Tempted by Renee Rose

21

CAITLYN

I drovestraight to my apartment, barely remembering the drive. I climbed into bed and stayed there the rest of Sunday. Slept and cried, and slept some more. The place smelled like Wade, which meant it smelled like Landry, since they had the same fucking scent. So I cried some more.

It was a call from my mother the next morning that pulled me out of my funk. I grabbed my cell when it rang, my heart thinking it would be either of the guys. But I’d been the one to walk away, to tell them it was over, so I’d been stupid. I sighed, and answered, knowing she’d call back if I didn’t.

“Hi, Mom,” I said.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

I sat up, brushing my snarled hair back from my face. “No, just tired.”

“I didn’t hear from you yesterday and I was worried.”

I sighed. “I’m fine.”

I wasn’t, but the last thing I was going to tell my mother was the truth. Not that she’d believe it. I broke up with two men after having a heated and tawdry fling for the past three weeks. Oh, did I mention that they shift into wolves, and bit me to mark me? I think you could’ve had half-shifter grandchildren by either one of the guys, although I wouldn’t know which since I fuck both of them, but that’s not happening now.

“Well, Dad talked to Dale Dickman again at Oakview. He said the job is yours, but you’d have to be back by August fifteenth for teacher meetings, as school starts after Labor Day.”

I popped from bed, suddenly wide awake and full of… anger.

My parents were constantly pushing me to return to Connecticut and be a prep school science teacher. A safe job. A worthy one they could tell their friends at the country club about. Not that their daughter roamed the Wyoming wilderness tracking wolves.

Then there were Landry and Wade, who were deciding for me that my research and all the time I’d put into it had to be abandoned. Then there was Dr. Andrews, who was pushing me on the paper when he did jack-shit, just to take all the credit.

Then there was Gibson, the alpha of a wolf shifter pack, who accused me of horrible things all because of… what? Greed?

“Mom, I love you.”

“I love you, too, honey.”

“But I’m not coming back to Connecticut. I’m not. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with my research and paper, or my teaching position at Granger State for that matter, but I do not want the job at Oakview. If you like it so much, you take it. Or Dad. It hurts my feelings that you can’t see that it won’t make me happy, that it’s what you want for me.”

“Honey—”

“I’m tired of people telling me what I should be doing. Until you can accept me and my work as-is, then we need to take a little break.”

“Oh, Caity,” she said on a sigh. “I’m sorry.”

I sighed, swallowing back tears. “I am, too. I have to go to work. Here, in Wyoming. Studying wolves.”

I ended the call and strangely felt better. I’d stood up for myself with my mother. I wasn’t going to work at Oakview no matter what happened.

But I was tired of being pushed into what others wanted me to do. I couldn’t figure out Landry and Wade right now, but I could get my paper published. That was tangible. What I’d been working on. It was me. My goal, my dream.

* * *

WADE

For fuck’s sake.I woke up in my bed full of pine needles and dirt. I hardly remembered making it home last night after running until my paws bled.

Landry had been with me, I remembered that much. We’d howled at the moon until we’d gone hoarse. I didn’t know how we even found our way home.

I rolled out of the bed, cursing myself under my breath. Now I had to wash the sheets, which meant I’d wash away the scent of our mate. I stripped the bed with a snarl and padded out to the laundry room.

“Hey.” Landry was on my couch, just as filthy and naked as I was. He sat up, scrubbing a hand over his stubble and groaning.

I grunted in response, passing him and throwing the sheets in the washing machine.

“Are you okay?” Landry asked when I returned. I must have looked as shitty as I felt.

“No. Are you?”

“Fuck, no.” Landry swung his legs off the couch to sit, his face buried in his hands.

It was as if we’d drunk a bottle of whiskey and were hungover. Which didn’t ever happen with shifters since our metabolisms were too swift. We were worn out from our run. We’d been frenzied. Crazed. And we were feeling it now.

“Yeah.” I walked back toward the bedroom, stopping at the doorway. “I’m going to take a shower and eat something.” My voice sounded like rusty nails. “Then let’s figure out how we’re going to fucking fix this.”

“Okay—good. I’ll make coffee,” he offered, standing.

Fifteen minutes later, we were both showered and had devoured a couple packages of breakfast sausages. I drank two cups of coffee before my brain finally started to organize. “We agree Caitlyn couldn’t have knowingly killed any wolves, right?”

“Right,” Landry said. His eyes were clear and focused. “But the wolves that were shot had her trackers in them, which means someone else is using them as locators. It’s too big of a coincidence otherwise. Could they be hacked? Like, could anyone pick them up like a radio frequency?”

I frowned as I considered. “I didn’t get a chance to examine the technology, but I doubt it. Not unless she shared some kind of activation code or serial number.”

He frowned, took a swallow of his black coffee. “Well, let’s think. Who else has access to that information?”

“Her advisor—Dr. Andrews. But the guy didn’t strike me as a hunter.” I remembered the little annoying man when we’d met him in Caitlyn’s office at the university.

Landry nodded. “Yeah, it’s hard to imagine he would even know how to load a rifle, much less be able to aim and shoot. Although, appearances can be deceiving.”

I ran a hand over my jaw. My whiskers were in. While I’d showered, I hadn’t shaved. “What if… I’m just spit-balling here… what if Andrews or someone else on their research team sold the information? If I were a hunter and knew that a bunch of scientists could give me the exact coordinates on my game, I might consider paying for that information.”

Landry snorted. “If you were a very unsportsmanlike hunter, sure.”

I grumbled, because what was the point? We were far from vegetarians, but we were thankful for the lives of the animals we ate. We didn’t kill for sport.

“We already know anyone who hunts wolves where they’re not designated as trophy game isn’t worried about playing fair.” He looked my way, and I nodded.

“Very true. Hang on a sec.” I got up and retrieved my laptop. “I’m just curious about something.” I knew Caitlyn’s research was paid for by a grant. What I hadn’t looked into was the source of that grant funding. I called it up on a web search. “Her position is funded by the Western Wildlife Foundation—ever heard of them?”

“No.” Landry frowned, leaned closer to look at the screen.

“Me neither. Let’s pull up their annual report.” I typed away, moving the cursor around, finally finding the official record and skimming through it. Landry waited patiently. “Son of a bitch!”

He stilled. “What?”

“Guess who’s listed on the Board of Directors?” I looked from the screen to Landry. His eyes were narrowed. Jaw clenched. “I’m going to kill that bastard. Please stop me, or I swear to Fate, I’ll do it.”

Landry’s expression turned deadly and he didn’t even know who I was talking about. “Is it Bob Jenkins or Tim Hollaroy?” Or maybe he did.

I nodded. “Both of them.”

Landry’s fist came down on the table so hard, our coffee mugs overturned. I lifted my laptop out of the way of the spilled liquid as Landry cursed a long diatribe thoroughly aimed at Jenkins and Hollaroy. He hopped up and grabbed a kitchen towel, mopped up the coffee, then threw the towel over his shoulder and paced the kitchen. “So those asshole ranchers formed a fake foundation just to get to our wolves?”

I stared at the screen, but it offered up no new information.

“Probably not just for the trackers,” I replied. “I bet they intend to influence the actual research published as well. To get wolves designated as trophy game in this part of the state. Fuck, you’d think they’d have better things to do with their money than go after wolves. Do the animals really take down that many of their cattle?”

“It seems like it goes deeper than that, doesn’t it?” Landry mused. “Almost like it’s personal.”

I made a mental note to follow up on that thought later because I had a feeling there was a lot to this. Right now, we had more pressing matters. Like our mate.

“Well, we have our answer now. It wasn’t Caitlyn. She was only a pawn. We can show Gib.”

“We need to prove Caitlyn didn’t know about this connection,” Landry said.

I shook my head and glared. “Fuck that. We both know she didn’t. I mean, we believe in our mate, don’t we? And Gib needs to trust our judgment on this.”

Landry nodded, looking energized for the first time since we woke up. “So, let’s go get her.”

I held up my hand. “Hang on. As much as I want her back, she’s not ours to go and collect.” I hated saying those words, and they tasted like acid on my tongue.

“Right. Fuck.” Landry sank back into his chair.

“We owe her a major apology, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she made us grovel. The wound we made was deep, and I’m not talking about our marks. It won’t heal just because we’ve cleared her guilt from our own minds.”

Landry cursed again. “What should we do?”

I was way out of my depth. Relationships with females was not my specialty, and obviously not Landry’s. We needed advice. I stalked to the door, grabbed my keys off the hook beside it. “Let’s go talk to Shelby.”