Declan’s Dilemma (Shifter Ranch Mates #1)

Chapter 1

ONE

Declan

I bent down next to the gap in the fence and examined the barbed wire. The breaks were clean, not jagged or stretched. “Definitely cut. We’ll need to inspect the rest to make sure nothing else has been touched.”

Ethan, my youngest brother, raked his fingers through his brown hair as he joined me. “We ran new wire to this entire section just last month. Before we moved the cattle to this pasture.”

“Can’t be helped. We don’t want to risk the cattle getting loose again.” I stood, jamming my hat back on my head, and looked over as another brother, Gabriel, rode over.

“I got in touch with the neighbors. They said to go ahead and get our cattle from their pasture.” Gabriel’s voice was quiet but strong. Like him. He wasn’t a talker, but when he spoke, you knew to listen. “They moved their cows last week, so we won’t need to separate ours out.”

“A little luck on our side, I guess.” I grabbed the reins of my horse, Thunder, and swung up into the saddle.

Ethan did the same. The rest of my brothers were already on horseback.

Ethan would hang back, guarding the opening in the fence to keep any more cattle from wandering through, while the rest of us herded the escaped cows back to our land.

I was the eldest of the six of us, and the only biological child of our parents.

The others began looking to me as the head of the family following our parents’ deaths.

We all worked with the cattle, but I handled the business side of things.

Kept us going. Or tried to. But the ranch struggled in the wake of their loss.

Lately, we’d been leaking money. A string of major equipment repairs had hit us, none of them suspicious on their own, but altogether it made me wonder.

Our records showed everything was up to date on maintenance, and it wasn’t like Mason, who handled our equipment, to miss anything.

But the cause was irrelevant. What mattered was that I’d been forced to make a difficult decision.

Our ranch, our sanctuary for so long, would become a dude ranch.

We were the only shifter run ranch in human territory, and I suspected that would draw human guests curious about shifters.

I dreaded being on display, like a sideshow, but I refused to lose the ranch our parents spent so many years building.

They hadn’t been content to stay in one of the many shifter havens dotted throughout the country and fought hard to earn their place in a human world that was wary of shifters.

I nodded to my brothers and Gabriel, Austin, Luke, and Mason followed me through the gap in the fence.

Except for Austin and Luke, we were all bear shifters, like our parents.

Adoption outside of shifter species was rare, but Austin, a tiger shifter, was the son of my dad’s best friend, and when his parents passed, they left custody to Mom and Dad.

Luke, a wolf, was a troubled teen when he joined us.

His pack had been tired of dealing with him and were happy to approve the adoption.

We spread out as we approached the scattered cattle, preparing to round them up and drive them back through the fence.

I ran lead while my brothers kept the herd together.

We worked well as a team, and our shifter senses helped us to know when a cow was ready to break from the group.

But it was still hard and dusty work, and when the cattle were safely moved into our ranch’s pasture, we were sweaty and dirty.

Ethan hopped off his horse to repair the gap. I slid off Thunder to join him. The others went off in pairs to check the rest of the fence line.

After we secured the replacement wire and marked the section, Ethan turned to me. “Any thoughts on who might have done this?”

“Could just be teens causing trouble.” My gut told me it was more, but I had no proof. Just a feeling that our recent string of bad luck around the ranch couldn’t be coincidence. “But I’ll let the sheriff know.”

I walked back to Thunder, who waited where I’d left him. We had to train our horses specifically for us, as our shifter auras could unsettle all but the most confident of horses. Even well-trained horses would sometimes bolt when we approached, sensing the predator within.

“Lousy day for this to happen,” Ethan said. “Isn’t the photographer arriving today?”

I nodded as we turned our horses back toward home.

To set up the dude ranch, I’d hired someone to take pictures for our website.

The first person had backed out when he discovered we were shifters, but my friend Jasper, a lion shifter from Shifter Alley, had found us a replacement.

“Jasper said she’d be here sometime this afternoon. ”

“Is she a shifter?”

“No, but her sister is mates with a bear shifter from the Alley, so she has no problem with shifters.” We reached the barn and unsaddled our horses, preparing them for their stalls. “It sounds like we’re a tame job for her. She was just overseas, taking pictures on a mountain.”

Shifters had fated mates. Usually, it was another shifter, but human mates weren’t uncommon.

Our mates became our everything when we found them.

That deep connection was part of the reason we’d lost both our parents so close together.

Dad had a fatal heart attack, and Mom died soon after.

Officially, she died of pneumonia, but a broken heart had made her illness worse.

Had we been younger, she may have held on for us, fought harder, but we were all grown and able to fend for ourselves. She wanted to be with her mate.

I still remembered her icy hand in mine, too weak to even squeeze back. She’d made me promise to watch out for my brothers and take care of the ranch. A promise I was determined to keep. Even if it meant turning our haven into a retreat for humans.

After putting Thunder in his stall, I made my way to the house to clean up before the photographer arrived. But I was met with a locked door and stacks of clothing for all of us on the porch. Mae, our housekeeper and cook, shouted out the window.

“None of you are setting foot in my clean house like that. I’ve got it all ready for our company.”

“This is a working ranch. She won’t expect it to be spotless.”

Mae just crossed her arms and glared at me.

With her snowy white hair and wrinkled skin, she shouldn’t intimidate me.

But the fox shifter had been a part of the ranch since I could remember and had helped raise all of us.

We’d learned the lesson early not to mess with Mae.

Dad always said it wasn’t wise to cross the person who cooks for you.

My brothers approached the porch, all but Mason jockeying to be first in line.

Their raucous laughter and joking words had Mae shaking her head and shutting the window.

Ethan shoved Luke to the side only to get tripped by Austin, who raced up the steps, arms raised overhead to celebrate his victory.

I frowned. Except for Mason, and sometimes Gabriel, my brothers were like overgrown kids.

They never stayed serious for long. Not even the hard work of the morning slowed them down as they grabbed their items and headed for the hose on the side of the barn, unfazed by our banishment from the house.

I took the stack of clothes Mae had left, along with the towel and soap she’d provided, and headed for the pond. Looked like I’d be taking a swim.

Chloe

I slid across the red vinyl booth and picked up the menu, eager for some decent food.

It was part of why I agreed to my upcoming job so quickly.

Real cooking, as opposed to the backpacking meals I’d been making for myself the last month as I hiked a remote mountain to get shots for a travel magazine.

I was due for a break, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to spend time on a ranch run by shifters.

Ever since my sister, Sophie, married her bear shifter mate, my fascination with shifters had grown.

Despite all the traveling we’d done as children, we’d still only spent time among humans.

Shifters were mysterious, living separately. An unknown.

A petite blonde waitress walked over and put a glass of water in front of me. Her name tag read Hannah.

“What can I get you?”

“I’ll take a cheeseburger with everything on it, fries, and a chocolate milkshake. Extra chocolaty, if possible, Hannah.” I gave her a grin as I folded my hands in a praying position.

She laughed and took my menu. “I’ll do what I can.”

I pulled out my phone and looked at the map.

Jasper had sent me a pin for the ranch’s location, which was about thirty minutes away.

I could have gone straight through, but this was the closest town, and I wanted to look around first. I never missed a chance to explore. Life was too short and too uncertain.

When I was twelve, I got sick, forcing my family to stop their travels and settle in one place.

I was healthy again, but it taught me never to take life for granted.

As soon as I was able, I took off on my adventures, my camera giving me the freedom to go where I wanted.

It also gave me a unique view of the world.

I ran a web search on dude ranches and checked out a few websites to see the pictures used.

It looked to be straightforward, with photos of happy guests, and gorgeous landscapes.

But the ranch I was photographing wasn’t operating as a dude ranch yet, so I couldn’t get photos with guests enjoying themselves.

I’d have to make sure my shots looked enticing for potential customers.

Hannah came back and slid my plate onto the table.

My mouth watered at the sight and smell of the burger, but it was nothing compared to the thick, dark milkshake she pulled out from behind her back.

She may have gone overboard on the chocolate, but I wasn’t complaining.

She’d even topped it with whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

“Hannah, you are a goddess.”

“It’s my pleasure.” Her dimples flashed. “Haven’t seen you around here before. Are you passing through?”

I took a long sip of the cold milkshake, moaning with pleasure as the chocolate hit my tongue. “I’m a photographer. Shifter Ranch hired me to take photos for their new dude ranch.”

She tilted her head. “You’re not a shifter. Don’t they make you nervous?”

“No. My brother-in-law is a shifter. Nice guy, and treats my sister like she’s his world.” I didn’t tell her about the mates thing. That was a longer conversation, and not something she needed to know. “I’d think you would be used to shifters, with their ranch being so close.”

“They don’t come to town often. And when they do, it’s just to grab supplies.

” She sat on the bench across from me when I gestured for her to join me.

I’d come in between mealtimes, so she didn’t appear to be busy.

“It used to be the parents until they died last year. Now it’s mostly just the eldest brother and their housekeeper. ”

I took a bite of my burger. Definitely better than my camping food. “It seems odd they’d open a dude ranch when they’re not social.”

“Rumor has it the ranch is in trouble.” She snuck a fry off my plate. “They’ve had a string of bad luck with equipment repairs and things like that. Other ranches are circling, waiting for them to have to sell their land. It’s prime real estate.”

“Sounds like I need to take some amazing photos.”

The clatter of dishes and scraping of a chair on the floor had me turning toward the counter.

A tall, thin man wearing a faded blue ball cap threw money down before stalking out of the diner, his food half-eaten.

My photographer’s eye automatically took in his profile as he raised his cell phone to his ear, lips drawn into a tight line.

Hannah quickly moved to clear his table before returning to sit across from me.

We chatted while I finished my food. She filled me in on local gossip, what not to miss in the area, and everything she knew about Shifter Ranch, which wasn’t much.

Mostly how the brothers were all hot but intimidating, as most shifters seemed to be.

But she hadn’t met any of them herself. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be staying, but we exchanged numbers and made tentative plans for a girls’ night before I left.

Now I was turning off the main highway onto a dirt road with a sign for the ranch.

I planned to return for a picture of the metal sign but wanted to suggest they plant some flowers to dress it up and make it more welcoming.

After parking in front of a two-and-a-half-story house, I stepped out of my car, immediately hearing shouts and laughter coming from around back.

On instinct, I grabbed my camera and headed for the noise, grinning when I saw three grown men having a water fight.

I lifted my camera and started shooting.

They were shirtless, and two were wrestling while the third shot them with water from a garden hose.

As my shutter clicked, a fourth came running out of the barn, carrying a couple of fluorescent water guns.

I crouched, taking shots from different angles.

I moved closer, choking back my own laughter, not wanting to interrupt their fun.

But I forgot they were shifters, with shifter senses.

The blond holding the hose spun around and shot me full on with a blast of cold water, which made me slip and fall into a puddle of mud.

Their laughter faded, and I heard someone curse as they traded embarrassed looks.

After checking to make sure my camera was okay, I got to my feet and walked to the barn, keeping my expression stern.

I hung my camera just inside the open door before turning and sprinting toward the brown-haired guy with the water guns.

I grabbed the biggest one and aimed straight for the blond’s face, hitting him right on the nose.

“Nice shot.” The guy I took the gun from laughed. But I was an equal-opportunity water fighter and quickly turned on him, catching him in the mouth with another stream.

Then it was on. The water fight devolved into a mud fight as we slipped and slid across the wet ground. I threw my head back and laughed after a handful of mud met its target on someone’s chest.

A movement out of the corner of my eye had me turning toward the barn.

A tall, scowling, bearded man stood with arms crossed over his massive chest, shirt clinging to his damp skin.

Under the brim of his hat, his dark gaze focused on me.

He was all coiled energy, waiting to strike. But at what, I didn’t know.

All I knew was I couldn’t tear my eyes off of him.