CHAPTER 5
Hunter
IT WAS NEARLY AN hour later before I stomped up the porch steps and back into the main house, and I was furious.
What the fuck has been going on at this ranch?
It had only been two weeks since Daniel died, so the sheer amount of neglect couldn’t simply be attributed to my old friend’s absence.
Grinding my teeth in frustration, I slammed the door behind me and then felt guilty as Kia shot up from where she’d been resting on the couch.
“What’s going on?” she asked groggily, looking at me with half-lidded eyes, still clouded with sleep. Her hair was a tousled mess, and the couch had left an imprint on her right cheek from where she’d rested on it.
I was oddly touched by how damn cute she looked.
You have my permission to mate with this one, my wolf rumbled in my head.
I bit back a growl. Fuck that. I was not letting my wolf pick and choose whom I could mate with, for fuck’s sake!
“Sorry,” I muttered, scraping my shoes clean on the welcome mat inside. I joined her in the living room, sinking into the matching recliner by the fireplace. “I didn’t mean to wake you . . . though, on the other hand, I guess I should be glad that you woke up instead of falling into an unconscious stupor. Must mean your head injury isn’t so bad after all,” I teased.
Kia rolled her eyes, but I caught a hint of a smile curling the corners of her lips.
She shifted into a sitting position, and her expression grew more serious as she looked at me. “Really, though, what pissed you off so much to make you slam the door?”
I sighed, taking off my hat so I could drag a hand through my hair. “It’s just . . . I don’t understand what the hell happened to this place,” I said after a long moment. “I went out to check on the horses—and, by the way, I let them all out to pasture, which is what you should have done. And while I was in the stables, I decided to check on the feed stores. They’re extremely low, as is the cattle feed, and with winter only a few months away, that’s a really bad thing. And we need to figure out a solution for the feed since no grain crops were planted this year. I decided to go and do an overall inspection of the ranch, and there are all kinds of things that need to be fixed. Machines need to be oiled, and fences need to be repaired.” I pressed the heels of my hands against my temples, a headache forming behind my eyes from just thinking about it.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about any of that,” Kia said, surprising me with her nonchalant tone. “I’ve been here for a few days, trying to figure out what to do with this place, and I’m just going to sell off the livestock and machinery, fix up what I can around the house, and then sell this place.”
“Like hell you are!” I snapped.
Her plan is to dismantle the ranch and sell it off? Over my dead body!
“Excuse me?” Kia lifted her chin, her brown eyes turning hard.
I slowly got to my feet, stretching myself to my full height so that I towered over her. “You are not going to tear down everything Old Daniel worked so hard to keep,” I told her. “That man built this whole ranch with his bare hands and passed it down to you so that it could stay in the family. Not so that you could sell it off piecemeal just to make a quick buck!”
“Well, maybe I don’t want to be a rancher!” Kia jumped to her feet and then swayed slightly.
I instinctively reached out my hands to catch her, but she steadied herself on a nearby table and batted my hands away.
“Maybe it hasn’t occurred to you, but I actually came from somewhere. I’m a fashion photographer, and I have my own life and plans back in New York. I’m not throwing away everything I’ve worked for just so I can become a rancher, which is not something I ever envisioned as a career choice, by the way.” She jabbed a finger into my chest and glared up at me. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but you don’t have the right to tell me what I can and can’t do with my life!”
“A fashion photographer, huh?” I wrapped my hand around her finger, pulling it away from my chest, but I didn’t let go of her hand. “Well, Little Miss High and Mighty, what if you just hired a few ranch hands to fix up and maintain the place for you, so you can go back to your glamorous lifestyle?” Something twanged in my chest at the idea of her up and leaving, and I scowled.
What the hell do I care if she goes back home? I’ve known her for less than twenty-four hours.
I pressed on. “Not only would you be able to get out of doing some actual hard work, but you could also even turn a profit here at the ranch and pad your wallet a bit more.”
“I don’t have the money to pay a bunch of cowboys to run this place.” But I saw the wheels turning in her head. “You really think this place can turn a profit?”
Ah, so money is the way to this girl’s heart. Good thing I have plenty of that to go around.
“Hell yeah, it can turn a profit,” I said, crossing my arms. “When I was growing up, Daniel sure was able to live nicely off what he made on the ranch while paying his hired help a decent wage.”
“If that’s the case, then why is this place such a wreck?” Kia demanded, sitting back down.
I followed suit.
“Where are these hired hands he was paying so well? This place doesn’t look like a successful business to me. It looks like it’s on its way out.”
I ground my teeth. “Look, I don’t know why the hell this place is such a disaster right now,” I said tightly. “I fully plan on tracking down Daniel’s hired help and getting to the bottom of all this. But, in the meantime, we can’t just give up on this.”
“I don’t know the first thing about running a ranch,” she said finally. “And I don’t have the money to hire someone to do it for me.”
“Yeah, well, I know a thing or two about ranch management,” I said. “And, if I have to stay here myself for a few weeks in order to get this place up and running, I will.”
Kia blinked. “Why would you do that? You’ve got to have other things to do.”
I glared at her. “Just because I have a life and problems to worry about doesn’t mean I can’t make time for things that are important. Daniel was like a father to me, and I don’t want to see his legacy flushed down the toilet by an ignoramus like you.”
“Excuse me?” Kia nearly came out of her seat, but I beat her to it, shoving up from the battered recliner. “You fucking asshole.”
“You can go ahead and act all superior if you want. But the way I see it, nothing excuses the fact that you’re trying to do away with a man’s entire life’s work just because you’re too lazy to roll up your sleeves and figure out how to make things work,” I snarled. “Blood is blood, no matter how far apart you were, and it shows a lot about how much loyalty you must feel to your kin if I’m willing to put more work into whipping this place into shape than you are.”
Seething, I spun on my heel and stalked to the front door.
“We’re not finished talking, cowboy! Where the hell are you going?” Kia called.
“Home to get a few things. Why don’t you think on what I said and let me know if anything meaningful has gone through that empty head of yours by the time I get back.”
“Asshole!” she screamed.
I bounded down the steps, almost losing the battle not to shift into my beast before I hit the ground. I struggled for control and had to sit down on the ground, clutching my head for a few moments, before I was able to calm down.
There’s no need to be so angry, my wolf chided when I finally regained control of my human side. She’s only trying to assert dominance over her territory.
This isn’t a pissing match, I snapped, struggling to my feet again.
Isn’t it, though? You’re trying to assert your dominance over her by telling her to do as you wish, and she’s pushing back because she’s headstrong. There was pride and a hint of smugness in my wolf’s voice as he added, That’s part of the reason I like her so much. She’s a challenge. It will be fun to make her submit to us.
Jesus. I rolled my eyes. I’d had no idea that my beast was into BDSM.
No wonder the two of us didn’t see eye to eye. I liked easy women who fell into my lap, not ones I had to assert my dominance over. Yet, as I thought back to Kia, who was likely fuming over my insults, I had to admit a part of me had enjoyed the verbal sparring. She was feisty and intelligent, and she challenged me, making me want to display my superiority to her.
Shit. I’ve got to knock this shit off.
I walked back and forth to calm myself down, so I could go and saddle up Misty. I hadn’t come here so I could bang Old Daniel’s great-niece. I came here to protect Daniel’s legacy, and that was all I was going to do. The sooner I got this shit over and done with, the sooner I could get back to my own damn life, away from her.