Ruthless (Wolf Ranch #6) - Renee Rose Page 0,30
you’re mine. I’m a possessive fucker.”
“I saw that clearly last night.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
He sat there all sexy and rumpled. And confused.
This was it. There were only so many lies I could come up with to skirt the truth. And he was telling them, too, which bothered the hell out of me.
“I know, Rand.”
There, I said it. After fifteen years, I said it.
“Know what?”
I turned around to search for my shoes.
“Know what?” he repeated.
When I didn’t answer, he moved to me, took my arm and spun me back to face him. He stood before me. Bare. His dick was hard and bobbed between us, but he was looking at me with such confusion, such intensity, he clearly forgot he was aroused.
“Know what?” he asked, this time with a little snap. His patience was at an end.
“What you are.”
He stared.
“That you’re a shifter.”
His eyes widened slightly, and the grip on my arm tightened, but it wasn’t painful.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, clearly trying to fake it.
I sighed, let it out. “I saw you. That summer when the tractor fell on you.”
He dropped his hand, went to the bed, sat on the edge.
“I told Uncle Adam. He knew, told me what you were, what all of you at Wolf Ranch were. Are.”
Rand looked over, surprise on his face. “Old Man Sheffield knew? All that time?”
I nodded. “His first and only love was a shifter from your pack named Maggie. She couldn’t be with him because he was a human. So yeah. I know. I know there’s no forever for us.”
He lurched up from the bed, holding both hands out. “Hold up. That’s where you’re wrong.”
Something fluttered in my belly. God, I didn’t know how badly I wanted to be wrong. My legs trembled where I stood, as if my body believed this conversation was far more important than I’d given it credit for.
“First of all, it used to be pack law that we couldn’t mate with humans, but that’s no longer the case. What really guides us is fate.”
I wanted to roll my eyes, but he appeared dead serious.
“A shifter catches the scent of his or her mate and knows them immediately. It’s biology. There’s no choice or question involved. I don’t know whether your uncle was Maggie’s fated mate, but I do know you’re my mate. You’re mine, Natalie Sheffield.”
The trembling in my limbs grew stronger. I swallowed. “Wh-what are you saying? You just smell someone, and that’s it? You know?”
“Yeah, that’s it. You’re mine. Your scent told me. I caught it on the full moon, and it led me straight to you.” His eyes widened, and a cocky grin stretched his lips. “You knew it was me at the swimming hole, didn’t you?”
For some ridiculous reason, I felt my cheeks heat, even though he’d seen me naked a few times since. “I knew.”
I reeled, trying to assimilate what he was telling me. That there was some biological urge that just clicked and told him I belonged to him.
“Listen… this is all a bit much. I hear what you’re saying. You don’t do love. You just… mate? Well, th-that’s not how it works for me.”
Rand’s face seemed to drain of color. He took a step forward, reaching for my upper arms and lightly touching them. “What’s the problem, Red? If you know what I am and know you’re my mate, then why are you pushing me away?”
I crossed my arms over my chest, more as a protective gesture than anything else. I could hold back from letting him hold me. “Because I’m human.”
He frowned. “Yeah, so? So are a lot of the pack’s mates. Audrey and her sister Marina. And Becky, my brother’s mate. Charlie, our veterinarian. They mated shifters.”
“Uncle Adam… ”
“Come on, Red. Sit.” He led me to the bed, and we settled at the end. “Tell me what your uncle told you. I won’t touch you.”
I eyed him for a minute then told him about Uncle Rand’s high school sweetheart. “I won’t be with a guy, a shifter, who leaves me for another shifter.”
He turned, looked to me. He lifted his hand to cup my face, let it fall. “That’s not how it is. Maybe then, maybe that family, but things are different now. Even Rob, who’s the pack alpha, was prepared to mate a human, but Willow, you know her from the DEA sting last year, turned out to be a wolf.”
My eyes widened. “Willow’s a shifter, too?”
He gave a small smile. “She didn’t know it