Free Rescue My Heart by Jill Shalvis

throat. The hair at the back of his neck ruffled, and all his muscles bunched as if to charge forward.
    “No,” Adam said.
    The dog stilled, quivering with energy.
    “What—” Holly started, but Adam pulled her to her feet in one swift, economical movement, kicking the tipped-over log out of her way.
    “Get in the ATV.” Then he practically dragged her there himself.
    She scrambled into the Ranger and reached for the binoculars she’d seen in the console. That’s when she saw them, on the ridge just past where Milo had gone still. Three still forms, watching them all intently.
    Wolves.
    The middle one tipped back its head and howled, sending a chill racing down Holly’s spine as they crept closer. “Adam,” she said shakily. The wolves had been a problem this year. Their numbers were higher than in previous years, and, being squeezed out of their usual hunting grounds, they were bolder than ever before. In town, three dogs had been attacked and killed in the past few months. No people that she knew of, but that didn’t stop her fear. “Adam. Get in.”
    Of course he didn’t. He was in his protective alpha zone.He reached into the back and came up with his rifle. “Milo,” he said low, calm. Utterly authoritative. “Come.”
    Milo didn’t want to come, not when the wolves were on the move in their direction. The overzealous puppy wanted to show he could protect his pack, too. He ignored the testosterone radiating from Adam and whined, tossing an
Oh please can I?
look over his shoulder at them.
    Adam strode to the front of the Ranger, his movements every bit as purposeful and aggressive as the two smaller wolves, still slowly stalking forward toward them.
    Adam sighted the rifle, the muscles of his arms and shoulders bunching with the ease of a man who’d performed this action thousands of times.
    Holly sat there gripping the dash, blinking through the rain, eaten up with envy. She wanted a big, badass-looking gun, too! Most of her life she’d been protected in some way. By her father. Her brother. Adam. Even Derek had done his fair share of protecting her from the world for a while, and she’d let him.
    Then she’d discovered life was so much better when
she
was in charge. Well, she sure wouldn’t mind being in charge now, facing down the wolves with the same fearless courage that Adam was.
    “
Now
, Milo,” Adam said.
    Milo jumped into the Ranger in one graceful arch, but he didn’t look happy about it. He sat in the back behind Holly, one hundred percent alert, his focus divided between the wolves and Adam.
    With Milo inside, Adam lowered the rifle, never taking his eyes off the wolves as he slid behind the wheel. He cranked the engine and the wolves scattered, vanishing into the landscape as if they’d been a dream.
    Holly let out a breath. “Would they have gone after Milo with us right there?”
    “They were thinking about it.” Casually, as if he faced down three crazy wolves every day, he picked up a CamelBakand squirted water into a stream over his shoulder, which Milo caught out of thin air, taking a nice long drink.
    Milo licked his chops when he was done and gazed at Adam with love and adoration.
    “He’s pretty impressive off leash,” she said.
    “An S&R dog necessity.”
    So was blind trust, apparently. Milo had trusted Adam to take care of him.
    Holly knew the feeling.
    Without another word, Adam hit the gas. He drove until the road seemed to come to an end. When he stopped, Holly faced him. He wasn’t a bad view, as far as views went. Even beneath his heavy jacket, with water beading off of him, his chest was broad.
    Strong.
    And she knew from long-ago experience that he would be warm to the touch. And oh how she wanted to touch. She wanted that more than she wanted her next breath of fresh air—and that scared her to death.
    But Adam didn’t appear to share the yearning, which was good because she didn’t think she could resist him.
    The wind kicked up and the temperature