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and equipment, plus the few horses that Diego and his assistants used to ride across the land, when they needed to check on fences, pipes, and other structures.
    Diego stepped into the barn and took a deep breath, letting the warm, earthy smells of horse, hay, and bags of feed reassure his bear. He always felt better when he was around other animals. They made him feel settled, connected to all of himself, in a way he never could when he was in the city or inside a building. Other animals liked him, too. He’d always had an easier time training horses or rounding up cattle than humans did; the animals could sense his shifter side, and it made them trust him.
    As he stood in the doorway centering himself, he heard a sound deeper in the barn. Diego could feel the hackles on his bear rise, and he sprang forward, shading his eyes in an attempt to see into the shadows. His bear began to rise to the surface, turning his voice to a deep, gravelly rasp as he called out, “Who’s there?”
    A figure stepped out from behind the horses’ stalls, its hands raised placatingly. “Whoa, whoa, there! No need to get excited, Dee. It’s just me.” As it stepped closer to the beam of light slanting in through the open door, the figure became recognizable as Andy Walker, Diego’s best friend and his right-hand man on the ranch.
    Diego relaxed his shoulders and concentrated on human thoughts, forcing his bear back down. Andy was definitely not a threat, and Diego didn’t want to shift unnecessarily and ruin the clothes he had on.
    “What are you doing up this early?” he asked. Andy almost never showed at the ranch before noon; unlike Diego, he had never been a morning person. Andy blamed it on his cat-shifter nature – he was a mountain lion, and they were nocturnal – but Diego thought it was just as likely that was an excuse for Andy’s bad-boy lifestyle. He was usually out all night at the local bar and frequently ended up sleeping in some new woman’s bedroom. That had never been Diego’s style; he didn’t see the point of continually wandering from one bed to another.
    As if to prove him right, Andy grinned. He had a cocky grin, one that matched his charmingly roguish nature. He was only a few inches shorter than Diego, but with a lean, wiry build and the quick, easy grace of a cat. His hair was golden blond, the same shade as his lion’s pelt. “Early? I’m up late , my man. I was planning to do a quick checkup on things here before I headed home to sleep. Anything you need me to do?”
    Diego shook his head. “I can take care of everything. Go home, you idiot. Who goes to bed at six a.m.?”
    “Old fogey,” Andy said, but it was affectionate. He slapped Diego on the shoulder as he moved past him in the doorway, but then paused. “Hey, weren’t you supposed to meet your new wife yesterday? How’d that go?”
    Diego looked down, considering what to tell him, but his happiness won out over his doubts. “Good. Really good.” He hesitated, then blurted out, “I think she’s my mate.”
    “Dude!” Andy was a shifter, and he knew exactly what it meant to find your mate. He hugged Diego like a brother. “Congratulations! That’s great. No, that’s amazing!” He cocked his head to the side, considering Diego’s expression with all the authority of a friend who’d known him for years. “Why don’t you look happier?”
    Diego sighed. “She’s human. She doesn’t know anything. I mean anything , Andy. Shifters, territory, mates – how am I supposed to explain all of it to her without scaring her? And then there’s this whole Sullivan problem. Even if she was okay with me being a bear, an evil pack of wolf shifters who hate me will definitely run her off.”
    Andy shrugged. “Just tell her. If she’s really your mate, she’ll understand. That’s what being mates is all about.”
    “I wish I could believe that, but it’s too easy. You and I have both known mates who would have been better off apart.”