Page 29 of Destined Prey (Wild Ones #1)

Casey lingered at the tree line long after the rest of his pack had headed home. He didn’t like leaving them to run without him, but tonight wasn’t about them. Tonight was about watching. About making sure the Double T ranch didn’t draw more blood.

From his shadowed vantage, he could see the ranch house, warm light spilling from its windows.

Ben’s laughter carried across the night air, Jack’s voice following after.

That bond between them was solid now, glowing like a beacon even Casey could feel from here.

Good. His brother had found his mate. That was one less thing for Casey to worry about.

But the ranch itself? Trouble clung to it like burrs in a coyote’s tail. The wolves, the coyotes, the rogues—they’d tasted blood here, and they’d be back. Casey knew it the way he knew the wind. And when they came, they wouldn’t stop at Ben and Jack.

Movement at the porch drew his eye. Rhett Tucker stepped outside, shoulders squared, hands shoved deep in his pockets. The man looked tired—bone-deep tired—but alert, scanning the horizon like he expected trouble.

Casey smirked. “You’re not wrong, cowboy.”

There was something about Rhett that snagged Casey’s attention and wouldn’t let go. Not just his size, or the stubborn tilt of his jaw, but the way he carried his fear—quietly, privately, like a man who’d never admit he was out of his depth. Casey respected that. Maybe even admired it.

And maybe wanted more than he should.

He shook his head. Dangerous thought. The Tucker brothers were already tangled up in shifter business deeper than was safe. But fate had a way of tying knots tighter the more you tried to pull them loose.

A coyote’s distant howl split the silence. Not one of his.

Casey’s lips peeled back from his teeth in a soundless growl. The rogues weren’t done, and the next fight was already prowling closer.

His gaze returned to Rhett, still standing on that porch like a sentinel. The man had no idea what was coming. No idea what Casey was going to have to ask of him.

Casey’s smirk softened into something else—something he didn’t want to name. “Guess we’ll see if you can handle the fire, cowboy.”

With that, he melted back into the trees, the night swallowing him whole.