When a Pack Dies by Gwen Campbell Read Free Book Online

revealing the tips of his upper canines. Nath had grown up watching his big, bad brother pitch conniption fits like this. Unless Cutler backed it up with a left hook, Nath wasn’t going to sweat it. His brow did go up however when Cutler dug his fingers into his short hair, walked around him and flopped down in the chair behind the desk they shared.
    “I’ve never met anyone like her and she confuses the hell out of me,” Cutler admitted grudgingly. He rubbed his temples. “I saw her and it was like being kissed by the bumper of a Mack truck. I was just spinning around up there and didn’t give a damn if I ever touched the ground again.” He waved his index finger in the air in a vague circle. “One damn sniff of her and I knew...I just knew she was my mate. Didn’t know her name. Didn’t know the first thing about her. You know she tackled Dorothea Pike when she got between her and the kid down at the café?”
    “No way.”
    “Most definitely way,” Cutler replied with a grin and a nod. “Well, shoved her is more like it. Point is, instead of arresting her ass or handing her over for trial as a rogue, all I could think about was claiming her. Hell my wolf was all over that one like wet on water.”
    “I’ll bet,” Nath snorted.
    “Only he...”
    “He what?”
    “Well you know how the damn things think. They put everything into one of three categories—you either eat it, pee on it or fuck it.”
    “Let me guess which door yours picked.”
    “Yeah but it wasn’t that,” Cutler insisted hotly. He dropped his hands onto the wood desk. “Bastard took one good whiff of Fina and said two things. The first one was mine .”
    Nath cocked a dark brow at his brother that clearly said I told you so.
    “The second one was wait .”
    “Wait?”
    “Is there a fucking echo in here? Yes, Nath. The damn thing said wait. It wants her so bad I’m sporting a woody that could bat one out of the park. But it also knows there’s something about her that needs me to wait before I claim her.”
    “You know what it is?”
    “No. Her scent confuses the hell out of me. It’s...contradictory.”
    “Well what do you know?” Nath demanded irritably.
    “I know she and that boy are the only survivors of the pack from Eastfield, Tennessee.”
    Nathaniel Powell’s jaw dropped slowly. He closed it just as slowly, nodded, and followed his brother when Cutler stood up and left the office.
    *     *     *
    “You two getting settled in all right?” For the second time that day, Cutler dredged up his friendly-guy smile as he knocked on the open door of the single bedroom he’d assigned to Ryan.
    Fina lifted a final two pairs of socks out of Ryan’s vivid-blue suitcase and slid them into the room’s chest of drawers. “We’re good,” she replied brightly, lifting her eyes past the sheriff’s massive chest and looking up into those damned gorgeous aqua eyes of his. She glanced back at Ryan who was sitting on the bare mattress with his legs crossed and playing with one of his electronic games. “Ryan can see the cows from his window. Can’t you, Ryan?”
    “Huh? Oh yeah.” Ryan jumped off the bed and crossed over to the window. It looked like he was making sure the cattle were still there. “They yours, Cutler?”
    “It’s Sheriff Powell, Ryan,” Fina corrected him gently. She grabbed the hem of his striped t-shirt and tucked it back into his shorts.
    “Cutler will do fine,” the big sheriff said with a grin and his grin only dimmed a little when Nath stepped around him and walked into the room. His brother was carrying an armful of bed linens.
    “Let’s get you squared away, big guy,” Nathaniel said with that easy, natural charm of his that Cutler had always envied. “Maybe we’ll take a trip out to the barn after. Check out the rabbits and shit...” His vivid, blue eyes dimmed when Fina shot him a look.
    “Um, rabbits and other animals,” Nath corrected himself quickly. He was saved from further