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“And regardless of the things people scream when they’re in my bed, I am not, in fact, a deity. There’s no lord here, Maddison. Call me Wolf.”
Her eyes brighten with a surprised laugh, and she removes her hands from her mouth to smile curiously at me.
“Maddie,” she replies so fast that I know the correction is instinctive.
“Maddie,” I repeat, tasting her name on my tongue. Savoring it as her scent pushes through the hay and dung odors clogging my nose from a day spent in the stables.
“If ending up with your foot in your mouth is a disease, then I’m terminal, I’m afraid.” She groans again then mutters to herself under her breath, “I really don’t get why I’m even still here.”
“Ah, I can help you there,” I say as I reach for Sergeant Pepper’s reins once we’re beside him. “We’ll talk about it on the ride. Come on, up you get.”
I pat the stirrup with my free hand. “Just put your foot in there, grab the pommel. Good. Now just do a bit of a hop on your standing leg and lean your weight into the saddle as you heave yourself up.”
We’ve got a step for the ladies, and the grooms are well-versed in giving leg-ups, but I’m interested to see how she handles this. For a moment, it looks as if she’d rather throw herself under the Sergeant’s hooves instead of getting on top of him, but then she breathes out slowly and gives it a go.
I don’t miss how her hands shake, but I’ll take care of her. Between the Sergeant and me, she’s in safe hands.
Drawing in a deep breath, she lifts her leg, but she’s too short to get her foot anywhere near the stirrup. The groom swoops in, but I stop him with a curt shake of my head before I turn back to my date. “Allow me.”
She frowns but shakes her head in turn. “I can do it myself. Just give me a sec to figure it out.”
Oh, so she’s stubborn.
Hmm.
I step back, gesturing for her to go ahead. It takes much longer than a moment, but eventually, she manages to get her foot wedged into the stirrup at an angle that looks severely uncomfortable, but I don’t offer to help again.
With a swift lift, she gets herself up but when the Sergeant starts as she drops down in the saddle, she lets out a little squeak and hangs onto the horn like she’s clinging to life.
I chuckle again before I help thread the reins into her hands while she’s still gripping the saddle. “I take it you’ve never ridden?”
Her wide eyes land on mine as I easily climb astride Lady White and take the reins in my hands.
“Am I really that obvious?”
“Yes,” I say without hesitating. “If I’m being honest, you’re not very good at hiding your fear.”
She glances down at her mount and tentatively releases one hand to pat his mane. “He’s beautiful, but he’s massive. It’s a long way down from here.”
“True, but we’ll go on a very slow walk, and I’ll guide you through the process. Now, the first step is to get a good seat. Your legs have to be firm, but your butt needs to be relaxed. Squeeze your thighs against him if you feel unsteady and let your body move with him when we get going, okay?”
“Firm, but relaxed,” she repeats after me before her eyes close. “Sure, I can do that.”
Lady White starts moving with the barest prompt from me, and Maddie’s eyes grow even wider when Sergeant Pepper falls into step with us. Once we’re out of the stables, we’re moving at a snail’s pace. Slowly, her features smooth out of the pinched concentration they’ve been taut with since she got on top of him.
“This isn’t so bad,” she breathes after a moment, perking up before glancing at me. “Thanks for letting me work it out by myself.”
“You’re welcome,” I say, enchanted by the sight of her as she eases into it. All the other Omegas I’ve taken out on a ride so far have been quite comfortable on the back of a horse. It intrigues me that she genuinely doesn’t seem to have ever been near one before.
I’m strangely eager for her responses.
“Tell me, Maddie, how is it that you’ve never been on horseback before? Are you allergic or something?”
“Or something,” she says lightly. Then she sighs and turns to me more fully than she has until now. “I’m not like the others here, but let’s leave it at that. I’m sure Taiyo has told you all about my dreary existence, and I’m not one to rehash things.”
“Your dreary existence?”
I know I shouldn’t, but I laugh anyway. “He hasn’t actually told me anything, but I’ll spare you the rehashing and ask him about it later. What would you like to talk about, then?”
