Claimed by the Wolf

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A wolf without a pack is a solitary life. Calan runs wild on Channing land, but his stay can only be temporary. He isn’t like other wolves. He will never feel the need to breed and will never take a mate. The large black wolf—the shifter who claims him nightly— has other ideas. This Alpha wolf may not give Calan a choice.

Claimed By The Wolf Channing’s Wolves 1 By

Taylor McKay

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eBooks are not transferable. This ebook cannot by sold, shared or given away as it infringes on the copyright of this work. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental. Claimed By The Wolf COPYRIGHT © 2011 by Taylor McKay All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or Demanding Romance except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Contact Information: [email protected] Demanding Romance Publishing History First Demanding Romance Edition, July 2011 Cover art by Morgan Lee Published in the United States of America

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Claimed By The Wolf Channing’s Wolves 1 Breath misted in the cool evening air. Muscles burned, pushing him, stretching his levels of endurance. Calan was strong. He had to be because his pursuer was just as cunning, just as swift. And the wolf was gaining ground.

As a wolf in his prime, Calan was a hunter, of age for a female mate and a defender of his territory. However, Calan didn’t want a territory, didn’t want a bitch to mount. Calan ached for the forceful domination of another Alpha.

Blood rushed through his veins, the thrumming of his pulse keeping rhythm with the pounding of paws against soft soil. He was on Channing land, rushing through the scrub and rocky terrain. This wasn’t his territory, but he wasn’t the only one trespassing. The wolf on his heels was gaining. Calan dug in, pushed harder. He was fast—the other wolf was faster.

A growl echoed through the forest and seeped into him. Lust coiled in his gut. His cock was swelling, pheromones saturating the air. Calan tamped down the whimper building in his chest. He ached to lie in the tall grass and submit. Eventually, but not yet. There was no doubt the black wolf giving chase would fuck him. Calan didn’t have a choice. With equal ferocity, Calan desperately craved the joining.

He darted left, his paws clawing the leaves, twigs and rocks covering the ground. Adrenaline spiked his blood, surging new energy through him. He propelled forward, exerting every effort to give good chase. Would he outrun the other wolf? In the six

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weeks since their first encounter, Calan never had, and he wouldn’t tonight. But that didn’t mean he’d give in easy. He’d run, fight, and finally he’d submit.

But the night was young. Drinking in the cool forest mist, he ran as if his life depended on it.

Taking a sharp right, he lost his footing and stumbled. A cry broke from him, but he ignored the pain and quickly sprinted deeper into the woods. Breath came hard and fast. He panted. Night sounds surrounded him, and beneath the subtle fragrances of evergreen and oak, he detected the distinct scent of the male wolf in pursuit. Calan would know him anywhere and he was getting closer. Calan’s body primed for the fight.

The vibrations of the paws grew closer. Calan’s heart matched the rampant rhythm of the other male. The black was stronger, faster, larger. He was intimidating and Calan couldn’t resist the erotic pull. Fear clashed with the unquenchable need for cock.

A viscous growl rent the air. Calan skidded to a halt. Ears twitched and a low vibration rumbled from his belly. Fur prickled along his nape. Lips pulled back in a snarl as Calan bared his teeth and searched the shadowed forest. The black was here.

Calan crouched into an attack position, sniffing the air for the black’s exact location.

Fuck. He spun, mouth open, but the black was faster, bigger, and driven by instinct.

Calan twisted, snapping over his shoulder, but the ferocious black wolf’s bite was more deadly. The black’s strength and power was no match for him. God, but Calan loved the chase, loved the fight. His back arched, his body hungry for mounting. The black’s

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mouth angled to bite, but Calan bucked at the final moment, throwing the wolf off balance. The black snarled, saliva dripping from his massive canines.

Calan bolted, his muscles tense yet his body moving with fluid grace. He was a wolf, a natural predator. A laugh flitted through his mind. He loved being the prey.

Before he could celebrate his temporary escape, a crippling pressure landed on his back. The wolf pinned him to the soft soil, trapping Calan beneath the solid muscles of his chest. Calan couldn’t move. His heart clamored. Harsh breaths misted in the damp air. The black wolf’s solid furred chest rested against his back…and then he bit Calan.

Sharp teeth sank deep into his flesh, holding him immobile. Calan howled into the night. Searing pain ripped through his flesh. Blood bubbled to the surface. The black’s growl vibrated through Calan’s torso. Blistering heat surged through him. If Calan moved, the wolf would tear him to shreds. Calan whimpered, the pain morphing into pleasure. The black maneuvered behind him, taking position, claiming Calan. This wasn’t their first encounter but with each meeting Calan began to need more. The wait for the shift was agonizing.

The black bit down harder, piercing deep, his bite bringing the change needed to fuck. Calan knew this wolf by scent…by instinct. Growls becoming a low vibration of need seeped from the black wolf into Calan. The effect was soothing, yet seductive. Calan softened, letting the black wolf subdue him. Calan willing submitted. Blood trickled down Calan’s shoulder, but the black wouldn’t release the bite, not until he forced the shift. Calan moaned as his body began the change from wolf to man. The black’s paws shifted, becoming long strong fingers that gripped Calan hard. The calloused touch sent a shiver through him.

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Muscles burned, transforming. Bone popped and altered. Calan’s mouth ached as his canines receded into his gums. The black’s bite eased, his lips becoming full and soft. Calan moaned as the wolf’s bite became a tender kiss. Warm breath caressed Calan’s smooth human skin. Both now fully human, strong arms wrapped around Calan’s middle, keeping him on his hands and knees and anchoring his ass to the man’s groin. The solid thickness of his cock probed between Calan’s ass cheeks. Pre-cum streaked his flesh. The black was big. Thick thighs pressed against his own.

Words were never spoken. Calan didn’t want to know the man. This was sex. Hard, fast and frenzied. The black wolf was Calan’s choice in mating, but only for sex. He’d learned long ago not to become attached. A wolf needed a mate—a female—and Calan was only complete with another male.

Kissed trailed along the ridge of Calan’s spine. Oh yes. The man gripped his buttocks, buried his face in Calan’s ass, and tongued his hole. Hot wet lashes prepared him for penetration. Calan’s dropped his head and moaned. His cock throbbed and pre-cum oozed from the slit in the wide, blunt head. One day…one day he’d hoped to find someone for more than sating the needs of his wolf. But in his thirty years he’d met and fucked many wolves, too many to count and in the end it was always the same. Their instinct to breed overwhelmed the need to fuck a male of their choice.

Calan’s thoughts were brought back to the man eating his ass and nipping his flesh. Reaching between Calan’s legs, the man’s large hand fondled Calan’s tightened sac. He rolled Calan’s balls in his palm and gently tugged. Calan’s cock bounced against his belly.

“Now,” Calan grumbled.

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A low chuckle rippled over him. The man curved his chest over Calan’s back. He reached around Calan’s middle and grasped Calan’s cock in his fist. He pumped the solid shaft as he bit the shell of Calan’s ear. “Not yet.”

Calen shook with need. The man’s cock rode the crack of Calan’s ass. The man rocked his hips, teasing Calan with near penetration. He stroked Calan from base to tip, squeezing with perfect pressure to heighten Calan’s need but keeping him from coming.

Calan’s back arched as the blunt head of the stranger’s erection pressed against his opening. Muscles in his back bunched and his arms strained against the pressure of the cock breaching his hole. Thick girth stretched him. Spit and pre-cum lubricated his pucker but the man was huge and hard. Muscles in his rim resisted. He breathed slow and steady and bore down on the penetration. The man’s fingers gripped Calan’s hips, digging in and anchoring him. Calan’s jaw clenched and his teeth ground together. “Ah, just fuck me.” He needed dick…now.

With primal force, the man plunged deep. Calan cried out, fiery heat sizzling over his flesh. Cock stretched his hole, filling him…completing him. Calan bent at the elbows, driving the man’s dick deeper into his ass. A groan echoed though the trees as he pulled back, then slammed into Calan’s heat again. His cock grazed Calan’s prostrate. Calan shuddered. His fingers clawed at the ground. Muscles in his ass flexed and contracted against the solid length driving in and out of his hole.

Caressing his inner walls, the stranger’s thick shaft crammed into him. Calan tried to hold him in, to keep the man’s cock buried deep. The man grunted, slamming harder. Calan braced his body, taking the punishing thrusts and rearing back for more. The possession was complete, animalistic and raw. Faster. Driven.

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The pleasure intensified, the cock in his ass spearing his hole with steely strength and growing longer. The crown swelled, heated, seeking the spot to make Calan come. The man shortened his thrusts but he drilled harder and deeper.

Calan held his upper body with one arm, reached between his legs and banded his fingers around his dick. With a single stroke, he cried out as he convulsed. Shards of pleasure fractured through his body. Fire shafted his cock and hot cream jetted from the slit. Thick spurts splashed the ground. He cupped the head, catching another pulsing jet. Slicking his hand, he coating his cock, and intensified his orgasm. Another wave of release rushed through him. The fierce fucking of his ass continued. For tonight he was this man’s mate, made for him and his to command.

The stranger gripped Calan’s elbows, held tight, jerked hard, and drilled harder into him. Calan’s face plowed into the soft cool ground. His thighs trembled. With bruising strength, he wrenched Calan’s arms behind his back, dominating him…because that’s what he needed.

Pain streaked through his shoulders. Calan’s pleasure surged higher. “More,” he whispered, almost afraid to use words. He wanted to come again, but it wasn’t his place to demand. The black wolf controlled their pleasure. He was Alpha. And the reason Calan would make a terrible mate. Because one day instinct would drive them apart and surely as instinct was what drove them together.

The wolf held Calan’s arms with his strong hands, his fingers curled around Calan’s wrists like manacles. The black wolf’s feral grunts increased his power. He was close to coming. In six weeks, Calan had learned to recognize the signs of the black’s body. They’d continued to meet, fucking during the night and fleeing before dawn.

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With a shout, he body tensed, his cock lodged deep in Calan’s ass, locked together in mating and he erupted. The warm rush of his seed scorched Calan’s insides. A howl shattered the night as the wolf claimed his pleasure. Calan crested again, holding him tightly within, milking his cock with fluttering pulses.

The man released Calan’s arms and molded his chest to Calan’s back. Heavy gasps racked his body. His lips feathered across Calan’s sweat-dampened flesh. Words were never spoken, nor was there coupling after copulation. Calan didn’t want tenderness, didn’t want emotion to spoil the moment. Sex—feeding the needs of the beast that dwelled within him. That’s all there could be.

More tender kisses whispered over his shoulder. Calan shivered.

“Are you cold?” The man’s large warm palm trailed over Calan’s arm.

Calan froze, the words a dark seductive whisper. This was the black wolf’s first attempt at conversation…the first words spoken that weren’t one word grunts…and by a familiar voice. His heartbeat became a rampant tattoo, telling him to flee, to run.

“No,” he said on a breath. Calan didn’t want this. Didn’t want to know him. Their encounters were only to meet each other’s needs. Calan didn’t want to know the black wolf, didn’t want to care for him. But he knew the voice, knew the man, and he already cared too much. Wade Channing. Only one wolf was trespassing this night. The other was defending his territory.

Calan flattened out on the ground and the black wolf stretched out beside him. Calan turned away, not wanting to see Wade’s face, afraid of wanting more than sex from him. Knowing deep inside, he needed more than sex.

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“How long are we going to keep meeting like this?” Wade’s palm roamed over his back, along the ladder of his spine and onto the curve of his buttocks.

Calan melted with Wade’s touch, his heart pounding and his mid numbing. Only Wade could affect him so deeply, but he wasn’t ready, would never be ready. When instinct reigned and Wade took a mate, Calan wouldn’t be around to lick his emotional wounds. It was why he drifted, working ranch to ranch. And his time on Channing land was at an end. Now that Calan knew the identity of the black wolf. This would be his last encounter with the Alpha.

Calan scrambled away. “I have to go.” Wade tried to grab him, but he was desperate to flea. Calan avoided his touch.

“Wait,” Wade said. “You don’t understand.”

Calan shook his head. “I know the ways of the wolf as well as you do. But I’m not the same. I’m not looking for a mate and never will.” At least not a female and he’d never met a male who didn’t succumb to his instinct to procreate. It was the way of their species. “I’ll be gone by first light.” He didn’t have to say that this would be their last mating. Within three steps, Calan shifted back into wolf form and tore off toward the trees.

“Calan, you don’t understand.”

Calan stumbled and turned. His breath caught. His wolf gaze locked with Wade’s. Eyes that had haunted Calan’s dreams. Dark lashes and heavy brows framed arctic blue eyes. Wade stared with an intensity that weakened Calan’s legs and made his body warm. The black wolf, with piercing eyes had been big and intimidating. Now Wade stared at Calan and Calan could see the wolf lurking within. Why hadn’t he seen the connection www.DemandingRomance.com

before? He’d worked for Wade as long as he’d been fucking him. Calan had drifted into town, found work on Channing land, and fallen for his boss.

Wade was a strong, hardworking rancher, and Calan hadn’t imagined the gentleness he’d show to a lover. Muscles carved a broad powerful chest. Strong shoulders tapered to a trim waist and rippled abdominals directed Calan’s gaze lower to the V of Wade’s groin and his flaccid cock resting against his taut flesh. Heavy balls hung between thick, muscular thighs, cut with defined sinew and strength. Calan swallowed hard, taking in the minute details, committing his powerful stance to memory…because he’d never see Wade again.

***

Wade watched Calan run. Lean muscle, strength and beauty. He’d known what Calan was the moment he’d walked onto Channing land. Wade owned and operated the ranch, but every male living on the property was lycan. Men who refused to accept the order of the wolf. Like Calan, Wade couldn’t see himself settling down with a female. He didn’t want for offspring. The men on the ranch were the only family he needed. They were a pack by choice. And Calan was one of them. He had been accepted from the beginning, but like all wolves living alone, settling into a comfortable existence would take time. Wade had thought Calan was ready. Obviously he’d been wrong.

Wade projected outward calm, but inside he wanted to give chase, pin Calan beneath him once again and shove his cock deep into Calan’s ass…or his mouth. He wanted the taste of Calan’s cum on his lips. He’d made it clear to the other lycan males from the moment he’d scented Calan, that the young gray wolf was his. Eyes as black as night, fast and sleek. Wade sensed the same longings in Calan that he still ached to fill. Wade wanted a mate to love and protect. The instincts of an Alpha wolf were strong in him.

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All but the want of a woman. Wade wanted Calan. And damn it, he wasn’t about to let Calan go now that he’d finally found him.

Calan was marked by Wade’s scent. He’d claimed Calan. Now he just needed to convince Calan that he belonged, not just to Wade, but to the pack.

Rolling his shoulders, Wade released the tension building in his muscles. He fought the instinctual need to give chase and force his mate beneath him again. But before first light, before Calan had the chance to run again, he’d accept what they both knew. Calan was mated.

Wade dropped to his hands and knees, feeling his blood heat and rage through his veins. His wolf emerged, skin and limbs morphing into primal animal. Thick black fur covered his body. The scent of sex—of Calan—intensified with Wade’s heightened senses.

Following in Calan’s wake, Wade easily tracked him across Channing land. As a wolf, Calan was stunning. The six weeks of chase revealed Calan’s swift mind. He was always several moves ahead. His agile body navigated the forest. Catching him had not been easy. It had been exhilarating. Calan had made Wade hunt, fight and control his submission. Wade’s body responded with just the memory of Calan beneath him.

Wade tracked Calan to the outbuildings. Most of the men had their own small cabin. They weren’t ranch hands. This was their home. They worked, played and lived as a family. But wolves needed their own space, especially males. Wade was dominant in his role on the ranch. He was Channing land. The blood and sweat he shed was for the ranch and his pack. He worried, and yet he ached for more. No, he wasn’t alone. But he wasn’t complete. Not without Calan.

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Wade approached Calan’s cabin. His wolf eyes easily saw in the night. The darkened windows belied the activity within. Calan was there. Waiting. Wade prowled the perimeter. They were alone. But Calan wasn’t going to make it easy on him. Good.

Would Calan expect the wolf or the man? He cautiously approached the door, using every sense to discern his prey’s location. Oh yes, the chase was still on. Calan was no more able to resist than Wade. They were meant for each other.

A low growl sounded from within the cabin. Wade shifted, willing his body from wolf to man. The fleeting pain was nearly an aphrodisiac. To want to shift was to want to fuck. He stood, the glow of the moon cutting through the trees and bathing the log cabin in a cool glow.

“Calan, will you talk to me?”

Another growl emanated from behind the door.

“I won’t fight you, won’t chase.” Not until Wade convinced Calan to stay. Wade leaned his forehead against the door, the first shivers of fear rippling through him. What if he couldn’t convince Calan he belonged on the ranch with the pack? What if Calan’s feelings weren’t as strong? Wade knew he’d never long for a female, but maybe Calan wasn’t like him and the others. Maybe the call of the lycan to breed would strengthen in Calan.

“The door is open.”

Wade slowly exhaled, gripped the handle and turned the knob. Calan stood in the middle of the room, zipping up his jeans. Wade took him in, dragging his gaze from Calan’s bare feet, up his jean-clad legs, and pausing on the worn denim cradling the soft www.DemandingRomance.com

mound of his cock. The jeans rode low on his narrow hips. A trail of brown feathering hair bisected his grooved stomach.

“I have to go.”

Wade’s gaze snapped to Calan’s piercing whiskey-colored eyes. Dark hair curled in sexy disarray, the fringe brushing his bare sculpted shoulders. Calan was lean strength. “Don’t leave.”

“I wouldn’t have stayed if I’d known you were lycan.” He shoved his arms into a long sleeve shirt. “I’ve been here before and it doesn’t work.” He stomped his feet into boots.

Wade knew what Calan meant. Before opening the ranch to other wolves, like himself, he had also been a loner. “A wolf without a pack is a solitary life.”

“You don’t think I know that.” Calan draped his bag over his shoulder and paused. His gaze roamed over Wade’s nude body.

Blood rushed from Wade’s head and into his dick. His cock twitched and slowly became erect. “I never believed I’d be mated until you came here. There was a time when I was just like you, believing there was only one way of life for a lycan.” He was begging for a chance, knowing together was the only way they’d ever be complete. “Stay,” he pleaded.

“Thanks for the work. I appreciate it.” Calan glanced around the small cabin. “But I don’t belong here.” He turned his gaze to Wade then quickly looked away.

“Yes, you do. The ranch could be your home.” He took a hesitant step closer to Calan. “With me.” www.DemandingRomance.com

Calan shook his head, his face a mask of pain. His eyes glistened. “I don’t belong with you.” He strode through the door and into the night. “I don’t belong with anyone.”

Wade followed. “Do you think you’re the only one who feels alone? I’ve claimed you, Calan.”

Calan spun on his heels. “Until you come across a bitch in heat and can’t resist the call of the wolf. Hell yes, I want to stay. You’ve claimed me? I know! I felt the pull, the power. Even when I didn’t know you were the wolf in the woods, I wanted you. I’m so fucking attracted to you that I can barely breathe when you’re near me. I have a constant boner. And in the forest…” He let the words fade away. “I can’t stay.” His jaw clenched. “Regardless of what I feel.”

“We won’t let you leave.” Calan had already become part of their pack.

“Who?”

“Who do you think? Cole, Shiloh, Lance, and Gavin. Everyone.”

“They know? You told them?” Calan’s brows furrowed.

“Stay and let me explain.” Or maybe it would just make more sense to Calan if Wade showed him. Wade stretched his neck to the moon and howled. His call would bring the pack, just as they would be there for Calan from this night on.

A moment later, Calan turned to a rustle in the woods. A silver wolf leapt from the trees. Moonlight reflected off his shimmering pelt. Another wolf raced into the clearing, crouching with bared teeth. www.DemandingRomance.com

Calan dropped his bag and turned in a circle as he was surrounded by wolves.

Wade came up behind him, pressed in tight, reached around and banded an arm across Calan’s clavicle. “Did you think you were the only one who felt they didn’t belong?” He rained kisses along Calan’s neck. “We’ve all been there.”

Calan trembled in his arms. The wolves shifted into men, men who had taken their friend and made him their brother. “A pack? Of males?”

Wade nodded. “Channing land is our territory.”

“Forgive us for not being honest.” Cole wrapped an arm around Gavin. “Like you, we don’t trust easily.” Gavin opened his mouth over Cole’s and kissed him deeply but quickly. “We had to cover our scent until we were sure you belonged here.”

“Wade never doubted,” Shiloh said. “And we trust him completely.” Shiloh smiled, his white teeth gleaming. “Like you, he’s saved all of us.”

“But he never claimed us the way he’s claimed you,” Lance said.

Wade tightened his hold on Calan. “You belong here, with us.” He breathed deeply of Calan’s scent. His mate. “You belong with me.” Wade opened his mouth over Calan’s neck, kissing, nibbling. “I love you,” he whispered. “Stay with me.”

Calan nodded and turned in Wade’s arms. Tonight, Calan was claimed by the wolf.

The End

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If you enjoyed Claimed By The Wolf by Taylor McKay, McKay look for the next in the series:

Hunting The Wolf Channing’s Wolves 2 By Taylor McKay COPYRIGHT 2011 by Taylor McKay www.DemandingRomance.com Gavin leaned back in the hard plastic chair. Hairs on the nape of his neck tingled and his nerves were strung tight. Wolf instincts sensed danger. Tension built. “And they think we’re animals.”

Representatives from the state and the federal government were here for input on the wolf introduction program. Ranchers, folks from town, activists, and conservationist filled the auditorium…and they were getting restless.

A hard-assed rancher, Cliff Jenson, vaulted from his seat. “I want every last one of them dead,” he bellowed to the city council members and officials from the US Fish and Wildlife Service sitting behind the long scarred and nicked table.

“Please refrain from outburst. We can conduct this meeting with decorum and have a respectful debate.”

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“Wade.” Gavin glanced left and right, ascertaining their position and making sure there was a route of escape.

“Easy.” Wade leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Patience. We listen…then we plan.” He might sound calm, but Gavin could feel the tension rolling off his boss. This wasn’t a simple town meeting.

“The wolves have rights.” One of the conservationists tried to reason with the dissenters. But Cliff wasn’t alone in his thinking. For years, wolves had been hunted, nearly to extinction and pushed further and further out of their environments. With the increase of elk and other animals, natural predators, grey wolves, were reintroduced into the remotest areas of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Their numbers had grown and now they were targeted again.

Gavin glanced to Wade Channing from the corner of his eye. Wolves ran wild on Channing land. But Channing’s wolves weren’t causing problems for the ranchers. By night these wolves hunted in the woods and fucked in the thickets. During the day, they worked the land. Men with secrets—shifters who lived on more than fifteen thousand acres, their sanctuary in eastern Idaho. They coexisted with humans and used their distant wolf cousins as camouflage. Gavin was one of the pack. Wade was their Alpha.

A few incidents and ranchers like Cliff wanted the wolves gone. Channing’s wolves would lose their cover.

“I have a right to make a living. Are you going to pay me for the loss of my stock? The only good wolf is a dead wolf.”

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The meeting continued. Wade didn’t contribute to the debate. However, as one of the largest land owners, Wade’s opinion carried a lot of weight in the community.

“There isn’t a rancher in these parts that ain’t going to shoot a wolf on sight.”

Wade shifted, his chair legs scraping along the floor. A few heads turned. Wade didn’t smile, didn’t speak. Gavin wanted to jump from his chair but he followed his Alpha’s lead.

“You got something to say Channing?”

Wade arched a brow. “Wolves are safe on Channing land.”

Grumbles erupted from several ranchers and a few conservationists clapped.

“Then your input isn’t needed in this debate. Ranchers in these parts want the wolves gone.”

Wade pushed off his chair and slowly rose. “Not all of us.”

“You agree with your boss?” Cliff asked Gavin.

Gavin stood, showing solidarity. “Do you really need to ask?”

Wade stalked towards the door, but Cliff blocked his way. “I’ve got traps set. I catch one of those wolves you’re so fond of, I’ll send it your way gift wrapped.”

“Step foot on my land and you’ll be buried on it. I shoot trespassers.”

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“But you won’t shoot a worthless pack of wolves.”

“I’d give a wolf my last scrap of food while I watched you starve.”

The sea of bodies parted and Wade strode out of the room. Disbelieving words were whispered in his wake.

“Watch your back, Channing.”

Wade didn’t respond to Cliff. He didn’t have to. Six-two, solid muscle and a don’t-fuckwith-me attitude were enough to keep most people at a distance. But not everyone. Cliff Jensen stood with several other ranchers, glaring at Wade as he walked away, the sound of his work-worn cowboy boots on the hard flooring a harsh echo of his position. He was done talking. If the anger in Cliff’s and the others eyes and the hard line of their mouths were any indication, the wolves weren’t the only thing they wanted to see dead.

“We listened,” Gavin said. And nothing they’d heard gave him a reason to think this dispute was going to blow over.

Wade gruffed. “They’re full of shit. The wolves keep the elk population under control. No fucking way this is about wolves. This is about land and resources.”

“They sounded serious to me.”

“We need to plan. The others need to understand. If Channing land harbors wolves, and the ranchers sway the Fish and Wildlife Service to sign off on their proposal, we’ll have hunters all over our territory.”

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“Do you think they will?” Gravel crunched beneath their boots as they crossed the parking lot to Wade’s truck.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve had to defend Channing land. Won’t be the last. We need Shiloh.” Shiloh and Wade had a special connection. Shiloh had been on Channing land as long as Wade. They’d built the ranch together. Lifelong friends.

None of the men on the ranch longed for the traditional ways of the lycan. Neither had they the instinct to take females as mates, had no desire to breed. But that hadn’t lessened their need to hunt, to chase, and fuck. Whether to dominate or submit, it would only be to another male.

“We’ll need to set up patrols.” Wade opened the driver’s side door of his truck and Gavin climbed into the passenger side. “No one goes out alone.”

“Maybe it would be best if the pack stayed close to home.”

Wade keyed the ignition. “And live like a caged animal? I’d rather be dead.”

Other titles by Taylor McKay Available from Demanding Romance

Cowboy Tamed Rough Rider

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