Page 6 of Destined Prey (Wild Ones #1)

Chapter Six

“You really need to think about this,” Emil said for what had to be the tenth time. “Seriously. It’s bad enough Ben was sneaking off all day to spy on that man.”

Ben bristled, heat rising in his neck. He hadn’t meant to spy, not really.

He just…couldn’t stay away. Every time he told himself to turn back, his feet carried him closer.

Watching Jack wasn’t about weakness—it was survival, like his body had already decided that man meant something, even if his brain hadn’t caught up.

“I didn’t sneak,” Ben protested. He had spied, however, and didn’t deny it. Casey had chewed his ass out over that already anyway. And now Casey was going back with him so Ben wouldn’t be alone.

“You’re questioning your alpha?” Casey replied, tone cold, eyes colder.

Emil huffed. “I’m questioning my brother, who is supposed to be my alpha but isn’t exhibiting the smarts to be one.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Scowl all you want. I don’t care. I’m more worried than usual and I’ve never been scared of you anyway.”

None of the pack—all Casey’s siblings—had been scared of him. Ben wasn’t. They stuck together because they were family, and the only coywolf shifters left in the area that they knew of.

Casey rumbled unhappily. “It’s a matter of respect.”

“It’s a matter of loving my brothers and not wanting them shot dead by an angry rancher—or his brother,” Emil said. “Or, you know, attacked again by wolves and coyotes.”

“I don’t think that last one will happen for a few days at least. We killed too many from the local packs last night, there at the Double T and before then.

” Casey tucked a few strands of black hair behind his ear.

That one lock always fell over his left eye.

“They’ll need to regroup, if they can. Seems like their numbers should be getting low enough that they’d leave us alone. ”

“They’ll never leave us alone,” said Robin, their youngest sibling. At twenty, he was still wallowing off and on in the joys of teenage moodiness. “We’ll be hated and hunted forever.”

“What a ray of sunshine you are.” Lacey poked Robin in the ribs. “Chill the eff out, kiddo.”

Robin pressed his lips together like he did when he was trying not to give in to anger and mouth off. He gave a clipped bob of his head instead. “Sorry. I just get tired of them all coming after us. If we weren’t meant to be here, nature wouldn’t have created us.”

This was an old discussion for them, and one they’d tried to reason with other breeds on, to no avail.

Anne, their other sister, entered the room. Her blonde hair was all over, and it was clear that she’d just woken up. “What’s going on? Why does it feel like I walked into a funeral? What died? Hope? Someone’s confidence? Dreams?”

Anne always had been the sarcastic one in the family. Or the most sarcastic one, Ben amended silently.

“Nice,” Lacey said. “Go back to bed if you’re going to be so perky.”

As Lacey, Emil, Anne and Robin all began talking and bickering, Ben and Casey exchanged a look.

Ben stuck his fingers in his mouth and let out an eardrum-rattling whistle.

Everyone shut up and a few groaned.

“I hate it when you do that.” Emil stuck his tongue out at Ben. “Can’t we all go as a pack?”

“No,” Casey said decisively. “Not this time. We need you all to stay here and let us do this. Let Ben do this. I’m your…wingman, right? That’s what it’s called?”

“Do coywolves have those?” Ben asked, trying to figure out where Casey was going with that.

Casey grinned. “Well, but we’re not going as our animals, are we?”

Ben gulped.

“Ohhh, this is awesome,” Lacey whispered. “They’re going to have to man up.” She added the air quotes, and Ben had no freaking idea what she meant.

“You’re interested in the younger brother, the skinny one you were so worried about last night, who you watched most of the day.”

There was no use arguing against Casey’s statement, so Ben didn’t bother.

Casey closed the distance between them, then patted Ben on the back. “Then do you think maybe you should approach him as a man, and see if it’s possible there could be something…more, between you and him?”

“He’s not skinny,” Ben protested, which was absurd, considering what Casey had just said. Ben rubbed his forehead. “I feel like my brain’s been scrambled and my libido’s been set to overdrive.”

“We know,” Robin chimed in with. “We all heard.”

Ben flipped him off. “Put headphones on if you don’t want to hear. That’s what I do when you’re beating off and calling out the name of that boy-bander.”

Robin blushed scarlet. “Asshole.”

“Well, that seems to be one point of your focus,” Anne quipped. “I’ve also heard you—”

“Can everyone play nice for a minute?” Casey demanded. “Just stop bickering and teasing.”

“You are totally no fun,” Lacey informed him. “But fine.”

Casey sighed like he was at his wits’ end, which Ben supposed was possible. “Look, Ben. You feel some pull toward this man, right?”

“Obviously,” Ben agreed. Just talking about Jack was making his cock twitch.

“Okay, then don’t hide behind your beast. Pursue him, man to man.”

The words hit like a punch. Ben’s stomach clenched, equal parts excitement and dread.

He could fight wolves, bleed, survive, but this?

Risking himself for something tender, something human?

That was more terrifying than teeth and claws.

Still, the thought of Jack’s mossy eyes finding him—not the beast, but the man—made his cock throb and his chest ache in the same beat.

Casey glanced away, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “You don’t want to let a chance at happiness slip away.”

“Did you—” he began, but Casey cut him off with a sharp shake of the head.

“No. I’ve never had my heart broken, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Casey clarified. “I just want all of you to be happy, and safe. If you want this man, then you need to approach him and see if he’s interested in return.”

“And just how are we going to do that?” Ben finally asked.

Casey tipped his chin toward Ben. “You. You are going to do that when we see your crush at the grocery store in about ten minutes, so make yourself pretty.”

“How do you know they’ll be there?” Ben asked, but he shouldn’t have bothered.

Casey just smirked at him. “It’s his crystal balls,” Robin said.

“Is that a dirty joke?” Anne inquired. “Because it totally sucks.”

“We can’t all be smartasses like you,” Robin snarked, and they were off, arguing and snapping at each other, with Emil and Lacey commenting and adding fuel to the fire.

Ben took advantage of the squabbling and slipped away to get ready to meet the man he couldn’t stop thinking about.

And he hoped, he really, really hoped he didn’t fuck things up, though if he did manage to have a relationship with Jack, something he dared to hope would happen, then he might have to make one of the most difficult decisions he’d ever be faced with.

He’d have to tell Jack the truth about what he was, a hybrid shifter hated by the three species that he was made of— well, four, he corrected. Coyote, wolf, shifter and human. And not one of those do I fit in with.

And maybe that was why Jack mattered so much already. Because when those eyes had met his, even for a heartbeat, Ben hadn’t felt like a mistake of nature. He’d felt seen. Desired. The craving for more of that nearly scared him to death. Nearly—but not enough to stop him from chasing it.