Page 45 of His Wild Mate

Saying bye to them, I left the bunk house and strolled over to the horse stables. Dalton Draper was still watching over them, so I knew I didn't really have to worry much about this area, but I also felt like he wasn't someone I wanted to kill for trying to get to my mate.

“Dalton?” I hollered, spooking some of the horses.

He stepped out of a stall he was mucking and froze when he saw me.

“Boss. What can I do for you?”

The closer I got, the more he seemed to fade back into the stall. When I reached him, I saw why. His face was heavily bruised from what looked like days-old bruises just like everyone else I'd seen around the farm.

I cursed under my breath. “Not you too.”

He looked at me guiltily and shrugged.

With a sigh, I pushed all negative thoughts away and kept my questions as clinical as possible. He was relieved when our conversation was over and I abruptly turned and walked away.

This time I went straight to the dairy barn. At least I knew Clay and Ruby were safe for me to be around. I found them both in their shared office.

As ranch foreman I loosely oversaw all aspects of the ranch, including the farm, the horses, and the dairy cows. But I was well aware that when it came to the dairy division I wasn't to intervene unless there was a very serious concern.

Ruby was another one of Thomas's sisters. She, her mate Bran, and their little girl Opal lived in the upstairs apartment of the barn. The dairy was her baby, and without her we never would have grown it into our biggest income producer it wastoday. She only brought Clay on as a partner when Opal was born to allow her more freedom to be with her daughter.

“Hey boss. Surprised to see you in today,” Clay teased.

I sat down on the small couch that sat between their desks with a huff, putting my elbows on my knees and scrubbing my hands over my face.

“That good, huh?” Ruby said. “Why are you even here?”

“Sorry, just needed a place to hide for a bit and I knew you two were safe. Though I do need the quarterly finance projections to go over at some point.”

Paperwork and all that really weren't my forte, but I had been told it came with the job. I didn't need to understand it all, just a high-level view of how we were doing.

“The dairy is doing fine. No worries here,” she assured me as she pulled a folder off her desk and passed it to me.

“Can I take this home to go over?”

“Of course. And home is exactly where you should be. You didn't bring your mate here with you after everything that happened, did you?”

I growled. “No.”

“Your wolf is feeling particularly aggressive, Em. You really should go home,” Clay insisted.

“I know, but I don't know how to control that. I had to come in and show my face, especially today. There's been too many threats and complaints for me to be absent right now. I'm trying to calm the tensions and make sure everyone is back to work. I had to completely rework the staffing schedules. They were a wreck. I spent all morning on it, but being present and listening is going to be what turns everything around. That's where the last guy failed the most.”

“Well, if you’re going for scaring your men into compliance, then A plus for effort,” Ruby said giving me two thumbs up.

I groaned. “I'm calm enough. I can handle it. But everywhere I look the guys are hanging their heads in shame or refusing to make eye contact with me.”

“You have irritation pouring off you in waves. And no matter how nice and calm you may try to be, your wolf is projecting aggression right now. No one will blame you for that, but you aren't known to be an aggressive guy, so it's a bit scary,” Clay explained.

“What am I supposed to do about it? They tried to attack my mate and practically destroyed my house in the process. I can't just forget that no matter how hard I try.”

“Hey Ruby, Emmett fixed the work schedule, but I already sent Bruce out for the day. So you've got Ridge again today, but starting tomorrow that will be fixed. No more of this bullshit of everyone needing to rotate and know every job around here. He wanted it fixed today, but he's just going to have to deal with it, probably won't even notice, and no sense in bringing it . . .” Cruz froze at the door as his eyes grew wide when he finally saw me.

His arm was in a sling and there was a deep claw mark on the side of his face. I cringed, hoping for his sake it didn't leave a permanent mark.

“You okay?” I asked him.

He pointed to his shoulder. “Can't shift until tonight, but it'll be okay. I heard the siren's your mate. How’s she doing?”

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