Page 2 of Grey (Little River Stallions #2)

Grey Williams walked out of the farmhouse as the first fingers of dawn stretched out over the sky, turning everything a soft gold and chasing the darkness of the night away.

He sipped on the coffee in his metal travel mug with the Little River Farm logo, which they’d designed using an online program.

He’d just passed Avi, one of the other members of his stallion shifter herd, as he headed in to go to bed after his night shift on patrol, helping to keep their small herd safe.

Avi had told him that all was well , which was a good thing.

They’d had enough problems over the last couple weeks to last a lifetime and he truly hoped that they’d seen the last of the asshole alpha stallion Colton Kane, who’d decided that he and his herd should take over the Little River Farm and drive away—or kill—Grey and his people.

He kind of doubted they’d seen the last of them, though.

Colton Kane seemed like the sort of male to hold a grudge.

Grey wasn’t. He just wanted to live his life in peace, take care of livestock, and hopefully someday find his soulmate.

The sooner the better.

He spent the morning before the August heat hit its peak tending to the cows, Daisy the solitary goat—who was more like a puppy than a goat—and the chickens. After pushing Daisy away from the chicken coop so he could gather eggs before he fed them, he chuckled to himself.

He never thought he’d be happy taking care of livestock on a tiny farm in nowhere New Jersey with a small herd.

But he was. He’d left behind a stifling herd life in Montana, and while he had some lingering regrets although it was years ago, he didn’t regret the life he had now.

He was in a herd with his four best friends—their alpha Crew, Khyle, Avi, and Ford—and their elder Dexter and his mate.

Khyle’s mate Tris and Crew’s mate Zara had made their farm into a thriving home for the herd.

Now it was just the three males who hadn’t found their soulmates, and Avi and Ford were taking bets on who the next lucky male would be.

Grey hoped it was him.

But since shifters weren’t known to humans, and the need to keep the secret safe from the public was of the utmost importance, if Grey’s soulmate was human, he’d have to win her heart before he shared the truth of his stallion nature with her.

That way he’d know that she cared about him enough to keep the secret, even from her family.

There were stallion females, but they didn’t shift, only the males did.

And herds didn’t hang out around each other, except for the occasional get-together.

After what happened the last time their herd had invited another herd to spend time with them—Colton Kane deciding his herd should run the farm—Grey doubted that they’d be inviting any herds to hang with them in the future.

At least it had resulted in Crew and Zara finding each other.

“How’s it going?” Crew asked as he and Zara walked into the barn where Grey was checking the eggs he’d gathered.

“Good, how are you guys doing?”

“Not bad,” Zara said. “We saw you walk into the barn and wanted to see if you needed anything. We’re heading on a run to the big-box store to stock up on paper goods.”

He turned and said, “If they have any of the zero-sugar sports drinks, I’d love a case, the one that has the yellow one in it.”

Zara made a note on her phone. “Sure thing. We’ll be back later on. See ya.”

“Have fun,” Grey said.

He finished up his work for the morning and then stopped in at the farmhouse to see Tris, their caretaker, hanging freshly washed laundry on the line.

“I have to run to the feed store—do you need anything?”

“I’m good, thanks. Are you taking someone with you?’

“Yeah, Ford’s waiting for me.”

Tris sighed. “How long will we have to worry about Colton coming after us?”

“I don’t know. I want to be hopeful that he’s moved on, but it seems premature to think he’d walk away so easily.”

“I suppose. I’m glad that Crew and Zara found each other, but I really hate that he even came our way.”

“Me too. But it’ll be okay. We’ve got a good security system in the territory and around the farmhouse and outbuildings, and the patrols too. If he does try anything, I think we’re prepared.”

Tris nodded and turned her attention back to the laundry line.

Grey walked away and met Ford at the truck and climbed behind the wheel.

He told Ford what Tris had said.

“I’m hopeful too, but who the hell knows with a guy like him? He’s got at least one screw loose.”

The male and his herd had been kicked out of Little River, but they’d camped out and spied on them, attacking in various ways before finally attempting to kidnap Zara after setting the livestock barn on fire. The campsite was empty now and they didn’t know where Colton had gone.

“I could try to track him,” Grey said as he headed to town. Grey had been taught by his father to track when he was younger, and he was damn good at it. He was the one who’d located Colton and his herd when they were camping in the woods, so he was certain he’d be able to locate him again.

“Maybe we could discuss it at dinner? I think it’s not a bad idea, but also maybe it’s better to just leave it alone?”

“Out of sight, out of mind doesn’t seem smart with someone crazy enough to set a barn on fire.”

“Not out of sight, out of mind per se. More like don’t go looking for trouble.”

Grey chuckled. “Sometimes trouble comes our way without us looking for it.”

He pulled into the parking lot of the feed store in town and parked. As he got out, he paused, his stallion suddenly feeling restless.

“Something wrong?” Ford asked.

“I just… I don’t know.” He shut the truck door and walked toward the feed store, pausing for another long moment and looking around. “I just feel restless. It happened last time I was in town.”

Ford hummed. “Like there’s danger around? Or is it something else?”

Grey rubbed the space over his heart, his stallion letting out a curious whinny in his head. “Not danger, just something . Part of me is intrigued and wants to be here, if you know what I mean.”

Ford’s brows rose and he reached for the feed store’s door handle. “Maybe there’s a change coming for you. Something good.”

Grey followed him into the store, wishing he could ask his stallion if that’s what he was reacting to. Was there a change coming?

“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?