1
LEVI
A human in the bunkhouse.
God, this was going to suck.
I’d had my fill of living with humans as a teenager. Being forced to suppress my wolf urges. Hiding my true nature when all I’d wanted to do was run wild and howl at the fucking full moon. Especially with raging teenage hormones. It had practically destroyed me, and the day I turned eighteen, I’d left my human family. Never wanted to live under the same roof as a human again.
Until now.
I took off my hat, rubbed the sweat away with the bandana that had been tucked in my pocket. Clint, Johnny and I had been herding cattle and were finally done for the day.
“It makes no sense.” My fellow ranch hand Johnny hopped down from his horse, dust kicking up around his boots, to close the fence behind us. I leaned against my pommel and waited. “Why have a guy stay here two weeks just to breed a mare?”
And why did he have to stay with us in the bunkhouse? I wanted to ask, but I kept my mouth shut. Everyone already knew how I felt about living under the same roof as a human. About my past trauma.
“It takes, what? A few minutes to pasture mate once they get down to business?” Johnny continued. “It’s not like the guy’s trying to get some woman pregnant. It’s a dang mare.”
“I know,” Clint let his exasperation show in those two words. “Apparently, pasture mating’s too rough for this guy’s prized mare. He wants hand mating, and not by us—by his own vet. He’s like a… chaperone for a horse.”
I snorted.
“I just don’t get it.” Johnny said. The nuances of horse breeding weren’t his thing.
They weren’t mine either, really, but if some rich yahoo wanted to have his personal veterinarian babysit a mare he brought to Wolf Ranch to be bred, what did I care? I just didn’t like the part where the vet had to stay in the bunkhouse with me and Johnny.
Clint didn’t disagree with Johnny. He’d always had a calmness about him, but the fact that he smiled all the time was new. He’d met his mate back in the fall, and they’d had a baby only a few months ago. To say he was happy was an understatement. He was in fucking wolf heaven. A marked mate. A pup.
“It takes more than once to get the job done,” Clint reminded us.
“It took you only once,” Johnny countered with a sly grin and a wink.
Clint and his human mate Becky had gotten pregnant their first go—a one night stand kind of thing. When he finally figured out she was his mate, he’d moved out of the bunkhouse and now lived in a cabin up in the hills with his new family.
“There are a lot of high maintenance horse people in this country,” Clint said. “This guy is one of them. If he wants to have a vet remain to supervise his horse breeding and is willing to pay top price for it, he can waste his money all he wants. We can stand having a human around for a couple weeks. It’s worth the money he’s paying, believe me.”
Johnny frowned although he had no comeback for that.
“Besides,” Clint continued. “If his mare can be bred every other day, not just once, the chances of the horse and the vet leaving Wolf Ranch after the two weeks are even better.” Clint tipped his hat back. “After that, you’ll only have to share the bunk house with this grumpy fuck once again.” He thumbed his shoulder in my direction. “Until he’s voted in as sheriff in the fall, then he’ll be living in my parents’ place in town full time.”
I climbed down from my horse and led him over to the rail to loosen the bridle. I wanted the sheriff job. It might not lead to justice for my parents, who were killed over fifteen years ago, but I’d get it for others and protect the secret that shifters resided in this county. I’d crashed at Janet and Tom’s place a few times when the weather was too bad to drive the canyon road, but living in town? I wasn’t so sure about that. The election was months off, so I wasn’t going to borrow trouble with arguing about where I was going to sleep.
“He’s on his way in,” Boyd, our alpha’s brother, called.
We stopped our work and looked up. He and his mate Audrey were walking our way from the main house. His pace was slow to match his mate’s, who held little Lizzie in her arms. When Audrey wasn’t working at the hospital, the three of them weren’t far apart. “Fancy truck with a fancier trailer.”
I nodded once because it was as I expected. Rich, eccentric horse owner, fancy horse fixins, including a twenty-four/seven vet.
My pack mates might have been happily settled with their human mates, and I liked their mates all right, but humans in general? Not my favorite. Not by a long shot. Marked mates were one thing, but I’d had grandparents who hated the fact I was a shifter… a life that kept my wolf from forever running free. My wolf snarled at the unhappy memory. I still couldn’t shift because of my grandparents. I’d been forced to stifle it too much. It wasn’t because I was only half shifter. I knew because I sensed my wolf inside of me. He was in there but stuck.
The big truck rolled to a careful stop in front of the stable. Boyd hadn’t been kidding about the set-up. This mare, who’d been carefully transported in air conditioned horse trailer splendor, was a pampered princess… was about to get defiled by a Wolf Ranch stallion.
The sun cast a glare on the truck’s windows, making me squint. The engine cut off, and a second later, the door opened.
“Oh.” Clint stared, eyebrows high enough to get lost beneath his hat.
It wasn’t a guy who stepped out of the truck—it was a female. And holy hell, she was all woman.
“Damn,” Johnny whispered, eyeing her with blatant eagerness.
Clint reached out and smacked him upside the head. But I only saw it out of the corner of my eye because I was too busy taking her in although I wasn’t letting my tongue hang out.
She was tall. I guessed five-ten. Lean, but with curves that couldn’t be hidden beneath a pair of jeans. They weren’t painted on but hugged her just right. A white blouse was tucked in, the sleeves rolled up and a few buttons undone to show off the long line of her neck. It set off her skin—a warm brown that practically glowed in the sunshine. I realized I’d worked my way up her body because I took in her face last.
Holy fuck, she was gorgeous. Not in the supermodel way, no sir. Her eyes were wide set, nose pert. Lips full and lush. With high cheekbones and a square jaw, she didn’t look… dainty. Hell, nothing about her was dainty. Except for the little gold hoops in her ears, the crisp cotton of her top. There wasn’t a wrinkle on her. No, not dainty. Fancy, like her truck and trailer.
My dick punched against my jeans, eager to get to her because I hadn’t seen a woman that made me instantly hard in a long time. Thankfully, Boyd and Clint weren’t getting hard over the sight of her. I shifted my stance to hide that fact and stepped her way.
“Hey, there,” Clint said. “I’m guessing you’re not Charlie Baker.”
She offered him a small smile and tucked her shoulder length hair behind an ear. It was dark brown and smooth, hanging in long layers around her face. My fingers itched to touch it.
What the fuck was wrong with me?
Human. She was a fucking human. Sure, I’d fucked humans before. My dick had gotten hard for them. But not like this. Clearly, it had been too fucking long since I’d gotten off with more than my hand.