Ruthless (Wolf Ranch #6) - Renee Rose Page 0,32
still feel the same fucking way.
Natalie had left and nothing was going to fix that. Except going after her and getting her to see reason… somehow.
When I refused to move, he shook his head and got out, stomping into my open cabin and coming back with a handful of the giant meat-sticks we kept on hand for wolf snacks.
He dropped them in my lap, put the truck back in gear and started driving. “So? What’s the problem? I smell her all over you.”
“She knows about shifters.”
“Okaaay.” He drew out the last syllable as if to imply there was no problem.
“She says what I feel isn’t love. Then she basically shot out of here and told me not to follow.”
He steered around a turn, kept his eyes on the road.
“Well, humans are different,” he said, as if he knew this shit. He didn’t have a mate. He had no fucking clue. Still, he went on. “You should talk to your brother about it. Or to Becky. Human women don’t get the mate thing. Didn’t Becky refuse to marry Clint because she’d had a bad marriage? They don’t understand that bad matings don’t happen.”
“They also don’t understand that a true fated mating is special,” I reminded him. Lots of shifters never found their fated mate. They settled with someone before it was too late to have a family. Those pairings were like human marriages—took work and could fall apart. Domestic abuse was rare, but when it happened in shifter couples, it was made even worse by the biological urge to stay with a fated mate. A female wolf might leave, but the male wolf would be compelled to follow his mate, even if she wanted to be free of him. Or so I’d heard. Again, it was rare.
“Maybe you can get her to see what the others have. I mean, look at Audrey and Boyd. Clint and Becky. The others. You’ve got good examples of human/shifter mates that are fucking nauseating to watch.”
“Yeah, they would be good, if she saw reason. She’s not thinking clearly. Plus, she mentioned her parents’ bad marriage. From what she told me of them, they’re a piece of work. Said she doesn’t want a loveless pairing.” I rubbed my forehead. “She thinks what we have isn’t love.”
He turned and looked at me before back on the road. “Well, by their definition it isn’t, I guess. I know you knew her when you were kids, but you only really met the other day. You only found out she was your mate that night. That’s why you should go talk to Becky. Or any of the other women. Figure out what humans need to fall in love.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple. She doesn’t think I love her. How do I prove to her my feelings are real besides all the shit I’m already doing? I mean, if I get any more possessive and protective, she’ll be tied to my bed.”
I slumped in the seat as the truck bumped along the dirt road. Fuck. This was way harder than I’d anticipated, and no matter how much my wolf—and my dick—wanted her permanently in my bed, that wasn’t the way to go. I thought I’d been so lucky to find my mate at a good age for mating and pups. I didn’t realize finding her wasn’t the only hurdle. Or the smallest.
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