Chapter 9 Ben
Chapter nine
Ben
When I woke up from what I’d intended to be a short nap, the sun was low in the sky. The first thing I thought of was Angus and Colt.
My alphas.
It didn’t seem real.
After I’d gone to the bathroom, I went looking for David and found him in the living room feeding Ollie.
“You’re finally out of bed,” he said. “I was just going to check on you.”
“I guess I was tired.” The house was quiet. “Where is everyone?” I asked, and by that, I meant my alphas.
“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?”
“Maybe they wanted a fixer-upper,” David said.
“Believe me, this place is more than a fixer-upper. Might as well burn it down and start over again.”
Ollie was getting agitated, so David excused himself to take him to the nursery and change his diaper.
“You okay?” Colt asked me.
Sniffling, I moved away from him, although I didn’t want to.
“Can you tell me why you were so upset?” Colt asked.
“No, because I don’t know. I just felt really off without the two of you here, and it just got worse the more time went on.”
“What do you mean by ‘off’?”
“Like, lost.”
Pulling me back into his arms, Colt kissed me. “To be honest, I felt a little lost without you guys, too.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised.
He nodded, leading me to the couch. “So, we’ll just sit here and wait for Angus to get home. That sound good?”
“Yeah,” I said, snuggling into him.
When Angus, Maddox, and Laura arrived about an hour later, I was working myself into a state of agitation again, and Colt seemed restless, too. We’d tried playing a card game, but it hadn’t distracted us for long.
Angus burst in the front door first, stopping in his tracks when he saw us, visibly relaxing. I couldn’t help noticing how his light blue eyes stood out in his tanned face, and his dark hair hung rakishly over his forehead.
“Wow,” I murmured under my breath.
“Yeah, wow,” Colt repeated, then let me go so I could greet Angus.
Once I was in his arms, everything seemed complete again.
Examining my face, Angus frowned. “Why do you look like you’ve been crying?”
“I woke up, and when I found out you and Colt were gone, I got scared you wouldn’t come back.” I wished I could explain it better, but that was all I had. “But I’m okay now that you’re both here. Colt’s felt bad, too.”
Angus looked at Colt. “That true?”
“I’m going to start dinner,” David announced, coming through the room and handing the baby to Maddox, who followed him into the kitchen with Laura.
“Well?” Angus said, determined to put Colt on the spot. “Is what Ben said true? That you’ve been feeling bad without me here with you?”
“Yeah,” he quietly admitted, looking away.
Angus chuckled. “Truth is, I felt the same. By the time we left, I was damn antsy, I was so ready to see you. I’m glad you were both here when I walked in.”
“Tell us about the people who moved in down the road,” I said. Now that both my alphas were with me, I was ready to hear all about the new neighbors.