2. Ranger

TWO

RANGER

"Ranger."

Flint, my older brother and pack Alpha, glared at me as we stood in the manager's office at our recycling plant.

Pay attention. Your Alpha is speaking to you . My wolf was a stickler for pack etiquette.

"Sorry." I'd zoned out of the discussion.

"Someone's trying to muscle in on our business, boss," Gabe, the manager, told us, his brow creased with worry. He related details about pick-ups and tampering, and he and my brother went back and forth, talking details.

This was more of the same old, same old. The legit side of our business was always rife with rival organizations eyeing our profits and wanting it for themselves, and I knew the drill. As a pack Beta, I'd be assigned the job of finding out who, what, and why.

Gabe presented us with spreadsheets, reports from warehouse staff, and security camera footage, and as expected, Flint told me to investigate.

The video footage suggested the recycled products had been contaminated with non-recyclable material before our company collected them. Someone was going to get their ass kicked, and I planned to be the one delivering the punishment.

Our company had received a long list of violations from government inspectors, which had stopped work at the factory and resulted in reams of additional paperwork. The recycling business was squeaky clean, so this smear campaign tarnished our reputation in both the shifter community and the human world.

There had also been articles in the media fabricating environmental violations at our factory. One of our pack worked at The Daily Star newspaper, and I asked him to look into it.

I spent a couple of days gathering the information, and after speaking to our customers, both former and current, I presented the facts to Flint. Our younger brother Hunter joined us in our head office while I summarized my findings.

"The Obsidian Circle is behind this?" Flint drummed his fingers on the desk. This was a newish pack, though our shifters considered any shifter group new if it was less than fifty years since its creation. "Let me think on it."

While I would have preferred he'd said to teach them a lesson they'd never forget, I understood his hesitation. That pack might not have years-long traditions as our pack, La Luna Noir, did but they were vicious, and the Alpha, Dane, had contacts in high places, having been to school and college with a lot of bigwigs.

Hunter and I made to leave. It was the weekend and I wanted out of the office.

"Don't forget lunch at Dad's tomorrow."

I ground my teeth at my older brother's reminder and grumbled an acknowledgment.

Barring illness or maybe a pack war, we went to Dad's home for Sunday lunch or dinner every week. We had been alternating with Flint and Tony for a while but we were back to Dad's place for the Sunday meal.

Flint being the first born had always told us what to do, even when we were kids. Hunter as the youngest got away with what we couldn't. And I was the middle child who rubbed along between the perfect older brother and the mischievous younger one.

"See you tomorrow." Hunter took off.

I sat in my car, thinking of what I hadn't told Flint and Hunter.

While trying to discover who was messing with our recycling business, I'd caught a scent. Not the pungent odor of contaminated plastic, but a unique aroma, one that got an immediate reaction from me. While there were no flashing lights or pink floaty balloons, I was warm and fuzzy, contemplating a future I'd not dared consider previously. And I didn't do fuzzy until now.

It floored me that my life could change so quickly, in a split second. I'd had no hint of a mate, not even a smidgen of a scent of a mate. And now there was one person on my mind; the man the scent belonged to.

Our mate! My wolf suddenly ignored all pack protocol and insisted we forget about work and family responsibilities and continue looking for him.

I agreed, but staking out each place was pointless until Monday, much as I longed to find him. I'd scoured the locations I'd visited, but the scent was stale, and I vowed to track him down. Instead, I memorized his scent and kept it at the front of my mind.

What I didn't say out loud was that I suspected my mate was part of The Obsidian Circle, his scent intertwined with theirs. Flint would never allow me to mate one of their shifters. So I had a choice; ignore my own happiness or distance myself from my family and pack.

"I'm going to get you."

Lottie, my young niece, squealed and toddled along the hallway to my dad's living room.

Tony, Lottie's omega father, put a finger to his lips as he held his and Flint's sleeping baby. He mouthed, "Ranger!"

But baby Kendric didn't stir.

My niece was adorable, all pink-cheeked and with dark wavy hair that fell to her shoulders. She was going through a stage where she'd only wear purple—I swore Dad encouraged her because he loved the color too—so Tony combed through online stores for purple clothes.

Lottie scurried away from me. She loved me running after her because all my attention was on her. And the flip side of that was the thrill of the chase, of goosebumps dancing over her skin as I crouched low on the floor and growled.

This was the other part of my existence.

The light, funny, caring part where we put aside business and enjoyed being with family.

I swooped in and picked up my niece, kissing her chubby cheeks and tossing her over my shoulder, before returning to the living area. Wishing I had a little one of my own, I deposited her on the couch where she rested her head on my brother's shoulder.

And while I did have a mate, I had yet to meet him or mark him. Gods, I didn't even know his name.

"You're so good with my granddaughter." Dad patted my arm. "Shame you don't have a little one of your own."

Flint's head jerked up, and Lottie complained, adjusting her position as she cuddled into her father.

"I'm hoping you'll mate someone from the pack," Flint noted, though his mate, Tony, was human.

"How'd that work out for you , bro?" Hunter asked as he threw a grape into his mouth.

Tony nudged our older brother. "Yes, do tell, my darling."

"Fine." Flint laughed and kissed Tony. "We were fated, so nothing could stand between us, but it would be best if Ranger and Hunter mate a Luna Noir shifter."

"That's no guarantee," Hunter said. "Look at what happened with Emilio."

Now the air crackled with tension. The guy who'd worked with my grandfather and father and who'd been Flint's right-hand man had betrayed us and paid with his life. If we couldn't trust La Luna Noir people, how could we mate anyone outside the pack? That didn't bode well for me and my mate.

"What about this?" Dad shoved a tablet in front of me. There were pics of people sitting facing one another with a timer in the top left corner of the pic and the La Luna Noir insignia was stamped on the right.

"Is that some sort of competition?" It looked awful. I sensed they were grinding their teeth behind those phony grins.

"No, it's speed dating."

"Speed dating?" everyone, except Tony who was attending to Kendric, echoed.

"Dating in racing cars," Hunter suggested.

"No." Dad snatched the device out of my hands.

Uncle Arnie, my late grandfather's brother, wandered in from outside, his newly adopted pup, Brussels, at his heels. With his glasses perched at the end of his nose, he peered at the small print on Dad's tablet.

"I've organized it for the unmated La Luna Noir and Nightfall shifters. Cool, right?" Dad babbled about having gotten the idea from a human romance novel.

The Nightfall Pack were our allies, though Emilio had almost convinced Flint they'd been working against us.

"It's tomorrow evening at headquarters." Dad took off toward his bedroom, adding over his shoulder, "As pack Beta, I want you to help run the event, Ranger."

Damn. I looked at Flint for help. We loved and respected our dad, and he'd held our family together after Papa was killed. He was the former Alpha Omega, the father of the current Alpha and a valued member of the pack, but he held no formal position.

But my big bro shrugged and said I should do it. "You'll have a laugh and some of the pack might find mates." Because we didn't live together as a group on pack lands, not everyone knew each other, so it was possible people might meet their mate, even though many of the La Luna Noir shifters attended full moon runs together.

"Thanks, Alpha ," I sneered.

Flint touched his brow in a mock salute before helping Tony gather their belongings. Hunter folded Kendric's stroller and scooted out to our older brother's car. After putting it in the trunk, he yelled, "Bye, everyone," got in his vehicle, and drove off at speed.

Sneaky. He was staying out of Dad's way, hoping to avoid my fate.

Dad returned with paper bags. "Take these home. It's eucalyptus oil I made."

Flint and I dutifully each took one. Only my dad would make something in his spare time that was used as an antiseptic for which shifters had no use. But he insisted it had other purposes, including in the kitchen to banish odors and mold.

I sulked all the way back to town thinking about wasting time at the speed-dating evening when I could have been searching for my mate.

While Flint and family, Uncle Arnie, and Dad all lived outside the city, I had a big apartment overlooking a park right in the center of town and down the street from our office. Having to drive home each night into the countryside wasn't for me.

Besides the time involved, the more we traveled, especially on deserted roads, the more likely there'd be an attempt on our lives. And while we had bodyguards, they hadn't been able to save my father and grandfather who had been murdered when first one and then the other headed the pack. And our entire family would have been assassinated if Flint hadn't killed Emilio and the rest of the pack hadn't slaughtered his band of traitors.

But today being Sunday, I'd given one of my two bodyguards the day off. Careless perhaps, but I found it claustrophobic to have someone always flanking me.

With my sports car safely tucked away in the parking garage, Ben, my bodyguard, rode up in the elevator with me and checked the apartment before bidding me goodbye. Once I set the alarm, I took the leftovers Uncle Arnie had given me—he was the cook, as Dad could barely boil water—and shoved them in the fridge.

Now that I was alone, I got out my phone and mapped the places where I'd scented my mate. It was a small area, only a few square miles, so I should be able to find him. But anxiety gnawed at my belly, thinking of the consequences if my mate was a member of The Obsidian Circle.

A text message popped up on my TV screen. Gods, I loved technology, except when it was my dad, reminding me of the dating thing.

Don't be late tomorrow night or I'll come get you .