Page 2 of His Wild Mate

“What?”

“I’ve been doing that damn job for the last few years and now you’re going to pay me for it.”

“You’ve been doing the job?”

“Yeah. Your last foreman sucked, and as header, the guys started turning to me. I’ve been giving the orders around here for a while. Why do you look so shocked?”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that?”

I shrugged. “You’ve had your hands full with Pack stuff, Lily, and the girls. Wyatt and I watch things around here for you—always have, always will—but now with the kids he’s been distracted.”

“So it all falls to you.”

“Don’t matter none. I’ll do what I need to do.”

“Like officially take charge?”

I was single and lately had been feeling a bit left out of things as I watched my closest friends fall one by one to their true mates and now starting families. I wasn’t anywhere close to that mess. As it was, with this job, I didn’t exactly have muchtime to find a good girl, let alone one person somewhere in this great big world that was made just for me.

The cowboy life could be lonely at times even if I was never truly alone.

I was already resolved to the fact that I was just built differently than the others. I loved the open range and the smells of the barn. This was where I belonged.

“I’ll do it,” I told him.

We shook hands.

“Thank you, Emmett. I’ll have an official contract drawn up stating all the details of the job and your adjusted pay and get back to you tomorrow.”

“You’re moving quickly on this. Why?”

“You haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

“The cowboys are threatening to walk if things don’t change around here. I was sort of blindsided because I had no idea that fool was screwing up so badly.”

“What did you do to him?”

“I just fired him. But he freaked out and fled in the night. I don’t think he’s coming back either.”

I shrugged. “That’s not a bad thing. I didn’t know about a possible strike. Let me talk to the boys and get it straight.”

“Thanks, man. I’d appreciate that.”

Thomas got into his truck and drove away. I watched him leave and then pulled out my phone and texted the whole crew for a meeting. With the exception of the four I had out in the field, I made it clear that no one was exempt for any reason.

Two hours later we convened in the corral.

Wyatt came running in at the last minute with something that looked suspiciously like puke on his shoulder.

“Aren’t you on paternity leave still?” I asked him.

“You said no excuses.”

I shook my head. “I would have filled you in later,” I confessed.

Wyatt was another of my closest friends. In total there were six of us, and we’d been running together and finding trouble since we were in diapers. Along the way, we’d gotten a bit of a reputation and earned the title “The Six Pack”. I missed the good ol’ days.

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