Page 52 of His True Mate

The horse quirked his head to the side and then he snorted loudly as he shook his head.

I grinned, wanting to believe that he understood me on some level.

“That’s what I thought. You won’t hurt me, boy, will you?”

“Don’t be so sure of that,” a voice said behind me.

I jumped and turned to find Dalton Draper watching me closely.

“You’re early,” he said.

I shrugged. “Clay likes to start his day early so I just had him drop me off. I was just talking to my new friend here, getting acquainted and all.”

The old man laughed. “Friend? I don’t think so. I’m not sure if you’re crazy or have a death wish wanting to work with this creature. And that’s coming from someone who loves horses.”

“You’ll love this one someday too. You’ll see.”

“You sure are a cocky little thing.”

I shrugged, not bothering to deny it.

“Let’s walk and have a little chat while we work on morning chores. I want to hear all about you and your experience with animals.”

“Okay,” I said.

We spent the next several hours talking, feeding the horses, rubbing them down, mucking their stalls, the usual. I never once complained, and I told him all about my life on the road and being part of the rodeo. He seemed impressed and excited for the experience I could bring to the place.

“We have help around here. You’ll see people come and go throughout the day. Anyone in the Pack can request a horse to ride, though a few are off-limits. Like this big guy. This is Thomas Collier’s horse,” he explained as we stopped at a stall housing a large white stallion.

“He’s beautiful.”

Dalton nodded before moving on.

“When the teams head out on the range, we get pretty busy around here making sure they’re loaded up and ready for the journey.”

“So you just handle the horses?”

“I do now. Once upon a time I was a cowboy heading out there.”

“Do you miss it?”

“Not at all,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s a young man’s job. When I retired, Zach Collier let me take over a few dairy cows he had purchased. I had a small section here outfitted for them. When Ruby came of age and got it in her head to make it something more, the dairy barn was built, and operations was moved there with her overseeing things. That was just a few years back. What her and Clay have managed to do with that astounds me. I chose to stay here and look after the horses. Of course, this is only one of our stables, but my primary one. I let the younger males run around tending to the others. They’ll check in here from time to time and on rotation one or two of them will be working at this location. I’ll introduce you around as they come through.”

“Will I be working on rotation at the other stables too?”

“Nah, at least not at first. I won’t lie, little lady. I’m an old man and the day-to-day chores are getting harder and harder. I could use the help, so if it’s okay with you, I’m going to just have you shadowing me and taking some of the load off my shoulders around here.”

I smiled warmly. I really liked the man. There was something comforting about him.

“I’d really like that.”

“Good, then it’s settled.”

“What’s settled?” a male voice asked.

Dalton and I turned to see who it was, and I smiled brightly, relieved to see a familiar face.

“I’ve taken on a new apprentice,” he told him proudly.