Page 16 of Destined Prey
That sensation stayed with him all evening, until he drifted off to sleep late into the night. And he dreamed of a sexy man with glowing yellow eyes.
Chapter Ten
It’d taken every ounce of Ben’s restraint to keep from chasing Jack down over the past few days. After walking away from him, Ben had been unable to sleep or do much of anything other than obsess over Jack. Then he’d seen Jack driving to town later that night, and Ben, shifted and running with his pack, had been unable to do more than stop and stare at the sexy man.
It was kind of scary, and completely unlike him. He’d never been so tangled up over a guy before.
Logically, he knew it was too much, too fast. His instincts kicked the shit out of the logical part of his being, though, and Ben didn’t have the wherewithal to fight it anymore. He’d managed to stay away for three whole days, and his insides itched like he’d swallowed poison ivy. He was jittery, restless, unable to do anything but think about Jack. He’d had to give in to that need.
The craving ate at him like a fever. Not seeing Jack was worse than hunger, worse than thirst. Every hour he stayed away felt like skin being peeled back from bone. His beast prowled inside him, demanding he hunt, demanding he claim, and Ben was too damn tired to fight it anymore.
One way or the other, he was going to see Jack today. Casey and the others could bitch at him all they wanted to, and Casey could pull the wholeI’m your alphathing until he turned blue in the face. It wasn’t going to change anything.
Benneededto be as close to Jack as he could, and there was no risk to Ben as long as he stayed out of sight of the humans on the ranch.
The wolves and coyotes—shifter and not—didn’t come around during daylight hours. Ben had never encountered a single one of them until after the sun had set. In town, he never came across the shifter versions, either. Wolf and coyote shifters were as unsociable to humans as their animal counterparts were. They never lived in towns or close to people, and were notoriously tight-knit packs.
That worked in favor of the coywolves, shifters and animals both. Coywolves were born to be the ultimate survivors, able to adapt where the wolves and coyotes couldn’t, or didn’t.
It was why Ben and his family could and did have jobs in town. They didn’t worry about turf fights. Their home was on the outskirts of town, but still consideredinit, one of the benefits of living in a rural area rather than a big city. It gave him and his siblings a chance to breathe, to relax, and to have social lives outside of their pack.
They were also able to date humans. He didn’t know if breeding with a human was possible. It didn’t matter in his case.
Because he wanted Jack, and no one else would do. Ben stretched out on his belly and crawled through the thick grass. This particular pasture didn’t have any cattle in it—he knew theywere rotated to different areas to feed. He’d bet this pasture would soon be used, with the grass as thick and tall as it was.
For now, it provided him with cover as he crept closer to the center of the ranch. At least, Ben considered the house where Jack and Rhett lived to be the center of it. In regards to ranching, he didn’t know much about it. What he did know a lot about was being the best mechanic in the town of Britton, Wyoming. He could take apart an engine from most any typeof vehicles, and name off every single piece of it as he did so. There wasn’t much he couldn’t do when it came to fixing a vehicle—but he’d be lucky to do more than point out which was a cow and which was a bull when it came to cattle.
Hedidknow enough to avoid getting stomped or gored, though for the most part, cattle avoided Ben’s kind. Ben did the same, only caring to mess with the big beasts when they’d been made into steaks or burgers.
His thoughts were all over the place, and Ben wondered if he’d developed some kind of shifter version of Attention Deficit Disorder. The only time he felt calmer was when he reminded himself he was actually going to see Jack.
Blades of grass parted as he worked his way through them. The familiar scents of nature soothed Ben somewhat, reaching deep into his core where his beast and man melded, one soul for both creatures. He smelled the soil and grass, the pungent scent of dung and cattle, heard the whisper of the wind over grass, the scampering of bugs and small rodents around him, the song of a bird flying overhead. All comforted him, but none satisfied the craving in him to see Jack.
Not just see him. God, I want to touch him, to kiss and fuck him until we’re both exhausted.
And that thought was what led to Ben discovering that he didnotenjoy having a hard-on in his shifted form. It made crawling on his belly next to impossible, and really slowed him down.Having to slow down frustrated him, and his erection dwindled rapidly. Ben huffed in disgust at his body’s stupid reactions.
Once he cleared the pasture, traveling undiscovered would be trickier. Ben growled and wished he’d thought up a good reason to just show upin personon the ranch.
Unfortunately, he’d worried he would come across as a stalker…apt as that seemed to be.
But Ben couldn’t turn back. He crawled to the edge of the pasture then had to leap over a fence into another grassy area. There were cattle in it, and though Ben tried to stay at the edges of the fence and not spook them, the beasts weren’t as stupid as they were made out to be. They knew when there was a predator in their midst. The panicked sounds began first with one cow or bull—Ben didn’t check for dangly bits underneath it. He just moved faster and farther from that animal.
But soon there was a ruckus, too much noise, and he knew he’d screwed up. Someone would hear all the bellowing or mooing, whatever it was that cattle did. The sound raked over his nerves, ancient instincts screaming at him to bare teeth and prove dominance. But the man in him—no, the coward in him—knew a thousand pounds of horn and muscle would crush him flat. His heart thumped against his ribs, panic mixing with the predator urge until he was shaking with the effort not to snap at the cattle just to shut them up. They wereloud! Yes, he’d heard cattle flipping out over the presence of his kind before, but he’d always been with pack, and he sure as hell hadn’t been in an enclosed area with them.
When the cattle began to look like they’d stampede and trample him to death, Ben did some panicking of his own and bolted over the fence. He ran as fast as he could, not worrying about whether someone spotted him. He was more concerned with the possibility of the herd taking out the fence and making a puddle of goo out of him.
Ben heard shouting and something much worse—a bullet whizzed by his left ear a split-second after gunfire erupted.
Shit shit shit!He’d really screwed up, yet, even with people shooting at him, Ben couldn’t run away from the ranch. He had to see Jack or he’d lose his mind. Counting on the fence to slow down his pursuers, Ben angled to the north, his paws slapping the flat ground. There was no cover where he was at now. He didn’t stop to consider the why of that, intent on staying alive and, he hoped—fervently—unharmed.
More shots were taken at him, but he thought he must have gained enough distance to make it difficult to hit him. Not that he slowed down at all. Ben wasn’t an idiot. He ran harder, legs stretching out with every bounding step.
When he reached the dense forested area of the ranch, Ben still kept up his hectic pace until he was certain he was safe. He doubted anyone would come looking for him now. They’d be checking the cattle and watching for other coywolves. Ben was damned glad he hadn’t brought any of his siblings along with him.
While he hadn’t run off the ranch property, hehadcome close to the northern boundary with the hope that everyone who’d been shooting at him would believe he was long gone. There were only a few forested acres that belonged to the ranch, and he’d reached them. Any sensible animal would have kept going. But Ben wasn’t sensible anymore. He’d crossed that line the second Jack Tucker got under his skin. Logic said leave; instinct said stay. And instinct was winning, same as always when it came to Jack. He was already too far gone to turn back.
Ben turned around, crept to the east end of the tree line and waited. He could just see the barns and house in the distance, and his belly tingled with warmth as he lay waiting. After a few minutes, it occurred to him—if most of the ranch hands, or all of them, were out looking for a coywolf and checking on theherd he’d been close to, then there’d be less people to see him sneaking close to the house.
