Wrangled Fate: Book One: Black Claw Ranch

by Lane, Cecilia

“As much as could be expected,” she said evenly. “And you?”

  “Tossed and turned.”

  The thought of him stripped down to nothing popped into her mind. His impressive chest and stomach had already been imprinted in her brain. She didn’t need much prompting to imagine a soft dusting of hair on thick thighs, or what he packed between them.

  She dragged her eyes away from his face and down his body. She doubted he was a boxers or a briefs kind of man.

  Ethan rumbled, and she jerked her gaze back to his face. Busted.

  She escaped the scrutiny and her traitorous thoughts by sliding off her chair and wandering into the living room. Along the fireplace mantle were a few framed pictures: a black-and-white of the home being built, an older couple she assumed were his parents by their shared features, and a larger group she thought might have been a family reunion.

  The only modern photo was of Ethan with his arm wrapped around the shoulder of a younger woman. Her hair was slightly lighter than Ethan’s but their eyes were the same.

  “My sister,” he said at her side.

  Tansey nearly jumped out of her skin. Time with Viho had given her experience with shifters, but it didn’t kill her shock when they moved fast and without noise. “Where is she?” she covered.

  Hat off, he looked more relaxed. Even his shoulder didn’t seem so tense. And the smile he flashed her scorched her insides.

  “Colette is away for her third year of college. It costs a damn fortune, but she’s happy,” he answered with obvious pride.

  Something close to kinship unfurled inside her. With that one tidbit of knowledge, Ethan showed himself to care just as much as she cared about Rye. He could play at being a tough, macho cowboy all he wanted, but his sister proved he had a gooey center. It was endearing.

  At least she thought so until he spun on his heels and strode through the living room like his jeans were on fire. He slammed his hat down on his head and gritted out, “Have a nice morning, Miss Nichols.”

  Tansey gaped at him for a quick second, then she shot through the home just as he wrenched open the door. “Wait!” she yelled. “What about helping? Don’t we have an appointment?”

  He had a sister. He had to know how important it was to find Rye.

  Ethan rounded on her. “Yes, I’m going to help. Yes, we have an appointment. It’s hours away from now and I have a ranch to tend. The world doesn’t stop turning just because you blew into my life.”

  “I never said that it did,” she snapped back.

  “Just—” His growl cut off his words. “Don’t wander off, okay?” The deep gravel of his voice matched the brightness of his eyes. Blue and silver swirled together.

  “Why? Don’t want any witnesses if I go missing like Rye?”

  His strong jaw tightened and he adjusted the brim of his cowboy hat. She thought it was an excuse to delay his words. Or maybe he was swallowing all the curses he had for daring to question him.

  “The lion pride on our border doesn’t care for humans. You’re liable to get hurt if you head out there. So do me a favor and stay put.”

  She didn’t catch the words under his breath, but she could only assume they were impolite. “They don’t like humans? That’s despicable. Speciesist, even. I don’t have anything against shifters, why would they have anything against me?”

  Ethan’s cold blue eyes locked on her face. “Because humans murdered Trent’s parents in front of him. I need you to stay alive.”

  Tansey blinked. In that half second of shock, Ethan disappeared through the door.

  Frustration built in her chest. She’d deluded herself that he actually cared, it seemed. Fucking awesome. A-plus reading of people, as always.

  He’d protected her with his own body as a shield and convinced her to stay, but that brief flash of inclusion was wrong. She couldn’t hope for it to last with Ethan or his clan. She was a means to an end, a connection to the Vagabonds, and he didn’t help her out of the kindness of his heart.

  There was no counting on a man like that. The moment she became too inconvenient, he’d drop all pretense of helping her. No, better to forget his panty-melting smiles and gather any information she could before then.

  Rye’s life might depend on it.

  Chapter 8

  Ethan’s bear roared. Sharp claws pierced his chest. His gums ached with descending fangs and his fingers hurt with the push of claws. The beast wanted out and didn’t give a shit if Ethan objected.

  Not a single sending in the world could force him back into his home. Her scent already coated everything and drove him crazy. He’d hardly slept, fighting his other half to keep from barging into her room and crawling into her bed. Then seeing her, hair tangled and bags under her eyes, drove another spike into his heart.

  Dammit. She was not destined to be his mate, she was only somewhat his problem, and he had shit to do. People depended on him keeping steady. If he lost control, the tenuous grasp his clan had on themselves would snap. Colette wouldn’t finish school. His herd would go unchecked and the ranch would be lost.

  He didn’t have time for the frustrated smelling woman he left behind or the rabid animal lashing out at his insides.

  Ethan drew in a shaky breath and pried back control from his inner animal. Another deep inhale saw the tips of claws retreat back into fingernails. A third breath calmed his heart enough to hear over the pounding.

  Cattle mooed near the barn. Too many to be anything but panic.

  He strode straight for the open doors and found the others pulling out tack and readying their horses. “Tell me,” he ordered.

  “There’s a break in the fence. A rough count shows five head are missing,” Jesse said with a frown. There was more, and he didn’t want to say.

  “What else?” Ethan demanded.

  Power whipped out of him. The others froze in their tracks and shot him dirty looks. Anger built in their scents, and confusion, too.

  Fuck. He didn’t mean to add a weight of dominance to the words. Tansey had him messed up.

  Jesse answered as soon as the air cleared. “Wolf scents.”

  Of course. Of-fucking-course. Viho didn’t succeed with his plan yesterday. He had to keep trying. Which meant the danger to Tansey was even more real.

  He didn’t know which way to turn. He wanted to protect the woman with every fiber of his being. He could stay and guard her in the house. He could track the wolves that hunted on his territory. Both options sounded fantastic to his bear. One would keep them in close proximity, the other would prove their fierceness.

  He eyed the four men who looked to him for a livelihood. He’d be better out on the trail than repairing a fence and twiddling his thumbs waiting for a glimpse of Tansey through the curtains.

  “Hunter, Lorne, get on fixing the fence. Until we know the wolves aren’t around, I want you guarding the rest of the herd.” He went to the tack room and pulled out his saddle. Patches hung his head over the stall and nickered as he swung open the door. Ethan leaned out of the stall. “And make sure our guest doesn’t leave the house. No need to get her into more trouble. The rest of us will help find the missing head, or the wolves, whichever comes first.”

  There was only minor grumbling as the groups fell in line. The two being left behind stuffed thick gloves into their pockets. Hunter went to pull his truck around. They were throwing wire cutters and wire into the bed when Ethan finished brushing down and saddling Patches.

  Alex and Jesse were already mounted up by the time he led the horse out of the barn. The first rays of light colored the sky as he slid his rifle into its place on his saddle and climbed up.

  “Let’s go.”

  Jesse heeled his horse forward, and Ethan followed with Alex right beside him.

  It didn’t take long to find the break in the fence. One post hung tangled in barbed wire, but the tension still meant most of the fence remained propped up.

  No wonder only a handful of cattle were missing. They would have needed to be drive
n to jump over.

  The stench of fur was proof of that. Paths crossed over one another so thickly, he could practically see the wolves driving each cow. They weren’t after wholesale destruction. This was a game to them.

  “I want someone watching the herd at all hours. We’ll rotate until we know this won’t happen again.” More work, but they had to see it coming. He tried to spin it to himself as an early start to the calving season. Someone watched constantly then.

  That was for new life. This was for more death.

  Ethan growled and spurred Patches into a quick trot to follow the odor of the trespassers.

  The scents were as strong an indicator as the dirt churned by hooves. Large paw prints crossed the loose track, showing the wolves nipping at the heels of the cattle. Each one compounded the fury rolling through his other half.

  The wolves had come onto his territory, stolen his beasts, and threatened his mate. The bear wanted blood.

  Ethan didn’t have the energy to correct his raging animal. It took all his control to keep to his human shape.

  They’d ridden through the foothills about an hour when the sharp tang of metal mixed with the other scents he tracked. He heeled Patches faster up one hill and pulled to a stop. Alex and Jesse drew up next to him and growled at the sight below them.

  Earth had been torn up as the cow tried to dodge her attackers. She was dead. The kill was as clean as the other from two days ago. Throat torn out, left alone to bleed, with not a single bite taken.

  Ethan squinted at the cow. The timeline was fuzzy. Tansey said the pack had only arrived three days before she showed up on his land. The last cow was cut from the herd and killed the day prior to that. But there had been wolves watching him for weeks, and other cows taken, too.

  Waiting on Viho, maybe. Because he was stringing along another mark, or because he purposefully drove Tansey toward Black Claw from the beginning?

  Viho had it in for him, without a doubt. Ethan didn’t understand the purpose of throwing the fragile human his way. Was he supposed to kill her, and see Viho rise up as some wronged creature? Was she supposed to kill him, and make way for Viho in the vacuum left behind? But why the second shot that found its home in his hat?

  Too many questions made his temples pound with the beginnings of a headache. Truth was, there was no sense in puzzling out the wolf’s motives. He wanted to fuck shit up, and he’d succeeded. Ethan was distracted with fixing Viho’s messes when he needed to focus on providing for his people.

  “Mark the spot.” He fixed his eyes on Jesse. “We’ll dispose of the carcass once we know what happened to the others. No use doing extra work if they’re dead, too.”

  The sun had climbed another hour while they zigzagged across his territory. The path carried them to the far edges along the border of another ranch.

  Ethan’s frown deepened when Alex turned in his saddle.

  “Riders,” Alex announced. His nostrils flared and his nose wrinkled with slight disgust. “Lions.”

  The last thing he needed was a run-in with Trent to turn a terrible day to absolute shit.

  Hoping to avoid an unnecessary brawl, Ethan glanced to his men, then to the sun. “Ride ahead. Finish this up.”

  “So you can get back to your woman faster?” Alex sniped.

  Jesse took the sting from the other man’s words with a teasing grin of his own. “Now, Alex, don’t mock him. He’s only been looking over his shoulder every two minutes.”

  “Fuck you both. I need to turn back to take her to Judah.” His dick twitched in anticipation of seeing her again. He wanted to replace death, fur, and dirt with her honeyed scent.

  Alex grunted. “Only reason you’re turning back now is because that little human caught your eye. There’s more important business, alpha.” His eyes flashed inhuman green as his voice dropped to pure gravel.

  Ethan ground his teeth together. Alex had his reasons for being an utter asshole ninety percent of the time, but they couldn’t sort it out right then. He should have known the man would be a mess with a woman in the house. His maddening comment that morning was just the beginning.

  Trent and two others crested over a hill. They pulled to a stop not far from the fence line. “What’s this about a human?”

  Ethan glared at Jesse and Alex. Motherfuckers.

  He leaned against the saddle horn and pushed the brim of his hat up with one finger. “Got a girl stashed at my place. She won’t be a bother.”

  “Human girl? She ain’t one of us.” Trent leaned to the side and spat.

  Ethan resisted scrubbing a hand down his face. He had enough of Alex mouthing off. He didn’t need another alpha telling him how to run his clan. “Respectfully, Trent, truly respectfully, you can mind your own fucking business. What happens on this side of the fence, who I allow on my land, is my concern. Not yours.”

  A shadow passed over Trent’s face. The lightness of his eyes faded back to his human color. Even the smell of fur lessened around him, replaced by a solid wall of caution. “Your business,” he conceded. “Your funeral. Can’t trust a human.”

  “I’ll be sure to let you add that to my gravestone,” Ethan growled. Aspersions cast upon Tansey made his bear want to fight. That need for action fed into his own. He wanted to work out his frustrations. Clan, cattle, lions, a woman… He expected the skies to open and a flash flood to rip through his land just to add another layer of awful to his life.

  Trent scratched at his jaw. “Been wanting to catch up with you,” he said begrudgingly. “Are you running trail rides for the tourists this year?”

  “Depends. You offering up your horses?”

  Ethan didn’t want to do business with the man. He’d tried to set aside money and make plans to buy new mounts himself and do away with the need to work together. Trent was an even bigger asshole than Alex.

  But four dead cows, and maybe four more, cut a bigger hole in his wallet. The trail ride money would be needed when Colette’s tuition bill arrived or a horse threw a shoe or wolves broke his fences for the fifteenth time in a month. He couldn’t count on his herd staying alive with the fucking Valdana pack picking them off.

  Fuck it. Maybe he wouldn’t need to worry about it much longer if Viho made his play and put him down.

  Patches stepped to the side and tossed his head in agitation. Ethan stuffed his bear down before more than a growl and an intense need to bleed something surfaced.

  Trent watched him with guarded eyes. “We can do five this time. One mare is due to foal soon.”

  “Five is just fine. You bringing them over, or should I send one of my boys?”

  “You come this way. Give me a shout to firm up a time and day.” Trent kneed his mount closer to the fence and stuck his hand across.

  Ethan did the same and grasped the lion shifter’s hand. “Pleasure doing business.”

  Trent scowled. “Doubt it. Don’t turn my horses into nags, and send me your accounting each week. I won’t have you skimming, Ashford.”

  Ethan bared his teeth in a rough approximation of a grin. He could curse Becca for setting him and Trent down the path of business partners.

  One more problem to add to the heap.

  As soon as Trent released his grip, he wheeled around and whistled for his men to follow. Ethan similarly rounded on Jesse and Alex.

  “You two, get moving. I want the others found.”

  “What? You’re still going?” Alex objected.

  The growl he’d held in with Trent turned into a snarl directed at Alex. “I gave my word.”

  Alex glared back at him until Jesse crowded his horse between them. “Ride,” Jesse snapped. “Now.”

  The brightness of Alex’s eyes didn’t fade as he spun his horse and trotted off. He wasn’t a match for two bigger and more dominant bears, and he knew it.

  “I’ll try talking some sense into him,” Jesse promised without prompting. “You go take care of your mate.”

  “She’s not my mate,” Ethan snapped as fierce
ly as Jesse before him.

  “Alex is a lot of things, but he’s not wrong in this. She caught your eye. Why else is she still alive after shooting at you?” His second dipped the brim of his hat in farewell. “Alpha.”

  Feeling spread too thin and called out on multiple fronts, Ethan kicked Patches toward home.

  He gave his word to Tansey. That was all. He wouldn’t bring a mate into the chaos of his life.

  Chapter 9

  Tansey sat on her hands to keep from fidgeting. The air in Ethan’s truck was pleasant and oppressive all at once. He smelled delicious after a quick shower, but the air was like a thick blanket pressing down on her.

  His eyes glowed, which she was certain meant he felt the same uneasy agitation she did. He tried to hide the silver under the brim of his cowboy hat—a new one, she noted, and not full of bullet holes. She almost felt guilty about that and stopped herself from offering to buy him a replacement twice.

  Ethan slashed his eyes her way and tightened his hand around the steering wheel. Any tighter, and she imagined he’d crush the thing into smithereens.

  “Thank you for this,” she said to break the silence.

  Ethan grunted.

  Maybe it wasn’t the air that was so heavy. Maybe it was the cowboy at her side ratcheting up her tension.

  Whatever. She wasn’t there to babysit his feelings. She was simply trying to find her brother. Ethan’s problems were his own.

  Still, she didn’t like the silence. She didn’t want to be an annoyance. She was a fixer by nature, and feeling the agitation in the air had her mentally reaching for a thousand possible solutions.

  It was a relief when Ethan pulled into the parking lot of a small, brick building. Two police cruisers parked out front. Black block letters above the door named the place Bearden Police Department.

  She doubted the building would suffice for a single precinct in Minneapolis.

  Ethan hopped out of the truck and frowned when she shoved open her door before he could get around the hood. He beat her to the door of the station, though, and held that open for her with a ghost of a smile. “After you.”