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Grey watched his alpha and friend leave. He’d been trained as a youth by his father and grandfather to track. Since stallions weren’t traditional predator shifters like wolves, they had to hunt for prey in human form, and the herd he’d grown up in had a number of trackers for that job. He’d enjoyed tracking as a kid, but he hadn’t used the skills much since he’d been in Little River. They had livestock and access to food in town, so it wasn’t like they were in the middle of nowhere and had to get all their own food by hunting for it.

He mused on Zara’s former herd life and how isolated they all were, mainly relying on foragers and trackers for food and keeping themselves as far from humans as possible.

Turning his attention back to the task at hand, he followed the subtle clues that told him people had been in the woods. Stallions didn’t really smell like anything except human, unlike other shifters that had a certain scent to shifters: lions smelled like grass, gorillas like the jungle, and wolves like the forest. So he couldn’t exactly follow anyone’s scent; he was following the evidence of their meandering through the woods. They were clearly being careful as they moved, but not so careful they weren’t leaving broken branches, footprints in the dirt, and trampled grass.

It took him over an hour of careful moving through the woods to pick up the sound of low voices. Moving cautiously forward, he crept through the trees until he came to a camp with several tents. Colton’s herd was milling around, talking quietly while one of them—he thought it was Colton’s brother, Weston—was making sandwiches on the liftgate of a truck and grumbling about how he’d gotten stuck with the task.

Grey hunkered down to watch and listen. They were still in Little River, though outside of his herd’s territory. The camp was crude, but it seemed like they were settled in for a while with evidence of a cooking fire and chairs around it, as well as boxes of what appeared to be supplies.

“Here,” Weston said with a snarl, handing a sandwich to Colton.

“What’s up your ass?” Colton asked, taking the sandwich.

“I don’t know why I have to do this. I’m your brother.”

“Yeah, but you’re low man on the totem pole and the youngest. I can’t show favoritism, bro.”

Colton took a large bite of the sandwich and turned his attention to one of the other males. “The question is, now that they found the traps and we weren’t able to grab that bitch, do we go with Plan B or Plan C, since Plan A failed?”

Grey recognized Silas, Colton’s second-in-command. “I like Plan C.”

“You would,” Colton said with a snort.

“I think we should do B,” Weston said. “Not that anyone is listening to me.”

“You’re right, little brother,” Colton said. “I let you talk me into Plan A and all that happened was we wasted a day digging damn holes and got nowhere with it except to let them know we hadn’t left town.”

“I’ll get working on Plan C, then?” Levi, one of the other males, said.

“Yes, now that they know we didn’t leave, we’ll need to move faster to implement things or they might locate us.”

“No way they’d find us, we’re hidden,” Weston said.

“We hurt their business, we threatened the alpha’s female,” Colton said. “We’ll have to move swiftly if we’re going to clear out the farm and take it over.”

Grey’s stallion let out an angry snort in his head. So the others in his herd were right—Colton wanted the farm for himself. What an asshole. They’d worked hard for years to turn the farm into a sanctuary for their herd. No way in hell was he going to let the male wander in and take over because he was too lazy to start a new home base for his herd himself.

Fucker.

He watched a while longer, but they didn’t say what Plan B or Plan C was, and they didn’t do anything but eat the sandwiches Weston made and tease him about being the “New Zara.”

Armed with enough knowledge for their herd to at least protect themselves, Grey returned to the farm without being detected by Colton’s people and then reported to Crew and the others about what he’d witnessed It wasn’t good news, but it was news all the same and more than they’d known before.

Every little bit helped.

They’d just have to make it impossible for Colton and his herd to get to them so they’d realize it was a futile endeavor and would be better served finding their own home.

* * *

The next morning, Zara’s ankle was back to normal and she was feeling more like herself. She was still scared by what had transpired, especially knowing that someone had actually been watching her and the traps had seemingly been set for her. She’d fallen asleep on the couch and woken up in bed with Crew, and this morning, they’d talked quietly about everything she’d missed while she’d been sleeping off whatever magical tea Doc Paula had given her that helped her to rest while she was healing.

The main thing he’d expressed was that there were now even more security measures in place and they were still in the process of installing everything. When they’d parted ways before breakfast, she’d kissed him goodbye and watched him leave with the other herd members, save for Avi who was keeping an eye on the farmhouse as part of the new security patrols.

She stood on the porch after breakfast and helping to clean up the kitchen while Tris tended to other things. Avi walked by, a walkie on a holster on his hip as he surveyed the area, making a circuit around the buildings.

“Did you tend to the animals yet?” she asked, leaning on the top rail.

“Not yet,” he said, pausing his trek.

“I’ll do it.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “It wouldn’t hurt for them to wait until I’m relieved by Ford in a couple hours.”

“Positive. I need to do something, and Crew won’t let me join the patrol.”

“Of course not,” he said. “I wouldn’t let my soulmate patrol on her own either. You can call it sexist or macho, but soulmates are precious.”

“The feeling goes both ways,” she said with a smile. “I don’t think it’s sexist. I’m not a trained fighter, but I can watch for danger.”

“Hopefully, no one on patrol here ever needs to put their fight training to use, but we can if we need to. When the security system is set up, maybe you can take over watching the monitors from inside the farmhouse; that would be a big help.”

She brightened at the prospect. “I’d like that.”

She hopped down to the grass and walked to the barn to take care of the livestock. Since she wasn’t leaving the area, she didn’t need a walkie, but she’d still keep her wits about her and not take her own safety for granted. Ford, Grey, and Crew were working with Khyle on setting up the rest of the security equipment.

As she reached the barn, she heard the soft rumble of a vehicle and looked up in time to see an old beat-up truck drive down the road and pass by their farm. Since they didn’t turn into the driveway or slow down, she didn’t give it any mind. It probably belonged to one of the other farms on the old dirt road.

In the barn, she got to work tending first to the cows, fending off Daisy’s propensity to get into everything, and then she took care of the chickens.

As she returned to the barn to get Daisy her breakfast, she heard an engine again and looked out the door.

The same truck she’d seen before drove by.

Now that was strange.

“Hey, Avi?” she called.

“Yeah, Zara?”

“I just saw a truck.”

“Okay?” he asked, striding toward her. “What did it look like?”

She described the truck, telling him how she’d seen it pass by two times since she’d been outside.

He frowned. “That’s not good. They installed cameras on the fence at the front of the property,” he said. “Let’s go take a look.”

She fed Daisy and put her in the pasture with the cows, then hurried back into the house to the den where Avi was already seated at the desk and pulling up the camera footage.

She pulled up a chair to sit next to him and watched as he told her how to access the different cameras on any of the three monitors they’d hooked up. The desk now looked like something out of a movie about computer hackers.

“There,” she said, as she saw the footage of the truck drive by.

Avi stopped and reversed the footage, slowing it down. “The angle’s bad, so we can’t see the license plate, but I’m very sure I haven’t seen that truck before.”

He twisted the top of his walkie and said, “Crew, you there?”

There was a small squeal of static, and he answered, “Yep, I’m at the back of the territory with Grey setting up cameras. What’s up?”

Avi told Crew about the truck she’d seen.

“Damn it. All right, just keep an eye on things and we’ll finish up as soon as we can. If they’re just driving by periodically, they might be trying to see how many of us are around outside. I mean, it could be innocent and just some lost idiot who doesn’t know where they are.”

“That doesn’t seem real likely,” Avi said.

“I know, I was just throwing it out there. I think it’s far more likely that Colton sent one of his assholes to drive by. It was good luck that Zara saw it. Speaking of, is Zara there?”

“I’m here, Crew.”

“Hey, baby.”

She grinned. “Hi yourself.”

“Can you watch the monitors while Avi patrols? I was thinking about it last night.”

“Avi and I were just talking about it,” she said. “I’d be happy to.”

“Stay safe, sweetheart. I’ll be back soon.”

“ You stay safe,” she said.

“I will.”

Avi twisted the knob and set the walkie back in the holster. “Let’s turn you into a security monitoring expert as fast as possible.”

“I’m up for the job,” she said. She’d do anything to help keep the herd—and her soulmate—safe.