Colton would have made a good enforcer and proved it in all his years in the military, but he was in line to be alpha. And without a mate, he could’ve gone moon mad.
I’d volunteered for the job. Dealt with the consequences of it. The danger. The long lapses of time away from home. Even killing.
I’d thought I’d be safe enough from moon madness, not having the alpha line’s blood in my veins. Now that I’d met my mate? Now that I knew how hard it was to stay away from her? To not claim her? I wasn’t so sure. I’d only known Becky was mine for about an hour, and I was starting to lose my shit. I would go insane if I didn’t claim her, moon madness or not.
“What’s got into you?” Rob asked as I stomped around the truck, the snow smashing under my feet with a satisfying crunch. He grabbed some of the bags. “Your side bothering you?”
I scowled. My breath came out in a white cloud as I eyed my friend. My alpha.
My side? My head had been so focused on Becky, I’d completely forgotten about the throbbing wound. I wasn’t used to healing at such a slow pace, but this wound was a good example of the impact silver had on shifters. It burned and was just starting to close up. It would heal completely over time, in another day or two… but shit.
“It’s fine,” I grumbled, not used to being coddled about an injury. Hell, it was the only time I ever had one. As a kid, my mother hadn’t even done it since we fucking healed so fast. Except for now.
He looked at Shelby who shrugged but said, “I think you Wolf boys aren’t the only ones Fate threw together with a human.”
Rob stopped mid-stride, five bags of groceries balanced in his arms. He pinned me with a look, eyebrows raised. “That right? You found your mate? Holy shit.”
My scowl grew deeper.
“Who is it? Someone you saw in town?” he prodded.
I snatched a bag off the top of Rob’s load because between him and Shelby, they’d already unloaded everything. I chose to ignore them both as I stomped inside.
I hadn’t gotten it sorted in my head yet. The last thing I needed was to talk it over with my alpha.
“Hey, Clint,” Willow, Rob’s mate, called from the kitchen. Shelby had been wrong about Willow being human—we all had. Turned out the DEA agent possessed latent shifter genes that presented themselves when her life had been threatened by a bullet to the gut. She’d shifted for the very first time at the age of twenty-six, her inner wolf coming out to save her. While Rob had accepted Willow as his mate when he’d assumed she was human, our alpha had actually mated a rare and beautiful ginger wolf.
I dropped the grocery bag on the counter.
“I’m going for a run,” I muttered, not waiting for Rob or Shelby.
Wolves didn’t normally run during the day when the chance of being spotted by a human was higher, but we were up on the mountain, on pack grounds. I’d be safe enough. I was an enforcer. I knew the fucking rules, and they included not mating. Sure, they were my fucking rules. My job was dangerous. What kind of mate was I who killed as ordered? A mercenary. An assassin. Sure, I only finished off rogue shifters who needed to be put down, but still. There was a darkness in me that would taint Becky. Destroy her as it would surely begin to destroy me.
I really, really needed to let off some steam; otherwise, I’d be in my truck and headed back to my human mate, and that was the last thing I could do.
Hey, sugar. I’m your mate. Yeah, I’m a wolf shifter, and I’m going to bite your neck as I take you hard and make you mine forever. Oh yeah, I’m a council enforcer who ends rogue shifters with a silver bullet to the brain. Let’s fuck.
I stripped and shifted to my wolf, with fur as black as my soul, I knew that wasn’t going to work. Not one fucking bit.
5
BECKY
Well, crap on a cracker.
After tugging my mitten off with my teeth, I pulled out my cell from my purse and called in to work. As it rang, I took in the snow that had fallen overnight. Not much, but enough to add another inch to the last round. It was flipping cold out, and I stomped my booted feet on the driveway as I stared at my car.
“Talia, hey, it’s Becky,” I said when a fellow nurse answered in the labor and delivery department. “Look, I’ve got a flat tire, and I’m going to be late.”
My driver’s side tire had been slashed. It had been obvious when I’d come down the walk, seeing the car off kilter, and even more obvious when the cut was on the side wall. No nail ever punctured that part.
I needed only one guess who’d done it. Todd, my deranged ex.
Yes, Todd. Slashing my tires will definitely make me come back to you.
“That sucks,” she replied. “Don’t worry. It’s quiet now. Only one patient, only four centimeters dilated, so you’re good.”
I sighed in relief, my breath coming out in a white cloud. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
I hung up, tucked my phone away and went around to the trunk to find the jack and the spare. There was no way I was driving anywhere right now, and no way I could afford a tow truck to help.
I stomped my foot on the ground again, this time in total frustration. Why couldn’t Todd just leave me alone? Sign the fucking papers and move on with his life? What guy wanted to be with a woman who didn’t want to be with him?
I’d met Todd when I’d worked as a nurse in the ICU at a hospital in Billings. It had been my second job out of school. I’d been warned about dating a doctor, but I’d fallen for Todd’s attention and charm. He’d been sweet even. Told me everything I wanted to hear. Growing up with parents who considered me their accident, I’d craved love. Looking back, it was so obvious how desperate I’d been. How stupid. But Todd had been good, though. Manipulative. Twisted. Cutting me off from friends, deciding which shifts I worked. Hell, even which department I worked in. Little by little, he’d chipped away at my independence.
I hadn’t even noticed as it happened, adapting as best I could to keep him happy. In love with me. Until he hit me. Only once. Sure, it was a dick move, but I was actually thankful for it. It was literally the slap in the face I needed to wake up and catch on to the shitshow that was my life.
He’d gone out to drink after blaming me for making him angry enough to hit me. I’d quickly packed my car with whatever I could fit and left him that night. I’d gone to an attorney, got divorce papers started.
Almost two years later, I lived two towns over and on my own, yet I was in the same fucking situation. Still married to the asshole who refused to sign. Who went before the judge and threw out all kinds of shit to drag it out. To drag out the costly expense for my lawyer. At this point, I had no doubt my bills would be putting her son through college.
I huffed and kicked the flat tire as I thought about having to pay for Todd’s school loans. Being married still meant being legally tied to Todd’s debts. It had been one thing to float him as he finished his residency while I worked, but another to pay his bills now when we hadn’t lived together for years.
“Fucker,” I muttered. I hadn’t seen him in months, not since the last court visit when I had to argue that the new granite countertops he’d had installed at his house, in my name, were not my financial responsibility.