Page 11 of Her Big Bad Wolf
Once again there were no signs of anything having gotten inside.
I wasted the day looking all around.
To make matters worse, I was running low on hay all of a sudden.
“Did one of you get out and do this?”
There was a mess around the hay bale barn that made it look like one of the animals was burrowing down in it with enough missing that someone had a feast.
I growled in frustration. At this rate, I wasn’t going to have enough to make it through the week when it should have lasted another three weeks.
Eyeing the animals suspiciously, I tried to figure out which one had glutinously eaten all the hay. No one looked off or bloated more than usual. Just to be safe, I sprinkled some baking soda into the goats’ food. It wasn’t going to hurt them but would certainly help if one of those little escape artists managed to do it.
“Gertrude, was it you again?” I asked.
She was notorious for getting out. If I had a grey hair on my head, it was probably from her. Of all the animals I’d ever owned, she was probably my favorite. The others knew it but I’d never confess it to them. I wasn’t sure what it was about her. Most of the time she drove me nuts, but I loved her crazy antics.
When I first acquired her, she seemed just a bit off. For a while I honestly thought that maybe she was one of the shiftersrescued by Westin Force. Though I’d gone down the mountain to buy her off one of the humans. Because of that I couldn’t exactly ask him about it.
As always, I paid in cash. I didn’t own a credit or debit card. Always just cash. Life was simpler that way and untraceable.
I’d had smart animals before. I knew better than to underestimate them, but Gertrude was something special. Although she was smart, over the years I had to admit she didn’t have human intelligence. She was no shifter, but I still spoke to her as if she were. I guess I spoke to all my animals that way. It was more satisfying to think of them as friends, even though I had no hesitations about eating them when the time came for it.
With a shrug, I chuckled at the thought.
“Don’t worry girl. You’re a long way from that still.”
Fortunately, she had no idea what I was talking about.
“Well, now that one of you got into the hay, it looks like I’m going to have to waste part of my day driving down the mountain to pick up some more. This is really not cool, guys.”
Five innocent looking goats stared back at me and then all started baa’ing at once.
I waved my hand in frustration, finished my feeding rounds and walked back into the house.
First things first, I logged onto my computer and checked on each and every account within my responsibility. Everything looked good, as I expected it to.
I went over a few emails and some documents Liam Westin had sent over to me. It was nothing serious.
I checked the time. There was just enough time for me to run down to the farm store and back before lunch.
Grabbing my keys, I headed outside. Something in the woods caught my eye. My head turned in that direction. There was a rustle as something ran deeper into the woods.
I frowned.
That was strange.
Wild animals rarely came around here. I’d scared off enough of them threatening my farm for them to know better.
I could hear Gertrude complaining and knew she was only going to bitch more if I didn’t refill the hay.
Shaking my head, I walked to my truck and climbed in.
My truck was the nicest thing I owned. It was my pride and joy. I rarely drove it anywhere, but when I did, it was in luxury. I’d spared no expense on the thing. It was like the limousine of trucks and drove like a dream.
I just sat there a moment enjoying the feel of her rumble as I started her up.
Kyle had once said she was the love of my life. While I’d grumbled and denied it at the time, he wasn’t wrong.
