Page 45 of Wrangled

Holding back was not in my nature. “Have you never heard the term, work-life balance?”

“What’s that?” he said with a chuckle. Then he sighed. “I had one, once.”

“Then what happened? Was it because you lost your dad? You had to run the ranch?”

“Yes and no. Dad had been gone a year when Diana came up with the idea of a dude ranch. Till then, I was… struggling. I mean, we just went on as before, because he’d got everything set up for that, but…” He let out another sigh. “I don’t think I was ready to run the ranch—or to be without him.” He gave me a quizzical glance. “And I have no idea why I shared all that. My apologies. You didn’t come here to listen to my life story.”

“No need to apologize,” I assured him. I didn’t tell him his confession only made him more… human, I suppose. “We all have to share sometimes.”

“Ready to move on?” Zeeb called out.

Robert looked at me, his eyes sparkling. “Nowthat’sa good question.”

We got back on the horses. Zeeb led off, and we followed the trail into dense woodland. After about fifteen minutes, he came to a halt.

“Something I wanna show you.” He pointed to a mass of fallen trees. “This is a wolf den. I think it’s been abandoned, but I can’t be sure. Different packs use different dens. But this is a perfect spot, a great rendezvous point. It’s away from the road, from people, and there’s plenty of shade. No one messes with them.”

“Are there many wolves around here?” I inquired.

“Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks have permission to ‘manage’ them,” Zeeb air-quoted. “Last estimate gave the figure at one thousand one hundred and fourteen wolves, but that was the end of last year.”

“And despite more aggressive hunting and trapping, those numbers remained stable,” Robert added. “Everything changed in February this year.”

“What happened then?”

Zeeb snorted. “They were declared a protected species, that’s what. Which is not so great when three or four of ’em go on the hunt, and you wanna protect the herd.”

“Am I likely to see one?” I liked the idea of coming face-to-face with a real live wolf.

Zeeb shrugged. “Maybe you might get a glimpse of one.” He smiled. “Okay, so they can be a menace. There was this one time, though, about three years ago. I was out on a trail, and there were maybe fourteen wolves, running down the hill in front of us. It was an awesome sight.” He pointed ahead. “Let’s keep moving.”

We continued on our way, still deep in the woods. Suddenly Zeeb came to a stop, and held up one hand. We all came to a halt.

“What is it?” I called out.

“Toby… quiet,” Robert advised in a low voice. “Look to your left.”

I followed his pointing finger, and my breath caught at the sight of a brown bear, standing upright—watching us.

Holy shit. Thesizeof it.

I hadn’t expected it to be so big. Then I caught rustling coming from my right, but there was nothing to be seen.

“Look up,” Robert whispered. I did as instructed, and saw—

Oh wow.

A bear cub was up the tree, lurching down backward.

“Stay very still,” Robert murmured. “We’re between a momma bear and her cub, and that’s not a good place to be.”

The cub reached the foot of the tree, and ambled across the trail in front of us toward its mom, as if we weren’t even there. When it reached her, the bear dropped to all fours, and led her cub away.

Wow. I took a deep breath.

Zeeb turned to glance at me. “Exciting enough for ya?”

I couldn’t stop smiling. This was turning out to be a phenomenal trip.

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