Page 21 of Ranger's Justice

She frowns. “Showing me what?”

“Answering your question.”

I glance up, scanning the horizon one last time, ensuring we’re alone. Then I let go. The air stirs. Not with wind, not with movement—but with something deeper. Something primal.

Cassidy takes a step back as the first curl of mist rises from the ground. Not normal mist. Not something that belongs here. It moves too deliberately, wrapping around my feet, licking upmy legs like a living thing. Lightning crackles inside it, silent and dangerous, streaks of energy pulsing through the thickening fog.

Cassidy’s mouth parts, her eyes going wide. “What the hell…”

I don’t speak. I just let it happen—let the wolf inside me rush to the surface.

The mist surges, swallowing me whole, hiding what should never be seen by human eyes.

Cassidy stumbles back, her hands clutching the gun, but she doesn’t run. Doesn’t scream. She just watches, fascinated.

And when the mist finally clears… She sees me. Not as a man. Not as a Ranger. But as what I truly am.

A wolf.

Massive. Dark. More than anything that should exist in this world.

I pad forward, my claws sinking into the sand, my breath a steady, controlled force.

Cassidy doesn’t move. Doesn’t look away.

And in the desert's silence, with nothing but the wind and the sound of her uneven breathing, she finally understands.

That’s the first thing I register as my wolf prowls forward, his muscles coiled, ready.

She could run, probably should. She ought to be screaming, backing away, begging for reality to go back to what she understands. But Cassidy Marlow isn’t most people. Her feet are planted firmly in the dirt; she’s frozen, her green eyes wide, her chest rising and falling too fast.

She’s stunned, sure—but not broken. Not yet.

I stop just short of her, letting her take me in. Letting her see what I really am. Her fingers twitch around the gun I gave her, but she doesn’t raise it. Doesn’t fire.

Smart girl.

Then she does something that catches me completely off guard.

She whispers, “What the hell are you?”

Before I can answer, before I can shift back and give her something close to an explanation—a gunshot shatters the night.

Cassidy gasps, ducking instinctively, but my wolf is already in motion.

They’ve found us. The cartel never gives up, never stops hunting once they’ve locked on to a target. And now, they’re here.

To kill her.

Not happening.

I lunge forward, covering the ground between us in what seems like the blink of an eye, grabbing Cassidy’s jacket in my teeth and throwing her back behind the truck.

She yelps as she hits the ground, but it’s better than getting shot.

Another gunshot rings out, whizzing past me—too close—and I snap my head toward the ridge just in time to see three cartel men emerge from the darkness. Guns drawn. Faces set in cold fury.

They weren’t expecting this. They weren’t expecting me. A wolf this size? The purebreds of our kind are not nearly this large, fast, strong or intelligent. They don’t understand what they’re looking at. But they’re about to learn.

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