Ruthless (Wolf Ranch #6) - Renee Rose Page 0,43

looked at it.

“Rand told you things have changed now, right?” Audrey asked, pushing her glasses up her nose. “I mean, if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t be mated and married to Boyd. Rob says Fate alone should dictate the rules of mating not the pack.”

I shook my head, my chest tightening. All this talk about the pack and mating made me anxious. They were all coming at me too fast. It was too much. I could still feel the echo of tragedy from Uncle Adam’s love story with a shifter. I didn’t want to write my own.

I’d only talked to Boyd Wolf on the phone when he’d offered to buy my property. He seemed nice. As for the other guys, including Becky’s mate, I knew nothing about them. Were they as possessive and crazy as Rand?

“Hey,” Audrey touched my arm. “I know how intense these guys are when their biology kicks in. Rand’s desperate to mark you as his and seal the deal, but you don’t have the same urge.”

“Mark me?” I leaned forward on my forearms. Had I heard her correctly?

Becky and Audrey glanced at each other. “You explain,” Becky said. “You’re the doctor.”

“Well, we don’t know the science of it, obviously,” Audrey replied. “But from what I can gather, when a male has found his true mate, his fangs coat with some kind of serum, and he has the urge to bite her to leave his scent in her skin.” She pulled aside her collar to show a pair of scars.

“Oh God,” I muttered. This was just getting weirder and weirder. Not only did Rand want to control everything from my house to where I slept to who talked to me when I was working, but he’d left out the insanity of his need to bite me. I didn’t even know if the guy loved me let alone if I wanted his scent in my skin. Sheesh. “No, thank you.”

“If he doesn’t mark his chosen mate, he’ll go m—” Audrey put her hand on Becky’s arm to stop her, mid-sentence.

“Go where?” I asked.

Someone waved me down, and I went to fill their drink order.

Audrey answered my question when I returned. “I’m sorry—you don’t need to know that. I can tell we’ve already overwhelmed you, and that’s the last thing we wanted to do,” Becky said.

The knot in my stomach grew tighter.

“I thought it was all nuts when it happened to me,” Audrey confessed. “Boyd was this big player on the rodeo circuit. Smooth talking, good looking. I’m pretty sure he had a different woman in every town. I wanted nothing to do with him.” She picked up a celery stick and dunked it in the blue cheese. “But he kept coming on stronger and stronger. And I felt like it must be some kind of joke. I mean, I was just the nerdy small town doctor. There was no way a guy like him was playing for keeps.”

Becky nodded the entire time at Audrey’s story. “But they do play for keeps,” she interjected. “A wolf never leaves his mate. Never loses the urge to protect her and provide for her. I found that a little daunting after a bad marriage… before Clint. Like if I jumped into another one—there’d be no getting out. Clint and I aren’t married, like humans. We’re mated, same as Audrey and Boyd. It sounds pretty darn scary, but there won’t be a reason to get out. These guys are totally dedicated to their mates.”

I loved the story they were selling me, but I just didn’t buy it. “How do you know, though? You’ve only been married—mated, what? A year or two? You’re both still in the honeymoon phase. And Rand’s not Clint or Boyd.”

Becky gave me a commiserating smile. “I’d say I know Rand better than Audrey does since he’s Clint’s brother. Those guys have a good family. Solid. Clint’s and Rand’s parents are fated mates. When you meet them, you’ll believe it,” Becky promised.

“This is too much pressure,” Audrey said, probably reading my doubtful expression again. “We definitely didn’t come to talk you into anything. Only to lend our support if you need it.”

“Thank you, I appreciate that.” I did. I liked both women, and I believed they meant well, I just didn’t trust this wolf biology thing. I wanted a real relationship based on shared experiences, love and respect. Not on the way I smelled.

“Just don’t push Rand away if it seems too good to be true. Let yourself have him and