Page 25 of Another Man’s Treasure

“You really don’t,” Erek presses, “but if you insist on going, this is the horse for you.”

It takes Saint four tries to get up on the mare’s back. I’d snicker in triumph, but just watching the whole thing feels enough like a win. Erek comes over to offer me a leg up, but I grab the gelding’s mane and carefully swing up with one foot in the left stirrup, careful not to poke my mount’s belly with the tip of my boot.

Saint glares at me from atop his mount, where he sits holding the reins up in front of his chest.

Oh boy.

Erek glances at Wilder next. “You c’n ride a bull like nobody’s business, but you know how to ride a horse? I don’t wanna assume.”

Wilder says nothing, just slips gracefully up onto a big white draft horse. He holds the reins loosely in one hand, looking for all the world like he’s right at home.

“Alrighty then,” Erek jerks his head toward the horizon, “we’ll head northeast first, and I’ll have to stop every once in a while to mark things. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.” He glances at Saint. “Speak now or forever hold your peace, Ashbourne.”

Saint rolls his eyes, still holding the reins up at chest level. “Let’s just get going.”

Erek climbs carefully up onto another draft horse. When he kisses to the big mare, she starts walking off toward the rolling, snow-covered hills in front of us. Wilder and I share a smile as Saint kicks his horse hard. She takes off trotting, and he bounces like crazy, dropping the reins and hanging on to the saddle horn.

I grin over at Wilder. “This is gonna be so fun,” I whisper.

He watches Saint bounce off after Erek. “That’s one way to put it.”

An hour later, Saint’s complaining nonstop of how his knees are rubbed raw and he’s freezing cold. At this point, Erek isn’t even answering him anymore. Although I suppose, with both pack mules trekking along behind him, he could claim he can’t hear Saint. Wilder and I walk our horses side by side in silence for a while, far enough away that we, too, can claim not to hear Saint’s bitching and moaning.

As the snowflakes start blowing sideways, my thoughts stray to the Sweetheart Ball. It’s held outside, and while most monsters aren’t afraid of a little snow, a snowstorm wouldn’t be the best weather. Plus, it’s my favorite PG event of the year. Ice skating and dancing and it’s all about love? Yeah, I’m down for that.

Technically I haven’t actually been to it but since I’m on the organizing committee with my girls, I have the full insider scoop.

“You’re comfortable on a horse,” Wilder says after the second hour, interrupting my thoughts. “I wouldn’t have expected that from a male who moved here from New York City.”

I shrug, flaring my wing carefully to one side so I can scratch a spot in the middle of my back. I’m watchful for Mary, my horse, to be spooked by the wing appearing in her peripheral vision, but she glances at it then looks back at the group ahead of us.

“My grandparents were super outdoorsy. I’ve been camping and fishing and riding my whole life.” I shrug, tucking my wing away. “I feel very at home out here.”

Wilder’s quietly watchful for a minute, then he regards Saint up ahead of us. “What’d you see in him, before it went south?”

I scoff, twitching my ears. Pretty sure Saint’s far enough ahead of us not to be able to hear this conversation.

“Well, he’s hot, for starters. And when he wants something, he can be charming. Not to mention his family’s practically hoity-toity vampire royalty, so I felt…special, for a time. He took me on a lot of neat trips and paraded me around. But it didn’t take long for me to realize he just thought of me as another thing to possess, not cherish. I wasn’t a partner to him. In fact, I don’t think he’s capable of feeling that way about someone else.”

“You’re surprisingly self-aware about that,” Wilder gruffs. “With what you said this morning, and what you’re saying now.”

I smile. “I’ve grown a lot, and Pine Gulch has been a big part of that. I had confidence before he tore it apart. That’s why I swore I’d never put up with that shit again, although I still have my moments.”

He glances at me but looks away quickly, eyes focused on the rolling hills ahead.

I wave at the landscape. “How does it feel to ride our land?” I’m purposeful in how I phrase that, just in case.

Wilder smiles, still staring out at the beautiful hills, covered in winter snow. “Incredible, if I’m honest. It’s been a dream for so long, and you’ve heard me talking about it for ages.” He shoots me a look.

“‘Bout as good as that twenty-K check in my bank account?” I waggle both brows at him, but he just rolls his eyes and looks away. Although, he can’t hide the hint of a smile even though he’s trying. “Tell me something I don’t know about you,” I encourage.

“I got hurt,” he says after another moment passes. “Rode a bull for the full eight seconds but on the dismount he spun and I landed weird. He was on me so fast, knocked me to the side pretty hard.” He sucks at his teeth and I think he’ll go on, but he doesn’t.

We walk for a quiet minute before I decide that since he brought it up, it’s okay for me to ask about it.

When I glance over, his firm jaw’s tightly grit.

“Is that why you’re buying the ranch and bulls here?”