Feral (Wolf Ranch #3) - Renee Rose Page 0,51

only did I have moon madness and my wolf had chosen a human… a lying human, but I’d blabbed pack details like a middle school girl.

“I won’t tell your secrets, Rob,” she whispered.

“Says the liar,” I snapped.

She flinched at the words.

I took a step closer and pointed at her. “You mess with my brothers, my pack… any shifter, I’ll know. As alpha, I have the responsibility to protect everyone and that includes eliminating all threats.”

“Rob…”

I didn’t give her the chance to talk. She’d had days. Days to tell me the truth.

“Get the fuck off my property before anyone else finds out you’re a fake. They won’t be so kind. Trust me.”

I didn’t say anything else, only turned my back on her, just as she had me. My wolf may have thought Natalie was my mate, but he was wrong. The woman who was walking through the house to the front door wasn’t even Natalie Shefield.

“Rob,” Boyd said, but I held up a hand to keep him silent.

I listened for her car to pull away, but before it did, I heard another arrive. We followed Natalie’s—no, Willow’s—path to the front porch. Three men and a beautiful young woman piled out of a big truck with Canadian plates.

“Alpha Wolf?” the man rumbled.

I couldn’t focus on him because Natalie—fuck!—Willow was standing with her car door open, leaving. I stared at her, my chest ripped open and bleeding onto the ground.

“Yes?”

“I’m Alpha Jackson, from Manitoba. This is my daughter Kara.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

This night couldn’t get any worse.

23

WILLOW

I stood rooted to the ground, staring at the beautiful alpha wolf meant for Rob. The one Marina had told me about.

Oh God.

This was the train wreck I saw coming.

Rob wasn’t looking at her, though. He was looking at me—the pain of betrayal burning in his gaze. I’d made him look at me that way. It was my own doing.

I scrambled into the car and rushed to start it. I had to get away. Leave him to get on with his life. I backed up fast, tires skidding the dirt, then took off for home.

Home. Ha. What a joke.

I tried to stay strong, but halfway back to the house, I broke down and cried the whole rest of the short drive. It was any wonder I didn’t end up in a ditch. Everything I’d thought would happen, had. Rob learned the truth and felt slighted. No, that wasn’t the right word. Betrayed.

He’d bared his soul, and that of his community, to me, and I’d given him nothing in return. Only lies.

Not everything had been fake though. How I felt about him and how I showed it hadn’t been pretend. I felt for Rob. Deeply. For once in my life, I cared for someone else. I cared that I’d hurt him, that my real life had ruined the only good thing that had ever happened to me.

I’d been on my own for so long, I didn’t even know I was able to fall for a man. I’d thought I was unlovable. Unwanted. I’d never been adopted, only coasted through my entire childhood in the system, at the whims of selfish adults who only wanted me for the money I could bring them from the state.

I’d built a wall around my heart, a wall so big that it had kept me safe from hurt, otherwise I’d have crumbled so long ago. I’d thought love made one weak. In fact, loving Rob had made me strong. I hadn’t had to rely on myself. I’d trusted.

I’d destroyed that, though, all by myself.

I turned off my car and stared at the Shefield house. I was becoming charmed by the old quirks of the place. The slanted porch floor, the old windows that took muscle to open. Every door in the house squeaked. It was… charming. Unique, as if it was a living thing. A home.

Up until I’d driven into Cooper Valley, my job as a DEA agent had been my life. Rob made me realize there was more to me than just my badge. In fact, he hadn’t even known I was law enforcement. He’d shown me all the dark and empty corners that had been waiting to be filled.

God, the picnic today had been incredible. And scary. Everyone there belonged. Not everyone was related by blood but a bond of being shifters. There was no question they were a family in their own special way. They took care of each other. Protected. Lifted up. Helped.

They’d welcomed Audrey and Marina, and they