Rebel Wolf (Wilde Brothers Ranch #5) - Scarlett Grove Page 0,3

her mom as she talked about everything that had happened in her life over the last four years. When she was full and couldn't eat another bite, her mom took her up to her old room, where her brother had already stored her bags. She gave Cassidy one last hug and kiss and told her to sleep well. It was already past midnight, and her mom's voice was growing weak with fatigue.

“It's good to be home, Mom.”

Cassidy gave her mother one last hug before her mother hurried off down the stairs to her bedroom on the first floor.

Cassidy slipped into her bedroom and looked around at her childhood space. All the fashion posters she'd plastered on the walls were still there. The same old patchwork quilt that her grandmother had made her when she was born lay across her bed.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and took in her surroundings. The space was so familiar yet so foreign at the same time. She wasn't sure that she could reconcile the woman she had become with the girl that she had once been. But now that she was back in Fate Rock, she had all the time in the world.

2

Gunner Wilde had never imagined he would have a talent for drawing, but as he sat in the figure-drawing class at Fate Rock Community College, it was evident that something special was happening in his lines and shading.

He looked up at the model, a beautiful young woman with long brown hair and bright-blue eyes.

She'd had a lovely smile when she'd walked into the class, but right then, her face was passive as she sat on the stool. The human girl wore nothing but a sheet over her lap, revealing her athletic form to the class.

At twenty-two years old, Gunner had experience with women. A lot of the human girls in town liked to get involved with shifters, knowing that they would never settle down with anyone but their fated mates. It was a tendency that most of his older brothers, besides maybe Austin and Dylan, had participated in from time to time.

Gunner himself wasn't above having a fling. But now that he had found his passion in life, something that had surprised and startled him at first, he was beginning to feel less and less inclined to participate in such things. When the model took a break, she pulled on her robe and walked around the class, gazing down at everyone's sketches.

“It's beautiful,” she said. “You really captured me.”

“Thank you,” he replied.

As the youngest brother of the wolves of Wilde Ranch, Gunner had felt trapped in the shadow of his brothers, trapped in the expectation that he would stay and work on the ranch for the rest of his life.

It wasn't until he'd started taking community college classes in pursuit of his own identity that he'd discovered his talent for drawing. He'd never expected it, but he'd taken an Intro to Drawing class on a whim and had found that he not only had a hidden ability, he also enjoyed it more than just about anything.

After class, he went to the cafeteria, where he met his sister-in-law, Montana, who was getting a degree to become a large-animal veterinarian. They grabbed their food from the buffet line. Montana chose a hamburger, and Gunner chose a pizza. They took their trays and sat together by the window looking out on the quad.

“How are things in the art department?” she asked, taking a bite of her hamburger.

“They're going pretty well. I think I had a breakthrough today in my figure-drawing class. I've always had trouble with hands. But I just had to change the way I was seeing them. I think hands won't be such a problem for me anymore. How are your biology classes going?”

“Well enough. I'm having a bit of trouble with some of the math, but I signed up for a tutor. That should help me get through it.”

“How is Shane? Still working on his new book?”

“He is. He's got interest from a publisher of men's adventure novels. He couldn't be happier, and I'm absolutely thrilled for him. His books are really special.”

“Shane speaks from the heart.”

Gunner thought about his rugged older brother. He was a survivalist to the core and had left Gunner his old house when he and Montana had moved up to the cabin he'd built the summer after she'd come to live with him.

They finished their lunch, said their goodbyes, and went off to their