Chapter 25 Angus
Chapter twenty-five
Angus
“Come on, you bugger! Get!” I was doing my best to maneuver Frito, our black bull, into the next paddock, but the stubborn bastard wouldn’t budge.
He was getting more and more ornery by the year.
I huffed out a laugh, thinking about how just the other day Ben had compared him to me.
I shook my head. That boy. I was surprised that it had been hours and he hadn’t called me to pick him up at the Borders’ ranch.
With a sigh, I tried again to wave Frito through the gate, but he only snorted at me.
In my younger days, I would have waved a red bandana in front of him until he chased me through, and then I would’ve jumped the fence and slammed the gate shut.
My legs weren’t what they used to be, though, and I didn’t want to risk being tossed by those long, curved horns.
Spotting Colt returning from his rounds, I waved him over.
He looked from me to the 1,600-pound bull. “Problem?”
“Hell, no, me and Frito are just standing here, wiling away the day. Thought maybe you’d like to join us.”
Colt chuckled. “I’ll get his attention.” He walked through the gate, turned around, and started waving his hands in the air. Frito didn’t move. I pulled the red bandana out of my pocket. “Think you can jump that fence before he can get to you?” I asked, holding it up.
“Of course. I could do it with my eyes closed,” Colt said confidently.
Laughing, I tied the handkerchief into a ball and tossed it to him.
“Leave them open. I don’t want two horn-shaped puncture wounds in that beautiful ass of yours.”
Cold untied the handkerchief, backed up a few feet so he was a little closer to the fence, and then waved the red piece of cotton tauntingly in the air at the bull.
For a minute I thought Frito wasn’t going to take the bait, but then he snorted loudly, lowered his head, and scraped one of his front hooves in the dirt.
Then he charged.
“Go, go, go!” I yelled at Colt as I closed the gate and locked it. Colt took off like a flash for the fence with the big bull gaining on him, barely catapulting over it before Frito attacked it with his sharp horns.
“Fuck!” Colt breathed when I reached him. “That was a little too close for comfort.”
“I’ll say.” I gave him a hand up from the ground where he’d landed.
My phone had started ringing in my pocket when Colt started running and had stopped when I reached him. Now, as Colt and I started toward the house, it started ringing again.
Seeing Ben’s name on the screen, I answered with a question. “You had enough time without your alphas yet?”
“Angus, this is David.” He sounded upset, and I stopped walking.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Why are you calling me on Ben’s phone?” A few feet ahead of me, Colt stopped and turned around.
“We can’t wake him up!”
“Who, Ben?”
“Yes! He fell asleep on the couch, and we can’t wake him up!”
“We’ll be right there.”
I took off toward the truck, Colt at my heels.
“What’s going on?”
I told him what David had said, and he ran ahead of me, fishing his keys from his pocket. He had the engine running by the time I got there, and I’d barely hopped in before he took off down the driveway for the road. Three minutes later, we were pulling into the driveway of the Borders’ ranch.
Nova met us out front.
“They’re in the omega’s bunkhouse. Laura’s with him,” she said as we got out of the truck.
We didn’t waste time talking, just ran toward the larger building in the distance.
When we got in the door, a small crowd was standing around Ben, who lay on a long L-shaped couch with Laura sitting beside him.
She had her stethoscope in her ears, listening to his heart.
“What the hell’s going on here?” I demanded, adrenaline coursing through me. Ben looked so pale and still lying there on the couch, my heart couldn’t take it.
Every omega in the room except for David took several steps back, and I would’ve felt bad for scaring them like that if I wasn’t worried sick for Ben.
Maddox came in the front door, Ollie in his arms looking like he’d just woken up from a nap. When our eyes met, he said, “David called me after he called you.”
Nodding, I approached the couch where Colt was already kneeling by Ben’s head.
“What’s wrong with him, Laura?” I asked.
Taking the stethoscope from her ears, she said, “I have no idea, Angus. His vital signs—blood pressure, pulse, temperature, heartbeat—they’re all normal for the state of REM sleep, which is what he seems to be in.
Look how his eyes are moving under the lids.
But there is absolutely no reason for him not to wake up. ”
Gently but firmly, Laura shook Ben’s shoulder and said, “Ben! Wake up, Ben.”
Ben continued sleeping.
Laura gently smacked his cheek with her palm. “Ben!” she called to him. Then, louder, “Ben!”
No response.
Colt tried, and then I did. No matter how loud we were or how hard we shook him or smacked his cheek, Ben wouldn’t wake up.
I looked at David, who was standing at the end of the couch, wringing his hands. “Have you been with him the whole time?”
David nodded. “Yes. The only time I wasn’t was when he went to the bathroom earlier at the main house.
He seemed fine. He was a little antsy without you and Colt, but he was okay, especially when we were all together.
” He gestured at the seven—no, six; one was missing—omegas now standing with their backs to the wall.
“I’m sorry I was so gruff,” I said. “I’m just worried about Ben.”
They nodded, but it was obvious that as long as Colt and I were in the room, they weren’t going to come any closer. Mated or not, we were alphas, and they were leery of us. I wondered if they felt that way around Nova, too.
“Maybe it’s got something to do with the pregnancy,” Laura said. “He was away from you two for a long time.”
Shaking my head, I said, “I shouldn’t have let him go.”
“We can’t keep him in a cage, Angus. He can visit the neighbors if he wants,” Colt said.
“But look at him!” I waved my hand over Ben’s still form.
“Let’s take him home and put him in our bed,” Colt said.
Laura stood. “That’s a good idea. I’ve left someone I was interviewing at the main house, but I’ll come within the hour, all right?”
Knowing I would feel better with Ben in our house, I nodded. Colt picked Ben up and carried him back to the truck.
I drove home, and Colt kept Ben on his lap, head tucked beneath his chin. Maddox and David followed behind us with Ollie. Once home, David ran ahead of us to ready the bed for Ben and helped us take his shoes off and get him comfortable.
“You’re sure you don’t know what could’ve happened?” Colt asked him. “I mean, did he eat anything unusual or hit his head or anything?”
“No,” David said, stepping closer to Maddox. Ollie held out his hands to David, and he took the baby from Maddox.
“Nobody’s mad at you,” Maddox told him. “They’re just trying to figure out what could have happened. Can you go through the afternoon?”
David swallowed. “When we got there, we helped the guys finish the chores so we could sit and talk. Just feeding the animals and stuff. Then we sat on a blanket in the sun after I put Ollie down for a nap.”
“Was Ben with you when you did that?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Okay. What then?” Maddox asked softly.
“Um. Well, Elliott got upset about something and went inside and Keane went with him. Then, I went in to check on Ollie, and Ben went with me. That’s when he used the bathroom.
Then we sat in the kitchen with Laura for a while.
Keane came to sit with us. Eric was there, too.
Someone came to the door—an alpha Laura was interviewing. ”
“An alpha?” Maddox asked, frowning.
I didn’t like the sound of that at all. Some strange alpha got close to Ben?
“Who was he?” Colt asked.
“I don’t know,” David said.
“Did he talk to Ben?” I asked.
“No. We didn’t meet him at all. Laura sent us out of the room.
And then the others came inside and we all decided to go to the bunkhouse to get a drink.
We didn’t go anywhere else. I guess Ben had a few sips of ginger ale…
we all did. And he drank some water when we were sitting with Laura.
That’s all. I don’t know what could be wrong with him.
” David’s eyes filled with tears, and Maddox put his arm around him.
“Let’s go into our room and change Ollie’s diaper, then rest a bit before we make dinner. Okay?”
Nodding, David walked out with him.
On the bed, Ben’s hand twitched, and he made a noise. It was obvious he was still sleeping and dreaming deeply.
“It’s so strange. Is he drugged?” Angus asked.
“I don’t know how he could be,” Colt said. “Something in the air?”
“Or is it the pregnancy? Dammit! Why is it we know next to nothing about omegas?”
Colt and I took off our shoes and lay down with Ben, one on each side of him. We held his hand and listened to his even breathing. Occasionally, it would speed up, like he was in distress while dreaming. During those times, we patted his hands and talked softly to him.
The room darkened as the sun sank low in the sky. Laura arrived and knocked softly on the open door to the room.
“Come in,” Colt said. “There’s no change. Sometimes he seems to be having a bad dream.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long, but after the man I was interviewing left, I looked through all my books on omegas. I couldn’t find anything that sounded like this. I’m going to examine him again.”
I got off the bed and moved out of the way while Laura opened her medical bag.