Page 43 of Doubly Tied

He was a selfish ass. But he still could not let her go.

She was theirs. For good and bad, theirs. If only they could do something more to protect her. The shot fired, and both Brody and Mayne turned to see Ani struggle to mount her horse. Then, she was off with her herd. And neither Alpha nor Omega could do a thing to help her.

“That’s not true,” Mayne said. “We can have faith in our mate. She deserves that much from both of us.”

Brody closed his eyes. He retreated to that place inside of him where his Wolf dwelled and saw the Omega’s bear beside him. Together, their beasts acted as sentries, staring off into the distance where the tie that bound Ani to them had disappeared as she fought her way back to them.

Mayne was right. She deserved his faith. She had his heart already, might as well throw in the whole kit and caboodle. With a grin, he tilted his head back and loosed his Wolf’s song into the afternoon sky, hoping against hope she would hear it and take strength from him.

Mate.

Ours.

Awoooooooooo.

Chapter 13

“You have gotto be shitting me!”

Ani grunted as the cows behind her refused to budge, no matter what she tried. She heard the she-Wolf snarl and growl, forcing her herd into a full on panic as she drove them out of the stall.

Ani had no such luck. She called to the little bawling beauties. Whistled, coaxed, downright begged, but the stubborn walking hamburgers refused to budge.

Fuckers.

The air was hot and dry, like a pizza oven, she thought inanely. Pizza sounded really fucking good right about then. She’d eaten half a turkey on rye between events, and it had tasted like sawdust. She regretted not finishing it now. Grabbing for her canteen, Ani frowned when only a sip fell into her parched mouth.

“What the fuck?”

She’d seen Thomas fill two identical ones before packing both hers and Megan’s saddlebag. Then Megan had grabbed hers by mistake, returning it to another Wolf who’d put it securely on her mount.

FML.

She growled when she saw a puncture at the bottom of the canteen. It was obvious a Wolf had sabotaged her water supply. Now, she had nothing to drink and under two hours to get the cattle down the trail to the water tank.

And just how was she supposed to do that?

Panic welled inside her. She was no good at this physical business. Ani had never played sports or went to gyms. She was a nerd, for fuck’s sake, not a jock! Doubts really were a sickness, she thought with disgust.

You can do this, Ani.

We believe in you.

The sounds of her mates’ voices in her head sent shivers down her spine. They were counting on her, and she sure as shit wasn’t gonna let them down. Bracing herself, she turned the horse around and rode to the back of the herd.

Recalling what Ginger’s romance book had said, Ani started the horse moving behind the cattle, back and forth, her path perpendicular to theirs. The motion got them started, and once she had them moving, she whooped in pure joy. Yeah, Megan had a head start, but this city girl was about to catch up.

She’d studied the map beforehand and tried something a little bit risky for a newbie like her. She was going the long way around.

Megan had her supernatural abilities and her knowledge of ranch life on her side. But the she-Wolf was cocky, and Ani was betting dollars to donuts she hadn’t bothered to read the prior weeks’ weather reports. Luckily, it wasn’t against the rules for Ani to research. She’d spent much of the night before looking at every inch of Big River Ranch. She’d narrowed the possibilities for this mini cattle drive to twelve areas, and lucky her, this was one of them.

She’d perused the geography, and weather reports, trying to determine the lay of the land. Mind made up on her direction, she just had to get the big beefy beasts to follow her.

Once out of the pen, Ani rode a line straight through them. Not too fast or hard, but just enough to get their attention. She was counting on the hot sun, and the animals’ natural desire to find water, to prompt them. A nail from the saddle was digging into her ass, and Ani growled and pushed her hat down on her head. Her guys were so going to owe her some serious massage time, after all was said and done.

***

Brody looked at the sky, frowning as a rare rolling cloud appeared overhead like some scary apocalyptic vision boding ill for those on the ground.

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