Riding Bearback

By Becca Fanning

Get back here you stupid cow! Jess Lincoln just wasn't cut out for this! She's a city girl from New York, used to cafe lattes in the morning and swanky bar Manhattans at night. But here she was, running from her past and her ex-husband. So why did she run to a cattle ranch of all things? Did she think she could just throw on some pumps and walk out to milk the cows? Was there anyone out here that could help her?
Wyatt Wade knew his way around a ranch. His Bear Shifter Clan specialized in long distance travel of troubling species. Water buffalo, oxen and even flocks of ostrich: if it walked on this earth, they could herd it. But this fiery little city slicker that just moved into the ranch down the way was something else. She was all thorns and tangle weeds, but his primal instinct didn't care. She needed help, and he needed her.
This 13,000 word short story features a Happily Ever After, No Cliffhanger and lots of graphic primal hotness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gizmo Media
• Release date: May 23, 2021

Book preview

Fanning

Chapter 1

Damn cows! Damn them all! Jess Lincoln, her black hair flying free from her ponytail, swore as she ran through the knee high grass. The cow loped out of her way, dodged around a scrubby bush and cantered off in the opposite direction.

She hadn’t signed up for this, not at all. The property description had said quite clearly that this damnable ranch, in Colo-stupid-rado, had stupid people…what were they called? Oh yes, hands who worked with the cows. No one had said that they would all be gone when she got there, or that the fences were in reprehensible disrepair, or that in the face of an oncoming thunderstorm, the stupid creatures would scatter to the four corners of the state.

Jess stopped her helter-skelter run and hands on knees began to suck in lung-fulls of air. The stitch in her side was becoming a problem. A cow turned brown, expressive eyes on her and mooed dolefully.

Yeeesh, and to you too, Jess said.

That’s not how ya do it! That was Old Charlie. He had come with the ranch, but since Jess guessed he was at least a thousand years old, he was no use to her. He leaned against the still standing part of the fence and smiled his toothy grin. He was an African American man with a dandelion, powder puff of white hair that stood up like Albert Einstein’s. Jess had known Charlie for five minutes and already he was getting on her nerves.

She could’ve stayed in New York. It was a big city, with bustling people and cabs. She could have kept her old job at the ad agency, or found a new one since Conrad, her ex, probably still worked there. Actually come to think of it, she could have chosen a lovely tropical island in the Bahamas instead of this cow-infested dust bowl. But then she looked up at the view; the plain stretching out ahead of her to a line of trees, and then the mountains in the distance. All this space, all this land, and she’d bought it for a steal.

Sighing, Jess turned to look at Old Charlie. Okay, so how do you suggest I get these dumb creatures back?

He shrugged. You know how to ride a horse?

No, she said wrinkling her nose.

Well then, you’re poked, he said and shuffled his way back up to the main house.

Thank you, oh so much for that, Jess yelled after him.

He just waved a wrinkled hand at her and went on his merry way.

Oh well, nothing for it. She ran around for a while as the clouds rolled in overhead and cows trotted out of her way in a distressingly unconcerned fashion. It was almost as though the beasts knew that she had never so much as petted a cow before.

Eventually she flopped down in the turf her sides aching, while above her the sky began to boil. Lightning flashed and licked the depths of the clouds turning them bright for an instant before letting them fall dark again. And of course the sun was setting. It was going to rain and get dark all at the same time and she was so far out of her comfort zone, it was on another continent.

Hell of a first day, she said to herself, pulling at a grass stalk. It had such smooth sides. Her fingers ran up it and then, Ouch! Jess stared at the red blood welling out of the slice and then something hit it. Something wet and cold crashed into her finger, washing the blood away. More raindrops fell.

Jess stood up and ran after the cows again, flapping her arms and yelling with more urgency now. Why were the stupid creatures so happy to spend a stormy night out