Feral (Wolf Ranch #3) - Renee Rose Page 0,19

feral? To go so mad I couldn’t shift back to human form? A danger to man and shifter alike? Wolves like that had to be put down before they injured someone.

That was why, after I’d had my third cup of coffee, that I might as well be damned. Again. I shouldn’t have gone over there, confronted her about seeing Markle. Shouldn’t have kissed her. I couldn’t help it, just like I couldn’t help it now. I didn’t have to claim her. I could fuck her out of my system. Boyd and Colton had fucked their mates without biting them. If they could do it, I could. Hell, I wasn’t a virgin. I’d fucked and not bitten a female before. But none of them had been my mate. I could do it. I’d rather die with a sated dick than with blue balls. I could let my wolf be happy for a little while before I had to give her up for the pack. For a Canadian she-wolf mail order bride.

My cell rang, and I sighed when I looked at the name of the caller. “What?” I barked at Boyd.

“Your mate’s on her roof.”

I pushed off the counter and stared out the kitchen window. “How the fuck do you know that?”

I couldn’t see her house, so I grabbed my hat off the hook and stormed out the back door, the screen slapping behind me, so I could get a view of the Shefield house. I might have exceptional night vision, but I couldn’t see a woman on the roof from this distance.

“Because Audrey went to visit her this morning, and Natalie told her she was going to fix a leaky roof.”

“Why?” I stalked to my truck, my wolf panicking about our mate getting hurt.

“Because there’s a fucking leak, and it rained last night,” he repeated.

“No, why did Audrey visit?”

“Because it’s neighborly. She took her brownies.”

“Fuck neighborly. I thought you said your mate couldn’t boil water. Is she trying to kill her?” I snarled, putting the truck into gear, the wheels kicking up dust with my haste to get down the road.

“Fine. I won’t call next time your mate is in danger.”

“You told your wife,” I said, circling back to a big issue.

“Of course, I did.”

“Did she tell Natalie she’s my mate?”

“Of course not, you asshole. Natalie’s new to town. If she’s going to be your mate, then Audrey figured they should meet, since they’ll be sisters-in-law and all.”

“She’s not my mate.” I slowed the truck around the corner and went down the Shefield drive.

“Then why are you pulling up to her house? I know you’re driving over there. If she wasn’t yours, you wouldn’t give a shit she was on the roof.”

I turned off the engine, tore out of the truck when I saw my mate just where Boyd had said: kneeling two stories up on the fucking roof with a hammer in her hand.

“I don’t know if I should thank you or punch you in the face for sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“I’m not the one you’re angry at. If someone needs to be punished, it’s your mate for putting herself in danger.”

Well, fuck. That suggestion made me hard as stone. I’d like to punish her. Over my knee. I ended the call and shoved my cell back in my pocket. Boyd might have been right. The idea of taking that feisty redhead in hand was the best one I’d heard all day.

Just as soon as I got her down from the goddamn roof.

Crazy little human. What was she thinking? Did she not realize how fucking fragile she was? When her bones broke, they didn’t repair overnight like mine. If she broke her neck, her life would end, just like that.

I wanted to shout up to her, but that would be foolish. Startling her while she was up there could be disastrous, even though she had to have heard me tear up her driveway. Instead, I checked out how she got up there. A ladder was on the roof of the wraparound porch, a window open right next to it, most likely her bedroom or the one next door. She either had no care for her safety or wanted to win the Darwin awards. The wooden ladder had to be older than I was and warped. It wasn’t braced or anything on the roof. And that was just how she got up on to the main roof, not the fact that she was there to begin with.

I hopped