“Like hell.”
“Brady, he always rides her.”
I growled.
He rolled his eyes.
“Do I need to bring Luke in on this?”
“I don’t give a shit, but Wyatt’s fat ass is not riding my mate.”
Clementine paid us no attention whatsoever as she ate the grains that had been provided for her.
Dammit. I really wish she’d just speak up for herself. Just because I was her mate didn’t mean I had to do everything for her.
Cruz was fighting back laughter.
“She’s not your mate, dude. She’s a damn animal, a work horse, who needs to go back to work.”
I growled aggressively.
He put his hands up in surrender and slowly backed away and out of her stall shaking his head the whole time.
I was grateful for the solitude. I knew how ridiculous it all sounded, but I also knew what I felt. I heard my wolf’s insistence. This was my mate, for better or worse.
“You’re a really beautiful horse,” a told her. “And I’d really like to meet the real you when you’re ready.”
I couldn’t stop believing there was a lot more to her than just this beast before me.
It wasn’t long before Kenneth and Tim stopped by to check on me.
“Hey, we heard you were holed up in here. What’s going on?” Tim asked.
“Is that her? Your horse mate?” Kenneth asked before dissolving into a fit of giggles.
“Shut the hell up. You know nothing.”
Tim just gave me a sympathetic look. I wanted to knock it right off his ugly face, but I also knew Jessie would likely stab me in my sleep or something. The two of them were crazy protective of each other. It probably had a lot to do with my brother’s imbalance. The most level-headed, calm man sporting around an Alpha-wolf within. In animal form, he was the dominant, butin their human forms, it was Jessie who looked after him. They were evenly matched in that way, both meek and wild in their own ways, a perfectly balanced imbalance.
I looked over at Clementine. Did we compliment each other, too? Were we alike, more similar to Oliver and Peyton who were both equally stubborn, passionate, and protective? Or would we balance each other’s weaknesses like Tim and Jessie?
I certainly didn’t know because I didn’t know a goddam thing about her.
I growled in frustration.
“Woah. Settle down, bro,” Kenneth said.
“What are you two even doing here? Get the hell out of here and leave us alone.”
I wasn’t in the mood for company. And I was already going crazy enough on my own without Kenneth mocking me.
“We just want to help,” Tim protested.
“Help? You can’t help. You can’t change the fact that I’m mated to a horse that won’t even talk to me. This is my problem to deal with. Not yours.”
“You’re serious? You really think you’re mated to Clementine?” Kenneth asked. “But why now? It’s not like you just found each other.”
“How the hell am I supposed to know? This isn’t something I asked for and it’s not something I can control.”