Ruthless (Wolf Ranch #6) - Renee Rose Page 0,39

went out to her car and carried in a grocery sack full of chips and home baked cookies and a bag of freshly cut carrots and celery with ranch dressing.

Inside, Rand and my dad were setting up the chairs.

The pack members started rolling in, and Rob stood at the doorway to shake hands and greet them all.

“Hey, Clint. You didn’t bring the humans today?” Nathan Brown called to my brother.

It was a purposeful dig—implying that Clint’s daughter Lily was also human and wouldn’t shift when she reached puberty. Clint didn’t care if she shifted or not or if she grew wings and flew like a fairy. He was pleased with his daughter any way she turned out. Same went for me, my parents. Rob. Fuck, everyone in the pack but Nathan.

I growled on his behalf although it was probably drowned out with the noise of everyone arriving.

“Don’t call my family the humans,” Clint clipped and a staredown ensured between the two men—one young, one older. Clint topped him by several inches and at least thirty pounds of muscle. The only time Nathan had any strength was in shifter form but not compared to Clint or me.

I sauntered over to stand at my brother’s shoulder. If Brown thought he could fuck with Clint, he’d quickly find out at least six of the strongest pack members would have his back. Nash joined, too, arms crossed over his chest, most likely so he didn’t strangle the asshole.

Nathan shrugged. “Are you ashamed of what they are?”

Clint’s hand shot out, and he gripped a fistful of Nathan’s shirt.

Growls went up all around the large meeting room until Rob’s voice cut across the room in an alpha command, “Enough.”

The lodge went silent.

Boyd stepped forward, using his signature diplomacy the rest of us had never mastered. “Hey, now. Everybody take a breath.” To Nathan, he said, “I’m sure you don’t want to goad a former council enforcer into thinking you’re insulting his mate and pup, right? Because that would be ill advised.” His words reminded the pack that my brother had been chosen by the shifter council and had enforced their laws secretly for years. He probably had more kills counted than Colton had while serving as a Green Beret. Boyd’s words sobered the room.

“Take your seats,” Rob ordered, forestalling any response from Nathan.

Everyone immediately moved and settled. I sat beside my brother—not that he required my back up. The reminder of him being an enforcer without any of us knowing for so long still stung a bit. I knew it had been for his safety and ours that his role had been a secret, but it bugged the hell out of me that Clint had lived a double life.

With Becky and Lily, it was long behind him now.

Rob ran through the usual pack agenda and then opened the floor for new business.

“I have new business,” Nate Brown said, standing up.

Aw, fuck. Seriously, every time this guy spoke up it was to take a pot shot at Rob’s leadership. The guy was open about his dissatisfaction over the direction the pack had taken allowing us to mate humans and whatever else he could stir up shit about.

There was always something.

I swore I heard Rob’s teeth grinding from my seat. “What is it?”

“Were you going to tell us about the threat to our pack from your neighbor?”

“What neighbor?” I couldn’t help my angry outburst. If he was talking about Natalie, we were going to have more than words.

I was gonna tear his head off.

Rob held up a hand in my direction, his stern glance conveying his displeasure. At me, even though Nathan was the one being a pain in the ass.

Fuck.

I shut up, and Nathan waited. I could practically sense his giddy excitement over the trouble he was about to cause.

“You heard the question,” Rob prompted. “What neighbor?”

“I think you know exactly who I mean. Natalie Sheffield and her plans to open a bed and breakfast right next to you. To the entire pack.”

What the fuck? How did he kn—oh shit. We were talking on his roof when we’d fixed his chimney! What a dumb-ass move. Fucking shifter hearing.

A stir went around the room, and I muttered a curse. Clint wrapped a hand around my forearm to prevent me from leaving my seat. My wolf was pissed. Natalie wasn’t here. She wasn’t in danger, but I wanted to protect her still.

“Keep your cool,” he muttered under his breath. Not that muttering worked well with shifters.

Keeping my cool was