Page 53 of The Coyote's Veterinarian Omega

A bark nearly startled me out of my skin, and I glanced to my left to find Cam trotting down the laneway in his fur.

I almost slammed the window shut in my haste to book it out of the clinic. “The hell are you doing,” I snapped at him. Coyotes weren’t exactly a common sight in the middle of the day, and he didn’t usually take the risk of running around in his fur at this hour. Someone might have called animal control or, worse, simply decided he was a problem they needed to deal with right then and there.

“Relax,” he said as soon as he’d shifted.

I rolled my eyes and tossed him my lab coat. He shrugged it on, then continued up the steps to the house. I followed, folding my arms, still waiting for an explanation.

He marched upstairs to my room and raided the stash of clothes he’d stored in the dresser. I leaned against the doorframe. Vern was out on calls. Probably would be for most of the afternoon.

I glanced at my watch. “I have a patient at two,” I told him.

He whirled around, clapping his hands together. “As fun as that would be,” he told me, “that’s not why I’m here.”

I frowned. Cam showing up unannounced for anythingotherthan a booty call was pretty much unheard of. “Did someone die?”

He almost tripped down the stairs. “What? No. God, do you have to be so morbid?”

“I mean …”

The floorboards creaked as we crossed back into the kitchen. Cam produced his phone, then slid it across the counter to me. “Check it out.”

I peered at the screen for a second, then looked back up at Cam. “Yeah? It’s a house.”

“Not just any house,” Cam said.

“Fine,” I conceded, glancing back down at the screen, registering a few more things—it was a webpage, clearly on a realtor’s site. “It’s a house that’s for sale.”

“It’sourhouse,” Cam said.

I frowned. Then I looked up at him again. “Cam … I know you think vets make good money and all, but Ijustgraduated. I have a mountain of student loans. There is absolutely no way anyone is givingmea mortgage.”

I pointedly didn’t mention that he didn’t even have a job. It was something I’d been wondering about, but I hadn’t really had the courage to ask him about it yet.

Cam frowned. “Who said anything about a mortgage?”

I stared at him for a full minute. Then I said, “That’s usually how you buy houses.”

He tilted his head, then looked back down. “Huh. Uh. Well.”

I waited. Then he said, slowly, “Cal said it was covered.”

I almost fell out of my chair. “You let your brother buy you a house?!” I roared.

“What? No! I asked Cal about my …” He trailed off, waving a hand. He seemed to consider. Then he leaned forward, putting an arm on the table. “We’ve owned that ranch forever, Wyatt.”

“So?”

He took a deep inhale. “Okay. Where to start? Uh. So my great-great-great-great-great …” He paused, counting his fingers. “I think that’s enough greats.”

“Get to the point, Cameron.”

“Myancestors,” he said, “one of them was a doctor. And he and his wife bought up a lot of the land around here, back when the government was selling it stupid cheap. You can ask Aunt Caroline about it, or Cal, next time you see one of them.Anyway—the point is my family’s been landowners for a long time. They let logging happen on the property back in the day, then had cattle. More recently, we’ve sold off some of the land, but the point is—uh. There’s … a lot of money.”

I pursed my lips and stared at him. “You’re rich?” I asked finally.

He scratched the back of his head. “I guess? I mean, I had to ask Cal how much was in the trust fund—”

“You have a trust fund,” I squeaked.