Chapter 24

Ashlynn

It's profound how your life can change so quickly. Four months ago, I had just graduated and was looking for my first job. My father had come home and stabbed me and beat my mother, and that one defining moment forever changed our lives. We moved to a new state, to live with a new pack, with an Uncle I had only met twice, when I was a tiny child. I had started my new career, as the veterinarian at my Uncle's packs ranch. Mom had spent time recovering from her grief, and I had gotten to know those I worked closely with. More importantly, I found my mate. My fated mate. A rare occurrence amongst our kind anymore.

As I stood in the shallow pool, at the bottom of a waterfall, naked and wet and cold, my eyes made contact with Dawson's. Instantly, my wolf knew and so did I. There was a current, a recognition and then something foreign, yet familiar, snapped into place. It was like I watched from the outside, as we both said mate. I was frozen in place, as he walked towards me. Once I snapped out of it, I spared his body a sweeping glance. He had ripped abs, from years of hard work, definition in every muscle on his body. His thighs were thick and solid muscle. His beautiful green eyes sparkled back at me, as he stepped towards me, one hand outstretched, begging me to take it. I spared a glance down to that faint line of hair that went from his belly button to his manhood. I visibly gulped at the sheer size of his erection, tall and proud, with the tip up to his belly button. Good goddess. I don't know if he noticed, but I felt myself blush, or maybe I was just over heating. I was thankful for the cold water I was standing in, that came just to my waist. The cool water was keeping my arousal to a minimum and hopefully covering up any scent of it.

When Dawson was a mere foot from me, I grabbed his hand pulled him towards me, our lips locking in a very heated kiss. I felt his erection up against my cool skin. This sobered me up from the moment. I was not going to mate in the woods, especially when there were hundreds of wolves running around out here and any one of them could come upon as at any moment. Even getting into the water and rinsing off under the waterfall had taken me a few minutes and a lot of looking around to make sure no one saw me, before I shifted and waded my way in. I had been covered in dirt from my little interaction with the crazy she-wolf, so I felt the need to rinse the whole experience off my body. As I pulled away from Dawson and let him know that this was not going to happen in the woods, he just smiled. He's always so understanding, never pushing anything on me. I dared him to race back, and our wolves played the entire way back to the pack house. Once there, I darted around the tree where I had left my clothes and quickly dressed. When I came out onto the pack lawn, my Uncle was waiting there, his eyes on Dawson, as they had a silent conversation via mind link.

Dawson cursed out loud. "I will send some warriors to have a look around with one of my trackers," Uncle Gabe told him out loud. I was now more than curious about what was happening. I approached them both and before I could even ask, Dawson turned to me.

"It seems someone turned all the horses lose from their stables. Left gates open all over the ranch. The only good part is that they cannot leave the actual ranch territory because of the cinder block wall that encompasses it, but we now need to go round up twenty three horses, yours included." My hand went to my mouth in shock.

"Who would do that? Is it like a prank or something," I asked turning to my Uncle.

"I don't think any one would do this as a prank. The horses could even get hurt, if they try to go into some of the ravines. It's a very big inconvenience in the middle of the night, that's for sure." He didn't look happy.

"Ok, well I can get my two horses with no problem. They come to my whistle." I reminded Dawson of this, and he nodded.

"They do what?", my Uncle asked.

"I trained them to come to my whistle. It keeps me from having to chase them all around the pasture to halter them." I smiled my best smile at my Uncle as he looked at me in shock.

"Hmmm, ain't that something. Dawson, you should get her to show you how she did that," he gave me a wink and walked back to the pack house, I'm guessing to round up his warriors and the tracker.

Dawson and I made our way down the path towards the ranch house and the stables. "Do you have any idea who would do something like this?" I asked, as he took my hand in his.

"Maybe. I've got a hunch. There are a few security cameras in some inconspicuous places. Cody will have to pull the footage, unless the warrior assigned to the security booth saw something." Dawson was scrubbing his chin with his hand in thought. He glanced down at me, "you think you can get your horses to come back pretty quickly?"

I shrugged, "They couldn't have gone to far, they usually stay close to their food source," we both laughed. "If I get them, we can saddle them up and use them to round up the others if need be.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Dawson picked up the pace a little and we fast walked back to the stables. By the time we got there, several of the ranch hands were already running around, grabbing halters and closing off some of the gates, so the horses couldn't roam any further away than they already had. No one looked happy, least of all Cody, who had been woken up. He was in a pair of jeans and his boots, didn't even bother to put on a shirt, and his hair was a mess. I smirked at him with an eyebrow raised, and he just gave me a look and walked away. Guess he wasn't in a joking mood. As he walked away, I noticed the rippling muscles in his back and his huge triceps. Looks like Mom got herself a hottie. I giggled at the thought, then walked to my horses stalls and grabbed their halters.

Making my way to the fence closest to where my horses stalls were, I walked out into the pasture. The moon gave off enough light so we could see pretty well actually. I walked about a hundred yards in and gave a whistle. I waited a minute, put my ear to the ground to see if I could hear anything rumble in the ground. Nothing. I gave another whistle, a little louder and waited. I was about to walk out further, when I heard thundering hooves running towards me.

Two of the ranch hands were running from the side, yelling at me to get out of the way. I just smiled and turned back towards the sound. A minute later, Buck and Bailey came running past me, then turned back to stand in front of me. The ranch hands stood with their mouths agape. I just smiled and waived at them, as I first haltered Bailey. She's always the nasty one. I then haltered Buck, and led them back towards the stables. It took me about fifteen minutes to get them both saddled, then I sent a mind link to Dawson that I had them and they were ready. About that time, he came around the corner with one of the filly's in tow, and put her in her stable. "There's about five of them all together up by the ridge. You think Bailey and Buck can climb up there?", he asked me as he mounted Buck and pulled the reins to lead him towards the pasture.

"Of course they can, they are work horses, not show horses," I gave him a wink and we headed up the mountain. We made it up to the ridge in about twenty minutes, only because it was dark out and although the moon was bright, there were some places under the trees, that weren't well lit. We couldn't risk the horses stumbling and breaking a leg. Once we got to the ridge, Dawson jumped off and haltered two of the horses, then tied them to his saddle horn. The other three were having none of it.

"Why don't we herd them down," I suggest. "I've done it before. We just need to have a more clear path than the one we came up."

He stops to think for a minute, "yeah we could go to the south side of the mountain, there is a pretty wide trail there, that actually a truck can get through. If we can get them there, it should be simple after that." He unties the first two, and tosses me one of the ropes. We each flank the other three, each with a lead in one hand for the two we've caught. We slowly move them down to the south of the ridge, and true to his word, we come across a wide trail and safely herd the horses onto it and down the mountain. There are two ranch hands waiting at the bottom to grab the halters of our other two, and we continue herding the three stubborn runaways into the low pasture, where Cody is waiting to close the gate behind us.

It's got to be three in the morning, and I'm exhausted. While we were up on the ridge, they managed to catch another seven horses and get them back to the stables. That leaves nine still out there. Dawson rides up next to me as we try to decide how to move forward. "A couple of the guys have the rest in view. We can't take these two horses up to get them, so I think we will herd them down in wolf form, makes the most sense anyhow. If you don't mind putting these two up for the night, I'm going to go help get the rest down the mountain. Call it a night Ash, I'm sure you're tired," Dawson hands me the reins of Buck, as we both dismount and I start to walk back to the barn. "Hold on," he says, as he puts a hand on my arm. I turn to face him, and he grabs my face with his two hands and leans in and gives me a panty wetting kiss. He's lucky my hands are full with the horses reins, or I may have been inclined to hold him there. He pulls back, gives me a wink and runs off. I let out a deep sigh, and shaking my head, I head back to the barn. This has been one of the longest days and nights of my life. I soon realize I've been up for twenty four hours.

Quickly, I put up the horses, place my tack back in the tack shed, give them both a quick brushing for their hard work, and some oats in their bowls. I'm bone tired at this point. Heading back to my loft, I shower in three minutes flat and then pass out before my head has even hit the pillow.