Luca grabbed Bertolf by the arm. “Get the fuck out of my cabin.” But it was too late.

Bertolf pushed him away and stared at Natalie huddled in the bed. “You idiot. Are you going to jeopardize everything for some piece of ass?”

“Come outside before you screw this up any further.” Luca grabbed Bertolf by the arm and dragged him outside.

“Me screw up?” Bertolf’s face was bright red.

Luca caught sight of the shock on Natalie’s face, just before he slammed the door shut. Shit.

“You’re the screw up here, Weylyn, not me. And you’re going to pay. Big time. A human. A fucking outsider here on the ranch.” Bertolf paced back and forth in the dirt outside of the cabin door. “What if she saw someone shift? Is getting a piece of tail worth our exposure? We have to take care of her.”

“Shut up!” Luca grabbed the man’s arm and dragged him over to the white SUV. “If you’ll just keep your voice down. She hasn’t seen anyone, she doesn’t know anything. I’ll take her home.”

“You’re fucking right you will.”

“I will. Don’t worry about it.” He forced his wolf to settle down, and projected calm to the other wolf. He thought he saw Bertolf begin to ease off. “Please don’t say anything, Brandon.”

“Oh yeah?” Bertolf’s eyes narrowed and his big shoulders hunched. “And why shouldn’t I?”

“I’ll owe you.” Luca saw the hesitation in Bertolf’s eyes. “I’ll owe you big time, Brandon. Hey, I know you want more night shifts off. I’ll work extra.”

Not getting paid to be an enforcer meant that all the volunteers took shifts when they could work. Since both Luca and Bertolf had day jobs, that meant nights spent on patrol. Bertolf had a pretty sexy M.I.L.F. at home for a mate, and two kids he adored.

“Look, I’ll work your nights for a week. You’ll get to spend more time with Tilly and the girls. It’s a win-win.”

“A month.” Brandon’s lips pushed out, then he added, “And, I want you to work another four nights during the year. Whenever I say so. Like holidays, or birthdays. Or any crap like that where Tilly wants me home.”

Feeling like he was signing his life away, Luca nodded. “Yeah, you got it.”

Anything to calm Bertolf down and keep him from exercising some kind of vigilante justice on Natalie for simply being human.

“And you’ll get the chick off-site? Right away? No fucking around?”

“Yeah. I’ll take care of it.”

“She sure looked like a nice piece of ass, Weylyn.” Bertolf grinned and backed away, heading for the SUV. “But don’t screw the pack just to get your rocks off.” He got in the car and rolled down the window. “I’ll be watching you.”

He started the SUV, veed two fingers on his left hand and pointed at his eyes, then pointed a finger at Luca. He stared at Luca the whole time he backed up, nearly hitting the shed, and never dropping his eyes until, finally, he drove away.

Luca looked up at the blue sky above the pines and took a minute to let the quiet and space wind his wolf down. He opened the cabin door and headed inside with the sinking feeling that he’d just given up every holiday from now until he was eighty. And that the hot sexy moment with Natalie was gone.

He was right, Natalie was off of the bed and in the kitchen, right by the little window. “What the hell was wrong with that guy?”

Luca wondered if she’d been able to hear any of their conversation and tried to think back, had Bertolf said anything? Had she heard? He didn’t need this to get any more complicated than it was.

“I’m sorry. He’s an asshole.” He picked up her backpack. “Come on, time to get you to town.”

She crossed her arms and leaned back against the counter. “Something’s going on here. And I want to know what.”

He couldn’t tell her about the wolf that raged inside of him, hungry for her touch. Or that the entire ranch had, not only its own secret police force, but its own version of social services and schools. He couldn’t tell her that, every single person on the ranch was either a wolf, a dreamwalker, or a spelltalker. Or a dormant, carrying the genes for any one of those things.

Or that they all carried a sleeping virus, transferred only at adolescence by the pack elders, or when the mating fever overtook them. She’d freak out. Or she’d go tell everyone what crazies lived here on the Windy Gap spread.

He’d never felt like keeping any of this secret was a burden before. But right now—staring into her accusing eyes, eyes that had trusted him, a stranger—now it all weighed on him like he carried all of wolf society on his shoulders.

“I’ll carry you to the truck,” was all he said. And he reached for her.

“No way.”

“Yeah, you have to go.” He scooped her up.

“Put me down, cowboy!” She pounded on his shoulders.

“I made a mistake. You shouldn’t be here.” He scooped up her backpack and carried her out the door, dropping her gently into the passenger seat. He deposited her backpack into her lap, almost expecting her to leap out. But she sat there, that sexy lower lip jutting out into a pout and every sexual feeling he’d tamped down while Bertolf was here came rushing back to the surface.

God, all he wanted to do was carry her back into the cabin and kiss that pout away.

But he had a responsibility to the pack, and to every member who lived on the ranch and in the surrounding parts of the county. And even, to the other packs. Every shifter had to keep the secret, or they’d all be exposed.

He turned away and went back to the house for his shirt, cursing Bertolf and his timing.

The drive off of the ranch and back to town took a long time, with silence building between them the whole way. At the four-way intersection, Luca went to make the turn into town. “I’ll take you to urgent care.”

“Don’t bother. Take me to my car. It’s at the trail head near the north entrance to the park.”

“Damn, you are as stubborn as a mule, aren’t you.” He shook his head and let the car idle. “You should get that ankle x-rayed.”

“Why are you so worried about me? I can take care of myself.” Natalie had her arms crossed over the backpack and was hunched on the other side of the truck staring out the window. “I just want to get my car, drive back to my hotel, and go to sleep.”

He should drive her to urgent care, but it was getting late now and he’d left Espresso in the corral. He also needed to see if Bertolf was working, and when he’d have to cover his shifts. And check his messages. “Christ.” He made the turn and drove into the park, until he saw the dented Kia alone in the empty dirt parking lot. “That you’re car?”

“Yeah.”

She got out and he rushed over to help her. She shook him off, hopping a short distance from the truck in the direction of the Kia.

“Hey, cowboy.”

“What?”

“I know something is going on at that ranch. I owe it to Yvette to find out.” She pinned him with her dark eyes. “And, Luca, I always pay my debts.”

A huge sinking feeling dropped the bottom out of his stomach.

“Leave it alone, Natalie.”

“If I have to, I’ll go to the news. I’ll tell everyone something is going down at that place. I’ll make shit up if I have to, just to get someone to finally follow up on this thing.”

“Fuck.” He couldn’t believe this. She’d been so sweet. Where was the girl he’d wanted to shelter, to take care of? Where was the woman he’d wanted to have sex with? “What do you want from me, Natalie?”

“I want you to explain it to me. I want you to tell me what you know.”

He couldn’t do that. But he also couldn’t let her tell everyone her suspicions.

“Look, it’s getting late.” He checked his phone and cursed. Bertolf was right, his little message icon had the number ten staring at him accusingly. “How about I come by in the morning and take you to breakfast. We’ll talk then.”

Something that looked like relief flickered across her face. For a moment, he saw the vulnerable Natalie he’d seen earlier. The one who looked so lost and alone. The one who’d pulled his heartstrings and made his wolf feel protective.

Then that look was gone and she flashed him a saucy grin. “Great. I could use a free breakfast. See you at eight at the Brunch Palace on the corner, cowboy.” And she opened the door and limped her curvy ass the rest of the way over to her car.

Luca climbed into the cab of the truck and leaned his head on the steering wheel. This sexy woman—with that wild hair and the mouth he wanted to kiss into submission—in one afternoon she’d turned his life upside down.

Natalie wasn’t going to stop and he had no way of keeping her quiet.

What the hell could he tell her that would keep her from going to the press and exposing the pack? And if he couldn’t come up with anything?

How the hell would he keep her safe?

***

NATALIE FLOPPED DOWN on the bed in her hotel room. “What a totally fucked up day.”

She’d finally met a guy who was nice, sexy, and could pick her up and carry her around like she was Tinker Bell. But, of course, he was somehow involved with the death of her best friend.

At the thought of Yvette being dead, tears gathered, and she wiped them away. “No crying,” she told herself and got off of the bed, hobbling over to her suitcase. She got out a sexy, scoop-neck red t-shirt and some ass-hugging jeans with sparkles on the ass that Yvette had helped her buy.

“You are going to kick some butt with those rhinestones shaking on your booty, girl!” Was what Yvette had said when Natalie had sashayed out of the dressing room.

And they’d gone out that night and picked up some fine brothers and taken them home. Good times.

But now, Yvette was gone. And Natalie was on her own. No back-up for what she was about to do—take her sparkly booty and head to the local bar to get some info. It was time to find out what the locals thought went down at that ranch.

Someone was covering something up, and while Luca didn’t seem to know anything about Yvette, he knew something else. That was more than evident after that Bertolf dude had shown up and threatened Luca today.

And when she met her cowboy in the morning, she was going armed. With information.

She’d done enough waitressing to know that when you wanted information, you put on your sexy clothes and went where everyone was getting drunk. And in a mountain town—summertime, wintertime, anytime—that would be the bars.

She hobbled to the bathroom and got into the shower. She was putting her sexy on and finding out all of that ranch’s secrets.

For Yvette, for herself, and now, for Luca. Because when she’d peeked out the window that man had had a mean look in his eyes, and Luca had stood up for her. He’d stood up for her, now, she was standing up for him. Even if he didn’t want her to.