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Zara stood on the front porch of the farmhouse the following morning, waiting for Tris to meet her after breakfast. She and Crew had stayed up late into the night talking in the family room, sharing about their lives. She’d never felt so close to someone. He was unbelievably sweet and caring about the herd members, and so willing to bring her right into his life like she’d always been part of it.

She’d slept fitfully, waking frequently and wishing that Crew was with her.

She could tell by the way he yawned several times over breakfast that he hadn’t slept all that well either.

“Are you sure you don’t just want to hang out in the house?” Tris asked as she joined Zara with a basket hanging on one arm.

“I’d love to see how you do things around here. It’s so different from how it was for me before.”

Tris hummed. “I never thought that doing chores would make me happy, but it does. There’s something about working to keep the herd running smoothly that just makes my wolf so happy.”

They stepped off the porch and walked to the coop. Zara’s herd hadn’t had animals of any sort in their territory. There were a few gardens scattered around and she’d tended them, finding happiness in the dirt that she hadn’t found among her own people. While they gathered eggs and fed the chickens, Tris said, “Grey handles the cows, and of course, Daisy too.”

Zara ducked out of the coop and stretched with a yawn.

“Didn’t sleep well or didn’t sleep much?” Tris asked with a knowing smile.

“Not well,” Zara said. “I wouldn’t mind being tired if it was because I was with a certain male, but the truth is, I slept in a room by myself and just couldn’t rest consistently.”

“It’s a weird place having a soulmate but not being mated,” Tris mused.

“Yeah.”

“Did you always think you’d have a stallion for a mate?”

“I didn’t really think much about it. I was lonely, but none of the males in the herd appealed to me for a mate, and the herd wouldn’t have allowed a human as a mate. Maybe not even a shifter of another kind, I really don’t know.”

“I hate when groups act like that. Like, let people find their mates however they come, you know?”

“Agreed.”

“Well, well, well,” Levi said loudly as he walked out of the nearby barn where the herd had stayed.

“Good morning,” Zara said, wariness settling over her. It had been easy to forget about the herd when she was in the farmhouse with Crew and his people. But the reality was that she was part of the Valley Herd still, no matter that she and Crew were soulmates.

They weren’t mated yet.

Colton and the others walked out of the barn, and Colton gave Zara a once-over. “We’re going to scout a town for a relocation. Since you’re so busy playing house with the Little River Herd today, you probably don’t want to come along.”

It was a question and a statement, and damn was it snide.

“I’m content to help around here, since they were so gracious to put our people up for the week and offer assistance without asking for anything in return.”

Colton’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he said nothing, striding away to their vehicles.

The vehicles departed with a cloud of dust and Zara stared after them, a strange feeling settling over her like a blanket.

What was Colton up to?

“Let’s drop off the eggs and we’ll take a walk down the road to Nancy’s. She said her daughter Dani is stopping by and she’s bringing me some new face wash and mascara.”

“Sounds good to me.”

After putting the eggs in a container to sort and tend to later, they walked down the dirt road to Nancy and Dexter’s home.

“Oh! You must be Zara, I’m Dani! It’s so nice to meet you.” A bubbly brunette rose from a stool at the kitchen counter and came over to greet them.

After a quick hug, Dani introduced Zara to her mate, Neo, who was a gorilla shifter. The two lived and worked at a safari park.

“You live there too?” Zara asked.

“They have employee housing,” Dani said. “Neo is a repairman, he works on the safari park vehicles, and I have an employee-only makeup shop, where I order things for our people and do makeovers and facials.”

“That sounds awesome,” Zara said.

“Anytime you’d like to come see the park, let me know,” Dani said.

“I will, thanks,” Zara said.

While Dani and Tris talked about skincare, Nancy gave Zara a tour of the house that Dexter had built for her. Then they all sat together in the big family room and talked about the herd’s history, which included Nancy and Dexter mating and joining their families—Dani was Nancy’s daughter and Khyle was Dexter’s son—and because of how secretive stallions were, Dani hadn’t known that Dexter and Khyle were stallions, or that the other males in the herd were too. She hadn’t known about shifters of any kind at all.

“When I met Neo, I just knew something was going on but I had no clue what it could be,” Dani said, smiling sweetly at her mate. “Then Khyle shifted for me, and he broke the laws of the stallions by showing his shift to someone who wasn’t his soulmate. The herd imploded, with Dexter disbanding it and stepping down, along with exiling Khyle.”

Nancy nodded. “The boys, as I like to call them, decided to start over with Crew as alpha, and brought Khyle back in as a member and Dexter as elder. I never thought we’d be part of a herd again, so it was a sweet surprise to be included.”

“Stallions really do like to keep secrets,” Zara said. “The females in my herd were the daughters of stallions, so they knew the truth from a young age. I imagine it was quite a surprise to see your brother shift into a horse.”

“Oh yeah,” Dani said.

“And I didn’t know stallions were a thing either,” Tris said. “I’d never seen anyone but a wolf shifter my whole life.”

Zara mused on Crew’s herd while the others talked about the herd’s history.

The Little River Herd was different than what she’d grown up with, but she already loved it.

Loved the farm, loved the whole feel of the place.

And she was already falling for Crew.

They hadn’t done more than kiss and talk, but she could picture their future together, a life filled with love and laughter, with no one making her feel like she was a second-class citizen and only worth what she could contribute.

Life with Crew would be different, but so, so sweet.

She really couldn’t wait.

* * *

Tris let Zara borrow a dress for their date because Zara never had a need for anything fancy. The pretty sundress, along with borrowed strappy sandals, and makeup, had made Zara feel pretty for the first time in her life.

She’d dated here and there, whenever her old alpha had brought in other herds to visit, but because she’d never found her soulmate, the dating had never gone anywhere.

There was a knock at the front door. Zara looked around the kitchen, where Grey, Avi, and Ford were sitting at the table and eating the dinner that Tris had made for them.

“I don’t think that’s for any of us,” Avi said with a grin.

“Oh!” she said. She hurried down the hall to the front door and opened it, finding Crew wearing slacks and a polo that was the same emerald green as her eyes, holding a bouquet of wildflowers.

“You look amazing, sweetheart,” he whispered in her ear as he hugged her. She took the flowers and smiled at him.

“You look great too.” They walked into the kitchen where he pulled a vase down from a high cabinet and filled it with water for her.

“Have fun you two,” Ford said.

“Don’t wait up,” Crew said. He offered Zara his arm. “Ready for dinner?”

She took his arm, feeling the bulge of his biceps, her fingers practically itching with the need to explore him without clothes, and nodded.

They walked out to his truck and he opened the door for her, and then he slipped behind the wheel.

The seafood restaurant was outside of Little River, where she had fried flounder and sweet cornbread, and they shared a brownie sundae to finish off the evening. When they were back at the farm, they went for a nighttime walk through the fields where his herd ran in their shifts, protected from view by the thick woods and large parcel of land that they owned. They talked about their hopes and their dreams, with Crew sharing that he wanted a safe and thriving herd, but he didn’t believe that Colton or his people belonged with them.

“The sooner they’re on the way, the better,” he said.

“I agree,” she said. “He wouldn’t step down as alpha for anyone, not even someone who is clearly a good leader like you.”

“What do you want?” he asked.

They faced each other in the field.

“I want to be with you.”

“According to our laws, once you and I are fully mated, we can perform a joining ceremony to make you an official member of the herd. But you’ll need to leave the Valley Herd first; there’s no such thing as dual membership in herds.”

“I know,” she said with a sigh. “Colton already knows that you and I are soulmates, so he shouldn’t be surprised that I want to leave. I really just want to be free of the past, you know? I feel like being part of the Valley Herd is like a chain around my neck. I never really paid much attention to how I was treated. It was better when my parents were alive, but since they’ve been gone, it’s like I’ve just gotten accustomed to being treated like crap. Like I’m only good for whatever I do for the herd. You don’t treat Tris or Nancy, or any of the guys, like that.”

“Of course not,” he said. “Even when Dexter was alpha, the herd has always treated every member, whether they’re a stallion or not, as valuable. We do have expectations for our people, so that the herd works together and no one person is doing more than their fair share, but other than that, we make our own way. I want that for you, and not just because you’re my soulmate.”

“You’re very sweet.”

“I promise I’m only sweet for you, Zara.”

She shivered as she looked up at him. Behind him was a sky full of stars, each one like a wish that was filled with infinite possibilities.

Was this what hope felt like? Like falling in love?

He rubbed her arms and she smiled. “I’m not cold,” she whispered.

“You shivered.”

“Because I’m thinking about hope.”

“Hope?”

“Hope that our night isn’t over yet.”

He let out a low, rumbling growl. “It’s definitely not over yet.”

“Good,” she murmured before rising onto her toes and wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m falling for you, Crew.”

His large hands settled on her waist and he kneaded her flesh for a moment. “I’m falling for you too, Zara. Sweet soulmate, sweetest female I’ve ever met.”

“Take me home,” she said, brushing her lips over his.

He scooped her up into his arms and then kissed her. As he strode through the fields toward the farmhouse, her stomach flipped and anticipation filled her.

The night was far from over.