Savage (Wolf Ranch #4) - Renee Rose Page 0,12

required protection. Seeing her sick reminded me of just how vulnerable she was.

Protection.

Oh, fuck.

Reality hit me like a brick in the temple.

How could a council enforcer possibly mate? I’d already written it off as a bad idea. I’d gone into the role with my eyes wide open, knowing the danger, the threat to my life. My job had zero rainbows and unicorns. It was all silver bullets and neck snapping.

The assholes I hunted had zero problems with hurting those who I cared about to get back at me. Hell, being mated to an enforcer all but put a bullseye on a female’s back. It would be especially bad with a human. She was so vulnerable. One punch from a vengeful shifter could snap her neck. And humans didn’t have regeneration capabilities. She would die.

I’d never be able to live with myself if something happened to her.

Hell, I already wouldn’t be able to ever sleep again for fear something could happen.

Dammit.

I’d just found my mate, and I couldn’t have her. The safest thing for Becky was for me to stay away. Her own mate was her greatest threat.

Fuck!

I pulled in front of the pack cabin and backed around, so the tailgate faced the front porch to unload the supplies for the meeting and dinner afterward. It was a new moon, but I was as agitated as I’d be at a full moon. I smacked my hand on the steering wheel, and Shelby just watched then climbed from the truck.

I slammed the truck door as Rob came out of the building to help. He eyed me, as if he could already sense the shift that had taken place inside me. It was true. I was normally very even-keeled. I was the quiet one. It was one of the reasons I’d been chosen to be an enforcer. I was strong and lethal but lacked the blood from an alpha line that produced hot-headedness or the need to prove something.

Colton would have made a good enforcer and proved it in all his years in the military, but he was in line to be alpha. And without a mate, he could’ve gone moon mad.

I’d volunteered for the job. Dealt with the consequences of it. The danger. The long lapses of time away from home. Even killing.

I’d thought I’d be safe enough from moon madness, not having the alpha line’s blood in my veins. Now that I’d met my mate? Now that I knew how hard it was to stay away from her? To not claim her? I wasn’t so sure. I’d only known Becky was mine for about an hour, and I was starting to lose my shit. I would go insane if I didn’t claim her, moon madness or not.

“What’s got into you?” Rob asked as I stomped around the truck, the snow smashing under my feet with a satisfying crunch. He grabbed some of the bags. “Your side bothering you?”

I scowled. My breath came out in a white cloud as I eyed my friend. My alpha.

My side? My head had been so focused on Becky, I’d completely forgotten about the throbbing wound. I wasn’t used to healing at such a slow pace, but this wound was a good example of the impact silver had on shifters. It burned and was just starting to close up. It would heal completely over time, in another day or two… but shit.

“It’s fine,” I grumbled, not used to being coddled about an injury. Hell, it was the only time I ever had one. As a kid, my mother hadn’t even done it since we fucking healed so fast. Except for now.

He looked at Shelby who shrugged but said, “I think you Wolf boys aren’t the only ones Fate threw together with a human.”

Rob stopped mid-stride, five bags of groceries balanced in his arms. He pinned me with a look, eyebrows raised. “That right? You found your mate? Holy shit.”

My scowl grew deeper.

“Who is it? Someone you saw in town?” he prodded.

I snatched a bag off the top of Rob’s load because between him and Shelby, they’d already unloaded everything. I chose to ignore them both as I stomped inside.

I hadn’t gotten it sorted in my head yet. The last thing I needed was to talk it over with my alpha.

“Hey, Clint,” Willow, Rob’s mate, called from the kitchen. Shelby had been wrong about Willow being human—we all had. Turned out the DEA agent possessed latent shifter genes that presented themselves when her life had been threatened by