Chapter 22
Chapter twenty-two
Angus
The following weekend, the three of us stood in the ranch’s living room in front of the first preacher I’d found on an internet search able to come officiate with so little notice.
At Ben’s request, we all wore white pants and white button-down shirts, open at the top and rolled up at the sleeves.
Vases of prairie bluebells and sage buttercups decorated every surface in the room, where our closest friends had gathered to witness our vows: Maddox and David, Bertram and Trey, Carter and Jackson on Skype, Nova and Eric, Grant Cheevers, and Laura, who had surprised us by flying out and arriving that morning.
Looking very pretty in a pink dress with baby’s breath in her hair, she stood between Eric and Nova.
When it came time to say our vows, I took each of my mates’ hands, feeling damn proud. The moment wasn’t anything like mine and Lucy’s nuptials, which had been fancier and had taken place in a church, but it meant just as much to me.
“After Lucy died, I didn’t think I’d ever want to share my life with someone again,” I said.
Looking at Colt, I continued, “Especially not after the accident. But you bullied your way into my heart, Colt. And then you, Ben,” I turned to him, “swept in like a fresh breeze after the rain. The three of us just made sense, and I’m happy to be your mates and now your husband.
Thank you for agreeing to take my name.”
Ben’s lips trembled and he pressed them together, tears gathering in his eyes.
Colt cleared his throat. “When I was a kid, I looked up to you, Angus, and not only because you were a lot taller than me back then.”
That got a chuckle from everyone in the room.
“You were everything I thought a man should be: brave, strong, and forthright. I wanted to be you. Then I grew up and got to know you pretty well after your wife died, and I realized I no longer wanted to be you. I just wanted you.” He smiled, and I couldn’t help smiling back.
“Ben,” he said, touching Ben’s cheek, which was wet with tears. “I fully expected to lose Angus to you. But, somehow, you made room in your heart for the both of us. I hope I can live up to the way you look at me.”
Ben had to let go of our hands to wipe his tears. David handed him some tissues, and when he was finished with them, he stuffed them in his pocket, straightened his back, and rejoined our hands.
“I grew up without love. Then David and Jackson showed me what it was to have brothers. But I never thought I’d have an alpha, much less two of them.” He smiled crookedly. “How did I get so lucky?”
“We’re the lucky ones,” I said, and Colt nodded in agreement.
“If you say so,” Ben said. “Anyway, I’m happy to be mated…and married…to both of you. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
We each shared a kiss, and then our friends threw confetti at us. A table had been set up along the wall with a beautiful cake and lots of finger foods. We all loaded our plates while the soundtrack of love songs someone—I’m willing to bet David—had picked out played in the background.
Colt, Ben, and I had posed for pictures before the ceremony, which was a good thing, since we all smashed cake in each other’s face when it came time to cut it.
“Never thought I’d see the day you’d stand up and say vows again,” Bertram said, patting me heartily on the back. “I hope you’ll be very happy, Angus.”
“I already am,” I told him. “And now,” I said, turning to the others and clapping my hands to get their attention, “Colt, Ben and I would like to announce something important.” I paused dramatically even though, at this point, more people in attendance knew our news than didn’t.
“Colt, Ben, and I are having a baby.”
Applause erupted in the room. Laura, who hadn’t known, hugged each of us.
Later, after everyone left and the food was cleared away, we all sat in the living room, David nursing Ollie while the rest of us vegged out after a long day.
Laura came out of the kitchen carrying a bottle of champagne and six plastic wine glasses.
Pouring us each one, she made a toast to the three of us.
“Cheers!” We all said and drank our champagne. Ben had cuddled up between me and Colt on the big couch. I made myself a bet he’d be asleep in less than five minutes. His eyelids were already drooping.
“Tomorrow, we’re taking Ben to a tattoo artist in Rock Creek,” I said.
I had a tattoo of a bear claw on my upper arm that I’d gotten when I was a teen. Maddox had a ton of tattoos, and he’d had his initials tattooed above David’s groin area when they mated. Colt, however, didn’t have any, and I was kind of itching to mark him.
“You want to get one, too?” I asked him.
I could tell he was thinking about saying no, but one look at Ben peering up at him so hopefully, he said, “Maybe.”
“I want both of your initials on me,” Ben mumbled groggily. In a whisper, he added, “One on each side of…you know.”
That right there made me want to throw him over my shoulder and take him to our bedroom, but Laura leaned forward and said, “Ben, before I leave, I’ll examine you to make sure everything’s as it should be. Congratulations on the baby.”
“Thank you.” Ben fought a yawn. “You have anything that’ll keep me awake more?”
She smiled. “You need your rest. Take as many naps are you want. Have you been sick?”
Ben nodded. “Yeah, but…” He flushed.
“We learned what to do to make that better,” Colt said for him.
“Excellent,” Laura said. “If you do that every morning before getting out of bed, you should be fine.”
I choked on my sip of champagne. That would make a fun beginning to the day.
“How long will you be here?” Ben asked her.
“A couple of days.” She patted his hand. “Poor thing, you’re trying so hard to stay awake. Go ahead to bed.”
“If you don’t mind, Laura, will you examine him first? It won’t take long, will it?”
“No, not at all. I’ll get my bag.”
When Laura knocked on our bedroom door a few minutes later, Ben was in his pajamas and tucked in.
She checked his vital signs and asked a lot of questions, then did a short physical exam of his belly and the pouch inside his anus.
As soon as she announced everything seemed fine, Ben fell asleep.
The three of us stepped into our small living area, shutting the bedroom door behind us.
“I’m glad you’re marking him,” she told us. “It will do wonders to make him feel secure, and that’s what he needs now that he’s pregnant.”
“I wish you lived around here,” Colt said. “It would make me feel more secure. I’m already worried about him.”
Laura smiled. “He’ll be fine, but, funny you should say that. I’m actually planning to move out here in the near future. I was going to tell you all in the morning.”
“Ahh,” I said. “A little romance is in the air, huh?”
Smacking my arm, Laura said, “Don’t be ridiculous, Angus. I’ve been given an opportunity I’m very interested in. Remember the seven omegas I mentioned the night before I left last trip?”
“The ones who had been kidnapped and then recovered?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’ve worked with them since they were rescued five years ago.
Due to their trauma, as well as the fact that we can’t return them home, we need a place to house them and give them the attention they continue to need.
We also want to study them. They can’t continue to stay at the hospital—that environment isn’t good for them.
My associates want to start a facility for any omega who needs help so that the SOS doesn’t have to find people like Gleesa, who are difficult to vet, to watch over them.
The facility will have to be disguised as something else, of course, and completely hidden from the government.
When I agreed to head it, they asked my opinion on where it should be located. ”
“And you said here?” Colt asked, looking perplexed.
“Yes. Down the road, actually. “It’s perfect; think about it. Nova and Eric have found themselves with a lemon of a ranch that they don’t have the money to fix up.
They’re too proud to have neighbors leave their own work to essentially redo the entire place.
It’s too much. So, I came up with the idea of using the ranch to house these omegas.
The house would be modernized and the ranch put to rights.
The seven omegas, along with any others sent by the SOS, will help on the ranch—it will be therapeutic for them to work with the animals.
There’s plenty of land to build cabins for the omegas and any household help to live in.
Nova and Eric love the idea, and, of course, plan to move Nova’s nephew, Dawson, in as soon as we figure out how to do it without the ODA knowing. ”
“That’s…ingenious,” Colt said.
“I’ll say it is. She’s single-handedly solved her lovers’ problems while fixing it so that she can move here to be with them,” I teased.
“I have not—that is not at all what I’ve…They’re not…ugh, Angus!” Laura stalked out of the room.
“Angus,” Colt admonished.
“What? Are you saying it isn’t true?”
“Maybe a little bit, but it’s actually an answer to both problems. I told you that Andy Cheevers recently said that now that they’ve surveyed the ranch, he isn’t sure they’re equipped to do everything that needs to be done.”
“Oh, I agree it’s a good idea. I just think Laura’s cashing in on it,” I said with a grin before kissing him hard on the mouth.
As I’d hoped, he gave up the argument and kissed me back.