Page 12 of Grey
“What’s wrong?” Zara asked from the garden where she was harvesting peppers, tomatoes, and onions.
“The animal feed delivery is late.”
“Are you sure you’re not just annoyed at how slow the day is going?”
He grinned. “I can’t help it if I’m excited to see Tatum again.”
“When can we meet her?”
“I don’t know,” he said. He turned and faced his alpha female. “She’s not shy, but she’s definitely keeping back part of herself. She told me she lost her mom as a teenager, but she changed the subject when I asked about her dad.”
Zara stood and picked up her filled bucket. “Might be too raw to share, you know? Until she gets to know you better.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” he said. “I can’t exactly hold the high ground here since I can’t share everything with her yet either.”
“Keeping the secret from your soulmate would be hard as hell. I’m glad I didn’t have to do that with Crew.”
“It would be handy if she was a shifter just so I didn’t have to keep the truth from her, but I don’t care that she can’t shift.” He wondered how long it would take for them to fall in love. Hisstallion was crazy about her already and they’d only spent a few hours together.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and called the feed store.
“Hey, Lonny,” he said, “it’s Grey at the Little River Farm. Our delivery is late—is something going on?”
“Oh hey, Grey, I was just about to call you. Sorry, but some kids slashed the tires on our delivery truck and your order is too big to fit in my car. The garage is coming over in a little bit with tires, but I won’t be able to get out to your farm until later this afternoon.”
“I can come into town and grab the order,” he said. “But are you sure it’s kids who did it?”
“Yeah, who else? Kids are always up to no good in the summer since there’s not a damn thing to do in Little River so they look for trouble.”
Slashing the tires of a feed store’s delivery vehicle seemed like more than kids looking for something to do in the summer.
“I’ll be by in a half hour.”
“Sure, sure. See ya, Grey.”
The call ended and he said, “Do you know where Crew is?”
“Still sleeping, I think. I wanted to get the harvesting done before the sun gets too hot. I can go wake him up for you.”
“Nah, it’s fine, I’ll talk to him later. I’m going to grab Ford and head to the supply store. Avi’s on patrol, but keep your head on a swivel.”
“I will,” she said.
He walked into the vehicle storage barn where Ford was working on an old tractor they’d bought at auction. He told him what happened at the feed store. Ford wiped his hands on a shop towel and said, “You think Colton slashed the tires?”
“Or one of his people.”
“For what purpose? We don’t own the feed store.”
“But it messed with our delivery. If we didn’t just use the feed store to supplement what we grow ourselves, it could have caused an issue with the livestock.”
Ford hummed. “True.” He stared into space for a moment with a frown, then said, “What if this is them trying to spread us thin again?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when they set the barn on fire, we all had to focus on putting it out and Zara got the livestock out of harm’s way, and that’s how she got separated from us and almost got taken. If Crew hadn’t realized what was happening, she might have been abducted and who the hell knows what would have happened.”
“Shit, you’re right.”
