Savage (Wolf Ranch #4) - Renee Rose Page 0,6

back, but not before the tip skimmed across my ribs, cutting through my jacket, shirt and flesh. It shouldn’t have hurt all that much because it was a shallow graze across my ribs, but the gash immediately began to sizzle and pop, like the tip had been poisoned. Probably with silver.

Shit. It wasn’t going to kill me, but it was going to hurt like fuck. And slow me down. My body had to work hard to fight the poison, and that meant less healing properties and less focus.

I ignored the searing pain, trying to keep my vision clear.

This asshole had to die. And now. I swept my foot out and took him by surprise. Most shifters didn’t know martial arts—why would we need it when we can sprout fangs and rip someone’s throat out?

Jarod fell forward onto his hands, and I aimed carefully. One shot behind the left ear, and he dropped the rest of the way to the ground, dead.

I tucked the gun back in my pocket and walked around the far side of the diner—opposite of the way we’d arrived—to my truck.

It was for the safety of all shifters, I reminded myself, as I had every time I took a life. There were no shifter prisons. There was no other form of justice besides the council ruling and the enforcers meting out the appropriate punishment. Human justice was for just that: humans. If Jameson had been captured by the FBI, it wouldn’t have gone well. A shifter in prison? It wouldn’t hold him. He was a danger to the peacekeepers as much as the criminals. On top of that, it would result in our species being revealed.

I acted for all shifters only because someone had to. There were eight enforcers in all of North America. When there was a vacancy, it was filled. When I was nineteen, Rob had approached me, took me to the Shifter Council meeting and offered me the job.

Job. It was more of a role. Council enforcer. There were rules with the task. Secrecy. At the time, I’d been honored. My best friend had been alpha for three years and had authority. His brother had joined the Green Berets to fight for human lives. I’d been young and restless. Eager to prove my worth. I hadn’t even imagined the burden ending someone’s life would have. The secrecy of it. I did it because it had to be done. Jarod Jameson wouldn’t have stopped. And I’d rather it be me than some shifter with a taste for blood. Or someone like my younger brother, who couldn’t live with a tainted soul like mine.

I might come across as the quiet one. The peacemaker at the ranch. The calm cowboy.

Little did they fucking know.

In the truck, I poured water over the wound, trying to wash away the silver dust or whatever the tip of the knife had been poisoned with.

The edges of the gash were already pulling away, angry and red, the opposite of how a shifter wound normally behaved.

Fuck.

It would heal, but it would take time. I’d have to hide it from my brother and the rest of the ranch hands. My parents. Even if I got gored by a fucking bull like Boyd had, the wound would heal quickly. I couldn’t explain this one away.

Sighing, I started the truck and took off. My job was done. Five hours and I’d be back in Cooper Valley. I could report to Rob and glue the edges of the cut back together with superglue. Colton had said that was something humans did when in a situation where they couldn’t stitch a wound although I was sure no shifter had ever tried it. Or had need.

We had a doctor—Audrey—living right on the ranch, but I couldn’t even ask her for help. She might be able to stitch me up since the wound was behaving more like I was human than shifter, but she’d know something was up. Boyd’s wound from the bull goring had healed before her eyes. She’d seen a teenaged shifter get shot by that fucker Markle. She’d even helped a child at her own wedding reception to know shifters healed differently. She’d question this. Not even her mate knew my role with the council. Hell, I doubted she even knew there was something called an enforcer.

Thinking of the human doctor brought back thoughts of her friend, Becky, the lovely nurse I’d hooked up with at the bachelorette party.

As I drove north on the two-lane road, I