She’d said they and them.
Ali tugged the tie holding her long auburn hair in a ponytail and let it fall around her shoulders as if she couldn’t hold herself still.
I flicked off the beer top with my thumb, forgetting not to show my shifter strength, and handed it to her. In her worry, she didn’t notice my mistake. I passed the other beer to Holt and joined them at the table. “What did you see? Tell us everything.”
Ali’s beautiful brown eyes were swimming with tears.
My wolf howled at the sight. I reached out to brush them away, but didn’t interrupt. We needed answers. Her coming here showed she trusted us. She wasn’t keeping this information a secret and she had to tell us, to purge it to set herself free of its hold.
That was right for mates like us. This was her problem, but we’d take the burden of it on for her. Not only because it was our jobs, but because we were her mates.
“Today when I was on the ride with Ariel, I saw a trailer left way out by the pond.”
I set my beer on the table with a hard thud at the mention of my sister. I didn’t think I was going to like the way this tale was going.
Ali glanced at me, but continued on when I gave her a nod of encouragement. Yeah, I hid my wolf’s rage really fucking well.
“Later, when I asked my dad about it, he said it belonged to Tim Hollaroy, who was staying there because he’d had a tiff with his wife.”
I glanced at Holt again, knowing he remembered that Tim Hollaroy was at the helm of the wolf tracker business last year. He’d been nailed by the Fish and Game, which resulted in the loss of his hunting license for five years, and a fine of four thousand dollars. In fact, our friend Wade believed he was probably the rancher responsible for killing his mother years ago, when she’d been on a run in wolf form.
Yeah, that fucker.
“I knew that didn’t make sense,” she continued, the words coming out at a quick pace now. As if the dam had been broken on her story. “I mean, the trailer was way off the dirt road. Yes, it was by the pond, which might make a nice view from the trailer windows, but it would be a damn inconvenient place to stay when your own ranch was miles away. Why there, on the far reaches of our land? It makes no sense.”
I nodded and took a slow pull on my beer, letting her talk.
“I decided to go and check things out for myself.”
I stiffened in my seat, my fist tightening around the beer bottle. “You what?” I choked. My wolf snarled.
She nodded. “I needed to know what was going on. So tonight, I went out there after dark.”
“Fuck, Ali,” Holt spat. His eyes took on the glow of his wolf, as if the mere mention of a threat to her safety had him ready to shift. “That could’ve been dangerous. You should’ve called us first.”
She was too distraught to notice Holt’s eyes.
“So what happened?” I demanded. There was anger in my tone, but it was impossible to fight. My wolf was furious that our mate had put herself in danger. Alone. At night. With Hollaroy most likely involved.
“I heard two men in there talking,” she said. “I got close enough to listen, and they were definitely talking about cooking meth.” She swallowed hard. “One of them was my dad. The other guy was threatening him. He said something like, ‘Figure it out. You’re alive because we need you.’”
Her jaw trembled.
I reached for her hand. “It’s going to be okay. I’m so glad you came to us.”
Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “But my dad…” Her voice cracked, and the tears spilled.
“Sweetheart,” Holt said softly. He pulled her chair back and lifted her easily onto his lap. “We’ll sort it out. If someone’s threatening him, we’ll arrest them. Get them off your property and out of your life.”
“Our lives. Me and my dad’s. Right?” She was on Holt’s lap, but it was my gaze she locked on to, and the pleading in her eyes was more than I could take.
“We’ll take it from here,” I promised.
I didn’t want to tell her that her dad would remain unscathed. If he had a role in this, he’d have to answer for it, but I also needed her trust. I needed her to believe that coming to us was the right decision. The challenge was, she was coming to us as mere men. Not as lawmen. Not as shifters.
But we were those other things too. If her father broke the law, it was our job to see justice served. And if he was endangering our mate, then our wolves would ensure her safety no matter the cost, no matter the human laws.
“Ali, you have to promise us that you won’t put yourself in the middle of it again.”
“That’s my land. My job is to run that ranch. I can’t stay away,” she said, not soothing me at all. Unfortunately, it made sense.
“You have to stay away from that trailer and stick close to the house and stables, or at least be with others who work for your family.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
“What if your dad hadn’t been there, and whoever was cooking meth had caught you sneaking around?” I continued, ensuring she got the point. Her agreement wasn’t enough for me or my wolf.
Holt’s eyes glowed amber again. Yeah, his wolf was frantic too.
She shrugged. “I understand it could have been dangerous.”
Could have been?
“I had to know,” she continued, not understanding the depth of our concern and that our wolves were riled. “I wasn’t going to call you guys in if it was that crusty old rancher friend of my dad’s, watching baseball.”
That crusty old rancher friend was an asshole, and a thorn in Holt’s side. And he was a wolf hater on top of it.
“No, sweetheart,” I rumbled, standing up and swooping her into my arms, right off of Holt’s lap. I carried her in the direction of Holt’s—our—bedroom. “We need you to promise us. We will go apeshit if we think you’re in danger.”
“I can handle myself,” Ali said, but there was a lilt of amusement in her voice rather than the stubborn hardness she’d used a moment before.
“You may have traveled the world, but you’re no match when it comes to meth dealers. We’ll work our investigation and take care of the bad guys, whoever they are. Not you.” I finished my lecture and looked to Holt. “I think she needs to be tied up again. What do you think?”
“A little punishment is in order, for sure,” he said, following. It made my dick hard, getting her beneath us and watching her squirm from a little funishment, but I definitely wanted to exert my dominance over her. To make sure she knew we were in charge, especially when it came to her safety.
Still, I watched closely to make sure Ali was ready for the shift into pleasure, or if she needed more emotional support. There wasn’t anything we could do about Hollaroy or Jenkins tonight, but we could take care of our mate.
Her lips turned up at my suggestion, and she let out a soft chuckle.
“What kind of punishment, officers?” She gave me a coy look that made my dick hard.
Hallelujah. She was game.
Thank fuck, because I needed to taste her again like I needed to breathe.
I was gentle when I set her in the center of the bed. Holt crawled over her and pushed the hem of her tight t-shirt up to kiss her flat belly. “What kind would you like, sweetheart?” he asked.