I shook my head. Maybe I was losing it, because this could not be happening.
No matter what, there was one thing for certain. . . we had a horse on the loose. If she wasn’t wrangled in soon, she could seriously hurt herself. I had to go after her and it had nothing to do with the whole mating thing, or at least that’s what I was telling myself as I saddled up another horse and took off after her.
“Yah!” I yelled as I kicked the horses sides to get him racing after her.
As we reached the edge of the ranch, I slowed and looked both ways. I could just see her as she rounded the bend heading into town.
“Oh no you don’t,” I said aloud as I pressed my horse to catch up for her.
It felt wonderful to be riding again. The wind blowing in my unkempt hair. My heart was light and happy once more.
Most of our cowboys tolerated riding the horses. Many complained it felt unnatural to ride atop another animal. But not me. I loved it as much as I loved speeding down the road on the back of my bike. It was exhilarating.
I kicked his sides with the heal of my boots as we sped up. The chase was on.
In the turn I’d watched her disappear, a car came flying by honking the horn. It was Austin and he flicked me off, then screeched his tires as he made a sharp U-turn coming after me.
I encouraged the horse to go even faster.
Austin continued to honk as he caught up to me.
Rolling his window down, he leaned over and yelled. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Clementine got away,” I yelled back.
He gave a thumbs up and sped ahead.
My gut churned. Of course, I wanted Clementine found safe, but I wanted to be the one to find her.
She’s mine,I thought.
I nearly fell off my horse laughing at the thought.
This had to be a dream. It couldn’t be real.
I could not be mated to a freaking horse!
But I knew what my wolf was telling me, and I’d never heard of a wolf doing that if it wasn’t true.
Clementine was my one true mate.
Tricia
Chapter 5
I was beginning to worry.
How far was the nearest town?
The animals had warned me it wasn’t close, but Clementine had been gone for two days already. I was starving and worse, my body was beginning to go numb from the shock of the pain from my broken leg.
It was trying to heal. All wolf shifters had expedited healing powers, especially in this form. But my leg wasn’t set properly. I was having to rebreak it every day to keep it from healing and the searing pain of doing that was nearly killing me.
“Please help!” I called out trying to summon every animal possible.
At this point, I didn’t even care if the Pack found me. As long as they properly set my leg so I could heal.
The pain was excruciating, and I didn’t think I could tolerate much more.