She bit her lower lip, and her glance bounced between him and Brandon. Finally, with a sigh, she nodded her head. “Fine. I’ll come. Just give me a few minutes to pack a bag. I’ll also need to grab the cat carrier from my storage unit in the basement.”
She left them to go to her bedroom, and Brandon turned to Clint, his eyes furious. “What the fuck is going on? First, this asshole sends some rogues at us, and then he threatens Josie. I want to find this son of a bitch and take him apart.”
Clint smiled, but his eyes remained flinty. “Oh, we’ll find him and make him regret even thinking of harming our little mouse. But, on a bright note, we’ll have Josie with us at the ranch where she belongs.”
Brandon grinned. “Are we flipping to see who gets to sleep with her first, under the guise of guarding of course?”
“My house, my turn first.”
Brandon would have retorted, but Josie was back lugging a knapsack. Clint raised an eyebrow in surprise. She’s certainly not like other women and their stacks of luggage. Not that she’d need many clothes if he had his way-he’d prefer she get naked and stayed that way.
Wrangling the cat into the cage proved interesting, and Josie had several scratches before Clint bent down and let out a menacing growl. The cat took one look at him and with a disdainful sniff, turned to march into the cage.
Damned felines. Another problem solved, the trio made its way to Clint’s SUV, where he gnashed his teeth as he realized that by driving, he’d placed Josie in the back seat with Brandon.
Josie, as if realizing this, finagled it so that Brandon sat in front on the passenger side, while she rode in the row behind with her cat.
Clint smirked at Brandon, who scowled. Despite the fact they’d agreed to share her, it didn’t mean healthy competition wasn’t alive and flourishing.
Halfway across town, Clint heard the question he’d dreaded.
“Why are we going this way? I thought you said I was on your way to work.”
Brandon laughed. “You are if you take a scenic twenty-minute detour.”
Clint scowled. “I wouldn’t talk, seeing as how you also had to detour.”
Josie giggled. “You guys are too much. Are you always this competitive?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Josie let out peals of laughter. Some of it, Clint suspected, pent-up hysteria from her now-dissipated fear.
“So, where do you live?” she finally asked.
“You’ll see,” replied Clint enigmatically. He wanted to see her reaction firsthand when she saw his place.
Only once they’d left the trappings of the city behind did he turn onto a gravel road, the long drive winding through dense trees until it emerged in a bright clearing where the ranch sat.
She gasped. “Oh, Clint, it’s gorgeous.”
Clint’s chest puffed up with pride. “It’s been in the family for several generations, but my dad wasn’t into updating much. So, when I inherited, I gave it a major overhaul.”
“Is all this land yours, too?” she asked, her nose pressed to the window as she peered at the lush greenery that surrounded the ranch house, from cleared lawns to a vast garden bordered by dense brush and trees.
“Yup. Over thirty-five acres.” Clint pulled up in front of the house, and Brandon bounded out of the SUV and opened the door for Josie to step out. Lucky him, he was stuck carrying the cat carrier with the very pissed-off feline. But it wasn’t all bad. He got to admire the view of Josie’s ass as she walked up the steps and entered his home. Our home now, baby.
Josie peeked around with interest. The house from outside appeared like an L-shaped bungalow. Inside, it was huge and open. To the right of the vestibule was a massive living room with a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace. There had to be a half dozen couches scattered around along with an equal number chairs. The floors made of wide-planked wood gleamed. Their lacquered surface covered here and there with bright, rag-woven rugs. Her inspection temporarily halted at the sound of Snickers’ meow of unhappiness.
Josie dropped to her knees and sweet-talked Snickers as she unlatched the cage. “Now you be a good girl. No clawing anything, and that means the werewolves too, not just the furniture.” Snickers of course didn’t reply and bolted as soon as the door opened on the cage. Josie hoped she didn’t get into too much trouble.
Standing back up, she caught Clint’s grin. However, it was Brandon who spoke. “Promise me you’ll never baby-talk me when I’m a wolf. I’d never live down the ridicule.”
Josie smirked. “Oh, but weren’t you the pretty blond wolf? Don’t worry. I won’t just baby-talk you. I’ll probably scratch you behind the ears, too.”
Clint roared with laughter at Brandon ’s face until Josie added, “you, too, big guy.”
Josie left them both staring at each other. The rich sound of masculine chuckles-which had her shivering in naughty places-accompanied her as she walked farther into the house. She traversed the long length of the living room to encounter the world’s biggest freaking kitchen.
“Good grief. This place is big enough to feed an army,” she exclaimed.
“Or a hungry pack of wolves,” said Clint with a wolfish grin as he walked by her to open the fridge. “Speaking of which, I could use some dinner. How about you, baby?”
“I’d love to see you cook.” Josie blushed at her words, hearing the double meaning, which Clint also caught. Instead of replying, he just winked at her. Josie couldn’t help the heat that pooled between her thighs. The man is just too darned good-looking for his own good.
Josie seated herself at a stool that bordered the massive granite-topped island, and Brandon perched himself beside her.
As Clint proved he did know his way around a kitchen and the massive stove with eight burners, she started assuaging her curiosity. “So, I take it you’re boss of the werewolves. How many are in your pack?” Her usual timidity had evaporated around Clint and Brandon. It was hard to be scared of two guys who kissed her like she was the only girl in the world and dropped everything to protect her.
“My proper title is alpha, and Brandon here is my beta. We’ve got a moderate-sized group, compared to others, at thirty-seven. Of course, there’s about a dozen of the pack out right now on transport runs. You’ve actually met almost all of them at this point, seeing as how they pretty much all work for the company.”
“Wait, back up a second. Did I understand you correctly? You mean there’s other werewolf packs out there, too?”
“There are hundreds of packs. Each major territory has at least one. They’re not all wolves, though. Shifters run a gamut of animals like bears, big cats, reptiles, and more. And that’s just the most prolific groups. Some species don’t have enough numbers to form packs, like the dragons.”
Josie’s eyes grew wider. “You’re screwing with me, aren’t you? I mean, dragons. Seriously?”
“Hell yeah, dragons,” Brandon said, jumping in with a grin. “Actually, you’ll probably end up meeting one soon, as Draco is due for a visit in the next month or so. And if you think that’s messed-up, there are also dolphin packs, and I’ve even heard of a spider shifter running around.”
Josie shuddered. “A man-sized spider? That is so gross.” And like my nightmare.
Clint frowned at Brandon. “Don’t worry. The rules all of our kind abide by state that all shifters must present themselves to the alpha if they intend to spend any time in a controlled territory.”
“So, you knew those wolves that attacked you?”
Clint shook his head. “Those were rogues. In other words, shifters who weren’t obeying pack laws and thus were subject to justice.”