Not that I wasn’t willing to do whatever the fuck it took to prove my worth to her.
We pulled up at the job site and climbed out of the truck, unloading our supplies.
Nathan, the homeowner, came out to greet us. He was kind of a prick, which was probably part of why Nash had refused to reschedule the job. Nathan was the type to make a big stink and ask for a discount and all that shit, even from a fellow shifter.
I also disliked the fucker because a relative of his from another pack tried to kill my brother last year. Disliked was being generous, especially in my current mood. Not that the fiasco with Clint had been Nathan’s fault, but he was a shady asshole, and I wouldn’t put it past him to be more involved than we’d discovered. He was the type to stir trouble wherever the fuck he went.
I knew Rob had to watch his back with the older guy at every turn. He seemed to have it in for Rob especially, wanting him replaced with someone else as alpha, whoever the fuck it might be.
“Hey boys, about time you showed up,” Nathan drawled, scuffing the heels of his cowboy boots in the dirt as he walked.
Nash raised his brows. “We’re right on time by my watch.”
Nathan made a show of checking his watch. “If five minutes late is your definition of on time.”
I kept my mouth firmly shut. In the mood I was in, I was likely to do or say something that would come back to bite me in the ass. Hard. Instead, I pulled the ladder out of the back of the truck and propped it against Nathan’s house then set up the scaffolding next to it with our supplies.
When Nathan turned back and went inside, Nash gave him the finger.
My wolf was too fucking cranky for me to smile, but it did lighten my mood a bit. The guy was part of the pack. We took care of our own, even if one was a total bastard. I shook my head and got to work. The sooner we got it finished, the sooner we were out of here. The sooner I could get back to Natalie.
We climbed up the ladder, set the boards on the scaffolding and got to work, taking apart the stone chimney where it had caved in after the ground below the century-old ranch house settled. The structural problems were more than just the chimney, but that was the only one Nathan was willing to fix at this point.
“Did you get the fuse box replaced over at Natalie’s yesterday?” Nash asked while we worked. He pulled a loose stone free and set it on a tarp he’d placed on the roof. The day was warm, but the tall pines that surrounded the old cabin kept the sun from beating down. There was a slight breeze and the scent of evergreens and fried eggs—I assumed Nathan’s breakfast—filled the air. In the distance, I could hear a deer cutting through the woods.
“Yep.” I poked a rubber mallet gently against some loose concrete, and the pieces fell to the ground below. “Now I just need to rewire the whole damn place. I don’t like her staying there when it’s in that condition.”
“Even though the house has been like that for decades, I don’t blame you,” Nash said. After a moment, he grinned. “Makes a good excuse for her to stay with you in the time being, though, right?”
A lead ball sunk to my belly. “Yeah, I’d thought so, too, but after the way she lost her shit this morning, I don’t think she’s going to go for it now.”
He set another river rock on the tarp. “Any progress on talking her out of opening a bed and breakfast?”
I tipped my hat back, then shook my head. “Fuck.” Another thing to fucking deal with. “Haven’t brought it up yet. I have to find the right angle, you know?”
The truth was, I didn’t like any angle that wasn’t the clear one to support Natalie in whatever she wanted to do, so this situation put me between two boulders. She didn’t want to open the house up to tourists. Based on her lack of enthusiasm with the idea, it was only a way for her to make income. But she was right, her options were limited. I had no idea how talented she was at the violin, but the closest orchestra I knew of was in Seattle. That would be a long fucking commute from Cooper Valley every day.
The B&B idea was viable if the house was fixed up. There was land, a beautiful setting. Hell, it could be a real financial winner. For the pack though, it would be a disaster. If I nudged her toward the business, Rob was going to kill me. If I steered her clear of it to make Rob happy, she’d probably rip my balls off, and that was after she’d proved her point about not wanting to be with a shifter.
I ran my dirty hand over my face. “Fuck,” I breathed. “There is no right angle.”
“You’ll think of something,” Nash said although he didn’t sound that confident. He was probably thrilled he wasn’t the one losing his shit since he didn’t have any good advice. We’d been best friends since pretty much birth, and he hadn’t even held back when poking into my shit. Still, neither of us knew jack about dealing with human females. I’d never felt so out of my element in my life, and that wasn’t saying anything about how my wolf was pissed at me standing up here fixing a chimney instead of getting our girl.
I shot Nash a pained look. “I sure as fuck hope so. She’s stubborn.” I shook my head. I fucking loved that about her until this morning, that she was as wild and untamed as her hair. But it was when I was ready to give her a pleasurable wake up that I learned she was gonna dig her heels in against me. Against being my mate.
She said I didn’t love her. Then what was it called when a guy was losing his shit because of a woman? At the idea of her being out of my sight? Where I couldn’t touch her or breathe her in? Why did my wolf want to snap at me for the first time ever?
I sighed again. I’d figure it out. I had to. In the meantime, I just had to get my wolf’s insanely jealous and possessive streak to calm the fuck down.
13
NATALIE
I spent the day scrubbing the hard water stains off the tile in the master bathroom. Literally all day.
I may have thrown myself more obsessively into the job than usual in order to not think about Rand. About the night we’d shared. God, I was sore from the way he hadn’t held back. I’d actually begged him to do so, and now I felt it, as if my body was reminding me what I was missing.
My heart still sped up every time I remembered what he’d said.
You belong to me, Natalie Sheffield.
He really believed that.
God, part of me wanted to believe it too. Wouldn’t life have been easy if we were both shifters, and we both just “knew” the other was the one? If love didn’t matter because our inner wolves were smarter than we were?
But we weren’t. I wasn’t a shifter. I had no idea if Rand was the one. Sure, I was attracted to him. Not just because he was too handsome for his own good but because he was… nice. Bossy. Protective. Definitely over the top, but I was drawn to that. I was sure all the women in Cooper Valley felt the same way. But lust wasn’t love.
Lust had gotten me into his bed the night before. Made my pussy sore. Made my nipples ache for his mouth again. My nipples did not decide whether I wanted forever with someone.
I’d seen my parents’ shitty relationship. How they were assholes to each other. How they’d been the perfect example of what not to do. But what was the right thing? How was I supposed to feel? How would I ever know what love was if the closest example of a marriage was the worst?