Forever Fated Mates: A Shifter Romance Collection

by Meg Ripley

  Over twenty years of that life had been enough, though, and Ash knew it was time to slow down. He hadn’t anticipated the first few months of his retirement serving as such a poignant reminder of just how alone he was. There was no woman in his life, and certainly no children. He didn’t even know any other shifters nearby, and even in the Alaskan wilderness, Ash was forced to keep the secret of who he truly was.

  “Well?” Mr. Larson urged as Ash returned to the living room. “Isn’t it great? The structure of this home is remarkable and it’s very well insulated.”

  “Mmhm.” Ash could appreciate those kinds of facts, and he could even appreciate the vaulted ceiling that really showed off the stone chimney. It was the best place he’d seen yet and the one closest to what he envisioned for his future. Something, though, still wasn’t right.

  “Okay, you told me you wanted a ranch. So maybe you’re not interested in the house, but you’ll be spending all your time outdoors anyway, right? Let’s go check out the equipment shed. Talk about big boy toys! Have you done any ranching before?” The realtor stepped out the back door and took long, confident strides toward the metal barn.

  Ash pursed his lips as he fell into step beside the man. “Can’t say that I have. I’ll have a lot to learn.”

  “Good for you, Mr. Cunningham! We need more people like you out here, men who aren’t afraid to take their chances working the land. In this day and age, everyone wants to be involved in technology and the internet. But we need people behind the scenes getting things done.” He pumped his fist in the air as he slid the door to the equipment shed aside with a loud creak.

  The place was impressive, with a concrete floor, full electrical, and all the tractors and equipment a man could possibly need to run a ranch. But Ash felt the reality of what he was wanting to do as he perused the big machines. Sure, even though Mr. Larson had been a little hokey about it, there was something exciting and almost noble about ranch life. But to do it all by himself? To run a place this big when he didn’t really know what he was doing? That was asking a lot of himself, but he wasn’t a man to turn down a challenge.

  “I see that look on your face,” Mr. Larson said, leaning against a steel beam. “You’re wondering how you’re going to do this.”

  Ash immediately hardened his features.

  “It’s all right, any man would be out of his mind if he thought he could just dive in and do this. You’ve got a lot at stake here, and not just money. Come on.” He waved Ash to come along with him as he left the back of the shed and led the way up over a small hill. “You’ve got all their lives in your hands, too,” he said as he pointed toward a large cattle barn. The animals milled about within the sturdy fencing, twitching their ears at the sound of the men’s voices.

  So this was where they kept them all, far back from the road. Ash inhaled the scent and felt his shoulders relax a little. Maybe this was what had been missing when he’d looked at the front of the property where the house was located. It felt like a luxury cabin at a resort from that angle, but this was what he’d come here for.

  “Now, here’s the most important thing you need to know,” the realtor said as he headed down toward the fence, bringing Ash’s attention back to him. “The owners are retiring, like I said. They want the simple life in the city, where someone else comes and digs them out of their driveway in the winter and they only have to walk around the corner to get their groceries. But they really care about this place, and they want it to go into the right hands. They’re willing to stick around and teach you anything you need to know, from operating the tractors so you can grow your own hay, to fixing fencing and birthing calves.”

  Ash raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “And how much extra is that going to cost me?”

  “Just a little bit of time, really,” Mr. Larson replied, and for once, he didn’t sound like he was trying to get a job as a travel blogger. “This is really important to them. They’ve spent their entire lives creating this place and they don’t want to see it all go to waste.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Ash said with a nod.

  The realtor heaved a deep sigh. “Look, Mr. Cunningham, I’ve got to be honest with you. This ranch hasn’t been on the market all that long, but I don’t think it’s going to stay on the market long, either. Now, I know what you’re thinking.” He held up a hand to stop Ash from arguing with him. “Realtors say that all the time, and you’re probably right. But this truly is a great place, and if you ask me, it’s a bargain. I’ve shown you big farms with little houses and little farms with big houses. I’ve shown you places close to town and far from town, places near the mountains and places near the water. At every single one of them, you just sort of frown and say you’ll think about it. I understand you want something perfect, but I’m starting to wonder if you’re going to find it.” His amber eyes challenged his client.

  He could argue with the man and explain that even as great of a place this was, there was still something that didn’t quite fit. But Ash didn’t feel the need to waste his energy making a stranger understand his reasoning. He just gave a small shrug. “Like I said, I’ll think about it.”

  As he headed back to his rental, Ash chuckled to himself. Mr. Larson might not see a difference between now and all the other times he’d said those words, but this time, it wasn’t just his way of being polite. He really was going to think about it.

  “Well?” Old Jim demanded as soon as Ash walked back into the building.

  “It’s a nice place,” Ash admitted with a smile. “I just might buy it.”

  The old man bobbed his head in approval. “Big place?”

  “A few hundred acres,” he admitted, his lips splitting in a grin he didn’t expect. “It’s a great ranch. It’s got everything I could ever want and more. I think I might buy it.”

  “When you need yourself a ranch hand, you give me a holler. I need something to do all day besides just sitting here on my rump.”

  Ash smiled warmly. “I’ll keep that in mind, Jim.” He headed up the stairs to his apartment, feeling good about his decision. Sure, it was a big step, but that was what he’d come there for in the first place. He was ready to get away from the wandering life of a serviceman and settle down. The ranch seemed like a world completely of its own, far enough away from everyone else that he could pretend he was the last man on Earth. He hadn’t been sure at first, but now he knew it was the right choice.

  As he drew his cell from his pocket and prepared to dial Mr. Larson—and to hear the elated and verbose response from the man—it rang. The caller ID flashed ‘Restricted’ on the screen and Ash frowned at it. No one should’ve had his number, since he was always careful who he’d given it to. He glared at it another second before answering it harshly. “Yeah?”

  “Is this the great Ash Cunningham I’m speaking to?”

  Instinctively, Ash began scanning his apartment for the slightest thing out of place. He didn’t recognize the voice on the other end of the line. Had someone been watching him? There were a number of terrorist groups that would’ve liked to see his head on a pike. “Depends on who’s asking.”

  The man laughed casually. His voice was gravelly and slow, like he had all the time in the world. “The Special Ops Shifter Force. My name’s Flint Myers.”

  “All right.” He wasn’t going to allow this strange caller to lead him into offering any information, not even his own name. “What do you want?”

  “I take it you’ve heard of us?”

  A shiver of energy thrilled up Ash’s spine. Of course he’d heard of the SOS Force. They were an elite group of shifters, all of them trained as Special Ops soldiers. They’d taken the task of handling unusual missions involving shifters of all kinds, all across the U.S. At first, Ash hadn’t been completely certain they’d existed. It sounded like too much of an urban legend, the kind of thing someone made up because it sounded cool or they were trying to come up with a new television show. But another man Ash had served with on Delta Force had tol
d him the team had come and solved a dispute in his home clan’s territory. “Maybe. Not sure if you're real, though.”

  “Oh, we’re fucking real alright. And the fact that you and plenty of others have heard of us,” he said pointedly, “is exactly why we need you.”

  “Need me for what? I’m just a rancher.” It was at least about to be true, even if it wasn’t true yet.

  “Right.” Another laugh came through the phone as the connection crackled slightly. “Listen, buddy, I know you’re way more than that. And I also know why you wouldn’t want to discuss it over the phone with someone you don’t know from Adam. That’s cool. I just need you to come to Dallas and interview. We’re recruiting.”

  Ash’s blood thumped loudly in his throat. A job? With the SOS Force? Was this actually someone trying to recruit him for the most specialized, secretive organization outside of the military? It was hard to tell, but then again, how would anyone know? He could call his buddy from Delta, maybe. “Dallas is a long way from here,” he finally answered.

  “Yeah, I know. You should be used to traveling a lot, though, and that’s not going to change once you’re on the Force. We need more people, and we need them to be people like you. You’ll get a plane ticket in the mail and it’ll have all the information for the meeting as well. See you there, brother.” The man hung up, leaving only silence in his wake.

  Ash’s face was hard as he stared at the phone. He tossed the device on the couch and paced the room, suddenly realizing just how small and confining this damned apartment was. There’d been plenty of small or uncomfortable sleeping arrangements while he was serving in the Army, and he hadn’t even blinked when he saw the tiny room that was barely big enough for a couch and a TV stand. He laughed to himself as he realized the irony of living in a tiny place in the middle of such big land. But the humor was quickly lost on him as he felt the need to get outside and be in the wilderness alone. The polar bear inside him craved the need to run free; to break through the confines of his human skin.

  He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. Damn it. If he’d already bought a ranch, or even just a cabin with some acreage, he’d have been able to satisfy that deep urge to let go. But he was stuck there for the moment, and he was going to have to deal with it just like any other human in the city would’ve had to. Ash grabbed his coat and headed back downstairs, determined to walk until he managed to clear his head and stifle his inner bear.

  “Where are you running off to in such an almighty hurry?” Old Jim questioned before Ash’s foot hit the bottom step. “You sound like a wild animal galloping down those stairs!

  If he’d only known how right he was. “Just got some thinking to do. Might go get some coffee.” He had a perfectly good coffee pot upstairs; one that brewed up a drink far better than the watered-down mud he was used to drinking overseas, but it sounded like a good excuse.

  “I’ll go with you.” The old man barely moved most of the day, but he seemed spry enough as he launched himself out of his chair and grabbed a grubby jacket from the back of it. “I know I could use some coffee.”

  Ash’s mouth clenched against argumentative words. “All right.”

  The cool spring air was inviting and fresh, and it instantly forced Ash to let go of a little of the tension that had been building inside his body. He inhaled it deeply and let it go, falling into step beside Jim.

  “Tell me about it,” the old man demanded.

  “About what?”

  Jim gave a hoot of laughter. “You young’uns think you can keep something a secret just by not saying it out loud, but I’m here to tell you that’s not true! Something’s weighing heavily on your mind. Go on and spit it out. Might make you feel better.”

  Ash squinted into the wind as they headed down the sidewalk. What could it hurt? “I told you I was going to buy the ranch.”

  “Right. So what’s the matter with that? Money? Can’t help you much there. I never had more money to put in my pocket than what everyone else wanted to take out of it.”

  “It’s not that.” Ash hadn’t been like many of the other soldiers he’d known, who took the chance on every leave to blow their paychecks down to the last cent. It was tempting, since he never knew if he’d live to see the next day, but he’d always had dreams of doing something big with his funds in the future. “See, I was planning to buy the ranch as my retirement project. I may have retired from the Delta Force, but I know I can’t just sit around and watch TV all day. I like to be busy. I need something to do. A cattle ranch sounded like the perfect thing.” He realized after saying it that Old Jim might take offense to the part about sitting around all day.

  But the man simply nodded as he ran his hands through his scruffy beard. “Sure. It’s nice to have a plan.”

  Ash sighed. It was nice to have a plan, but a single phone call had thrown the entire thing up in the air. He just couldn’t decide if he should catch it or not. “But then I got a call about a job offer. It’s down south.”

  “As in Juneau?”

  “As in Dallas.”

  “Oh.” Jim tucked his hands in his pockets. “That’s quite a commute.”

  Ash snickered, despite the serious nature of his decision. “Yeah, a bit more of one than I’m willing to make. So now I have to decide if I should take the job or buy the ranch.”

  “I see. That is quite a crossroads. You think you’ll like this job?”

  “I don’t know,” Ash admitted. “It’ll be a lot like the life I just retired from, I think. It’s kind of a dream job, if I were still looking for work.”

  “You’re buying a ranch. That’s work,” Jim pointed out.

  “But it’s different work,” Ash countered.

  “It’s more committed work, I reckon. You buy a ranch and have a herd of cattle, and you can’t ever leave. You don’t get vacations and you don’t get to sleep in. You get out there every day and you do what needs to be done. A job? Well, now. That’s a bit different.”

  Ash looked at the old man, who kept his gaze stoically forward. He’d struck Ash as just a simple guy with little to offer to society. Maybe he just hadn’t had the chance to offer what he had to anyone while he was sitting in the same spot all day. “That’s a good way of looking at it.”

  A grin split Old Jim’s gray beard. “I think so.”

  By chance, since Ash had left the apartment building and turned in a random direction, they happened on a small café. “Come on, Jim. Let’s get some coffee. My treat.” He held the door open for the old man, knowing he was going to miss him.

  Check out the rest of Rescued By The Soldier Bear HERE.

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  Books available in the Special Ops Shifters: Dallas Force series:

  Rescued By The Soldier Bear

  Protected By The Soldier Tiger

  Fated To The Soldier Fox

  Baby For The Soldier Cougar

  Also Available In Meg Ripley’s Shifter Nation Universe

  Read With Kindle Unlimited!

  Special Ops Shifters Box Set

  (Featuring the original D.C. Force)

  Werebears of Big Bend Box Set

  Werebears of Glacier Bay Box Set

  Werebears of the Everglades Box Set

  Werebears of Acadia Box Set

  Also Available From Meg Ripley

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  Shifter Daddies Anthology

  Daddy Dragon Guardians: The Complete Series Box Set

  Shifters Between Worlds: The Complete Collection

  Beverly Hills Dragons: The Complete Collection

  Dragons Of The Darkblood Secret Society Box Set

  Dragons Of Sin City Box Set

  Marked By Werewolves: Packs of the Pacific Northwest Series Box Set

  Reverse Harem Romances Co-Written With Lark Sterling

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  Shifters Of The Elements Series

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Meg Ripley is an author of sizzling shifter romances. A Seattle native, Meg can often be found curled up in a local coffee house with her laptop.

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