Page 7 of Grey
“Oh-kay,” Crew said, stretching out the word. He clapped him on the shoulder. “Take a walkie and grab a flashlight, and let me know if you feel anything else, okay?”
Grey nodded and walked into the storage barn to grab a walkie from the charging dock and pick up a flashlight. The storage barn also happened to have a studio-style apartment up a flight of wooden stairs, which was where Tris had first stayed when she came to work for them as the herd caretaker. It was empty now since Tris and Khyle had built a home a half mile from the farm, with Dexter and Nancy another half mile down the dirt road. He’d always imagined living in the farmhouse for the rest of his life, even after he found his soulmate. The house had plenty of room—at least for now. Once kids came into the picture, the eight-bedroom house would get filled up fast.
Shaking his thoughts to the present, he switched on the walkie as he left the barn and headed off toward the pasture. The livestock were in their barn, so the pasture was empty as he walked through it. He didn’t need the flashlight right now as the moon was bright, but he was glad Crew had mentioned it just in case he needed it.
He paused as he reached the cornfield. They had one hundred acres, and a lot of it was wooded and not cleared for planting. They liked having the buffer of woods around theirproperty to keep humans from getting too close. Something pulled at his heart, his stallion’s anxiety morphing into focused determination. He felt something,someone, nearby.
He closed his eyes and focused his hearing, but he didn’t pick up anything out of the ordinary. He couldn’t shake the feeling he needed to go into the woods, so he did, striding to the split-rail fence and placing his hands on the top rail and hefting himself over.
As he made his way into the dark woods, he was certain he was feeling a pull to someone who was in trouble, but he wasn’t sure why his stallion had alerted him to it, or what he’d find when he eventually reached the end of the journey.
“What the hell?” he muttered after an hour of walking in the woods. He hadn’t come across anyone, and he hadn’t picked up any signs of someone around either. But he couldn’t shake the determination of his stallion, so he kept going, muttering to himself about his annoying horse.
He suddenly felt the weird pulling feeling in his chest sharpen, and he picked up the pace, turning on the flashlight to flood the ground in front of him. Even though he would heal from any injury he might sustain, he didn’t want to be stuck out in the woods with a broken ankle while he waited for his healing nature to kick in.
He picked up a sweet scent, like strawberries and vanilla, and he paused, lifting his head and inhaling slowly. He sorted through the scents of trees and earth and picked up the sweetness again, turning slightly and veering toward the river.
The river didn’t run through their territory, but it skirted the edge of it.
The sound of trickling water reached his ears before his flashlight picked up the riverbank. He stopped and looked around, his flashlight moving slowly from one side of the river to the other. And then he saw something curled up against a tree on the other bank: a person.
Everything inside him quieted profoundly as he made his way across the river.
“Hey! Hey, are you okay?” he called.
The person startled and let out a gasp, and as his flashlight caught the person in its beam, he was stunned.
The beautiful blonde was huddled on herself, her eyes ringed with dark circles and her cheek smudged with dirt.
The moment that his gaze connected with her, he knew exactly why his stallion had been urging him to go into the woods.
His soulmate had been in trouble and needed him.
His stallion surged with joy inside him, and he barely contained the urge to let out a happy whinny.
“How did you find me?” she asked as she slowly unfolded herself and used the tree trunk to help herself to her feet.
“Just lucky,” he said. He turned the flashlight beam toward himself so she could see him in the light. “I’m Grey. My friends and I own the farm just on the other side of the river. I couldn’t sleep and had a feeling that I needed to be out in the woods, so I went for a walk and found you. Are you okay?”
“Oh gosh, what time is it? I didn’t mean to fall asleep, I was just scared to keep going in the dark.” She gave him a watery smile and started to cry. “I just wanted to go for a walk.”
He moved to her, the sweet scent of her growing stronger as he closed the distance between them. “It’s okay, you’re okay. Do you live in town? You’re almost two miles from downtown Little River.”
“I do,” she said. She brushed at her wet cheeks. “I feel so stupid. I was following the river and got turned around and then the sun was setting and… thank you for finding me. I don’t know how you did it, but I’m so glad to see you.”
“I’m glad I found you. But you’re not stupid, anyone can get lost in the dark out here.”
He turned the flashlight beam toward the ground so it wasn’t shining in either of their eyes. “If you want to follow me back to the farmhouse, I can drive you to your home.”
“That would be wonderful, thank you so much.”
He offered her his hand as they reached a narrow section of the river that they could cross without getting wet. She clutched a backpack to her chest with one hand and took his hand with the other. The instant their hands touched, he was doubly certain she was his soulmate. He couldn’t believe his soulmate had gotten lost in the woods so close to the farm.
“You have a name, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “Tatum.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
