Rogue Wolf

by Terry Bolryder

  “You’re a little drunk,” he said playfully, easing her fumbling fingers from his shirt.

  “No, I ain’t.”

  “And now I know for sure you’re drunk. You’re getting up to mischief.”

  “Maybe I want a little mischief.”

  The air seemed to still around them for a moment. And before she knew it, she’d leaned up in his lap and kissed him on the lips, softly, for just a second.

  When she pulled back, his eyes were practically glowing again, though they darted away from hers.

  “What was that for?” he asked.

  “I’ve been waiting ten years for another kiss. And the one back in the alley didn’t count.” Although, that wasn’t true. It had been earth-shattering and sudden. And every minute with him just reminded her why she’d loved him for so long.

  “I’ve been waiting a long time too.” But he didn’t finish what else was on his mind as she hiccupped loudly, interrupting the utter silence of the ranch. “You still get those monster hiccups, don’t you?”

  “Inherited them from my mom,” she said, realizing now wasn’t the time for romantic advances. Not when his secrets remained deep beneath the hard shell Reno wore.

  The kiss had been a welcome distraction, though.

  “I’m sorry again for everything you’ve had to go through.” He pulled her in close again, enveloping her in security and safety.

  “It’s not all bad. I got a lot more years with Mom than initially diagnosed. That and we didn’t have to deal with crushing debt either because some anonymous donor covered everything and got her put at the front of the line for an experimental treatment,” she said, blurting out the fact that it had always seemed a little suspicious at first, but at the time, she and Mom had just been grateful for any shred of help.

  She’d always secretly wondered if Reno had anything to do with it.

  But Reno’s expression was utterly calm. “I’m really glad to hear that. You deserved a lot, lot longer together.”

  Dani sighed, surprised that even now, he acted like he didn’t want to own up to anything good he’d done for her or her mom for so many years in spite of having had to leave them. Even though, in reality, he’d been one of the few good people to both of them—right up until their fated senior prom.

  Oh well. Maybe she’d find out more later. Maybe he hadn’t been involved after all.

  For now, she just let his warm arms soothe her aching heart as slowly, gradually, sleep overtook her. And though her attraction to him was at a breaking point, there wasn’t anything to do about it, at least not this instant.

  She closed her eyes and thought of Reno’s arctic-sky blue eyes as her thoughts drifted to nothingness.

  Sooner or later, though, the tension between them was going to explode.

  12

  Afternoon sunlight fell in beams through cracks in the barn wall, illuminating Reno’s face as he stood, watching Diesel take apart and put the practice engine back together.

  The basilisk was learning at an astonishing rate. In just days, he had become adept with using tools and very familiar with the inner workings of most combustion engines.

  Reno’s brow furrowed slightly, memories from last night uncomfortably clear and constant even when he was working.

  Holding Dani in his arms had been heaven, and he felt even closer to her now. It was like they’d both taken a step closer to closing the gap that had formed in the long years following his departure from Granite Falls.

  He frowned, a wave of sadness enveloping his insides as he thought about how he hadn’t been able to comfort her in the years after her mother’s death.

  Dani’s mother had always been a kind woman to him, and in some ways, she had been more familial toward him than anyone with whom he shared a blood relation.

  Reno longed to make it up to Dani in any way possible, if only there were more time to do so. But he wasn’t sure there was. More and more ominous rumors were circulating the town, and an invisible weight was bearing down on his shoulders.

  Plus, holding her and being there for her had only made his wolf more insistent and furious to claim her, and that made it more difficult to figure out what his next move would be.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket, yanking him back to the present, and he pulled it out, wondering who it was.

  Oh no.

  His eyes went wide with dread as he stared down at an unfamiliar number, though he was nearly certain of who it was.

  Hey, worthless excuse for a brother. Miss me?

  Drenton.

  Shit.

  Horror seeped through Reno’s veins. He’d never thought that he would ever hear from his psychopath of a brother ever again, and the fact that Drenton was getting in contact now couldn’t be a coincidence.

  Then another text popped up on the screen.

  D: I’m coming for you. You’re not escaping this time, even if I have to send every wolf in Texas. We will find you. You and your little human friend.

  It wasn’t an empty threat. Being next in line as alpha of the family, Reno’s brother had enough power to make it happen.

  Drenton had always been an extension of their evil, power-hungry parents. Cold, calculating, and merciless in crushing or ruling anyone who stood in their way. Even when they’d been kids, they had never been brothers really.

  But the question was: Why would Drenton send a message like this? If he was looking for Reno and Dani, why announce it and give away any chance of surprise?

  Speaking of, where was she?

  Oh crap.

  He bolted for the door, leaving Diesel to tinker with the engine. Once outside, he strode over to Beck who was hauling a large bundle of hay across the main area.

  “Hey,” Reno said. “Have you seen Dani? Do you know where she is?”

  Beck ran a hand through his beard. “Yeah, think so. She went out into the east pasture to take some photos or somethin’.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Just barely,” Beck replied. “You couldn’t have missed her by more than five or ten min—”

  But Reno was already gone, running for the dirt road leading out to the pasture. Something was off. He could feel it. He just hoped he was wrong and, if not, that he could get to her in time.

  When he reached the pasture, an alarming and infuriating sight awaited him. Dani was in fact in the field, but she was nearly surrounded by several off-road vehicles, all holding scruffy, dirty-looking men.

  Copperheads.

  Fury roared in Reno’s throat as he registered the fear in her expression as she stepped back, hands up, and the Copperheads began to hop off their vehicles and advance on her. One or two of them were even holding rope in their hands.

  “Ain’t this the woman from the photo?” one of them called out.

  “Sure is,” another one crowed. “She’s cute. Maybe we’ll have some fun with her before we turn her over.”

  Over Reno’s dead body.

  Suddenly, her eyes met his, silently pleading for help as she backed away. Summoning every ounce of speed in his body, he dashed over, grabbing one of the Copperheads by the back of his shirt and tossing him back toward his ATV.

  Reno might have overestimated.

  The Copperhead flew several feet past the vehicle, yelping as he careened face first into the dirt and slid before coming to a stop.

  Served the dumbass right for messing with his mate.

  The rest of the Copperheads stopped at that, eyes going back and forth between Reno and their fallen pack member for a second before they shouted loud war cries and rushed him.

  But they were all too slow, and he ducked and dodged and attacked blindingly quickly, and before long, they were all running, terrified, back to their vehicles.

  “Keep your eyes out!” one of them shouted, holding up a fist as he revved his ATV engine. “This ain’t over!”

  With that, the remaining Copperheads made themselves scarce. They were so terrified, in fact, that they forgot an extra ATV in
their dust.

  “Holy crap, I thought I was a goner,” he heard Dani say almost from a distance.

  Reno’s fist clenched tightly at his side, fury refusing to leave his veins as his wolf bore his fangs, hungry for vengeance. Real vengeance.

  With a text, his brother had just declared war on him, Dragonclaw, and his mate, and he wasn’t going to let it stand.

  She stepped up, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

  Reno shook it off quickly, walking over to the leftover vehicle and hopping on. He revved the engine, lightning tickling his fingertips.

  After the bar, the abduction in the street, and now this, he was tired of hiding. It was time to show people what happened when they messed with his woman. How dare they try and take away what belonged to him?

  “I’m gonna handle this,” he said more calmly than he felt. “Go back to Dragonclaw.”

  Her eyebrows narrowed in concern. “You look really intense and kinda scary right now. What are you thinking? You already got rid of them.”

  Reno took a deep breath, then smiled his best innocent smile. “I’m just going to return what they left.”

  He’d also teach those wolves a lesson they’d never forget. No one would ever come near his mate or bother anyone at Dragonclaw or in this part of Texas ever again.

  “Please go back to the ranch,” he urged again. He could tell, looking into her eyes, that she didn’t want him to go, so he added, “I’ll return when I’m done. I promise. I need you safe.”

  “Okay, but you’re going to explain what in the heck is up right now when you get back.”

  With that, she turned and jogged back down the path toward the Dragonclaw homestead, leaving him alone.

  Now that he knew that she was going to be safe, he could focus on doing what needed to be done, what should have been done months or years ago, even if no one at Dragonclaw had yet had the guts to do it.

  He revved the engine again, then took off across the path, dirt flying in the wind behind him.

  In front of him, heavy storm clouds gathered in the distance, crackling and heralding the impending retribution that would soon be delivered to those who would see harm to the ones Reno loved most.

  13

  The thick thunderheads that had been off in the distance a short while ago were now directly overhead, heavy and looming and ominous, as Reno pulled onto the main drive of Copperhead Ranch.

  The place was more of a dump than usual, which was saying something.

  Rage seethed in Reno’s veins. Rage at his family. Rage at all wolves in general but especially toward these lowdown, thieving mongrels who’d come too close to Dani twice now.

  After Harrison had needed to rescue his mate, Marian, from the Copperheads’ meddling, Reno had done some digging around into their affairs. Apparently, the ranch itself wasn’t being paid off, nor had any of the proper taxes or paperwork been filed when Wexler, their de facto leader, had moved in here years ago. Several times, the county had sent people to evict them, but they’d been run off, sometimes violently.

  Given that they were wolves and this was still the middle of nowhere, nobody had had the gumption to run these squatters off the land they didn’t own.

  So, in secret, Reno had bought the land and acquired all the necessary rights for ownership a few weeks ago, suspecting something might happen in the wake of the events that had occurred in Parson’s Creek with Dallas and the Blackheart Assassins.

  And now Reno was here to finally do the one thing Harrison and the other dragons hadn’t yet had the heart to do: get these fuckers out of the way once and for all.

  He stopped his ATV right in front of Wexler’s ramshackle mansion as men started to emerge from shacks and their attention turned solely to him.

  Normally, being a lone wolf—even an alpha wolf like he was—against so many other wolves was pure foolhardiness.

  But Reno wasn’t a normal wolf anymore. Not by any stretch of the imagination. His evil family had seen to that.

  Lightning struck only a couple miles away.

  It would be a whole lot closer in a minute.

  There was murmuring between the men, and Reno heard his name being exchanged between them, some with curiosity, others with amusement. After all, Reno had played the part of a quiet, unassuming ranch hand at Dragonclaw for a long time now. None of these men knew who, or what, he really was.

  Dani’s green eyes flashed in his mind, and Reno cracked his knuckles as he stepped off the ATV. Up ahead, Wexler was coming out of the house, flanked by his biggest wolf guards and appraising him with mild contempt.

  Normally, rogue packs like these were monitored by the Tribunal, the ruling body over all wolf clans. But in recent years, the Tribunal’s interest had shifted solely to finding new sources of power and keeping it for themselves rather than policing assholes like the Copperheads.

  And now, in a stroke of absolute irony, one of the Tribunal’s strongest wolves was here to teach them a lesson they’d never forget, even though Reno was acting solely on behalf of his mate and his friends, which he considered family, back at Dragonclaw.

  Reno spoke loudly, so hopefully anyone nearby could hear him. “You and your men need to be out of here, Wexler. It’s over.”

  Wexler raised a dark eyebrow and adjusted the dark Stetson he wore, stopping a few steps from the bottom of the staircase. “What are you playing at, Reno? Surely, if the dragons had business with me, they would’ve come themselves, not sent their pet wolf.”

  Reno grinned, itching for the fight they most certainly thought they would win. “I’m here of my own accord. This land is no longer yours. It’s mine.”

  Wexler laughed. “Neither the city nor the county has had the balls to try and make us leave. What makes you think one wolf will change my mind?”

  Lightning struck closer, deafening and less than half a mile away now. Reno could feel the hairs on the ends of his arms stand up as it did.

  “I’m only warning you once. Leave, or I make you.”

  “Don’t you go thinking I haven’t heard recent whisperings of an alpha wolf from the Tribunal that’s been on the run for a long time. You have any idea how much the reward for you is right now?”

  “You’ll find out why in a minute if you keep talking.” Around him, dozens of wolves had joined in a wide circle, surrounding Reno from all sides. Normally, this would be a daunting task for any shifter.

  The blood in Reno’s veins sizzled like it was boiling with protective, furious energy. All he wanted to do was go back to Dani and hold her in his arms. To feel heaven on earth with her.

  But first, he needed to take out the trash.

  Wexler nodded at the men at his sides, and the two of them advanced toward Reno, wearing sunglasses and mean expressions. “Even if you’re a Tribunal wolf, you don’t scare me. After all, what are you gonna do, put all hundred of us to sleep or something? Or maybe you’ll use your super healing to scare us off?” Men nearby chuckled at that.

  Reno grinned. Yes, he was a superb healer, but his power wasn’t like anything these wolves had seen or heard of before.

  In fact, it wasn’t even wolf in origin.

  One big guy stretched a hand and came forward, reaching perhaps to grab Reno’s arm, when lightning cracked the ground at Reno’s feet. The entire clearing lit with a blinding flash, throwing the man back a dozen feet from the deafening impact as, all around Reno, men clapped hands on their ears or raised hands to their faces to shield themselves from the light.

  There was an air of hesitation, and rain began to pour in thick sheets over them. The second guy looked from Reno to Wexler, then charged Reno, perhaps on the belief the lightning strike had been pure coincidence.

  Then Reno raised his right hand and pointed at the approaching thug.

  And the dragon blood within him surged, blood that had belonged to the infamous topaz dragon, and electricity exploded from Reno’s fingertip in a long arc, flying through the air with a zapping sound.r />
  Before he came within even ten feet of Reno, the man flew backward as the blue energy enveloped him and electrocuted him senseless. By the time he hit the ground, the man was out cold, drooling from his mouth as he spasmed a few more times.

  Wexler’s mouth hung open. Everyone just stared at something that shouldn’t have been possible.

  And it was true. Fusing dragon blood with a wolf normally resulted in the formation of a wyvern, a horrible beast made to kill dragons. Powers like controlling lightning, fire, and ice usually belonged only to dragons.

  Until what had been done to Reno.

  “What the fuck?” Wexler spat. “Are you a dragon or something?”

  “Nope.” Reno grinned, baring his long canines in a snarl. “I’m something far worse.”

  He felt nothing but disgust for these thugs that had been given free rein to bother people, including his friends and their mates, for too long.

  What had nearly happened with Dani had been the last straw.

  “I don’t care what magic or tech you’re using to fool us into thinking you’re hot shit, we’ll never surrender to the likes of you.” Wexler snapped his fingers, and the rest of the wolves around him began to advance.

  Too bad. Reno had half expected them to turn tail and run.

  All the better, though. His ability to summon storms and use lightning on people had the added bonus of clearing their memory of the last day or two, at least when used on shifters like these guys. So the more who resisted, the less who would remember this even happening. Which was just as well for Reno.

  Another crack of lightning slammed downward, hitting a pile of loose wood nearby and setting it aflame. The rain would quickly douse it, though.

  Reno just focused his senses and felt even more power light up his insides, still painful but not nearly as bad as it had been back when his family had been using him as a test subject for their insane, illegal plans.

  With a wave of his hand, thick electricity arced through the air, connecting with five or six guys and sending them reeling backward and onto the ground in electrified heaps.