Page 23

(Little River Stallions Book Two)

“I’ve wondered for a long time if finding my soulmate would finally give me peace,” Grey said as they drove back to the farm.

“I get that,” Ford said. “I think we all could use a little peace after so much turmoil with Colton and his herd.”

“Well, yeah, but I mean in general. Like I’ve never really felt at peace, not since I left my old herd.”

He could feel Ford looking at him, but he kept his eyes on the road. “I didn’t realize you didn’t feel at peace,” Ford said.

“It’s not the kind of thing that keeps me up at night, but there’s a lingering feeling of unease, like I’m not supposed to be happy because of how I left.”

“You left because you had no choice. Hell, all of us left our home herds because there was no other thing for us.”

Grey’s older brother, Grant, was set to inherit their father’s second-in-command position of their herd, which was run by a rigid, old-fashioned alpha. Grey thought the alpha was heavy-handed and balked at a decision he’d made that put the herd at risk. The clash between him and the alpha was at odds with his father and brother, who thought the alpha could do no wrong and blamed Grey for not toeing the line. There was no room in the herd for people who didn’t think the alpha hung the moon, so he’d chosen exile and left the herd. A friend had told him about the herd in Little River, which had been run by Dexter at the time, and he’d joined up, finding their less-rigid structure and family-like group more to his liking.

But he’d never really gotten over walking away from his dad and brother, who would have treated him like he was dead anyway because that’s what exile was supposed to be like. He wondered about them—were they safe? Had his brother mated and started a family? Was the herd still in Montana with the same asshole alpha?

He’d never know, and that was like an icepick in his ear, a dull aching sort of feeling that he wondered if finding his soulmate would fix…as if his soulmate might be some sort of magical balm to the broken parts of his soul.

And he thought maybe she would be, because he’d seen how different Crew was now that he and Zara were together. And he’d seen it with Khyle and Tris too.

“I know I’m where I belong,” he said finally, “but I do feel like some part of me is missing or damaged, and I wonder if it will heal when I find my soulmate.”

“I think that’s what having a soulmate is like,” Ford said. “They complete us. Look at how broken Khyle was before he and Tris got together. It was like she magically glued him back together.”

“I could use some of that magical glue.”

“You and me both.”

After unloading the truck and finishing his morning chores, Grey started his patrol shift, walking the perimeter of their one-hundred-acre farm, and checking all the buildings for any evidence of intruders, before finalizing his shift with a check of all the security cameras and motion detectors they’d installed.

“Nothing amiss,” he told Crew, who was taking the next shift.

“Good deal,” Crew said. He paused and added, “You okay, man? You seem a little not yourself.”

“Eh,” he said. “I went into town with Ford, and it’s the second time I’ve been there and felt something weird, like my stallion’s instincts are kicking in but I don’t know why.”

“Maybe something in your life is about to change. Like maybe you’re the next to find your soulmate.”

“Ford said something similar.”

“Sorry, bro, but I’m definitely getting the next soulmate,” Ford said.

“You can’t call it like dibs,” Avi said.

“Can and did, count it,” Ford said.

As the two argued about calling dibs on soulmates, Grey chuckled and shook his head at their banter.

“Whatever’s going on with my stallion, maybe I need to head into town again and walk around.” Sunday was a good day to stroll through the town, and he could pick up a sandwich at the gas station mini-mart for lunch too. It was as good a reason as any to go to Little River, not just the hope that maybe his friend was right and his soulmate was nearby.

Wouldn’t that be something?

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