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Eliza was determined that she would earn her place, so hefted pitchforks of dirty, damp, heavy hay out of the stalls until her back wouldn’t let her bend anymore. Perspiration soaked her dress through, strands of moist hair were plastered to her forehead, and her once-smooth nails were lined with filth.
When the stalls had been spread with fresh hay, she stumbled after Lenny and hauled buckets of feed to the animals in the barn. Then she and Lenny loaded small bales of hay into a wagon, and Eliza rode on the seat with her out to the bellowing herd of breeding cattle that had been left behind.
Back in the barn, the two giant and fully-intimidating brown milk cows seemed completely unimpressed with her withered grip as she stabbed her non-working fingers at their full udders.
The cow bellowed loudly, and then a clunk was Eliza’s reward as the second uncooperative beast—perhaps having gotten the idea from the first through bovine telepathy—kicked over the bucket with a pitiful amount of milk in the bottom.
With a sigh, Lenny nodded toward the bustling chicken coop, and Eliza thanked God for small blessings and an understanding teacher. Chickens had to be much easier than milking cows.
She dropped three eggs while she was collecting them, but that was the rooster’s fault for attacking her legs with the horrid little dagger-like spurs on his feet. That thing was terrifying. Lenny said his name was Harold, but she secretly renamed him Roostifer because it kind of sounded like Lucifer. He had chased her straight out of the coop and then into the barn to seek protection from Lenny, who simply picked the feathered little demon up by his legs and held him upside down until he stopped struggling and seemed to go to sleep.
So…Lenny was magical.
Feeding the chickens when Roostifer wasn’t in the coop was her favorite chore because it was easy and didn’t tire out her arms, and the chickens seemed so happy when she gave them a handful of grain.
In the house, she kicked off her high-button leather shoes—which now lacked polish and smelled suspiciously of whatever came from the south end of a northbound horse—and slumped into the chair closest to the fireplace with a loud groan. Every muscle and bone ached, from her swelling ankles to her pounding head.
She had never worked so hard in her life. The blisters on her hands had long since broken and now weeped, her backside was sore from the saddle, and her shoulder was likely seven shades of purple from shooting today.
She glared balefully at the barren stove. Desperate for the day to be at an end, she ate a carrot and a stale piece of bread, then escaped to the restful sanctuary of her room. When her head finally hit the pillow, she was already well on her way to sleep.
****
“You’ve sure been quiet,” Burke said.
Garret hadn’t even realized he’d pulled his horse up beside him. That’s how distracted he’d been. “How’s Roy?”
Burke made a ticking sound behind his teeth. “You made a monster, there. He’s a mess, but he won’t stay a mess forever. The boys will get him straightened out.”
“He wanted to kill me the second he Turned,” Garret gritted out as he angled his horse toward a trio of cows that were cutting away from the herd.
Burke followed easily. “Can you blame him? You wanted to kill your Maker, too.”
“Yeah, well, my Maker deserved it. I’ll kill him yet,” Garret promised.
“You’ll start a war with that oath, Shaw,” Burke pointed out.
“Well, that war has been building since the day those damn Jenningses put their sights on my ranch.”
“You got a pretty wife now. You put us into war, it pulls her into war too.”
“Enough,” Garret ground out.
“It ain’t just you anymore.”
“Never was just me,” he barked out. “I had you motherfuckers.”
Burke threw up one of his hands in surrender. “Fair, fair, and you’re a good Alpha. Being a husband is a different kind of leadership.”
“Says someone who is unmarried.”
“I was married.”
Garret frowned at his Second and swung his rope slowly to get the lagging cows in front of him moving. “When?”
“Another life. Back when I was human. I’m married still, I suppose, but she didn’t want anything to do with me after I Turned.”
This confession absolutely shocked Garret to his bones. “Burke, you were really married? You’re being serious?”
