I turned and looked at her then burst into laughter.
She laughed, too.
11
BOONE
* * *
We trudged through the fresh snow toward the furthest garage bay. Rand typed in a code on the keypad, and the door slid up.
“You know she has an asshole for an ex?” Rand asked.
Our breaths came out in frosty clouds. I was big enough where I didn’t feel the sharp bite of cold, but my eyes didn’t like the bright glint of sun on the snow, so I squinted.
“Yeah. Cody told me she was married, getting a divorce. And I think he hurt her,” I said, remembering what she’d shared the night before. The lack of pussy eating, too.
“Yeah, he was controlling. Like dangerous controlling. Told her what to wear. Took away her job. Her friends. Isolated her.”
My eyes widened as I followed him into the garage and to the pickup truck that had a plow on the front. He climbed into the driver’s seat, and I climbed in on the other side. He started up the engine, drove out of the garage, then lowered the plow and started clearing the snow.
“She’s only now realizing how fucked up it all was. Now that she’s safe.”
“Shit, I don’t want to do that,” I said.
He glanced at me for a second. “I know, but you told her, a human, a human who had a dickhead controlling ex, that she was yours, that she belonged to you, that you were moving her up to a remote cabin in the mountains where she couldn’t take her car, and she’d quit her job because she was your mate. Oh, and you two met less than twelve hours ago.”
Fuuuuuuck.
I saw his point. “Being human makes it hard for her to understand.”
He huffed as he steered around a curve in his drive halfway to the road.
“Trust me, I know how hard it is to get a human female to understand what’s in our nature. You should feel lucky that she knows what you are. Nat saw me shift as a kid, so she knew, too, but the others… they had a fucking hard time trying to explain what the hell was going on.”
The air in the truck was just starting to warm up, but I barely noticed.
“That does sound harder. I couldn’t imagine getting Summer to believe what I am if she can’t understand that ‘mine’ doesn’t mean I want to possess her.”
“But you do,” Rand countered. “Nat is mine. My possession. My obsession. The important thing is for her to know that it’s putting her on a pedestal. Making her the most important thing in your life. That you’d do anything for her.”
“I would,” I vowed, nodding.
He pushed the snow directly across the dirt road and to the berm on the far side, then did a three-point turn to head back down his drive again, plowing the other side.
“Including giving her room,” Rand added. “Leaving here without her and seeing her tonight at Cody’s.”
I clenched my fists on my thighs. “Why the hell do I have to do that?”
“She needs to lead her own life,” he explained.
I frowned. “But I have to keep her safe.”
Rand sighed. “I’m watching out for her. Cody does at work. She’s safe. If her ex shows up–”
I turned my head, looked at my friend and fellow packmate. “If her ex shows up, he’s a dead man. Levi might be sheriff, but we will mete out pack justice.”
Rand clenched his jaw. “Agreed.”
