“I can help,” she offered. It was the least she could do after sneaking onto his property for nearly a year.
She turned to find him already holding two shovels, one of which he tossed to her. She caught it by the handle and had just a split-second’s notice to set it aside before he grabbed a lead rope from the wall and tossed it to her as well.
“You can take them out to pasture if you want.”
“S-Sure.” Jerkily, Loren moved back to Bunny’s stall and led the animal out.
McGoven wasn’t anywhere in sight as she turned the nag loose in one of the paddocks. Confused, she went back in for Esther, who was almost too eager to get out into the fresh air, and finally Xavier, who nervously followed her out to join the others.
Afterward, she drifted back into the barn, only to find Officer McGoven standing casually in Bunny’s open stall like he’d been there all along. He held a shovel, hefting soiled hay into a nearby wheelbarrow.
Without a word, Loren grabbed the other shovel and moved to help him.
They worked in silence for a long while, until Loren just lost herself in the busywork. She almost didn’t notice the pair of eyes on the back of her neck. Not until she happened to turn and caught him staring.
Rather than look away, he held her gaze and cocked his head, demanding an answer to his next question. “What are you thinking? You seem distracted.”
She would never understand how he could do that. Be so calm one minute. So authoritative the next.
“You knew my father?” The question slipped out before she could help it.
McGoven set the shovel aside and crossed his arms. “I knew Fred Connors.”
Loren sucked in a deep breath, tipping her shovel to dump the last bit of soiled hay into the wheelbarrow. “What was he like? I mean…before…you said he broke the rules of the pack?”
Her heart swelled with a longing that caught her off guard. She just needed something…good? That he was kind once. Nice once. Life had ruined him—not her.
“I didn’t know him well, but he did break the rules—at least from the outside looking in. Among us, any little infraction takes more effort than you might think. You mustwillinglygo against the wishes of the Alpha. Such disobedience is never tolerated.”
He said it the same, definitive way that someone might“You have to willingly go against the laws of gravity.”
“What did he do?”
Again, McGoven shrugged, but his gaze turned to the wall behind her. “Nothing bad enough to die for, though, again, there are some who think that exile is worse.”
The way he clenched his jaw told her that she wouldn’t be getting anything else out of him on that subject.
“You said you were watching him? Why?”
The line of his jaw became tauter. “The pack sometimes sends rogues to watch other rogues. It keeps them…Usin line. Stray wolves can band together otherwise. Make trouble, by terrorizing humans or encroaching onto the territory of other packs. The presence of a stronger lycan helps them rethink those transgressions and adhere to the law.”
“So you were like a parole officer?” At least that explained his role on the police force.
McGoven’s mouth twisted into what could have been a grimace. “Something like that. More like an insurance policy. Unaffiliated rogues are dangerous, and exiles who wish to redeem themselves, or remain in good standing with the pack may sometimes watch another and report—” He broke off, frowning.
“Was that why?” Loren asked without thinking. “You stayed here.”
She could read between the lines. Obviously, he wasn’t“in good standing”with the pack either. Rather than answer, he took the handles of the wheelbarrow, and began carting the waste out into the field. A sharp jerk of his head was her only clue to follow.
She crept after him, sensing that his focus had shifted well beyond barnyard chores. Sure enough, he left the wheelbarrow near the front of the barn and just kept walking. When he reached the field opposite of the horse paddock, he turned, bent down...and twisted to throw something in her direction so swiftly she barely had time to catch it.
Dazed, she stared down to find a medium-sized rock clutched in her fist. Her palm smarted with the momentum of the blow, and she dropped it out of shock.
“You have good reflexes,” he said, but his voice was devoid of any anger that might explain the unwarranted assault.
In one smooth motion, he advanced, capturing her chin before Loren even knew what was happening. “Your vision seems sharp,” he commented, releasing her just as quickly. “Can you run?”
Loren glanced down at her still tender ankle before realizing that he probably meant in general.