Together, they got Jumper ready, and Caitlyn literally climbed hand over hand and into his saddle. Jumper agreed more quickly than Cade to take care of his rider and obeyed every one of Caitlyn’s commands to the letter. “I think I can train a horse,” he told her as she trotted Jumper around.
“Mommy does the training,” Caitlyn replied primly.
“And Daddy does the stall mucking.”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe I should have my own horse.”
“You have to ask Mommy if you can have one of the babies.”
Neil frowned. “What babies?”
“They’re in the mountains,” Caitlyn answered, riding Jumper through his paces. “Mommy will bring them down.”
“Oh.” Neil inwardly planned to ask Mommy all about the mountain babies.
When Jordan trotted Cade into the yard, she grinned down at Neil. “I have never had such a perfect ride on him.”
Thank you.
Cade lowered his head at Neil’s thanks, granting Neil the position as the herd leader. He helped Jordan untack him and watched as she walked Cade out to cool him. “Caitlyn says you have babies in the mountains?”
Jordan glanced at him in surprise. “Well, yeah, his babies from the broodmares are up there.”
“What do you do with them?” he asked.
“Sell them. I sell the cows’ calves at market, then work with the foals before selling them to people.” She walked the big stallion in a circle. “I have some bulls to sell, too, and may need your help to get them down.”
“Always ready to help you.”
“Why are you asking about the foals?”
Neil drew in a breath. “Can I buy one from you? Have my own horse?”
Stopping in her tracks, Jordan stared at him. “But they take so long to grow up, Neil. Maybe we could find you another.”
“How long does it take for them to grow up?” he asked, disappointed.
“Four years.”
“Oh.”
Jordan walked over to him, leading the tired Cade, smiling. “I tell you what. I’ll give you one of his foals and let you learn how to train him. Or her. Meanwhile, you can still learn on one of those old boys. What do you say?”
Neil grinned. “Really?”
“Really.”
Bending, he kissed her. “Thanks.”
“When I bring them down for the winter,” she said, tying Cade to the rail to groom the sweat from his hide, “then you can choose. I have more than a dozen you can pick from.”
“Maybe we can ride up there sometime.”
Jordan paused to grin. “Yes. We’ll do that.”
Jordan noticed Caitlyn turning an obviously tired Jumper into the pen, then turned to him, astounded. “She rode Jumper? You let her ride?”
“I told him to behave,” Neil replied, defensive. “His behavior was perfect.”
Jordan continued to groom Cade in long, heavy strokes of her brush. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to you being able to talk to them.”
Neil stroked his hand down Cade’s thick neck, smiling at the stallion’s tired thoughts about hay, grain, and a long drink of water. “He’s thirsty,” Neil said, gazing into Cade’s huge eye. “And hungry. You worked him hard.”
“I’m almost done,” Jordan replied after a sharp look at him over Cade’s neck. “He’ll be fed and watered.”
You’ll get what you need, brother.
Cade nuzzled his hand, then yawned, exposing his large teeth. Neil chuckled and left the two together to check on Caitlyn. She had turned Jumper loose and stood among the patient geldings in the corral. She rubbed noses dropped down to her level, talked to them in her childish fashion, and Neil entered their minds.
None had any malice or fear toward her and would never harm her unless something spooked them. Even then, their quiet minds told him, they would avoid running her down even if they did spook. He realized they understood she was small, helpless, and a baby. He sent his thought into their minds—
She is precious, my brothers. Keep her safe, when you can.
The ranch geldings lifted their heads from Caitlyn and stared at him with liquid eyes. Though they were not as clear in their thoughts as Axel or Cade, Neil still received their images of their desire to never harm the baby, even by accident.
To his shock, Jumper pinned his small ears at the very idea of ever harming Caitlyn. Neil discovered a fierce loyalty and protectiveness for the child in the pony. He received images of Jumper fighting great, fanged creatures in defense of Caitlyn. He sent back images of himself defending her in his dragon form and watched as Jumper lowered his head in subservience.
“What are you doing?”
Neil jumped and wheeled toward Jordan. “Ah, er, just talking to them.” Neil waved his hand toward the pen.
Jordan frowned. “About what?” She glanced at the geldings absorbing Caitlyn’s affections like huge sponges, and Jumper nibbling at her hair.
“Making sure they won’t harm her,” he said, his tone both lame and defensive.
“Of course, they won’t harm her.”
“Even if they spook?” he added. “Jumper said he’d protect her like, um, what is a big canine that has big teeth, shaggy fur, and is wild?”
Jordan frowned. “A coyote?”
“No, bigger than that. Almost as big as Axel.”
“Wolves?”
Neil laughed. “Yes, that’s what’s in Jumper’s mind. He’d fight wolves in protecting her.”
“No way.”
Jordan stared toward the pen with the horses, the pony, and her daughter. “Jumper couldn’t possibly want to protect her like that.”
“Why don’t you believe him?”
She looked back at him. “He’s a pony. A prey animal. Prey run from danger; it’s in their genetics.”
“Try telling him that.”
“But…”
Jordan stopped, still staring at the pen. “Perhaps I should just shut up,” she said at last. “I’ve heard enough stories of horses, mules, ponies protecting their humans to know he’s telling you the truth.”
Chapter Eighteen
Jordan slept fitfully that night, despite the comfort of Neil’s arms around her. Dreams of the horses, and Jumper, galloping to Caitlyn’s rescue charged through her mind. She woke often, listening to Neil’s soft snores beside her, then slept again. He could talk to them, she knew, but she had no idea of the depths of loyalty within those animals under her care.
Rather than comfort her, the knowledge of that loyalty disturbed her greatly. Jordan picked at her breakfast the next morning, staring at the bacon on her plate, and wondered if the pig’s sacrifice was worth it.
“Makes me want to become a vegetarian,” Jordan grumbled, pushing the bacon away.
Neil turned from the stove, his brow up. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. I just can’t eat the bacon right now.”
Caitlyn had no such compunctions and munched the bacon from her plate. “It’s good, Mommy.”
“Tell the pig that,” Jordan groused and drank her coffee.
Neil sat beside her and kissed her cheek. “We’ll talk later.”
Feeling at odds with her former views about raising animals for their meat, Jordan stared glumly out the kitchen window at the new day and wondered if she could make a living by simply raising horses. She absently watched Caitlyn playing with Axel.
“Do cows have the same feelings?” she asked Neil.
He shrugged. “Let me talk to a cow and I’ll tell you.”
“This is bugging me,” she admitted. “If cattle have thoughts and feelings, maybe we shouldn’t be raising them for food.”
“But,” Neil replied, “you treat them with respect, so why should it matter?”
“But we kill them,” she yelled. “Maybe we shouldn’t.”
“Do your people not hunt?” he asked, sipping his coffee. “Kill wild animals for food? My people do. Do deer, elk, caribou not have feelings
?”
Jordan nodded, reluctant. “I imagine they do.”
“Has it not always been this way?” he asked. “Some die so that others may live? That the strong hunt down the weak? That humans slaughter cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens for their food supply?”
“Yeah.”
Neil shrugged. “So why does it bother you now?”
“Because of you.”
“Me?”
“You can talk to them,” she yelled. “Doesn’t that make a difference?”
“No.”
Jordan stopped, baffled. “It doesn’t?”
“Of course not. We dragons eat meat and always have. Our supply breed quickly so the species doesn’t become extinct. We take only what we need, leave the rest to procreate.”
Jordan stared at her uneaten breakfast. “So, you only take what you need.”
“Right.”
“The species continues.”
“Yes.”
“Even if that species knows you prey upon it?”
Neil shrugged. “Do wolves and coyotes not also prey upon rabbits, deer, elk? Do they have questions in their minds of what they’re doing? Do they stop and ask themselves, ‘maybe we should become vegetarians?’”
Jordan laughed. “No, they can’t. Predators require proteins from meat. They’ll die on a vegetarian diet.”
“I guess what I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t change your ways simply because I can talk to these creatures.”
Reaching for him, she hugged him, laying her head on his chest. “Maybe I am taking all this out of proportion. But I truly am grateful you can talk to Axel, the horses.”
“Same. So, what’s the plan for the day?”
“I have to ride up to check the cattle and the mares,” she replied. “Once again, will you watch Caitlyn?”
Neil’s arms squeezed her close. “Much better husband duty than mucking stalls.”
“Thanks. I should be back by late afternoon.” Jordan lifted her face to his, closing her eyes as he kissed her. “She can ride Jumper if she wants,” she continued as Neil let her go. Taking him by the hand, she led him through the kitchen door and outside.
Haltering the buckskin gelding, Jordan led him from the corral and tied him. Neil helped her brush him down while Caitlyn asked, “Mommy, can I come, too?”
“No, baby, you stay here with Neil.”
“But I want to help.”
“I know you do, but you’re not big enough yet.”
“When will I be big enough?”
“A few more years.”
Caitlyn pouted for a few minutes, then laughed and ran off to play a chasing game with Axel. They took turns chasing one another around the yard. “You be careful,” Neil advised as she finished saddling and bridling the gelding.
“I will.” Jordan kissed him again, then swung into the saddle.
Taking a moment to gaze down at him, his handsome face turned up to hers, she reached down to take his hand. “I’m so glad you came into my life,” she murmured with a smile.
“I’m glad you ran me over.”
Laughing, Jordan reined the gelding around and nudged him into a quick trot. Riding up the steep trail under the shade of the trees, she scented the pine, listening to the breeze whisper through the branches. Birds flew up in clusters as the gelding trotted and loped across the rocky incline as she rode higher and higher into the mountains.
Reaching the bulls’ pasture, Jordan found them lying on the ground, huge black mounds, placidly chewing their cud. They watched her ride past without bothering to get up, and Jordan swiftly counted them. All were there, and she rode on, inspecting the fencing as she trotted the gelding past it.
Dismounting at the wire gate, she noticed the carrion birds circling in the sky not far away. “Did one of my cows get sick and die?” she muttered, leading the horse through the gate, then wrestled it back. Mounting up, she cantered across the pastures, seeing the birds were almost over her head.
Cresting a hill, she gazed down into the shallow valley. Two mounds lay in the grass, vultures, buzzards, and crows vying for their share of the carcasses. “Oh, no,” Jordan exclaimed, then loped the buckskin down the hill.
The birds flew up in a great squawking cloud as she approached, fearing she’d find that a wolf pack had eaten two of her cows. Although the government would compensate her for her losses, she still worried over wolves roaming across her lands. Dismounting, she left the gelding where he was and approached the dead cows.
They were intact and not eaten by predators. Confused, Jordan walked around them, then crouched beside one. It had been dead for hours, she saw, and upon closer examination, she found the bullet hole in its neck.
“Oh, shit.”
She got up and looked at the other cow and found it, too, had been shot. “Who in the hell would shoot my cows?”
Knox.
Without a doubt, she knew he had done this. While she and the other ranchers occasionally lost cattle to poachers, they tended to skin the cow and take the meat. Nothing had been taken from these corpses. Feeling sick with fury and fear, she walked back to the gelding and mounted up. Cantering across the fields, she found the herd grazing a distance away. “Now I need Neil to talk to them and find out what happened.”
But she knew what had happened. Knox could easily access her land from the forestry road with a four-wheel-drive vehicle and shoot her cows. Just for the sake of harassing her. And, knowing Knox, he would continue to do so night after night. If he had totaled his truck as he had said, then he’d have borrowed or stolen a vehicle.
“I have to get them out of here,” she muttered. “To the higher pastures.”
At the higher elevations, these fields were inaccessible by car or truck, but she could not move the entire herd by herself. It would take at least three riders on horses, and she had no one. “But I do have a dragon,” she told herself, reining around.
But even with Neil herding them from the air, it would take a lot of doing to move the herd higher up. She wore the buckskin out, galloping him down out of the mountains and into the yard. Her sudden return interrupted Neil and Caitlyn having lunch in the kitchen, she discovered, as they both came out onto the porch while still chewing food.
“What’s wrong?” Neil asked as she reined the gelding in at the porch.
“Someone is using my cows for target practice,” she snapped. “Will you help me move them to higher ground? You’ll have to fly.”
“Knox?”
“That’s my guess.”
Neil nodded and glanced down at Caitlyn. “Well, little one? You ready to fly again?”
Caitlyn grinned up at him, delighted. “Yeah.”
“Whoa, wait a minute, time out,” Jordan said, worried about Neil carrying her with him. “You’ll carry her as you fly?”
“We can’t leave her here alone,” Neil replied. “And she can’t ride Jumper there.”
“I thought I’d take her with me.”
“It sounds like you’ll have your hands full. Mine won’t be doing anything.”
“All right,” Jordan said. “I need a fresh horse. Caitlyn, finish your lunch.”
Riding away from the house, Jordan then dismounted and unsaddled the buckskin. She had no time to curry him properly and turned him loose with the others, then selected the sturdy bay as her next mount. Neil and Caitlyn arrived as she saddled up and glanced at Neil. “You sure about this?”
“Of course,” he replied. “She’ll be safe with me. You just tell me what to do.”
“Okay.”
Swinging into her saddle, Jordan turned to watch Neil walk a short distance away and shifted into his dragon. Her horse jumped slightly but relaxed with a snort as Neil’s huge shape nearly filled the yard. Caitlyn shrieked with delight and lifted her arms to be picked up as Neil’s massive talon gently caught her in his grip.
Then he leaped into the air, his wings carrying him higher, even as Caitlyn’s laughter rained down on Jordan. “I gue
ss I should be glad she’s not terrified,” Jordan said, then kicked the bay into a gallop toward the trail.
As Neil flew faster than her horse could canter, he often circled over the tops of the trees, staying with her as she rode under them. She passed the bulls again but knew they were safe enough as their fields weren’t anywhere near the forestry road. She and Neil both scattered the carrion birds, who flew far and wide in a flurry of panic.
Riding near the huge cattle herd, Jordan reined in and shouted, “Don’t get so close that you’ll cause a stampede. Just fly low enough that they’ll want to get away from you.”
Neil rumbled a response and did as she said, winging down toward the earth, then backing off. The cattle, alarmed by his presence, moved away from him even as Jordan whistled sharply, waving her free arm to encourage them. Lowing, the cattle trotted up the hills in the direction she wanted them to go. Flying back and forth, Neil effectively prevented them from scattering.
Forced to ride ahead of them as Neil worked them from behind, Jordan dismounted at the gate and swung it wide. “Back off,” she yelled up at him. “They can only go through a few at a time. If they panic, they’ll take down the whole fence.”
She saw Caitlyn safely tucked in Neil’s front legs and listened as she called to the cattle, clapping her small hands to keep them going. Obeying her, Neil soared higher, circled a short distance away. Mounting back up, Jordan rode back and forth along the line of cattle as they walked through the gate.
As needed, Neil flew down to encourage them, the cows jostling one another to rush through the opening in the fence. “Easy now,” Jordan shouted.
It took more than an hour to get the cattle moved into the next field, even with Neil flying up behind them to encourage their forward motion. Still, he helped her tremendously as she could not have done it alone.
Dismounting to close the gate, Jordan walked her tired bay toward Neil, who had landed in the pasture the cattle had just vacated. He carefully set Caitlyn down, then shifted to talk to her. “That wasn’t so bad,” he said, grinning cheerfully.
“It would have been almost impossible alone,” Jordan admitted. “You kept them from scattering.”
“Mommy, did you see me flying?” Caitlyn bounced up and down, excited. “We chased the cows.”
Dragon Fever: Limited Edition Holiday Romance Boxset Page 24