Page 47 of Rugged

Was I only being chicken, or did I have serious fears? It wasn’t arealbull, and there were thick mats circling the thing. No one had gotten hurt so far.

Lyssa would do it. She’d be the first one in line and whooping it up like a real cowgirl.

Great. Now I had to do it and in a skirt! I took a deep breath, followed my new friends, and braced myself for thefun.

21

JOHNNY

“She seemsto be fitting in well.” Colton grabbed a beer bottle from the long line Cody, the owner and fellow shifter, set before us at the bar. He lifted it to his lips and took a long pull.

I grunted, not thrilled to be across the room from her. Especially not after that kiss. I wanted to be right beside her. Or better yet, with her on my lap or somehow pressed against my body. But Colton said Marina told him an important part of courtship for human females was having the guy vetted and approved of by other females. So I was hanging back, hoping the Wolf Ranch females were putting in a good word for me over there.

Still, it was killing me. The fact that we were one night away from a full moon made it all the worse.

I was able to keep my aggression and need to mark her down by consistently having my mate naked and under me all day. But now, she was surrounded by other males. My wolf wanted to destroy every single one who looked her way.

Everyguy in the place had his eyes on her. In that skirt and those tits and that sweet smile? I needed to tell every fucker that she was mine.

“Yeah.” I tried to soothe my wolf. And my dick.

“What’s the matter?” Boyd slapped me on the shoulder. “You’re acting like Wes over there.” He tipped his head toward the foreman, who gave him a glare, which wasn’t new.

No one was affected by his disgruntled looks, since that was his standard expression. The guy had an impressive resting bitch face, except when it came to his daughter, Remy.

“No, all good.”

“What have you learned from Lyssa about Chapman?” Rob asked.

I frowned. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Clint asked. “Have you even tried?”

“I have, but I don’t want to alert her. She gets nervous when I ask about her work.” I paused, not sure if Ishould say anything more. But this was my alpha. I had to. “Something’s off.”

“What do you mean?” Rob asked, frowning.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just think there’s something off. I know I said it twice, but I can’t explain it any other way. It’s a feeling.”

Clint and Rob both went on high alert and glanced toward Lyssa with the other women. Marina was up first, the bull moving at one of the slowest settings. There was no way she was being bucked off.

“Should we look into her more? We can have the council data-digger investigate her,” Colton asked.

No,my wolf snarled.

I couldn’t take my eyes off my mate, who was watching Marina with a smile on her face. Did I want her to be investigated? To have a shifter hacker who lived in far off Arizona dig into her background? I took a deep swig of my beer.

“Yes,” Rob said.

Fuck.

I didn’t really want it. I hoped to have her trust me enough and our relationship that we were building to open up to me. To share everything. Good and bad. Hoped I could share my good and bad, too. Then again, my bad might have been far too much to share.

But if Rob said yes, then that meantyes.

“On it,” Clint replied. Out of the corner of my eye, hepulled out his cell and started typing. As a retired enforcer, he had the guy’s info literally at his fingertips. “I’ll ask him for backgrounds on all the employees at Chapman’s ranch, not just Lyssa.”

“Good,” Rob commented.

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