Page 1 of The Werewolf Cowboy
Chapter 1
Branding time at a werewolf ranch always took on extra meaning for single Lupines, and Katy Thomas knew exactly which wolf she wanted beneath tonight’s moon.
Grayson Moore.
Owner of the Double D Ranch bordering the Mitchell Ranch, where Katy lived. Lone Lupine. Mysterious wolf and a great cowhand.
Aiden, her alpha, had asked Grayson to help out with rounding up and branding Mitchell Ranch calves today. Not that they needed extra wranglers. But Aiden had been real neighborly after Grayson purchased the Double D a year ago.
A cool wind whipped through the tall grasses and ruffled the curls in her long ponytail. Overhead, the sky was a crisp Montana blue, and the sun warmed her shoulders as she rode her gelding through the western pasture, her long brown curls bouncing against her shoulders.
Aiden had assigned her to work with Grayson, roping the calves, tying them up for Kyle to brand and vaccinate and then leaving the ugly work of castrating the bull calves to Darius and their new vet, Parker.
On his gelding, riding next to her, Grayson whistled a familiar song. The tune always tugged at her, for it was the only vague recollection from her childhood before she came to the Mitchell Ranch.
Nat King Cole’s “Smile.”
“I love that song,” she told him as he finished.
Grayson winked at her. “I know. You told me before, Katy.”
Watching him gallop off toward the herd, she followed. What did he look like naked? With his thick shock of dark hair, faint stubble shadowing a taut jaw, and tall, muscled body, Grayson epitomized all the good things she knew about male Lupines.
Sexy, handsome, strong. But alone, no pack, using only Skins to work his ranch. It was the one characteristic that other female Lupines disapproved of, but intrigued Katy. Tonight was the traditional barbecue and dance, and then the running as wolves beneath the moon. She hoped Grayson would be there. At all the previous social events at the Mitchell Ranch, Grayson participated in the dining and dancing, and left when it came time to shift.
If she didn’t know better, she’d think he didn’t want anyone seeing him shift into his wolf form.
Pulling his horse up to an expert stop, Grayson tipped back his black Stetson and regarded her with his ice blue eyes. “Ready to rope the next one, Katy?” he asked.
She nodded, jerked out of her daydream of envisioning him nude, lying sprawled out in bed, his gaze inviting.
Pale yellow sunlight dappled the thicket of pines and oaks bordering the pasture where the gushing river tumbled over boulders and rocks, uncaring, unjudging. The vista, with jagged mountain peaks soaring in the distance, seemed serene. But her stomach churned and her heart pounded from Grayson’s nearness.
She galloped toward the next target, roping him as Grayson leapt off his gelding and then tied up the bawling calf.
He hunkered down, speaking in a low, soothing voice to the animal. Most wranglers treated calves like future McDonald’s hamburgers, but Grayson had a soft side that she really liked.
Now that she’d turned twenty-one and was fully wolf, she became well aware of his other assets as well. She drifted back into the fantasy of Grayson lying nude in bed…wondering what he wanted with her.
A deep male voice spoke into her mind.
Tied up, naked and helpless, at my mercy. I would make you scream with pleasure. Fuck you hard and fast, and you would know you were mine and no other male’s. I would pound into you so hard, trap you in my bed until your belly grew big with my young. Yeah, that’s what I’d like to do to you in the dark of night, Katy.
Shocked, she blinked hard. The loud chugging of three ATVs drew nearer. Grayson looked up.
“Release the rope,” he ordered in the same deep voice that had spoken in her mind seconds ago.
She released her rope, staring at Grayson. Kyle, her pack’s best hunter, stopped his machine and took the branding kit toward the calf. On separate ATVs, Darius and Parker stopped as well.
“Nice work, Katy,” Darius called out.
High praise from the pack’s beta wolf. She shuddered as Darius helped Parker prepare the calf for castration, and turned away.
“Watch and learn if you want to be a rancher’s mate, Katy,” Grayson told her in that same velvet-smooth, deep timbre.
The other Lupines in her pack could have been branding and castrating trolls for all she cared. She gave Grayson a long, cool look. “Why would I need to know that? I thought male Lupines cherished their balls,” she shot back.
Darius laughed while Kyle and Parker grinned, but Grayson said nothing. He only continued to gaze at her as if he wanted to tie her up naked in his bed.
