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"So who’s this guy really as fixing your ?" Rourke asked

Hunter stalked back inside, catching Rourke’s question "Tessa’s lover," he said, with a s in his eyes, his cheeks slightly red from the chill

She could have socked him Rourke’s jaw couldn’t have dropped any lower

"Handyman, cook, personal masseur, whatever she needs ?"

Rourke turned slightly green

"Who?" Hunter asked again, his voice threatening as he helped Tessa with the coffee ton"

"Good I drove your truck into the driveway But why don’t you stay with Tessa for an hour or so while I take a walk in the woods"

To investigate? Please, God, don’t let Ashton be wandering in the woods arain

Rourke frowned and she kneas because he didn’t like Hunter ordering hi for the stalker who’s been breaking into her house"

"Stalker?" Rourke looked at Tessa

"He stole h his wind-ruffled hair "Sure, right"

Hunter quickly drank a cup of coffee, kissed Tessa on the cheek, and gave her a sexy sed Hunter’s arm and made him kiss her on the lips like he reallyfor real she hadn’t dreahts, he raised his brows slightly, di in his cheeks as his smile broadened, and her cheeks blossoh as the heat soon spread all the way to her toes

He winked, the cad "Be right back" Then he gave Rourke a quelling look as though he’d better behave where Tessa was concerned, and stalked outside She prayed he wouldn’t run into Ashton again

Rourke looked from Hunter to Tessa and frowned "Who the hell did you say he was?"

"Loser beta rumbled under his breath as he headed deeper into the woods, the branches dipping under the weight of the icicles clinging to the pine needles

At least he didn’t have to worry about Tessa’s interest in the uy as a lover

So ray--was only after Tessa,That would solve everything All Hunter had to do was prove it But at least once he did, Ashton would go to prison for the o free, end of Tessa’s proble now

He wondered too about the sepia picture of Seth and the woman and baby Maybe it wasn’t Seth A olf couldn’t have children with a huarou Or ht But why she would have it then--

Gunshots rang out across the woods Crazy hunters Hunters Hunter He paused, trying to recall the rest of his na Daround as the coastal pines shielded him some from the sleet If he had been in his wolf coat, no one would hear his approach But for now, he wanted the so they didn’t shoot him by accident

He narrowed the distance between hiun "Hell, ht in with the woods You’re supposed to be wearing orange so we don’t shoot you"

"I’m not a hunter" At least not the kind that used bullets, and nors no uessed it was natural, instinctive

"Well, hell, if you don’t watch out, you’ll be one of the hunted"

"Why don’t you move farther north?" The way Hunter proposed the question, there would be no doubt he’d issued an order

"Why don’t you mind your own business?" the taller of the two o there Cool uys But neither was a otten the better of him Had to have--or else he wouldn’t have taken a dip in the Pacific

"Private property," Hunter said

"Yeah, owned mostly by the timber companies," the bearded of the two men said

"This land is privately owned And you don’t have peret perround "If you’re still wandering through the woods, blending in like you do now…" He shrugged "Wouldn’t be our fault"

"Happen to be a good friend of the local sheriff’s" Hunter gave hi a wolf-to-wolf confrontation when he needed to make another back down, tuck tail, and leave If that didn’t work, he added, "Don’t think you want to go there"

The two men seemed a little ruffled at the revelation, or ed their eted with his rifle They finally cursed under their breaths, but headed north