After a long day of mending fences, injecting the herd with medicine, and moving them into another pasture, Leland built a fire in the fireplace in the front parlor.

He’d called the ranch in Texas at midday and given them the bad news: he wouldn’t be coming back. There was no going back now. He was the new Alpha of the ranch and had to start acting like it.

As he sat by the fire, drinking a glass of old whiskey, he dug through his father’s paperwork, looking for records and documents. The more he dug, the worse he felt. Everything was disorganized. It was all so unlike the meticulous man Leland remembered as a child. He’d known his dad had gone downhill since the war, but he’d never expected this.

His dad’s books were a mess and full of holes. His bills were past due. But that wasn’t the worst of it. He soon realized his father hadn’t filed taxes in years.

His heart sank into the pit of his stomach. It was becoming more and more clear that the ranch was in a tremendous amount of debt. Where it had come from was a question he couldn’t answer.

Leland rubbed his temples and shook his head before taking another sip of whiskey. If Buck wanted to wade into this mess, maybe Leland should let him. The job of Alpha of the Kincaid clan had just become a million times more difficult. It was one thing to come onto a ranch where the herd had been standing in mud, but it was another thing entirely to find that the ranch itself was deep in debt and in danger of going under at any moment.

As the manager of a ranch, Leland was well acquainted with the business side of things. But the nightmare of this financial rabbit hole his father seemed to be dug into was beyond his comprehension. He didn’t know if he could unravel the mess himself. He simply didn’t have that level of expertise. He was sure the entire estate was close to bankruptcy, and he sincerely wondered if either of his brothers even knew.

After a few hours of research and a growing sense of fatigue, Leland decided to go to bed. That’s when he realized he had no idea what room to sleep in. Buck had built his own house a long time ago and Jessie stayed with him now. The main old farmhouse was empty. Leland stood and made his way up the stairs to the second floor where the bedrooms were located. He peered through the door into the room his parents had shared when he was a boy and found it almost exactly the same.

The thought that they were both gone now hit him hard, like a tree falling in a windstorm. He gripped his chest as he turned out the light and closed the door. He wouldn’t be staying in that room for now.

Leland went down the hallway to the room that used to be his and found that it was full of storage. Random boxes of old clothing, dirty boots, and a mixture of books, horse tackle, and junk mail. He shook his head and turned out the light in that room, continuing down the hallway to the room that his mother had designated as a guest room. He looked inside and found it still decorated with her soft feminine style. There was an oil painting of a horse on the wall, and a patchwork quilt made by his grandmother spread over the bed. He let out a long sigh, knowing he had finally found a place to rest his head for the night.

It was hard for him to believe that he had just arrived that morning. So much had taken place already. He’d only spent a few minutes speaking with his brothers before he had gotten down to business, but he knew that if he wanted to make this work, he’d have to spend a lot more time with them. Buck was understandably irritated and Jessie was his same old self, never really wanting to take responsibility for anything.

By all rights, Buck should be Alpha. Leland had left the family years ago, and he knew, in the back of his mind, that he didn’t really deserve to be their leader. How could he possibly ask his brothers for loyalty when he himself had not been loyal to the family?

He kicked off his boots and rested his back against the headboard of the bed, thinking about the mistakes he had made in the past. The Kincaid brothers were typical men. They liked to drink and fight and swear with the best of them, but Leland knew he would have to make things right with his brothers.

He had missed them all much more than he had previously admitted to himself. Now that his dad had made him Alpha, Leland wanted to prove to his brothers that he deserved to be their leader. As different as they could be, Leland had a deep respect for all of them. Cyrus with his independent streak. Buck and his constant loyalty. Jessie with that free-spirited aggression.

They were all good men, and a good Alpha could bring out the best in the bears who followed him. Leland didn’t know it until right that very minute, but being the kind of bear who deserved the title of Alpha and the respect of his brothers was everything he had ever wanted out of life. Except for maybe a mate, but that was another thing entirely.

Working full time as the manager of a cattle ranch in Texas had kept him busy. He didn’t have time for love and often didn’t even have time for friendship. While a lot of the other cowboys on the ranch were settling down, Leland had never found a woman of his own. No matter how much he wanted to see the light in his mate’s eyes when he provided for her every need and made her feel like the most beautiful lady on the planet, he couldn’t possibly do that until he found the one.

As he drifted off to sleep, Leland imagined the kind of girl who would be his one and only. He’d imagined her face as he had before many times, as he drifted off to sleep at night. He would think about the delicious curves of her body and the way she would smile at him when she felt proud of him. He let out a deep, rumbling growl at the same time as the grizzly inside his mind, before turning on his side and pulling the quilt up over his shoulder.

Usually, the idea of his mate was soothing to him, but tonight it was just making him more agitated. Leland was used to responsibility, but what had fallen on his shoulders today was beyond anything he had ever taken on before. He had a herd of sick cows and a ranch that was in trouble of going under. The worst part was he couldn’t make heads or tails of his dad’s financial situation. That made him incredibly uncomfortable. Not even the idea of his beautiful bride could soothe the discomfort.

He tried to clear his mind as the grizzly inside him curled up and grumbled behind his eyes. He needed a good night’s sleep if he was going to get a fresh start tomorrow morning. He had to dig deeper into his father’s financial mess and come up with a workable solution.

He also planned to talk to his brothers and try to make peace with Buck. Leland needed Buck on his side more than anything, since his brother was currently running the most profitable aspect of the ranch from what he could tell so far. Leland knew he could depend on Buck. He knew Jessie would always be around to help here and there, but Buck was the one Leland needed on his side, now more than ever. Unfortunately, Buck did not seem very open to rekindling their former brotherly relationship.

Leland drifted off into a fitful sleep and woke the next morning feeling cranky and hung over, even though he’d only had a few drinks the night before. He climbed out of bed, his inner bear demanding coffee. He grumbled as he trudged down the hallway, blurry eyed and scratching his behind underneath his boxer shorts. Down in the kitchen, he found a ten-pound sack of coffee in the pantry and proceeded to make a pot in the coffee maker. It was going to be a long damn day. He already dreaded diving back into his dad’s paperwork and considered hiring a lawyer or a financial consultant to go through it for him.

As he was taking the first sips of his morning coffee and staring out the kitchen window at the slope that looked out on the northern pasture down to the river, the landline phone rang in the kitchen. He grabbed the phone and greeted whoever was on the other side.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Kincaid?” said the male voice on the other side.

“This is Leland Kincaid.”

“Hello, my name is Jim Huffman. I’m an auditor.”

Oh boy, here it comes.

“Yes? What is this regarding?”

“Leland Kincaid,” Jim continued. “You are the son of Hank Kincaid, and the new majority shareholder in Timber Bear Ranch, correct?”

“That is correct, as of yesterday,” Leland said, taking another sip of coffee.

These people moved fast.

“We’re freezing all of your father’s assets as of this morning.”

“You can’t just do that without warning,” Leland objected, not sure his father even had any assets.

“You are lucky we don’t freeze yours as well. Your father’s debt now belongs to you as the executor of his estate and majority shareholder of his corporation. We are sending an auditor to the ranch to determine exactly what you owe.”