“We have some new neighbors down the road. Angus, Maddox, and Laura went to see them and take them a pie. Angus texted that they’re helping them with something, but they should be back soon,” David said, putting Ollie over his shoulder and gently patting his back.
“What about Colt?”
“He went home.”
Unease crawled up my spine.
“You mean back to his house? Why would he do that? I mean, aren’t we all mated? He just left me and Angus?”
Looking concerned, David got up and laid Ollie in the bassinet, then came over to me. Sitting on the arm of the chair, he took my hand.
“I think he just had stuff to do there. I’m sure he’ll be back.”
“But you don’t know that,” I said, feeling despondent for no reason I could come up with. I knew I was acting kind of melodramatic, but I couldn’t stop myself. Angus, Colt, and I had mated, and we should be together, but we weren’t.
It was my fault. I had wanted time alone in my room, and I’d stayed in there all day. I started to tremble.
“Hey, Ben. Everything’s okay, I promise,” David said.
“D-did you feel this way?” I asked miserably, unable to stop the tears from running down my cheeks. I knew I was overreacting, but I couldn’t help the way I felt.
“How is it you feel, exactly? You miss them? You’re afraid?”
“I just feel like they should be here with me. I’m scared they won’t come back. I feel alone and…and discarded. I-I feel incomplete.”
“Well, I don’t think Maddox and I were separated early on. No, wait. That’s not right. When we first got here, Maddox immediately had to go find Frito. His cousin had let him escape his pen. I had to stay here with Angus at least an hour, and I didn’t even know him. Maddox told me later that when he got back with the bull, he was expecting to find me upset, but I was fine. I was immediately at ease with Angus.”
I nodded. Angus had put me at ease, too.
“Maybe it’s because this all came on so suddenly. You didn’t wake up the other morning with plans to be mated that day,” David said, rubbing my back soothingly.
“I know I shouldn’t feel like this, but I do. I just want them here, with me. Ever since I woke up from my nap, I feel so vulnerable.”
“Well, don’t worry. They’ll be here soon.”
He’d barely said the words when someone knocked on the front door. David got up and looked through the peep hole, then immediately opened the door wide.
When I saw Colt, I felt so much relief, my head swam. His eyes fell on me, and he immediately crossed the room to me. Jumping up from my chair, I threw myself into his arms.
“I was afraid you weren’t coming back,” I said, trying hard to hold back my tears but losing the battle.
He stroked my hair. “Of course I was coming back. Ben, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
“I c-can’t help it.”
“Why is he like this?” I heard Colt ask David. I wanted to assure him I was okay, just very relieved to see him, but I couldn’t stop crying long enough to do it.
“He slept most of the day and woke up a little while ago feeling agitated and anxious because you and Angus weren’t here, which is kind of normal, although he seems way more upset than I’d expect. Maybe, ‘double the alphas, double the effect’?”
With Colt so close, I began to calm down.
“Where’s Angus?” Colt asked David, and as David told him, the sound of their voices calmed me further.
“They’ve been gone all day, then? They were talking about doing that when I left this morning.”
“Yeah. Maddox texted earlier that they were staying awhile. Something about the place being in such bad shape they were going to help them do a few things to make it at least livable,” David said before cooing at Oliver, who was making little baby grunts in the bassinet.
“I’m not surprised. That homestead has to be falling down by now. There’re places where the grass is waist high. Who would want it?”