Free The Bucklin Wolves Next Generation: Revelations by Jessica Ryan

sweet city girl who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Maribel said, eyeing Eva’s SWAT team apparel.
    “I used to be,” Eva said. “When you date a shifter, you accept a certain amount of danger in your life. After I was kidnapped by Satan’s Angels, I promised myself I wouldn’t be a victim ever again. Rowan and I are pretty isolated. There’s wild shifters, cougars, real wild animals and those that try to peel off from Aster’s pack and cause trouble. Luckily if we catch them Aster deals with them brutally. The point is, though, there’s a lot to get in trouble with out here and I don’t always want Rowan rescuing me.”
    “Have you shot any shifters?” Maribel asked.
    “Just one,” Eva said. “It was a young buck from Aster’s pack who got a bug up his ass that he wanted to challenge the former head enforcer of Bucklin and take his mate. Rowan was out getting supplies for the house and I was alone. I filled his ass with silver buckshot. When Rowan found out, he marched over to Aster’s territory and beat the pup senseless. Aster just watched, letting Rowan deal out his brand of justice.”
    “So what’s going to happen now?” Maribel asked.
    “Hopefully it’s just a cougar and the boys can deal with it quickly and easily.”
    “What else could it be?”
    “Someone from Aster’s clan?”
    “Do you think it could be human?”
    “Why would a human intrude all the way out here? If it’s a hiker who wandered too far into the forest, then Rowan will just rudely turn him away.”
    “Let’s hope that’s all it is.”
    Maribel and Eva sat at the table, looking across at one another as they counted down the minutes. Twenty minutes didn’t seem like very much time, but Eva had repeatedly assured her that was the only time Rowan needed to deal with this threat, especially with Seth backing him up.
    Finally Maribel broke down and confessed what she had done with Seth to Eva. Her new girlfriend could only smile and nod her head in approval. “You’re his now.”
    “I’m not,” Maribel said. “I’m my own woman.”
    “Yes, you are,” Eva said. “But you’ll always be linked to Seth from this day forward. He’s claimed you, girl.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means you’re his mate. You have a choice, but he sees you as his mate and he’ll never see you as anything else. This platonic business relationship you want? You can try, but that’s destroyed in his eyes. His wolf has imprinted on you. You’ll always have his smell on you unless another wolf claims you and imprints himself on you. That means all shifters you meet with will shy away because they smell him on you. All human men will know something’s not quite on the up and up and they’ll find excuses not to see you anymore.”
    “Great. So my dating life is over?”
    “That’s not such a bad thing. You wouldn’t believe how wonderful it is to be with a shifter.”
    Maribel eyed the guns on the table and the outfit Eva was wearing. “Yeah, it looks like a blast.”
    Eva shook her head and laughed. “It’s not like that for you. Seth lives in Bucklin. He’s a city wolf. You don’t have to worry about the harsh realities of the wild. Hell, I don’t really have to, either. We live more like reclusive humans than anything else. It’s Aster and his pack who live like true wild wolves. They have their own territory, they don’t wear clothes, and they live in a damn cave.”
    “I’m glad we haven’t reached that point,” Maribel said.
    “You’re going to be just fine,” Eva said. Her voice was soothing and reassuring, bringing a smile to Maribel’s face. Maybe there was a silver lining to all of this. Maybe she had finally found the man she had always hoped to find. Relationships did take some sacrifices, after all.
    “Well, then…” Maribel started to say, but the sound of gunfire in the distance immediately cut her off. The boys weren’t dealing with a wild wolf or a cougar.
    “What the