“Did… did you just let a fucking coywolf out of our house?”
Jack spun around before Rhett finished the first word. “I—”
“What the fuck!” Rhett shouted, glaring. He turned and ran into the office. “What the fuck!”
Jack couldn’t blame him for being stuck on repeat. Everything that had happened in the last couple of hours was unbelievable. Scratch that. In the last several days, because this weirdness started with that attack at night. Or earlier, according to Ben.
Jack’s internal dialogue screeched to a halt when Rhett came out carrying two rifles.
“Here.” Rhett thrust one at him. Rhett’s eyes were cold, hard, and Jack knew he was ready to kill—and it’d be Ben who’d be killed, not some wild animal.
“No.” Jack pushed Rhett’s hand away. “Listen to me.”
“I don’t know how the fuck you got that thing out of the house,” Rhett said. “I hope it was the same one that was trying to kill cattle earlier. I hope there’s not a whole fucking pack of them waiting around here.” Rhett tried to hand him the gun again. “Come on, it’s getting away!”
“Rhett, stop. I don’t want the gun. Put them both up and let me explain,” Jack pleaded, clutching at Rhett’s forearm as he tried to get past Jack. “Please, I’m begging you here.” He’d screwed things up with Ben, but didn’t think he could have avoided that. Too much had gone awry in his world, and he needed time to process it. He wouldn’t have a hope of reconciling with Ben—if that was what he decided to do—if Rhett killed him.
Rhett growled and grumbled something about Jack being off his rocker, but he stopped trying to get out the door.
Jack didn’t let go of him. “Come on. Put the rifles up.”
Rhett cut him a sideways glare. “Are there more wild animals in the house?”
“Just me.” Jack’s joke fell flat. He ignored Rhett’s groan. “Look, that coywolf wasn’t after the livestock.”
“Right,” Rhett drawled. “It was just hanging around, hoping to be adopted and domesticated.” He faced Jack fully. “Wolves, coyotes, coywolves, you know those things ain’t ever gonna be tamed. Have you forgotten everything you learned growing up out here?”
Jack rolled his eyes. “No, much as I tried, I’m still a country boy at heart. Ish. Or at the very least, the lessons we learned stuck. I’m not shooting anything, though. And right now, neither are you, because that wasn’t your average coywolf.” Oh shit. I’m gonna sound like I’ve totally lost my mind. I can’t even believe it, but I’m going to tell him that shifters exist?
“Jack? What’s going on? You look like you’re about to lose it.” Rhett nudged his arm. “Come on. Let’s sit down and you can tell me what’s going…” His eyes narrowed as his gaze dipped down from Jack’s. “On.”
Jack didn’t know what that look was about. He was just relieved that Rhett wasn’t going to kill Ben. This time. But what happens the next time Ben or his… pack? Whatever they are, what happens the next time they show up out here? What if traps are put out? Jack shuddered. He didn’t think he’d be able to forgive himself if someone got caught in a trap and lost a leg—or their life.
Somehow, he was going to have to convince Rhett of the existence of something that should have been impossible.
And Rhett was still staring at him. Jack led Rhett into the office, brushing past him. “You have to promise to listen to me. I’m not crazy, I swear.” Even if he did wonder about himself. But Rhett had seen him letting Ben out. That had to mean everything that had transpired between him and Ben had been real.
Rhett put the rifles up and Jack closed the office door, not that there was anyone around to eavesdrop. If one of the ranch hands came in, however, Jack didn’t want to be overheard.
Jack ran his fingers through his hair.
Rhett hissed and the next thing Jack knew, his brother was poking him on the neck.
“What?” Jack snapped, stepping away from Rhett.
“How’d you get that hickey?”
Jack slapped one hand over the spot Rhett had just poked. How had he forgotten that Ben had sucked and nibbled there? Jack ignored the budding arousal the memory brought with it, and slowly lowered his hand. “Ben. Ben did it when we were having sex a few minutes ago.”
“Ben?” Rhett repeated. “The guy from the alley? He’s here?” He snorted. “So you aren’t sick, you wanted to get laid.”
“Yes, that Ben, and he isn’t here now. I just opened the door for him.” Jack waited for that to sink in.
But Rhett only looked confused as he moved over to the chair behind the desk. “What’re you talking about?”
Jack waited until Rhett sat down. “I’m talking about Ben Akers being here, in my room, until I let him out the back door.”
Rhett shook his head. “You didn’t feel feverish when I touched you a few minutes ago. Did you hit your head? You let a goddamned coywolf out the back door. Is Ben still in your room? Or did you let that predator out after him? How’d the coywolf get in here in the first place?”
The more Rhett talked, the more irritated he became, his voice growing louder while he waved his hands around as if to emphasize his words.
Jack sat in the chair in front of the desk, slumping as soon as his ass hit the seat. He rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes. “Ben is the coywolf. He’s a shifter.”
“Bullshit!”
Jack heard Rhett’s chair scraping against the floor and knew he was getting up. Jack opened his eyes and raised his head, watching Rhett shove himself up, anger pinching his features.
“I don’t know what kind of fucked-up game you’re playing, or why,” Rhett snarled, “but this shit ain’t like you, Jack, and I don’t appreciate you doing…” He gestured wildly. “Whatever the fuck this is!”
Jack winced, trying not to be offended. He shouldn’t blame Rhett for thinking every word was bullshit, yet it hurt, to be talked to like that.
“Why was there a coywolf in this house?” Rhett asked heatedly. “Explain that.”
“Because it was Ben,” Jack replied, unwilling to prevaricate. “He’s a shifter. Apparently there’s all kinds of shifters. Think about that the next time you go deer hunting.”
Rhett shook his head. “I don’t know why you won’t tell me the truth—”
“That is the truth,” Jack interrupted. “Why would I have a wild animal, one capable of killing me, in the house? Why would I have calmly opened the door and let it out? Why wouldn’t I want you to kill it? Think about those questions, Rhett. There’s apparently some kind of turf war going on between wolf, coyote, and coywolf shifters, and this ranch might be in the middle of it.” Jack could tell by Rhett’s glower that he wasn’t buying anything Jack said.
“How many cattle have the coywolves killed?” Jack hoped he knew the answer.
Rhett averted his gaze. “Well… I don’t know which kind of animal killed the calves last month. Lost three calves in the west pasture. Almost lost another and a cow, but they survived.”
“It could have been wolves, or coyotes,” Jack pointed out. “Real ones, or shifter ones.”
“Goddamn it, Jack, stop with the shifter bullshit!” Rhett shouted. “You’re scaring me, and I don’t mean ’cause I believe in those things, but ’cause you seem to!”
Jack laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Listen to me.” He leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees. “I do. I do believe in those things, because Ben was out in the corral, only he was a coywolf, and I heard him in my head. I passed out, but I saw him, heard him. He was under the bed when you were in my room. Then I saw him, and he shifted. I saw him turn from man to coywolf to man again. I did not hallucinate it. He’s a shifter. Shifters exist.” Jack touched his neck, and the heat of arousal began to build in his groin. “And we had sex, because I want him, like I’ve never wanted anyone or anything.”
“I can’t believe this,” Rhett muttered, shaking his head again. “No way. I don’t believe it. I don’t know what you’re up to, or why you’re lying to me—”
“Let’s go.” Jack was up like a shot. “Get the truck keys. We’ll go find Ben. He told me where his auto shop is. He’ll show you. What’s the worst that will happen? Either you’ll see that I’m telling the truth, or you’ll find out I’m lying or crazy.”
Rhett seemed to consider Jack’s proposition for a moment before agreeing. “Okay. I don’t know why you’d lie to me, Jack. Could you have a brain tumor or something?”
Jack gawped at his brother. “You’d rather me have cancer than for shifters to be real? How fucked up is that?”
Rhett’s cheeks turned ruddy. He didn’t reply.
“Rhett, why would I lie? Is the world going to be such a horrible place if I’m right?” Jack couldn’t keep the pleading tone out of his voice. “You told me once that you believed there are other life forms out in space, maybe even here on Earth with us. How is this different?”
“We were kids when I said that,” Rhett muttered. “And no, I wouldn’t want you to have cancer. That just seems a lot more likely than what you’re telling me, and it scares the shit out of me, because I don’t want to lose you.”
“You’re not going to lose me,” Jack promised. “I’m here, and I’m not going back to New York, and I’m not going to die anytime soon.” He hoped. “Look, it’s hard for me to believe it, too, and I saw him change.”
“And had sex with him,” Rhett added, not looking at him. “Did you at least use condoms?”
Jack tried not to get grossed out by his brother asking him about safe sex. “We didn’t have anal sex. You don’t need to know the specifics anyway.”
Rhett paused with his hand on the office doorknob. “I thought sex meant penetration.”
“A, I wouldn’t tell you what we did together because ew, gross, TMI, bro,” Jack said. “And B, everyone has their own definitions of sex, I guess. To me, if you get off with someone, even if they don’t come, it’s sex.”
Rhett opened the door and left the room. Jack followed.
It wasn’t until they were in the truck that the doubts began clamoring in Jack’s head. Ben, I don’t know if you can hear me. I don’t know if I’m losing my shit or if this is all real, the hearing-each-other part, I mean. I know what you are, who you are, that’s real. I need your help here. Rhett saw you leave. We’re coming to your shop and I need you to show him, tell him the truth. Please. He thinks I’m crazy. Or that I have a brain tumor.
Jack thought that message to Ben over and over on the drive to town, but he never heard even a buzz back.