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“That one’s Xavier?” He nodded toward the stallion.
“Yes.”
“What about that one?”
“Bunny,” she admitted.
“And the brown mare?”
“Esther.”
The corner of McGoven’s mouth twitched—barely perceptible, but still technically a smile. Though it only lasted a heartbeat.
Loren was mortified. “I’m probably not even close to their real names, am I?”
“Well…” McGoven’s mouth returned to its usual frown. “They don’t have any. When I…the person I acquired them from didn’t tell me if they did or not.”
“Oh,” Loren said softly. She remembered the man Sonia mentioned. “Josiah Baker?”
He raised an eyebrow, surprised. “Yes. He was a good man. Cared for these animals himself for years, but let’s just say talking wasn’t his forte.”
“He was a wolf, too? I mean a l-lycan.”
“How do you…Sonia,” he declared with a heavy sigh. Then he nodded. “A made. One of the few, if not the only, who I’ve ever known to leave the pack willingly. Not because he shunned our laws. I think he just preferred his solitude, and I couldn’t blame him for that. He died not long after I was… After I left the pack. He’d just gotten the black one, in fact. And if Ihadnamed these horses, I don’t think I’d have picked those names. The old swayback I probably would have called Whitey. The mare, Brownie, and the stallion…”
“Let me guess?” Loren asked before she could help herself. “Blackie?”
He nodded, but his expression was so serious she couldn’t smother a laugh. Just a soft, tricklingha, ha,at first, but pretty soon, she was doubled over, gasping for air.
God, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed this hard—if ever. Once she started, she couldn’t stop. It just kept coming, until she blinked to realize that tears were streaming down her face.
“I was never really creative,” McGoven said softly, still watching her. “Feel free to call them whatever you want.”
Loren felt the corner of her mouth twitch. Was that a smile? He seemed adept at drawing emotions from her, one after the other. “I don’t know…” She turned back to the stall and dragged a hand through the mare’s long mane. “Bunny just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it asWhitey.”
Had she just made a joke? She puzzled it over, still petting the horse. Suddenly, Bunny stiffened, shying back within her stall, her ears flat against her head. Esther reacted the same way, and Xavier shifted, prancing anxiously in his stall.
It wasn’t until she felt a prickle over the back of her neck that she saw why. McGoven stood closer, fully inside the barn. His eyes flashed with confusion, as if he hadn’t realized he’d moved at all. Awkwardly, he stumbled back until his toes toyed with the threshold once again.
Just like that, the horses quieted down.
“Is that…is that ah…” Loren trailed off. Hell, what did she mean to say?Is that a wolf thing?
He got the gist anyway.
“They can sense a predator nearby,” he admitted, tucking his hands into his pockets. “It’s instinct.”
“But…Ican touch them,” she pointed out, trying not to let a note of“I told you so”slip into her voice. It did anyway.
“I know.” His voice was that deep rumble again. “I’ve been thinking as to why…”
He never mentioned just what theories he’d come up with. He just watched her, until Loren felt the need to turn around. Her heart picked up speed, though she figured that it had already been pounding the moment he’d appeared in the doorway.
He felt too close—but not closeenough.Everything running through her mind was conflicting. Her fingers shook as she dragged them through Bunny’s mane over and over again.
What is wrong with me?
“I was going to clean out the barn,”McGoven said.
