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The quad bike hummed beneath Indy as she navigated the bumpy and winding track from the rams’ paddock to the one that housed the sheep she was taking to the demonstration.

She briefly wondered if they missed their nine hundred and eighty friends still grazing in the western creek paddock.

When she’d first arrived at the station, she’d thought it was crazy that so many sheep fit in the one paddock, and even crazier that they had seven full paddocks spread across the mountain.

‘Couldn’t we take the main track?’ Mara whinged from behind Indy as she clutched her waist.

‘Don’t be a sook! This is much more fun.’ Indy revved the engine and the motorbike surged.

‘Be better if we were on horses.’

Indy laughed. ‘You need a few more riding lessons before you’re ready to take a horse outside the training ring.’

Thankfully, teaching Mara to ride a horse hadn’t fallen to Indy but was a responsibility Nova kept.

Their boss was a skilled horsewoman and tried to pass those abilities to every girl she took on.

Indy’s respect for Nova had grown the most during her own riding lessons all those years ago.

Unfortunately, Mara wasn’t getting the hang of it as quickly as she would’ve liked and her frustration was hindering her progress even more.

As they broke through the trees, Indy really let loose on the top paddock track. Gravel spun beneath the wheels as she turned downhill then skidded to a halt. She laughed as Mara leapt off the quad.

‘You can’t do that on a horse!’

‘There’s no way you’d let me drive that fast.’

‘There’s no way I’d let you drive. I’m not sitting behind you.’

Mara rolled her eyes before storming over to the paddock. Ever since Indy had intervened in Mara trying to sweet talk a beer from Iggy, the Windale Hotel’s publican, she’d been in a foul mood.

‘Come on, Scout. Let’s go muster some sheep, eh.’ Scout jumped to the ground from the bike and Indy followed the dog over to where Mara was standing, staring out at the paddock.

‘Mara,’ Indy said, coming to a stop beside her at the gate.

‘I know you’re pissed that I didn’t let you drink at lunch but seriously, pull your head in.

You’re not legal. Nova would kick my arse if I brought you back smelling like beer.

Besides, you wouldn’t have even been able to ride on the quad or do anything around the farm if you had alcohol in your system.

And Barty would have a field day with underage drinking if he found out.

That’s the last thing Nova needs right now.

Stop being so selfish and think of other people. ’

Mara had continued to stare out at the sheep through Indy’s speech. She squinted, her head pushing forwards slightly.

‘Oi! Are you even listening to me?’ Indy’s irritation rose swiftly to anger. ‘Stop ignoring me!’

‘Indy …’ Mara’s voice held a mystified tone, zapping Indy’s wrath. ‘What colour are those ewes?’

Indy cast her gaze across the green paddock, searching for the mob. Her eyes widened when she saw them. ‘What the fuck?’ She climbed over the gate and set off at a jog, Mara and Scout on her heels.

‘Scout, stand!’ Indy called when the pup got too excited and ran ahead. She stopped instantly but Indy was too distracted by the colour sprayed across the sheep’s woollen coats to praise her.

‘What colour is that?’ Mara asked again as they drew closer. ‘Green or blue?’

‘It’s teal,’ Indy replied through gritted teeth. She shut her eyes after sighting the black stripe across the top of the teal. ‘Scorpions colours.’

‘Oh, shit.’

‘That about sums it up.’ Indy took a step back. ‘We’ll get them in the smaller yard; it’ll be easier to see what they’ve used. Away to me, Scout.’

As if sensing the seriousness of Indy’s mood, Scout listened to every command with a precision that Indy was proud of, even with the distraction of the coloured ewes.

Her heart was pounding in her chest to a rhythm she didn’t recognise.

If anything happened to these sheep that she’d drawn out from the bigger mob, she was the one who had to answer to Nova.

Once they were penned, Indy gave Scout a hearty pat before leaning over the side of the temporary yards and running her fingers through the wool of the ewe closest to her, immune to their loud bleating. ‘Paint.’

Mara gasped. ‘Isn’t that toxic?’

‘I’m fairly sure they’ve used marking paint. Which means it was planned.’ She pulled her hand back and leant against the rail, face tilted to the sky, cursing. She didn’t have the months needed to let the paint fade, nor could she shear the sheep seven months early. Nova was going to hit the roof.

‘What do we do?’ Mara asked when Indy stemmed her string of swearing.

She didn’t have answers. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she sighed. ‘We have to tell Nova.’

‘But she’ll kick them off the property.’ Mara sounded horrified.

Indy shrugged. ‘They’ve brought it on themselves. You take the quad back and get her to come out. Drive slowly and don’t make me regret it. I’m going to give Scout a couple more run throughs.’

Mara didn’t need telling twice. She legged it to the motorbike and the engine roared to life, but she took off at a steady speed, so Indy turned her attention back to the sheep.

Releasing the gate, she kept Scout back and encouraged the multicoloured sheep back into the paddock.

Giving them space to roam further from the temporary yards, she squatted down and stroked Scout distractedly.

Carter sprang to mind. Maybe it would be a good thing if Nova decided to send the footy boys home.

Distance might fade the memory of his good looks.

She smiled. The worry on his face that morning when she’d pulled the doona back to get to the snake had been adorable.

Who would’ve thought there’d be a dint in his fearless armour? Snakes.

Her smile faltered. Someone had thought of it. Someone who wasn’t fearful of snakes and was happy to handle a sleepy wild one and let it loose in his room. Another prank? Or something more?

She shook her head and stood. It didn’t matter. They’d be gone soon.

‘Come on, Scout. Let’s get this done.’

Scout had successfully penned the sheep two more times before the rev of the quad’s engine cut across the paddock. Only it wasn’t Nova on the bike.

‘What the hell?’ Indy muttered angrily as Carter cut across the grass with her younger coworker.

‘Looks like Scout follows directions better than you do,’ she snapped at Mara as they reached the temporary yards where Indy was standing.

Mara looked at her stubbornly. ‘I was looking for Nova when Carter intercepted me and said he had a different option.’

‘I bet he did.’ She glared at the man in footy shorts and training singlet, refusing to dwell on the way his muscles bunched when he braced himself against the top rail. ‘This actually has nothing to do with you.’

‘It does,’ he argued, without anger. ‘This has all the markings of an initiation dare.’

‘I don’t care if it has the markings of man landing on the moon!

You and your teammates have gone too far.

I need these sheep for a mustering demonstration at the Denarlie careers expo on Friday and I need them to not be looking like the Scorpions’ new mascots!

’ Her voice kept rising. ‘Unless you can wind back the clock and have this never happen in the first place, then I don’t see any other option than for me to go and tell Nova to sort it out. ’

‘Please, Indy.’

The soft pleading in his voice hit her straight into the heart like a rock in a slingshot.

‘The whole reason we’re here is because we can’t train at the club.

It was vandalised. And if we can’t train during this preseason then we’re done for when the rounds start.

These are the actions of some young, really gullible, players just wanting to be accepted into a club that’s so much bigger than them.

It’s not right, I know, but it wasn’t done with malice—just stupidity.

Can you honestly stand there and say you’ve never done anything impulsive to fit in? ’

No, she wanted to say. But she’d done plenty of stupid and dangerous things to be accepted into a group of people that she wanted to be her family. She just couldn’t admit it out loud.

‘I get it,’ she said, without the fire. ‘But stupid decisions can cost other people. Getting the ewes clean and ready for Friday is going to cost us time and energy we should be spending elsewhere. Plus I wouldn’t even know how to hide this from Nova, even if I wanted to.’

‘The old shearing shed,’ Mara said. ‘We could put them in there. The old tank has water in it from the storms that have passed through. Then we could move another twenty out of the mob in the slope paddock across from the shed and put them in here.’

‘I’ll clean them myself,’ Carter said.

‘Did you not hear me? There’s twenty sheep.’

‘Even if it takes me all night,’ he confirmed. ‘Just, please, don’t dob the team in and ruin their season or their careers.’

‘Come on, Indy. If we can save Nova the stress then we should, right?’

Indy looked between Mara, the ewes bleating in their confined space, and Carter’s pleading face.

Her heart stalled on the roundness of his eyes, the worry in his lips.

Nova would kill her if she found out. She chewed on her bottom lip, thinking about the old shearing shed.

It wasn’t visible from the buildings or Nova’s house, so they could have lights on and not worry about noise.

It wasn’t too far that they couldn’t walk to it, although the bike would be quicker.

Was she crazy? Could it actually work? It meant Carter would be hanging around. She cursed the battering of wings in her stomach. Spending more time with him was stupid, dangerous even. But these ewes were her responsibility.

‘Fine,’ she said finally and Mara let out a cheer. ‘The shed’s over that hill and you can both help me and Scout move them. Then we’ll pen twenty from the mob in the one-tree paddock in here.’

‘Let’s do it!’ Mara smiled broadly.

Indy looked at Carter. ‘You can meet me at Blossom’s pen when you’re done with whatever session you have after dinner. I’ll have to see what cleaner we’ve got in the sheds. It’ll be quicker with two of us.’

‘What about me?’ Mara asked.

‘You’re going to run interference with Nova, Janet and Theresa. No one can know about this, Mara.’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ Carter said. ‘But for the record, I was prepared to clean all of them by myself.’

‘You say that now,’ Indy said, dryly. ‘Wait until you wash just one ewe.’