Steal Her Heart (Kaid Ranch Shifters #1)(12)
Bryson Locke held up a hand in surrender, his other hand on the reins. “Don’t want two shots in a day,” he said in a low voice.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, lowering her weapon.
“Shhhh,” he said, pulling the horse right up to her. “Only a few minutes left.” He wrapped the reins around a fence post and came to stand beside her as she set the rifle back into place on her other side. Relaxing, he rested his arms on the gate and stared at the setting sun.
They didn’t talk, she and this stranger she didn’t understand. This thief.
In the last seconds of the very tip of the sun’s visibility, he broke the silence. “You don’t like me none-to-much, do you?”
“I don’t have any feelings either way.”
He pushed off the fence. “I understand.”
“Do you?” she asked coolly. “Do you understand loss? Not just of a person, but of a home? Of the place that keeps you steady?”
“You see it that way, but you won’t forever. ’Bout time you get on inside.”
“What?” she asked.
“It’s the wolves land right now. Yours during the day, theirs at night. I can smell ’em.”
A chill trembled up her spine. “You…you can smell them?”
Bryson gestured to the nearest fence post. “They been marking your land all up. It’s a taunt. A dare.”
“I don’t understand. A taunt at who?”
He looked off toward the Kaid’s property line and narrowed his eyes. “I had a rule, and that was you stay in at nights. No questions asked, no coming out of that house no matter what you see or hear. You worry about this place during the day, and I’ll worry about it at night.”
“No.”
He dragged those strange brown eyes to her. “No, what?”
“No, I don’t like you much.” She grabbed her gun and walked away. She meant to walk all the way back home without looking back, but she didn’t make it too far. Just to the first gate that led into the pasture where the cows were watching them. As she turned and opened the gate, he was swinging easily into his saddle. He spun his horse and headed her way, but his eyes were covered by the low rim of his cowboy hat.
And she had this moment of worry. She didn’t see a gun on his saddle. No rifle, at least. He was one man, and he hadn’t seen the wolves yet. They were terrifying.
Tearing her gaze away from the man who sat tall, strong, and confident in the saddle, she made her way toward the house and tossed up a little prayer to whatever power existed.
Please let him be okay.
****
It was a miracle Maris was still alive.
This place reeked of dominant wolf piss. The thing about werewolves… Some packs were decent. They were steady and had good leadership and they hunted only when their wolves needed a hunt, maybe once a month. Twice if the pack was having a hard time.. And they didn’t hunt humans.
These wolves had been tearing apart this herd. He snarled up his lip at another pile of bones. This pack wasn’t good. It wasn’t steady. It didn’t have good leadership.
They would know who they were tormenting, who Maris was. They would know they were torturing a single woman out here alone. That said everything he needed to know about the kind of “men” they were.
No, I don’t like you much.
Bloodlust. Some packs got consumed by it. They killed too much, killed and killed just to sate their animals’ growing hunger for violence. It became an addiction, and sometimes the bloodlust wasn’t just for animals. That’s where the man-killers came from. The stories of old about horrific were-beasts slaughtering villages? Well, those monsters still existed. Shifters just usually put them down quietly before they got too much human attention. There were rules in the shifter community.
This pack would graduate to humans if they hadn’t already, and that put Maris in danger. His blood boiled with a slow-simmering rage at that thought. They sure had some balls hunting this close to him. And the Kaids, for that matter. Hunter and Wes didn’t have a pack behind them, but they weren’t no pushovers. Especially Wes. If Bryson was a smaller shifter animal and not a damn grizzly bear, he wouldn’t want to Change anywhere near Wes. As it stood, though, he was top of the food chain in these parts.
No, I don’t like you much.
As he trolled the fence line, he found three more kill sites. Smelled like death all over in this pasture. Probably why the cows hadn’t followed Maris in here. They stuck to that front pasture closest to the house and barn. He wasn’t a fan of stress on the cattle. It released hormones in them and affected the way their meat tasted. This shit needed to stop now.
No, I don’t like you much.
Why was that replaying on a loop in his head? She had a right to her feelings. She saw him as an enemy, taking over her ranch. Her feelings were valid.
But still…
It was full-dark now, and he could see the warm glow of the house windows. He could see just fine in the dark, and across one window, Maris walked by. Kitchen maybe? Somethin’ smelled good. She must be a good cook. It wasn’t one of them frozen meals either. The smells of cooking meat and seasonings wafted his way slowly.
He pulled out the sandwich he’d packed and ate it. And the stupid, sentimental man that he was apparently turning into, he felt a little better they were kind of eating dinner together, even if she was unaware.