Cowgirls and Alphas

Chapter 5

Drake POV

At 5 pm, we pull into the Wright’s driveway. The ranch is on a beautiful piece of property. It overlooks the Colorado River on the west side; then to the east, is a picture-perfect view of the mountains. Cottonwood trees tower over the house, barn, and other buildings. The rest is open fields of pasture for the livestock or growing hay. I look ahead and see a grand white farmhouse with a wrap-around porch attached to it.

Jackson smacks Eric’s leg to wake him up and yells, “WE’RE HERE!” Eric sits up, looking around, still half asleep.

I roll my eyes and chuckle at the scene, “Better wake up. I see the Wrights waiting for us outside on the porch.”

“I’m up! I’m up!” Eric groggily states.

I park in front of the house, and we get out of the truck and take a quick moment to stretch. I take a deep breath in, and the smell of cinnamon rolls tickles my nose. Ivar perks up at the delicious aroma.

‘What is that smell?’

‘It smells like cinnamon rolls. Mrs. Wright must be baking some.’

He started to pace again and even tried to come forward. ‘We need to go inside. That’s where the smell is coming from. Ask if we can go in.’

I fight him back and snap at him, ‘Just wait a minute. We need to unload the horses first. Then we can go inside.’

‘I already talked to Thor. He said they can wait a little bit longer while we figure out where and what the smell is!’ He eagerly replies.

‘No! It is probably coming from the house because that is where Mrs. Wright would bake. Now shut up and let me stay in control.’

I immediately block him out and focus on the two individuals who started walking toward us. Once they are closer, I extend my hand to him, “Mr. Wright, I presume?”

He takes my hand in a firm handshake. “Please call me Jason. And this is my wife, Lola.”

I look down to meet her and gently take her hand, “Ma’am, pleased to meet you. I am Drake Reynolds. These two are Jackson Miles and Eric Hough.” I point out my men as they shake the Wrights’ hands as well.

Jason speaks up after the introductions. “Before we get down to business, I have a few stalls cleared out for your horses in the barn. Unload them, then follow us down, and we’ll show ya around.”

Eric opens the trailer door and holds it while Jackson unties our horses. Thor is the first in line to unload, so I step back a little ways from the opening and call him with a whistle again. He immediately turns, steps out of the trailer, and walks to me. After petting him for a moment, I take his lead rope, and we walk over to the Wright couple. The look on both of their faces was priceless as they stood there shocked, watching us.

Jason whispers to me, still looking at Jackson and Eric do the same thing as I did, “How in the heck do you do that? I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

I smile and say, “We train and work with them from a young age.”

Lola quietly laughs, “That is impressive! I wish we could hire you boys to do that with our horses.”

Eric chuckles, “If we weren’t so busy with other business ventures, I’d take you up on that, Mrs. Lola.”

“Nice cover,” I link him. He gives me a small smirk in reply. We can’t exactly train outside of the pack since a lot of the training happens between our wolves and horses. Humans wouldn’t take too kindly to that.

••••

The tour of the barn didn’t last very long after we put up the horses because Lola said dinner was ready and waiting for us. I was so thankful for that. In the short amount of time, we were down here, Ivar managed to give me another headache by incessantly begging me to go back to the house. I was ready to kill him. We usually get along fairly well, but today has been torturous to have him be a part of me.

“Mrs. Lola, might I ask what’s for dinner? It smelled amazing when we first pulled up,” Jackson asks.

“I made a pork roast with garlic mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and dinner rolls for dinner. Oh, and brownies for dessert,” she says with a smile on her face. Wait, brownies? I could have sworn I smelled cinnamon rolls. Walking up to the house I fall back to try and get a whiff of anything but cinnamon rolls but to no avail.

I link Jackson and Eric, “I thought she had made cinnamon rolls, not brownies.”

Jackson links back, “What are you smoking? I could smell the chocolate as we pulled into the drive.”

“Same here. Why aren’t you sharing the stash, Drake? We want in on it too! Greedy bugger,” Eric teases.

What the hell is going on? I’m so distracted I hardly notice the rest of the conversation between everyone. The next thing I knew, the front door swung wide open, letting the delectable smell roll out like a tidal wave. I look up, but can’t see who’s at the door because all the men in front of me are blocking my view. I’m starting to get frustrated like Ivar. I have to know what that smell is! Everybody passes through, and before I realize it, I’m standing face to face with the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.

‘Mate!’ Ivar growls.

That one word paralyzes me. This can’t be happening. My second chance mate is standing right here, right now. I swore to myself that I’d reject her on the spot, but now that I see her, I can’t do it. I can’t open my mouth to say anything to her. So I stay frozen, taking in every bit of the beauty before me.

My mate is a petite little thing. There’s no way she’s taller than 5’, but she’s got appealing curves in all the right places. Her long golden brown hair is pulled over to her left shoulder, giving me a full view of her beautiful suntanned neck where my mark could be someday. The thought makes Ivar fight for dominance to claim what is ours. I try to suppress him while continuing to look at her. I look up into her eyes. Her doe-like chocolate brown eyes melt into my very soul. I see confusion written on her face when she looks into my eyes and sees the color change.

‘Ivar! Stop!’

‘But she’s mate!’

‘She’s human. We can’t mark her yet! That will hurt her!’

Not wanting to hurt our mate, he backs off so I can focus back on her. We stare into each other’s eyes, frozen in time. How can a woman change everything I’ve planned for over four years in a blink of an eye? I want to keep my guard up to avoid a repeat of what happened last time. But then again, she gives me hope. Hope, that maybe this could work out and I could be happy. The thought makes me nervous. I’ll keep my walls up until I’m sure of what I want. Not what fate wants.

Ivar hears my thoughts and starts pacing, ‘Don’t do that! This mate doesn’t hate us. She has no reason to!’

‘True, but she could hate the fact that we aren’t human,’ I tell him.

‘She wouldn’t know how to reject us! She would always want to be with us anyway!’

‘Yeah, because of the mate bond. She would probably end up resenting us for it.’

My wolf growls at me, ‘You stupid human! Can you not see the moon goddess has blessed us! We have a chance to be genuinely happy now!’

‘Or we have another chance to have another broken heart,’ I snap back.

Jackson breaks our spat through mind link, “Hey! You’re being creepy! Come in or say something!”

I mentally shake myself off and reach my hand out to her. “I’m Drake Reynolds. It’s nice to meet you...?” I pause, anxiously waiting for her to introduce herself to me. She startles a little bit, but joins her hand in mine, giving me a firm handshake. It quickly falters from the sensation of sparks erupting from our touch. Before she can take her hand away, I grasp her tightly and look deep into her eyes. ‘Please tell me your name,’ I beg in my mind.

“Lottie... My name is Lottie Wright. It’s nice to meet you too, Drake Reynolds.” Her silvery-soft voice is like music to my ears. Ivar is purring in the back of my mind at the sound. I can already tell my walls are weakening yet again. How the hell am I going to do this?