The last thing I heard before I drifted off was Angus chuckling softly.
***
David and I wanted to spend time with the omegas. Not just wanted, weneededto spend time with them. We couldn’t explain it; we just had to be with them. Both of us felt out of sorts when we left them the day before, and the feeling continued into the next morning.
“It’s an omega bonding thing, I think,” Laura said when Angus called and told her about it. He had her on speaker phone while he was driving the all-terrain vehicle around the ranch with me in the passenger seat. When he stopped at the hog pen, I hopped out to pour slop into their trough and stood a moment watching them nudge at each other to get their faces in the mess.
“How long will it last?” Angus asked as I climbed back into the ATV and he continued on our route.
“I feel confident that once they’ve gotten to know one another well, it will settle,” she said.
We passed David talking to the hens as he cleaned their coop and drove on to the cow enclosure. Again, I got out and jogged to the gate to open it and let them into fresh pasture, patting a fewof them as they passed me. When I got back to the vehicle, Angus had hung up with Laura.
“Are you mad that I want to spend time with the omegas?” I asked him when we were underway again.
“Of course not,” Angus scoffed. “It’s more that I’m afraid you’ll get anxious without me or Colt with you.”
“Maybe I won’t this time. David got over it for the most part.”
“You know as well as I do it’s because you’re pregnant and newly mated, so you won’t be getting over it anytime soon.”
“I think I can do it,” I said stubbornly. I was desperate to go see them, although I didn’t know why. I felt sure that if I became riddled with anxiety, the others could take my mind off it. “Anyway, Laura is there.”
“What’s she got to do with anything? She’s not your alpha,” Angus grumbled.
“Are you jealous of her, too?” I teased. “I meant she could drive me back here if I need to come home.” Leaning toward him, I puckered my lips.
Angus looked at me. “What?”
“I want a kiss.” I made exaggerated smooching noises.
Sighing, Angus stopped the ATV and kissed me. The soft warmth of his mouth on mine felt so nice, I couldn’t pull away for a long time. When I finally did, Angus looked at me with a sly smile.
“Keep this up, and I’ll take you behind the barn and have you over a hay bale.”
That got me uncomfortably wet, and when Angus scented my tang, he took another kiss, biting my bottom lip before pulling away.
“Fine. You and David go see your omega friends, but if it’s too much, call me to pick you up. I won’t say I told you so.”
Grinning, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket.
“Who’re you calling?” Angus asked.
“I’m texting Trey to get Bertram to take him over there. He wants to meet the omegas, too.”
An hour and a half later, David and I were helping our new friends finish their chores. Trey arrived, and Bertram took the baby inside to visit with Nova. Ollie was asleep in the house in the new nursery.
Elliott came running from the house after delivering the eggs from the coop to the kitchen, and Ren and Riku took their full baskets of freshly picked vegetables to the back porch. Then Keane spread out a blanket on the grass, and we all sat down. It was weird; they were strangers, yet I felt like I’d known these guys my whole life.
I was a little restless without Angus or Colt nearby but being in a group of individuals just like myself was so unusual, I didn’t dwell on it. Even in the omega halfway house I stayed at after leaving Gleesa’s, there had been only three other omegas there. They were all several years younger than I was, and although I felt sort of a brotherly affection for them, it was not like I felt with this group.
Knowing that their families had been killed by the kidnappers, David and I had agreed to skirt any topics that might take them there.
“Are omegas really that rare?” I asked after our idle chatter ended.
Keane shrugged. “No way. That would mean the information we’ve been fed is the truth, and it isn’t.”
“What do you mean?” Trey asked around a piece of hay in his mouth. He looked so much like a born-and-bred farm boy, I couldn’t help but smile.