POV: Ash
I dropped the toolbox and ran when I heard Hope screaming from the barn.
My boots slipped on the wet grass as I raced across the Montana ranch yard. The sound of my three-year-old daughter crying always made my heart stop, but this wasn't her usual upset cry. This was terror.
"Hope!" I called out as I burst through the barn doors.
She was standing in front of the horse stalls, tears streaming down her face, pointing at something in the hay.
"Snake, Daddy Ash! Big snake!"
Sure enough, a rattlesnake was coiled up in the corner, its tail buzzing angrily. Hope must have been playing in the barn and accidentally cornered it.
"Stay very still, baby girl," I said calmly, even though my wolf was going crazy with the need to protect her. "Don't move at all."
