Free Wolver's Gold (The Wolvers) by Jacqueline Rhoades Page B

doesn't smell like dead things have been living in it. Up there I've got a mattress with no lumps, curtains on the window and a cushy rug on the floor, a shower that works and a toilet that flushes. Oh, yeah, and that fancy bed cover to top it all off." He nodded his head. "Lap of luxury. Sure as hell beats living in a tent."
    Rachel winced at the profanity, but he continued talking before she could object.
    "How long have you lived here?" he asked, taking a sip from his own glass.
    "All my life. I've never been outside the pack boundaries." She raised her brows when she saw his surprise. "We're an insular pack, Mr. McCall. We have all we need right here."
    "What about mating?" he asked as he poured a little more into her glass.
    His curiosity was evident and Rachel knew why. It wasn't Law, but most packs encouraged mating outside the pack to avoid the pitfalls of inbreeding. It brought in new blood and kept the pack healthy.
    "We're a tourist attraction and some of our visitors are wolvers. Some of those visitors extend their stay if they find someone who attracts their interest. Some of the newly mated stay and some go." She didn't tell him it was mostly the women who wanted to leave, hoping to find an easier life in another pack. Men, however, liked Gold Gulch and were happy to stay, which was why they had an overabundance of them and Miss Daisy's Bouquet did such good business.
    He asked her questions about the town and she answered, until he finally came around, as she knew he would, to Barnabas Holt.
    "How often does that happen?" he asked.
    "This is the first time he's become aggressive. Normally, he just pesters me."
    "And you have no interest?"
    Rachel frowned. She knew what he was thinking. It was every wolver female's priority to seek a mate, breed and bear a litter of pups just like Emily Newcomb's sow, and work herself into an early grave. She squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye, daring him to contradict her oft repeated declaration.
    "In Barnabas Holt? Good gracious no, Mr. McCall, nor have I an interest in any other wolver. I intend to live my life just as I am, Gold Gulch's first and only spinster."
    "I can see why, if the two yahoos I've seen sniffing around are any indication of what's available. Do you have any other suitors I should be aware of? Just in case. I mean, a woman who looks like you should have them lining up at the door."
    She felt herself blush at the blatant flattery, but her voice was firm. "None, Mr. McCall, and they are not my suitors."
    "Then what the hell would you call them?"
    She sighed. "I don't know. I've never given them any indication of interest. As I said, I'm content as I am."
    Unlike the members of her pack, he didn't argue with her or point out the unnaturalness of her decision. He merely nodded and raised the bottle, offering her another drink, treating her like an equal.
    Rachel liked his response and began to relax. She felt quite daring, sitting alone with a man, sipping whiskey. Her wolf's tail was thumping away and it was nice to feel that for once, she and her wolf were in accord. When Mr. McCall poured her another, she didn't say no.
     

 
    Chapter 8
     
    "What you did tonight will be all over town tomorrow, you know," Rachel told him when he turned the subject back to Holt.
    "Who needs a newspaper when you have Eustace, heh?"
    She was surprised by his astuteness. "How did you know?"
    He shrugged. "Eustace carries all the gossip. In spite of being an omega in the pack, he's found a place where he can be both useful and made welcome. He sleeps in the shack outside that privacy fence of yours. I don't think he saw, but he definitely heard, everything."
    "That's not a good thing, you know. Barnabas Holt is a curly wolf and he won't take kindly to having his name bandied about."
    McCall leaned toward her, forearms on the table. "Okay, I got the bandied about part, but what the hell's a curly wolf?"
    "A dangerous wolf," she said primly. He seemed like a very