’d miss all of the food.
“There’s no time, sweetness. They need to get out of here now, or it could get dangerous driving home,” I warned.
She stared at me wide-eyed, then her look softened. Yeah, Audrey had told her. “Okay.”
“Save me some for later!” Becky said, squeezing Audrey then Marina for another quick hug before the ladies and half the shifter crew ran out into the pouring rain.
There were about ten of us left along with the band, who didn’t seem to mind being stuck here overnight. They’d crash in the bunk house. They played a tune I’d heard at Cody’s the night before. Audrey and Boyd moved into the middle of the space and started to line dance. I had no idea Boyd knew the steps. Neither did anyone else because they were clapping and whistling, impressed.
I had to admit, my brother was smooth.
Marina and a few others joined them. Marina crooked her finger at me to participate, but the one thing I didn’t do was dance. No fucking way. Besides, I was having too much fun watching. The camaraderie of the Wolf pack made me think back to times before our parents died.
Yeah, I was coming home. It was time. And all because of the pretty blonde doing the Boot Scootin’ Boogie.
A horrible crack filled the air, so loud I watched Marina jump. Immediately after, a huge crash sounded, then part of the barn roof caved in and fell all around us.
Automatically, I ducked down but glanced up, watched the wood as it fell. A tree branch came with it. There was a huge cottonwood behind the barn, and it must’ve been struck by lightning.
On instinct, I ran and tackled Marina to the floor, covering her body with my own, my arms cradled around her head to keep anything from hitting it. All around screams, growls and snarls rang over the crashing wood and pelting rain as pack members’ wolves sprang to the surface to help them survive.
It was only through years of military training I suppressed my own urge to shift. It helped that I had Marina safely beneath me. If I hadn’t, my wolf would’ve gone nuts to save her.
“No!” a woman screamed. The terror in her voice made me jerk my head up. She was throwing slats of wood away with shifter strength. “Liam?”
A child. Fuck, a kid was under there.
I scrambled up to help her. Boyd and Rob were right there, too, throwing the pieces of wood away until we uncovered the fallen boy, a shifter child no more than ten years old.
“Don’t move him!” Audrey yelled, pushing her way through and dropping to her knees beside him, forgetting she was wearing her pretty wedding dress. Rain poured through the destroyed roof. “His neck may be broken.”
“Don’t worry, it’ll heal,” Boyd said to her in a low voice. He squatted beside her, dripping wet. “It would heal faster if he was old enough to shift, though.”
Audrey knelt beside the boy, carefully checking his pulse without moving him. “He’s alive.” She looked to the boy’s mother and nodded in reassurance.
“Shift.” Rob’s voice rang out with alpha command. Every shifter in that barn felt it, and the familiar internal response.
Some of the younger wolves—teens or more submissive pack members, actually shifted, even though Rob wasn’t talking to them. Whimpers sounded over the rain as clothing ripped and shredded and the animals were released.
Marina gasped, grabbing my hand and stepping closer to me. I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her snugly against my side.
“He doesn’t shift yet,” the boy’s mother cried.
“Shift,” Rob moved to stand directly over the boy, blocking some of the rain and commanded again.
“He can’t.” The boy’s mother wept. “Don’t you think he would’ve if he could?” She appealed to Audrey. “Is there anything you can do for him, Doctor?”
Marina trembled at my side, her slender body shaking with the trauma of everything she’d seen.