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Crew McCormick stepped out of the farmhouse before the first rays of the August dawn peeked above the horizon. It was going to be a blazer and he wanted to get the worst of the chores finished up before it got too hot.

He grabbed a pair of gloves from the hook on the porch and pulled them on as he strode across the yard toward the big barn where they kept the animals. They didn’t have many—a few cows, chickens, and a mischievous goat named Daisy, who acted more like a dog than a goat and liked to get in the way and follow them around.

He heard his friends—three of the five members of their stallion shifter herd—in the barn and wasn’t surprised to find them sitting on hay bales and talking, steaming coffee mugs in Grey’s and Avi’s hands, and an energy drink in Ford’s hand. Their fifth herd member, Khyle, had left earlier to work with his dad Dexter’s construction company.

After greeting his friends, they discussed the workload and plans for the day, then parted ways to get things done. Their herd owned a working farm that they used not only to provide food for themselves, but was also a safe place for them to shift into their stallion forms without humans seeing.

The secret of shifters had to be kept from humans at all costs.

If a shifter happened to find his soulmate and she was human, he couldn’t tell her the truth of his shifting nature until they were in love and he could be certain she wouldn’t share the truth with anyone.

Crew was looking forward to finding his soulmate, and of course, hoped it happened soon, but he wasn’t looking forward to having to keep a secret from her until he had her heart. It would be difficult to lie to someone he knew was his other half.

“Why you looking so serious?” Avi asked as he joined Crew to look at a broken section of fence. One of the cows had rubbed up against the split rails and cracked one in half.

“Just thinking about soulmates.”

Avi looked at the fence and said, “A broken fence made you think about soulmates?”

Crew smiled. “No, actually, I was just thinking about the farm and that it’s safe for us to shift because there aren’t humans around, and that got me thinking about having a soulmate who’s human.”

“Maybe she’ll be a shifter,” Avi mused. “Someone from the safari park, maybe.”

The park was run by a large number of shifters who lived and worked there—gorillas, lions, bears, wolves, and a few others. They ran safari tours with free coupons to bring unmated human males and females into the park, hoping to find their soulmates.

“I’m pretty sure there aren’t a whole hell of a lot of unmated females at the park,” Crew pointed out. He was certain that at least two of the groups didn’t have any female shifters at all—gorillas and elephants—but he wasn’t sure about the others as they didn’t spend a ton of time at the park. Khyle had lived with the gorilla shifters for a while before he rejoined the herd when they established themselves as the Little River Herd.

“Good point,” Avi said. “So human, probably.”

“It would be nice if she was a shifter, so we wouldn’t have to tell her any lies at all or withhold anything.”

“What would really be awesome is if she was a stallion.”

Stallion females couldn’t shift. It was the weird quirk of their DNA. Only males could shift, but females could have sons who could shift.

“You know what? I don’t really care what she can or can’t shift into, or if she can even shift at all,” Crew said. “I really would just like it if she showed up sooner rather than later.”

“Hear hear.”

They discussed the fence repair, headed into the storage barn for supplies, and got to work. Even though Avi normally handled their crops, Crew appreciated him lending a hand in mending the fence. Each of the stallions had a talent related to farming, but Crew was the jack-of-all-trades and just did whatever needed to be done.

They also worked for Dexter’s construction company when they had free time. It brought in much-needed income in the winter months and kept them busy.

Now that Crew was alpha and Dexter was their only elder, a lot more responsibility was on his shoulders than when he’d simply been a herd member. Which was why he was hoping to find his soulmate soon. He’d love to have someone to share the workload with, to talk to about herd business, and of course, someone to share his life with.

That’s what he longed for most.

* * *

“Daisy, damn it,” Ford growled.

Crew walked into the storage barn and found Daisy up on the hay bales, refusing to come down so Ford could get the hay to the cows.

“She’s so freaking stubborn,” Ford said, planting his hands on his hips.

Daisy bleated with a sassy tone.

“You don’t know how to sweet talk her,” Avi said.

He left the barn and returned a few moments later with a handful of sweet grass he’d cut fresh, which he used to lure her from the bales.

“She’s so spoiled,” Ford said with a fond smile. She was their unofficial herd mascot, left behind by the previous farmer.

“She is spoiled,” Grey said as he returned from filling up the water troughs in the pen. “But she’s worth it.”

After securing the ornery goat in with the cows so they could graze and enjoy the morning, they worked together to get the rest of the chores done, and then took a break on the front porch with cold lemonade.

The rocker creaked as Crew sat in it, looking out over their yard. They all lived in the main house, which had eight bedrooms and three bathrooms. Their paid caretaker—Tris—was a wolf shifter who was mated to Khyle, and they’d recently moved into the home they’d built on property owned by Dexter and his mate Nancy, who lived about a mile down the road. For a while, Khyle and Tris had lived in the storage barn’s apartment, but they had a place of their own now and the apartment sat empty.

They’d all come to Little River from other herds. Crew had been seventeen when he’d been exiled from his herd and floundered for a while until he’d been directed to Dexter’s herd. Then Grey, Avi, and finally Ford had finished out their herd.

“The herd’s a lot different now than what it was when we all joined up,” Crew mused.

“Definitely,” Ford said. “But it’s good the way it is now—better, I think. We’ve got Dexter for an elder, but we were able to bring Khyle back in with Tris, and she makes kickass fresh-squeezed lemonade.”

“My ears are burning,” Tris said as she peeked out the front door. “Lunch is ham and cheese subs and fruit salad, on the counter when you’re ready. Crew, don’t forget you’re grilling tonight, the burgers are in the fridge. And it’s laundry day, fellas. Speak now or wear dirty shorts until Monday.”

Crew grinned. Tris was the best caretaker he and his herd could ask for, and it was icing on the cake that she was Khyle’s soulmate. The male had been lost without someone to anchor him.

Crew understood the feeling.

“I need to grab my laundry,” Crew said, draining the glass. “Then I’ll run into town for supplies.”

“I’ll go along,” Grey said. “I need to get chicken feed from the farm store.”

“Sounds good,” Crew said.

After getting their laundry into the big laundry room, they headed inside for lunch. As Crew dug into a piled-high sub, he couldn’t help but feel like something was going to change for them. Maybe one of them would find their soulmate soon. He would like to vote that he hoped it was him, but he’d be happy with any of his friends finding their forever-girl.

“Good things are coming to Little River,” he said.

“I hope you’re right,” Ford said. “I’m ready for all of us to find our soulmates and the herd to grow.”

With a nod, Crew agreed. He was definitely ready for that too.