Page 40 of Wilder

Whatever had happened to her to make her so sick to begin with was troubling me more and more the longer I sat here wrapped up in my own thoughts.

“I’ve got Sully going through the feed right now,” I continued. “To make sure the manufacturer didn’t fuck up and send us a rotten batch we didn’t catch before putting out. They’ve got her on an IV for fluids for now. Once results start coming in, they’ll get a treatment plan set up for her.”

He remained quiet.

I knew it would be hard for him to hear, and even harder for me to actually tell him. Which was why I’d had Laken break the news to him to begin with.

I figured it would be better coming from someone closer to him than me, anyway, since I tended not to have the best track record when it came to breaking bad news gently; figuring it was more merciful to rip the band-aid off than torture someone with the slow peel.

Though, as my mama would say, sometimes there were more gracious ways to go about showing mercy.

Asher loved that damn horse like she was his own; had taken excellent care of her since I’d quietly let him take over all of her duties and redirected the other ranch hands to handling the care of our other intakes. This being his first time away from the ranch since being hired and her getting so sick would tear me up, too.

“Asher,” I tried again. “I’m not leaving here without her.”

That was a promise I intended to keep.

While the news was grim, Elena wasn’t talking end-of-life care yet or even worse, humane euthanasia. If things were that bad, she would’ve told me the second we’d gotten our filly off the trailer. So far, they were running tests to find out what the hell happened in the first place.

After another long moment, I finally heard it: a slow, shaky breath pushed past Asher’s lips.

And damn if that didn’t settle something deep in my chest. The tension melted from my shoulders, my body instinctively rolling them back a few times, trying to loosen the knots I hadn’t even realized had settled there.

I hadn’t noticed how much I’d been holding on to any of that until now.

“What do you think happened?” Asher asked, his voice soft.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure.

Only a few tests had come back that had ruled out the usual things: previously unknown infections, accidental pesticide exposure, or some virus that had spread from one of our newer rescues. None of it had shown up on the initial blood panel.

So far, Elena and her team were coming up blank.

“I have a hunch she got into something when we let her out into the pasture earlier in the day. Once I’m back at the ranch, I’m going to take a walk around the whole thing, see if I can find whatever it was she got into.” Purely speculation, but you never knew. Horses liked to get into trouble when they were bored.

Without Asher around to run her in the back paddock like usual, it wouldn’t surprise me if she was trying to find other ways to entertain herself.

He grunted softly. “Not much out there other than dead grass, boss.”

My lip twitched into a small smile.

There he was.

Slowly coming back to m—to himself. I hated hearing him spiral no matter how silent he was about it.

“Lots of things can grow out near the fences. On the off chance someone came wandering across the property line looking for trouble and dropped something, I want to know what it was so I can let the vet test it. But that’s highly unlikely, since a few of the other horses weren’t feeling well, either.”

“True.” He sighed. “I hope it wasn’t intentional.”

“I can’t imagine it was, I don’t usually have enemies.”

“Usually?” His voice lifted in curiosity, a soft edge of amusement clinging to the rest of his sentence. “That sounds like there was a time when you did.”

My smile widened slightly. “Perhaps I’ve lived a colorful life.”

He laughed again, real and warm sounding. No touch of anxiety anywhere.

I missed hearing his voice. Only a few days had rolled by since he’d gone and left for Baton Rouge and already I had to stop myself from looking over my shoulder, his name tingling the tip of my tongue, ready to be called.