Page 63 of Rugged

“Yes, I gathered.” She licked her lips, swallowed. “Were you going to tell me?”

I sighed, reached out, and stroked her hair. I couldn’t resist. “Yes. I’m sorry, but I was waiting until… until the right moment.” I pushed her onto her back and came up over her, my body alongside hers. “Every moment was right because, fuck, baby, this between us is perfect. But how do you tell someone something so big? How do you dig yourself out of keeping such a big secret?”

She glanced away and bit her lip.

“It’s forbidden for humans to know about our kind.”

“I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thank you.” I stroked my palm up her bare back. “Are you scared of me? Freaked out?”

She shook her head. “I said last night that we’re okay. I still mean it.”

I exhaled and closed my eyes for a moment, so relieved she hadn’t changed her mind. Should I tell her about being my marked mate? About me being an enforcer?

I wanted to come clean–with everything. It was time.

“I have a lot to explain.”

A slow smile spread across her face. “Uh, yeah.”

That made me chuckle, and I leaned down to kiss her. “I work here at Wolf Ranch. I’m one of the ranch hands. You know that. I live here in the bunkhouse. I didcome here when I was eighteen, as I said. I’m also an enforcer.”

She blinked. “Like the mafia?”

“Kind of. Like a representative of the Shifter Council to mete out justice.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“The Shifter Council is like a group of shifter wolf judges. Offenses are brought before them, and they deliver sentences to shifters for their transgressions.”

“Why can’t the people who do things wrong just go to jail?”

“Because shifters could easily break out. We have superhuman strength. A cell wouldn’t hold a shifter–and then, if one did break out, our secret would be revealed. Humans can’t know about us.”

“So what kind of sentences does the Council deliver? Like you as an enforcer beats them up? Breaks their kneecaps?” Her look of distaste made my gut churn.

My heart thudded in my chest. I was going to lose her over this. Just like I lost my pack and family.

Maybe I should have waited to tell her. But no–better to find out now that we can’t work than later.

“It’s, uh…usually a capital punishment kind of thing.”

Lyssa gasped. “So an enforcer is an executioner?” she whispered the last.

I didn’t look away. A tight band closed around mythroat, bracing for her reaction. “Yes. I was chosen because of what I did to Simi’s attacker. What I have in me. And… it was why I was at Chapman’s ranch.”

Confusion flitted across her face, then dark understanding dawned. “You came to kill him.”

“No. To bring him in for a Council trial. Mitch Chapman has been trafficking female shifters. Luring them and then selling them.”

“Oh, my God. He’s a shifter, too?” Her eyes widened, and she looked really freaked.

“Yes. You’re safe, baby.”

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EMMA

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