Page 36 of Cowboy Devil's Embrace

Shit.

That wasn’t good. I didn’t mean to be aggressive with my men.

Shifters had Packs and Clans to manage their need for hierarchy. But Jersey Devils, well, we were different. This was new for me.

My inner beast was a mixed bag. A cryptid, yes, but not a true Shifter or Witch or Demon. More like a combination of all three.

And of course, I could not forget my human side as well.

Dominance was not something I measured or questioned very often. But seeing Emmet show me the respect he might give an Alpha, well, that was something I had never really thought about.

“Hey Emmet, am I theAlphahere?” I asked.

“Alpha? Here? On the Motley Crewd Ranch?” Emmet asked, raising his eyebrows like he hadn’t considered that, either.

“Yeah. Here. Am I the Alpha?”

“Well, Boss, I suppose the answer is yes. I mean, my Wolf was fine right now with you saying it aloud,” Emmet replied.

“Thank you, Emmet. It’s not something I am used to. If I fuck up, I’ll need you to tell me,” I told him.

“Sure, Boss,” he replied, his voice quiet.

“Guess if I’m Alpha, you’re Beta,” I told him, and felt a tendril of excitement wind itself around the Wolf.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, working with pure Shifters makes it kind of necessary to establish a pecking order. If I am the Alpha, then you, Emmet, would by far be my Beta. The guys look up to you.”

“Thank you, Boss,” Emmet said, meeting my gaze for a beat longer than normal.

Pride seemed to roll off the Wolf, and I nodded my head. We probably should have a meeting about it.

“Okay, Beta, explain your plan,” I said, nodding at the papers.

“Uh, okay. Well, we are getting some new does in, that’s breeding females for the herd.”

I looked at him blankly.

“Does are female goats,” Emmet inserted.

I blinked again.

“You know, so we can increase production of the goat's milk y’all are selling? Fucking shit, Max, do you have any idea what I am talking about?”

“Uh, do you really want me to answer that?”

Okay, so there were still some quirks we had to work out with this whole Motley Crewd thing. I didn’t know shit about fuck when it came to this new country lifestyle I was suddenly living.

But I was trying, damn it, and that had to count for something. Day in and day out, I had been pushing myself. I had the bumps and bruises to show for it, too.

Although the last couple of days, that was hardly my fault. Admittedly, my mind had been elsewhere.

Stuck on the cinnamon honey scent I’d picked up coming off my future mate’s skin. Wondering what she was hiding beneath her baggy chef’s coat and aching to get to know those curves up close and personal.

There was no doubt in my mind, Penelope Abruzzi was my promised. I just had to convince her of that before I revealed the whole, by the way I’m a real live Jersey Devil thing.

No biggie, right?

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