Natural Selection

"There's a new pack in Mesa."

Loyal stared over at Ryan, one shaggy eyebrow going up. "A pack of what?"

"Cigarettes. Dork. A wolf pack."

Now Loyal's eyebrows lowered, snapping together over his heavy nose. "That's awful close to a town to be catch and release country."

Ryan shook his head, grinning. "No, Loyal. A pack like me."

"Werewolves. In Mesa?"

Mesa, Colorado, sat about two thousand feet below where Ryan lived with his bear of a lover, up on Grand Mesa, the largest flat-top mountain in the world. They had snow, aspens, and all the trout Loyal could eat. Loyal could eat a lot of trout. Most big old bears could.

"Yep," Ryan said. "Well, at least mostly, it looks like." Grabbing an apple, Ryan munched, juice dribbling down his chin. Loyal swiped at him with one big hand, bringing him close to lick the sweet, sticky stuff from his skin.

"Mostly, huh? Well, we'll just steer clear of them."

Loyal was kind of a loner, and it had taken Ryan months after he became a Park Ranger up in Grand Mesa to get to know the big guy. The other Rangers had told him about the hermit-y guy who had the little cabin at the base of a wash, but it was Ryan who had understood what he was up against.

It was dangerous to poke the bear, but Ryan kinda liked it. "I was thinking I could take them cookies. Maybe that ham you have hanging in the...."

Ryan jumped at the swat Loyal laid on him, laughing like a maniac. The light in Loyal's bright green eyes made him smile long after he'd stopped chuckling.

"You're a weird little man," Loyal said. "Do what you want, but be careful. Your kind aren't so ready to welcome anyone in who's different."

Yeah. He knew that first hand, had the scars on his back to prove it. That was before he met Loyal. Ryan would bet that a new pack would be even less accepting of a wolf who mated regularly with a were-bear. "I'll stay out of range, okay? Though if I meet one at the post office, I won't back off."

"My wolf back down? Never." Ryan got a squeeze that pushed all the air out of his lungs, and a kiss that would have left him breathless if he'd had any.

"Nope," Ryan squeaked. "Never. Now, what were we doing before I opened my big mouth?"

"Well, you were going to feed me, but I think we might be able to come up with something else," Loyal rumbled, reaching down to feel up his ass.

"Something else is coming up as we speak," Ryan said, rubbing all up on Loyal's hip.