Page 22 of Ranger's Justice

I snarl, a deep, guttural sound that rips through the air, echoing off the desert rock. One man hesitates. The smart one.

The other two? They make the mistake of raising their guns. I charge.

The first cartel soldier doesn’t even have time to fire before I hit him at full speed, my teeth sinking deep into his arm. He screams, the gun falling from his fingers, and I twist, throwing him into the dirt with a sickening crunch.

The second man opens fire. The bullet grazes my shoulder, but the pain is nothing, a distant thing compared to the furyroaring through me. I spin, leaping over the truck’s hood, and before he can get another shot off, my claws rake across his chest.

Blood sprays. He collapses, gasping.

I don’t stop. Because the third man—the smart one—is running. Not for long. I chase him, my muscles coiling and releasing, my wolf hunting as it was meant to. He doesn’t make it ten feet before I tackle him to the ground.

I bare my fangs, sinking them deep into his throat before he can even draw another breath. His sob turns into a gurgled choke, his body convulsing as his life spills onto the dirt. His hands twitch once, then go still.

He’s done. Finished. My wolf is satisfied—I delivered justice in the only way such men understand.

But Cassidy’s voice cuts through the haze. “Rush.”

It’s soft. Shaky. But human. And just like that—I remember myself.

I back off, stepping away, my chest heaving as I let the wolf recede. The mist creeps up again, swirling around my body, lightning sparking through it. And when it clears, I’m human again.

And completely naked.

Cassidy is staring at me, her mouth slightly open, her face pale and stunned beyond reason.

I rake a hand through my hair, stretching out my muscles like nothing is out of the ordinary.

Then I glance at her, completely unbothered, and say, “You really should have listened to me.”

Cassidy makes a strangled noise, somewhere between a curse and a gasp, her gaze flicking down to my fully engorged cock for half a second before snapping back up.

I grin. Her face goes scarlet.

Finally, she jerks her head away, throwing up a hand. “Jesus, Rush! Clothes! Now!”

I chuckle, striding toward the truck where I keep an extra set of gear in the backseat. As I pull on my jeans, I watch her from the corner of my eye. She’s still rattled, still processing everything she just saw—everything I just became.

And I know this is only the beginning.

CHAPTER 6

CASSIDY

Idon’t believe in monsters. At least, I didn’t before tonight. But standing in the middle of the Texas desert, with the scent of blood still thick in the air, I can’t lie to myself anymore.

I saw it. Felt it.

Rush changed into something not human, something other, something out of a fantasy novel that should never exist in the real world. But it does, because I just watched it happen with my own two eyes.

And the worst part? He doesn’t even look surprised by it.

He moves to the back of his truck like this is just another night on the job, grabbing a fresh pair of jeans and pulling them on with zero hesitation. My heart is pounding so hard it’s a miracle I’m still standing.

“You shifted,” I whisper.

His movements still. Damn it, I wasn’t going to use that word.

Rush rolls his shoulders before tugging on a shirt, his gaze sharp when it lands on me. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Marlow.”

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