Page 5 of Knot Your Problem, Cowboy
“Ridge Colter,” he finally says in a deep voice that shouldn’t captivate me, but damn him, it does.
I nod, trying not to let it show how off-balance Ifeel. Cash, Walker, Ridge. The names click into place. Blue eyes. Mocha eyes. Green eyes and a hat. Now with identities.
Then Walker tilts his head slightly. “So now that Brutus isn’t trying to murder you… you want to tell us what you’re doing here?”
Right. That.
I straighten up, clearing my throat. “Sophia Hollis. That’s my name.” Sweat rolls down my spine. Why do they make me nervous?
More silence. They’re waiting.
“Well,” I start, shifting under their combined stares. “I, uh… recently inherited Wild Hearts Ranch.”
That lands heavily. Their eyes wide, breaths fast. Belle is just watching us with a smirk. She is enjoying this way too much.
I push forward, words rushing out. “Technically, not from Rose. It was her grandson Nolan Martinez. He left it to me.”
Their expressions don’t change right away, but the shift is immediate. Like I just dropped a match into something I didn’t realize was flammable.
I almost wish I’d kept a kitten in my arms. At least then I’d have something warm and nonthreatening to hold when the fallout starts.
“Oh,” Walker murmurs.
“That’s impossible,” Ridge states flatly. “Rose promised us?—”
“We had an agreement,” Cashfinishes, all traces of amusement gone from his face. “Five years of running the place, and then we could purchase it at fair market value.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, and I mean it. The looks on their faces make my chest tight. “I had no idea. But I have the will, and the lawyer confirmed everything.”
“Are you a Martinez?” Ridge asks, suspicion clear in his tone.
“It’s… complicated.” Understatement of the century. “But, legally, the ranch is mine. Look, if you want to buy it, that makes things easier for everyone. I need to get back to Chicago, and you want the farm. We can work this out.” My heart is thumping loudly in my chest as the words rush past my lips.
“You would sell it to us?” Walker asks, tilting his head like he’s trying to read between my words, like he’s just waiting for the story to fall apart.
I open my mouth, then close it again.
Everything is happening so fast. I nearly died earlier. I’ve been charged by a bull, hit a tree with a rental car I can barely afford to fix, and now I’m standing in a room with three shirtless Alphas watching me like I might be their next problem. I can’t tell if they’re being polite, suspicious, or silently plotting to throw me off the porch.
All I know is I didn’t come here to fight. I came to get my inheritance, sell it, and finally have enough cash to breathe. Because Omegas like me? When we lose our mates, we don’t get safety nets. We get silence.Unless I want to sign up for one of those Omega auctions and let some Alpha buy and claim me like I’m a prize pig at the county fair.
Hard pass.
I’ve already done the whole owned thing. Look where it landed me—broke, alone, and clawing my way out of the wreckage with nothing but sarcasm and caffeine.
This inheritance? It’s my one shot to stand on my own feet. No Alpha. No collar. Just me, finally choosing my own damn future. And if Lady Luck is feeling generous, maybe she’ll throw in the kind of Alpha I’ve only dreamed of… one who doesn’t want to own me but actually stands beside me. Supports me, no matter what I choose.
And I’ll be damned if anyone gets in the way of that.
“I wasn’t planning to keep the ranch,” I say finally, quieter than I expected. “This place… it wasn’t meant for me.”
And it wasn’t. The place was left to Nolan—my Alpha. Or, my deceased Alpha, who passed eleven months ago. A man I didn’t love, not really. Definitely not in the way everyone assumed. He hurt me more than he ever helped me, but… this? Leaving me something in his will? Even if it was just the thing his grandmother left him? That was the one decent thing he ever did.
Nolan never updated his will after Rose passed, justa month before him. With both of them gone, the lawyers spent nearly a year working through challenges from the family before they finally contacted me. Apparently, someone tried to contest it, but that was eventually sorted. So, legally, here I am.
An Omega who doesn’t belong here, outnumbered and completely out of her depth. My friend, Meredith, and her brother were supposed to come with me as my backup, my buffer, but they bailed at the last minute because of a family emergency. So now it’s just me, standing on shaky legs in the middle of unfamiliar territory, trying to pretend I have a clue what I’m doing.
I don’t.
