Ram Rugged by Melissa Snark

Author:Melissa Snark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nordic Lights Press

Chapter 11

Mr. Grumpy Pants

* * *

Demetri reined in Dusty, and halted along the fence that bordered the south pasture. The hillside ended at a seaside cliff, dropping off to the sandy beach below. A brisk breeze blew in off the ocean. He bent in the saddle, adjusting the brim of his hat against the glare of the late afternoon sun, and watched while Colleen sniffed the ground.

"Is it Quentin again?" Demetri asked.

"Yeah, it's him. The tracks are at least twelve hours old." Colleen lifted her head and aimed her muzzle at him. Of course, they only talked like this when they were alone. Mary had driven into town to run some errands, including picking up groceries and the mail.

"Are you sure?" Demetri shifted in the saddle. Reflexively, he scanned the horizon, searching for potential threats. At the moment, there wasn't a coyote—Quentin Cox specifically—in sight. Mary's ex-husband hadn't paid them another visit, at least in person. Not in broad daylight. The vermin only came after dark. The evidence of his continued presence, however, and the threat he posed, was right there in the rocky soil.

Colleen snorted. "Of course I'm sure. The nose knows."

Dusty neighed, offering her opinion, but Demetri didn't speak horse.

"Yeah, yeah." He gave a good-natured grumble. Colleen's superior sense of smell—and her lording it over him—was an old joke between friends.

Seven days had passed without Mary's Wooly Acres losing another ewe to predation. On top of the normal chores, they patrolled constantly in alternating shifts, and continued to bring the flock into the barn every evening. The days were long and grueling, and the work unending. Demetri marveled that Mary had managed to do it alone prior to his arrival. His respect for Mary grew in leaps and bounds.

Keeping Mary in the dark regarding their true shifter natures ate at Demetri's conscience. He hated it, but he deemed it best. For now, anyway.

"You should tell her the truth," Colleen said in response to Demetri's unspoken thoughts.

He frowned. "You were there that first morning. Mary was angry over me having kept my full name from her—"

"And rightfully so." Colleen snapped her jaws.

He ignored the jibe. "That was a pretty minor lie."

"You have a funny definition of minor."

Again, Demetri refused to rise to the bait. "Can you imagine how Mary's going to react when she finds out you and I are both shifters?"

"She's going to be furious."

"Exactly my point."

"I like Mary. I don't want to see her get hurt. The longer you wait, the worse it'll be when she finally learns the truth," Colleen shot back. "Not only that we're shifters, but about your ulterior motives. You're letting Mary believe that you're staying and protecting her and her flock out of some misguided sense of nobility. How do you think she's going to feel when she finds out you're only here because you have to be?"

He winced because Colleen's accusation stung. "It doesn't matter why I'm here. The fact is I am here and I want to help."

Duty to his divine bloodline had brought him to Fall Haven, California, in the first place.

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