Anxiety rode Luca hard, pushing him to shift and run instead of taking a car. He took a deep breath, took his hat off so he’d fit, and got into the back seat of Rico’s SUV with the Windy Gap Security logo on the side.

He could do this. He had to do this. He had no idea why his wolf was so out of control at the idea of Natalie in danger, but he couldn’t focus on that right now.

“Hey, man, where are we going?” Rico finished buckling on his weapon belt and got behind the wheel. Gabe had shot-gun.

Luca punched the GPS coordinates Natalie had sent into the app on his phone and checked out the little red line. “Drive to my cabin.”

For the first time in a long time he could feel the security of having back-up and he could tell his wolf liked the idea too. Maybe he’d been alone too much, lately. Maybe that’s why his wolf had latched onto Natalie as if she were pack.

Or maybe it was something else.

“There’d better be a good reason for this, Luca, or we’re up shit creek with the chief.” Rico cranked the engine and they drove out of the parking lot, wheels skidding to the side and spitting gravel.

“And the council.” Gabe turned to look at him from the passenger seat. “And those old women are mean.” He whistled.

Luca rolled down the window and stuck his head out, sniffing the air but not catching the scent he wanted. Natalie. Natalie. Natalie. Inside his wolf howled.

“Drive faster,” was all he could get out.

“We’ll be there in five minutes but we need to know what we’re getting into.” Despite his reassurance, Rico sped up a little. “Now talk.”

This was a hunt and his pack needed information. Luca pushed his wolf down.

“I met a girl on the ranch yesterday, just off of the trail that runs along the side bordering the state park hiking trail, right near the ravine. She was looking for a friend of hers and had found a kill scene. But there was no body. No bones. No evidence. Nothing but lots of old blood soaked into the dirt. I doubt anyone not looking for it would have even noticed, it was so far off the trail.”

Rico met his gaze in the mirror. “Someone cleaned up.”

“Yeah. And get this, the girl’s been missing for a month.” While he talked he dug into his go-bag. He pulled out his gun and holster, stun-gun, and knife. Checking the safeties he buckled all three on.

Gabe turned back from the front seat. “How come no one told us? You’d think the county would be up in arms over this.”

The SUV took a tight turn. Luca grabbed the handle and hung on. They were almost there. “But they’re not.”

“That means someone bribed the sheriff to shut the investigation down.” Rico gave his partner a look.

Gabe nodded back. “Keep talking.”

“She was hurt. Not bad, but I took her back to my cabin for some first aid before I took her back to town. But when she was there our new volunteer supervisor, Bertolf, dropped by. He saw her and chewed me a new one.” He shook his head and stared back out the window, fiddling with the band on his hat. The open fields had turned to the edges of the woods. Shouldn’t he be able to scent her by now? He sniffed the air. The wind was blowing the wrong way and all it did was make him more anxious. “She shouldn’t be here.”

“She’s here?”

“On the ranch?”

“I don’t know why she came back, but she texted me—Bertolf’s got her cornered.” He looked at Rico. “He’s gone furry.”

“Shit.” They said in unison.

Rico sped the SUV up. The road turned, cutting up a steep rise into the woods towards the cabin. They skidded around a tree and into the dirt drive. Brandon’s SUV was parked next to Natalie’s little banged up car, dwarfing it with its large shiny curves and massive bulk. There was no sign of either Natalie or Brandon but there was a stink in the air.

Luca’s hopes dropped.

“Pepper spray.” Rico said, getting out of the car and wrinkling his nose.

Luca looked at the GPS app. “She’s up on the trail that borders the ravine.” He opened the door and jumped out, his hat dropping to the ground.

Gabe got out. “We’re right behind you.”

He ran for the shortcut through the woods. He didn’t look back. Despite his not being close to these men, he knew, with a wolf’s instinct, that these men would back him up. Natalie’s survival depended on it.

And maybe, so did the pack’s.

He caught a whiff of Natalie’s perfume, trailing under the stink of the pepper spray and the strong adrenaline-packed smell of pissed-off wolf. He honed in on the scent-trail, adjusted his trajectory, and ran. Inside, his wolf howled.

The hunt was on.

It wasn’t very far and they broke out of the trees near the ravine. Brandon’s gray wolf hunkered down over the edge, his wide head pressed to the ground, as if he were trying to shove his face in the cool of the dirt. One large gray paw dipped and swiped down over the edge of the ravine but he kept his head well back. He looked as if he were trying to fish blind.

“Take that, you mother-fucker!”

Brandon howled and jerked his paw back.

“That her?” Gabe was right behind him.

“Yes.” Both he and his wolf swelled with a fierce surge of pride.

“Man, she’s got a mouth on her, doesn’t she.”

Luca grinned. “You bet your life she does. She’s a fighter.”

Natalie wasn’t pack. She hadn’t grown up knee-deep in wolves, learning how to fight predator style, but here she was fighting off Brandon Bertolf with whatever she had. If she were his mate he’d say she fought with tooth and claw.

The thought made him stumble and he almost went down. Why would he even consider this woman for a mate?

Rico caught up to him and grabbed his arm, stabilizing him. “You okay, man?”

“Yeah.” Luca shelved the whole mating confusion thing and sprinted the last few feet. He couldn’t take time for anything like that. Natalie needed him.

They hit the edge of the ravine and spread out surrounding Bertolf. Luca nodded to Rico and both he and Gabe held back, letting Rico take the lead. Despite Brandon’s so-called rank, Rico’s status as the only full-time enforcer here, and the respect both Luca and Gabe had for him made him the alpha in a group of alphas.

“Hey, Bertolf, what’s going on?” Rico moved closer.

Brandon turned to face him, snarling with the out of control fury of a wolf deprived of its prey. For the first time Luca saw his face. The wolf’s eyes were nearly swollen shut, the fur around them was matted and wet with goo. Masses of mucus ran from his nose. His bloated tongue hung out of the side of his jaw and he panted, his sides heaving, as he stood off balance, his right front paw holding more weight than his left.

“Holy crap, Bertolf. What the hell happened to you?”

“Luca! Is that you? Thank God. I’m down here.” Luca saw the top of Natalie’s head pop up near the edge.

At the sound of her voice, Bertolf whipped his head around. He lunged back toward the cliff face and dropping his head down and opening his jaw, aimed for Natalie’s head.

The top of Natalie’s head disappeared from view. “Fuck you, asshole!” A cloud of yellow spray shot up, hitting the wolf in the face. He dropped to the ground, rolling and pawing at his face and howling in agony.

Rico and Gabe dragged Brandon away, opening bottles of water and pouring them on his face.

Luca checked in visually with Rico and got the nod. He made a wide circle around the thrashing wolf, heading for the edge. “Natalie. He’s down. We’re here now and we’ll take care of it.”

“Who’s here? I don’t trust anyone but you.” Her voice was thick, as if she’d been crying. Or had gotten some of the back-spray in her throat.

Luca got to the edge and looked over. A few feet down, just out of reach of an adult shifter’s paw, Natalie sat, gripping a black canister, a broken branch at her side. She looked small and vulnerable to him, but he saw the way she held the spray and he knew—she might look like she needed protecting, but she was tough as nails.

His wolf whined in approval. This woman was strong, she’d have good strong pups and she’d fight off any who tried to hurt the pack.

Luca wished that were so.

What his wolf saw was a strong female, but what he saw was a human ignorant of their ways. Someone who’d never had a pack to defend. Someone who wouldn’t understand anything about what had gone down here.

Luca lay belly down on the ground and hung over the edge of the ravine. “Here, give me your hands.” Natalie stood up and reached. He took her small hands in his and, for the second time in two days, pulled her up over the ravine’s edge.

They ended up face to face lying on the ground.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” he said.

She cracked a smile. “You wish, cowboy.”

A tremor raced through him at the sight of her snarky grin. Natalie was okay. She was going to be fine. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her in tight. “Yeah, I do wish.” And he kissed her hard.

Her mouth opened under his, and the hard kiss blossomed.

There was a gagging sound behind them. Luca reluctantly let Natalie go. Brandon was in the middle of the shift back to human.

“Ugh. That is the grossest thing I’ve ever seen.” Natalie averted her face, burrowing into Luca’s shoulder.

Which part?

The naked middle aged man with lurid red burns on his face, swollen eyes and nose, and the tongue too fat to fit back inside his mouth? Or the shift?

Luca wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Suddenly, it was very important to him that the shift from man to wolf not be the thing that offended this woman.

“Hey Luca, we need to get him back. He needs medical treatment.” Gabe tilted his head and Luca nodded. He got the unspoken message—they needed to get Bertolf back, but they also needed to deal with Natalie and the fact that she’d seen too much.

Inside, his wolf gave a mournful howl and he wished he could howl right out loud with it. He had to turn Natalie over to the council and, despite only knowing her for a few days, his heart was breaking as if he’d known her his entire life.

***

NATALIE HUGGED LUCA hard. Every cell in her body was glad to see this man. “Thanks for showing up, cowboy.” Her nose was running, she sounded like she’d smoked way too many cigarettes, and her ankle hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. But she was alive.

“Did you think I wouldn’t.” He grinned at her and her heart skipped a beat.

He’d come for her. She’d thought she’d lost the only person she could depend on when she’d lost Yvette, but here was Luca—sweaty, disheveled, no hat to be seen.

“Nah, my jerk radar had you pegged from the first moment I saw you.”

He pulled back in surprise. “You thought I was a jerk?”

“No, silly.” She kissed him hard, a fast super-smack, right on the lips that zinged through her like lightning in a bottle. “The jerk radar also picks up on white knights. And you, for certain-sure, are a white knight.” She grinned. “Okay, maybe a white hat. She patted his head where his Stetson usually sat. “You are a cowboy, after all.”

The taller man walked over to him. “Hey, Luca. We do have a problem.”

Luca lost his smile. “I know. Natalie, this is Gabe.”

Gabe squatted down beside them. “I’m sorry ma’am, but we’re going to have to take you in to headquarters.” Despite the sympathy on his face, his tone was firm.

“Headquarters?” Natalie tightened her grip on Luca. “What’s going on?”

Luca shook his head and stood up, pulling her to her feet with him. His arm stayed around her and even with the worried look on his face she still felt protected, safe within his embrace. He’d come for her, she knew, deep in her gut, he would back her up.

Gabe stood up too. “We have a real problem here ma’am. You’ve trespassed on private property and we’re all responsible.”

“But he’s the problem.” She pointed at the slobbering wolf lying on the ground. “Look at him. He’s a werewolf. He has to be the guy who killed Yvette.” She looked up at Luca. “We have to go to the sheriff. He’s got to look into her disappearance now.”

The three men exchanged glances and a creeping suspicion came over Natalie. “Wait a minute.” She backed away from Luca, missing his arms around her as soon as she pulled away. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“Knew what?” His words said he didn’t know what she was talking about but his hang-dog expression gave him away.

“That he was the one. That he’s a werewolf and he killed Yvette.”

“What’s all this about a killing?” The other man left came over to the two of them. “Luca?”

“Can you give us a minute, Rico?”

Rico nodded. “Okay, but we have to call it in soon. Gabe and I will load Bertolf into the truck.”

Luca reached for Natalie’s hand. “Come on, we can talk over here.”

She pulled away from him, even though what she really wanted to do was have him take her back into that safe, reassuring embrace and tell her everything was going to be all right. “What the hell is going on, Luca? I’m attacked by a werewolf and you’re all acting like it’s my fault.”

His hand dropped down by his side. “I know we just met and all of this is crazy. But can you try to trust me?”

She took a good look at him. He’d rescued her—twice. He’d taken care of her when she’d been injured. And he’d obviously put her needs above the needs of whatever was going on here. Her radar said he was solid. And she’d always been able to depend on her instincts, they’d gotten her out of trouble more times than she could count. “Okay, you’ve got five minutes.”

“I’m going to show you something.” He stripped off his holster and gun, dropping them onto the ground, and pulled his t-shirt off over his head.

She glanced over at the men struggling to pick up the growling wolf and load him into the back of the SUV. “Hey, I think I’ve already seen that.”

Luca snorted. For a second his sexy, come-and-get-me grin flashed over his face. “Just hang on. You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

He took the rest of his clothing off, dropping it all into a pile. She hadn’t seen all of him before, just his lean muscular torso, but now she could see the whole package, and it was definitely something she wanted to check out later when they were alone and weren’t surrounded by strange men and a werewolf.

“Okay, just remember. It’s still me.” The skin on his face rippled.

Her palms started to sweat. “Luca, you’re scaring me.”

But he didn’t answer. The bones under his skin moved, changing positions with a crunching sound that sent a thousand centipedes tickling over her spine. His muscles bunched and shifted.

Every nerve in her body screamed, no! Not him too. Not Luca. He was her cowboy, her back-up. He’d come for her and saved her from the wolf. She backed away, her hand over her mouth holding in her fear.

Watching the change was just as wrenching as seeing Bertolf’s transformation, except this time, it was Luca. His entire body contorted into positions no human should ever be forced to take and the sounds of muscles moving, and skin stretching, had her stomach twisting. She backed away, looking at her feet for where she’d dropped the pepper spray. But it was with her pack on the other side of the horrible metamorphosis.

The only thing she found was a large rock. She picked it up, bracing for the attack. But it didn’t come. Instead the beautifully dangerous silver gray wolf stood in front of her, staring at her with anxious brown eyes.

Natalie held her rock up. “Get away from me.” Her mouth had gone dry and she could barely get the words out, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.

She waited for the wolf to do something. To rise to his feet and show his teeth. To growl. To come after her. But he didn’t. Instead, he dropped to his belly, crawling to her over the dirt. She backed up and he stopped only a few feet away. He whined, a pathetic sound that had her pausing.

“Luca?”

He bowed his head. She reached out and skimmed one finger over the silky tip of an ear and he laid his head down on his paws and wagged his tail. Unlike Brandon’s ferocious attack, he looked silly, like a giant dog goofing it up just for her.

“He’s taking a huge risk, showing you this,” Gabe said. “It’s totally forbidden.” Rico and Gabe had finished loading the wolf into the SUV and now stood watching them.

“Are you all werewolves?”

“Shifters. Wolf shifters.”

“So, any one of you could have killed Yvette.”

Luca whined, and the shift started again, this time in reverse. Silver gray hair disappeared. Skin rippled over the muscles and bone roiling beneath. When he stood up, he was back to being Luca. Naked and beautiful and very male, but now a total stranger with eyes full of apprehension.

“Natalie?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She’d trusted him. Believed in him, and it turned out he had this huge secret.

“Would you have believed me?”

She shook her head. “God no.” Suddenly she felt very tired. All she wanted to do was be back in her apartment in Denver, in bed, with the covers pulled tight over her head. She didn’t want to have her brain spinning in overload.

“Look, Natalie.” Luca reached out a hand and she ignored it.

He stayed where he was, but she could almost feel his need to touch her. Maybe because she felt the same need. She just didn’t trust it now.

His hand stayed out, reaching for her. “I don’t know who killed Yvette but I doubt it was Brandon. Despite his actions today, he’s the kind of guy with a stick up his ass about regulations. If he’d found her on site, he would have called it in. And he’s totally married to his wife.” He glanced at the other guys. “I can’t tell you everything, but trust me—once a shifter mates, we mate for life. Brandon wouldn’t have been seducing younger women and bringing them here.”

“Honestly, I can’t see Yvette going for him anyway. But someone did seduce her. She came here with a guy.” She looked at the two hot men with the guns on their hips standing next to the SUV. “And you have other men here. Other wolfy men.”

“Hey, we’re the good guys.” Rico elbowed Gabe. “Right?”

“What are you guys? Private security?”

Rico’s joking expression fell away. “Luca, man, I’m sorry. We have to bring her in. She has too many questions. It’s beyond our jurisdiction.”

Luca’s hand stayed stretched out. She wanted so badly to take it, but all of this was not just confusing, but scary. She didn’t know what to do.

“Natalie? I swear, I’ll fight for you with my life, but we need to take you to the council and straighten this shit out.”

He’d been a total white knight up until now. Could she trust him the rest of the way? Did she have a choice? “I’m trusting you, Luca.” She held out her hand.

He took it and wrapped it in his large one. “I know. You won’t regret it. I’ll make sure you’re safe.” He turned her hand over and pressed a kiss onto her palm. “I’m trusting you too, you know. This is my life.”

Her entire body humming with anxiety, she watched Luca put his clothes back on. They piled into the back of the SUV and drove back to the main ranch, holding hands the entire way.

Natalie stared out the window as the landscape went from trees, to pasture, to one of the biggest log houses she’d ever seen, surrounded by an entire compound of smaller buildings. Her scratchy throat closed up.

She’d always been a risk taker but, was trusting Luca going to be her very last risk?