Page 40 of His True Mate

“Huh. Is that why they called you the old man?”

I groaned. “Something like that.”

She laughed. “Be right back.”

It didn’t take her long to change, but when she returned wearing a pencil skirt and blouse I shook my head and frowned.

“Seriously? What is wrong with this? You said we were going into your office.”

I laughed. “Not what you think. Come on.”

This time I picked out her clothes for her, jeans and one of her new T-shirts. It was a bit form fitting, but personally, I loved that. I just wasn’t sure how my wolf would feel if anyone happened to come by the barn.

I tossed her the boots she’d brought with her and then set the cowgirl hat Sydney had insisted she buy on top of her head.

“Better.”

She looked down at the outfit in surprise. “Whatever. Do people around here always dress like cowboys?” she asked as we walked back to the car, and I grabbed my own hat from the stand next to the door.

“You’ll see,” I told her again.

Winnie practically had her nose pressed to the window as we drove the scenic route along the range to the barn.

“It’s so beautiful here. I’ve seen similar passing through from town-to-town, but I’ve never spent time in a place like this before.”

“I imagine it’s quite different than what you’re used to. Wide-open spaces with no one in sight. That’s what you’ll find around here unless you go into town.

“It’s amazing. I just want to set my wolf free and run forever,” she whispered.

“I don’t know about forever, but we can certainly go for a run later. Not that you need me to run with you, but I can if you’d like. If you’d rather run alone, that’s okay too. Your wolf should easily find her way back home.”

“Home?” she snorted. “Not exactly a concept I’m used to.”

We passed the first of the barns before I could respond, and she practically squealed.

“Is that a horse stable?”

“It is. We can swing by after I check on the girls.”

Her head whipped around to me and there was fury in her eyes.

“Girls?”

I laughed knowing I’d already explained to her a bit what I did. I knew she was on information overload, so I didn’t bother to tell her again.

“You’ll see.”

I finally stopped and pulled into my parking spot in front of the dairy barn. The new arrivals were corralled outside as Ruby, Bran, and Opal stood by the fence watching them.

Winnie seemed surprised as she sat there staring, no doubt trying to put things together. It gave me enough time to run around and open her door to help her out this time.

“I thought you said we were going to your office.”

I laughed. “Uh, yeah. This is my office, well, it’s inside at least.”

“You work in a barn?”

“Yup. I specialize in dairy production, remember? I was in Omaha for the auction picking up some new ladies.”