Page 7 of Fated to the Wolf Cowboy (Cowboys of Collier #1)

Brady

I laid on a bale of hay staring up at the ceiling of the barn. Clementine was still restless after her run through town two days ago. I hadn’t left her side since.

It had been quite the whirlwind of confusion and I was grateful for my brothers who had stepped up to pick up my slack around the farm, even if they did think I’d lost my mind.

They just couldn’t understand what I was going through and who could blame them?

My mate was a horse.

“Just shift already,” I begged her.

She had to be a shifter, right? So why the hell wouldn’t she shift and talk to me? Didn’t she realize how crazy she was making me?

Yet all she seemed to want to do was get away from me.

At first Austin had helped me track her down in town. She was snooping around shops and when we found her she had a saddle full of clothes, food, and first aid supplies. No one could seem to explain just how this had happened. One person even tried to say she saw a raccoon in town helping her.

It was like the entire town had lost their minds.

I looked over at the horse. Was it wrong that I didn’t really feel that connected to her? Was the bond something that grew with time?

Getting up, I wandered over to her and rubbed her back.

The touch did nothing for me. Yet in doing so, it picked up her scent once more. I loved that scent.

Mine, my wolf said.

I sighed.

This was definitely not how I imagined finding my true mate would feel.

Maybe it was better this way. I didn’t really want a mate, and I felt like I could still walk away from Clementine without too much damage, especially if she refused to shift and actually talk to me.

“Come on, babe. Shift. Dammit. Just shift already. We need to talk.”

All I got in response was a neigh that sounded a bit like she was laughing at me.

“Great. Just go ahead and keep mocking me. I hope it’s entertaining you.”

Cruz walked into the barn and looked around.

“Who are you talking to?”

“Clementine.”

“The horse?”

“My mate,” I corrected.

He gave me a quizzical look and then burst out laughing.

“You think the horse is your mate?”

“I know she is,” I said defiantly.

“She’s a horse, Brady.”

“Shut the hell up. Don’t you think I can see that? One of Lily’s brothers is mated to a panther. It happens.”

“Yeah, a panther shifter. Clementine is just a horse.”

“Says you.”

“And everyone else who knows her. There’s no humanity here.”

I shrugged. “James is mated to a human. She doesn’t even have an animal, yet no one seemed to question that.”

“It’s a horse!”

“And I’m a cowboy, so I guess it makes sense.”

None of this made any sense at all, but there was no way I was going to admit that to him.

“Tell me why you think this horse is your mate.”

“Because my wolf keeps telling me so. I know her scent, Cruz. I’m not going crazy.”

The look he shot me told me he wasn’t so sure about that.

“Well, I need to borrow your woman tomorrow. Wyatt’s scheduled to ride her.”

“Like hell.”

“Brady, he always rides her.”

I growled.

He rolled his eyes.

“Do I need to bring Luke in on this?”

“I don’t give a shit, but Wyatt’s fat ass is not riding my mate.”

Clementine paid us no attention whatsoever as she ate the grains that had been provided for her.

Dammit. I really wish she’d just speak up for herself. Just because I was her mate didn’t mean I had to do everything for her.

Cruz was fighting back laughter.

“She’s not your mate, dude. She’s a damn animal, a work horse, who needs to go back to work.”

I growled aggressively.

He put his hands up in surrender and slowly backed away and out of her stall shaking his head the whole time.

I was grateful for the solitude. I knew how ridiculous it all sounded, but I also knew what I felt. I heard my wolf’s insistence. This was my mate, for better or worse.

“You’re a really beautiful horse,” a told her. “And I’d really like to meet the real you when you’re ready.”

I couldn’t stop believing there was a lot more to her than just this beast before me.

It wasn’t long before Kenneth and Tim stopped by to check on me.

“Hey, we heard you were holed up in here. What’s going on?” Tim asked.

“Is that her? Your horse mate?” Kenneth asked before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

“Shut the hell up. You know nothing.”

Tim just gave me a sympathetic look. I wanted to knock it right off his ugly face, but I also knew Jessie would likely stab me in my sleep or something.

The two of them were crazy protective of each other.

It probably had a lot to do with my brother’s imbalance.

The most level-headed, calm man sporting around an Alpha-wolf within.

In animal form, he was the dominant, but in their human forms, it was Jessie who looked after him.

They were evenly matched in that way, both meek and wild in their own ways, a perfectly balanced imbalance.

I looked over at Clementine. Did we compliment each other, too? Were we alike, more similar to Oliver and Peyton who were both equally stubborn, passionate, and protective? Or would we balance each other’s weaknesses like Tim and Jessie?

I certainly didn’t know because I didn’t know a goddam thing about her.

I growled in frustration.

“Woah. Settle down, bro,” Kenneth said.

“What are you two even doing here? Get the hell out of here and leave us alone.”

I wasn’t in the mood for company. And I was already going crazy enough on my own without Kenneth mocking me.

“We just want to help,” Tim protested.

“Help? You can’t help. You can’t change the fact that I’m mated to a horse that won’t even talk to me. This is my problem to deal with. Not yours.”

“You’re serious? You really think you’re mated to Clementine?” Kenneth asked. “But why now? It’s not like you just found each other.”

“How the hell am I supposed to know? This isn’t something I asked for and it’s not something I can control.”

“Come on. We should go. I don’t think he’s in the mood for company tonight,” Tim told him.

“No shit,” Kenneth muttered.

Tim nodded goodbye and pushed our youngest brother out of the stall and then the barn.

“He seriously thinks he’s mated to a horse? Tim, he’s losing it. We have to do something.”

“Not now. Just drop it okay. The best thing we can do is support him.”

“But it’s lunacy. . .”

As their voices trailed off, I couldn’t help but think maybe they were right. This was lunacy. Still, I couldn’t change how I felt.

Alone at last, I settled back down on a bale of hay, knowing I wasn’t going anywhere tonight. But Clementine never fully settled. She was restless and irritable all night long and she kept trying to escape.

At some point in the night, I did drift off for a bit only to be awakened by barn door opening. Groggy and exhausted I realized my mate was no longer in her stall. I jumped up and ran for the door just as she was walking out.

Fortunately, I was able to capture her in time and return her safely to where she belonged. It made me wonder if this was going to be my life now, living in a barn with the animals.

As I closed the outside door, I jumped as a raccoon casually walked on by. Rubbing my eyes, I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen, remembering the reports of one helping Clementine steal food and supplies in town.

I shook my head. Maybe I really was going insane.

This time I made sure to secure the latch and just in case, I propped myself up against the door. There was no way she was going anywhere this time.

I never fully went back to sleep though as we both tossed and turned but never truly slept through the night. And by the time the sun began to rise, both my wolf and I were very much on edge. And when Wyatt arrived to start his day with my mate, all hell broke loose.

“Calm down, Brady,” he tried to say, but I wasn’t hearing any of it.

To ensure her protection, I shifted into my fur letting my clothes rip to shreds all around us. Clementine should have felt safe from me. She had to know I could never hurt her, but I instantly knew it was the wrong thing to do. She was spooked and accidentally kicked my wolf right in the ribs.

“Shit! Brady, are you alright?” Wyatt yelled. “Whoa girl. Calm down.”

I couldn’t move as I watched in horror as he tied a rope around her neck and led her out to the corral.

“This is too much. I’m calling Thomas.” He picked up his phone right away. “You gotta get over here and control Brady. He’s going to get himself killed. Yeah, send Sam. He likely has a few broken ribs.”

After saying goodbye, he tried to approach me to help. My wolf snapped at him and growled in warning.

Normally I would have shifted back to my skin, but he was right. I was pretty sure I’d broken at least two ribs.

The day was just beginning and already I couldn’t imagine it getting any worse.