21. Clayton
Clayton
W e sat outside surrounding the old firepit, every one of us sleepy and full. Zeke and I had done most of the barbecuing, but Piper made a selection of sides that paired beautifully. The result had been several very full, very happy cowboys.
It was past Maisie's bedtime, but she had been so happy making s’mores with Dakota that I couldn't tell her no when she looked up at me with that adorable face and begged to stay up for a few more minutes.
After her third toasted treat, she had clambered into Zeke’s arms and dozed off snuggled up to him. Piper was next to them, regularly checking on Maisie.
Even I had to admit she was a natural with her. Piper was always keeping careful watch over our daughter without hovering or being overbearing. She allowed Maisie to explore at her own pace and would only step in when she needed help.
Some of the nannies we’d hired in the past had hovered so painfully, and micromanaged everything Maisie did. She’d been miserable. Then there had been a nanny or two who hadn't really cared about Maisie and had been so hands-off, it bordered on neglect.
Piper seemed to be the perfect balance.
In fact, at times, she felt a little too perfect. And that familiar nagging in my gut was tugging at me, saying that things couldn’t stay so good.
I wasn't an idiot. I knew my pack mates felt like they'd hit the jackpot with her. Stunning, kind and sweet, excellent with our daughter, and hot as fucking sin. If it wasn’t for all my experience, I would have assumed she was an angel dropped down from heaven.
Currently, Piper was sipping on a soda, watching the flames in the firepit with a sweet smile on her face.
Montana cleared his throat. “We…uh, we need to talk as a family.”
He was my numbers man, so my mind immediately went to the ranch. Was it a staffing problem, or maybe some of the cattle were having issues? Or it could be a very big vet bill because a few of those had caused problems in the past.
“What’s up?” I asked.
He looked uneasily between all of us.
“I can put Maisie to bed and leave you guys to talk,” Piper said softly, moving to get out of her seat, but Montana held up a hand to stop her.
“No, you should stay. This involves Maisie, so you need to know what's going on.”
Maisie? Why did we need a family meeting about our daughter? My curiosity was quickly turning to worry.
“Oh, okay.” Piper nodded, settling back into her chair and quickly glancing at Maisie in Zeke's lap.
She was dead to the world and snoring lightly.
Once that little girl was asleep, it took an army to wake her.
I did not envy Piper when Maisie started school and needed to be up at seven every morning.
“Is everything okay?” Zeke asked with a frown.
Montana’s face was twisted in concern. “Not really. I had a call today…from Caroline.”
At the mention of that bitch’s name, I sat up straight. It had been a long time since she had darkened our doorstep. Her choosing to get in touch with Montana after all this time couldn’t be good news.
“What the fuck was she doing, calling you?” I growled as the rest of my pack muttered similar sentiments.
Piper, on the other hand, looked between us, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Who’s Caroline?” she asked quietly.
For a brief moment, I closed my eyes, gathering some strength. Piper needed to know the whole story, but I didn't exactly relish telling it.
“She's Maisie's egg donor,” I said, using the term Montana had once used to refer to Caroline. It was useful, because mother was not an applicable term in our situation.
A mother wouldn't abandon her child.
Piper cocked her head to the side. “You guys haven’t spoken about her mother. I never wanted to ask. Maisie hasn't even mentioned her…”
Zeke shook his head, looking down lovingly at our daughter. “That's because she split when Maisie was only six weeks old.”
“Split?” Piper asked.
“Ran for the hills,” I confirmed. “Caroline didn't like being a mother.
We weren't bonded because we hadn't intended to get pregnant with Maisie. We were only courting when this little miss happened. We were determined to make the best of it and give Caroline everything she wanted, but nothing was ever enough for her.”
“She resented pregnancy and what it did to her body.” Montana grimaced.
“We knew she wasn't overly happy when we got back from the hospital after she gave birth to Maisie, but we assumed she just needed an adjustment period. We were all struggling with the changes, going from no baby to a newborn, but one morning six weeks in, we found Maisie crying in her crib and a letter from Caroline saying that this wasn’t the life she wanted and she wasn’t coming back. ”
“She just left and didn’t even check up on her daughter?” Piper whispered, aghast.
I nodded. “At first, we tried to find her. We thought maybe she was having postpartum struggles and needed more support, and we even contacted a few doctors to see if there was anything we’d failed at.
Eventually, we tracked her down in the city, and she didn’t even want to see the baby—she acted disgusted by her.
We had to accept that Caroline simply didn't want this life. We brought our daughter home and continued on.”
“Until about a year later, when the bitch decided to extort us,” Montana muttered.
Piper opened and closed her mouth several times, utterly shocked at those words. “She did what ?”
Montana nodded. “It turns out, one of the reasons she left was because she didn't think we could finance her life the way she wanted.
Caroline tended to like fancier things. We are pretty simple guys, no ruffles and frills, so she thought we weren't good enough for her. When she got low on funds, she came crawling back, insisting that we needed to pay her a significant amount of money, or she would fight for rights to her daughter.”
“The daughter she didn't even want,” I grumbled.
“Yeah,” Dakota said, running a hand through his hair, staring into the fire, deep in thought. “She actually reached out to Clay first, and he just paid her. It wasn't until after that he told us what he did and we discussed it.”
“Best fifty grand we ever spent.” Montana nodded. “Only, she’s back.”
“Does she want more money?” Piper asked, shaking her head in disbelief.
That was my question. I doubted she wanted anything else. Caroline had no interest in her actual child. The question was, how much money did she want this time? I had nearly bankrupted the ranch to pay her off before.
“She doesn't just want money." Montana grimaced. “In his rush to pay off last time, Clayton didn’t get her to sign any legal papers, so she still technically has a claim on Maisie.”
Piper shook her head. “She abandoned her. How can she have any legal claim?”
“Because—without a bonded omega, we technically aren’t a pack, and in those instances, the courts tend to favor the mother,” Zeke explained quietly.
“Sure, they'll consider the fact that we've had Maisie her entire life, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't still look favorably upon Caroline. The system is fucked up.”
“We’ll have to pay her off again, or at the very least, end up in mediation before a suit could go to trial,” I said, shaking my head. “But this time we will get lawyers involved and ensure she signs her rights away. How much does she want?”
Montana scowled, his face drawn like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Clay, it’s not that simple. She doesn’t want cash—she wants the ranch.”
The ranch?
My legacy?
Our home?
The Blackwood Ranch had been in my family for generations; all my earliest memories involved the land and the animals we reared.
“There’s no way!” Dakota hissed. “She can’t take our home from us.”
“But she can take Maisie…” Montana trailed off. “We either give her the ranch, or she’s going to take her from us.”
“There’s got to be another way,” Piper said, her concerned gaze on Maisie.
I knew exactly what she was thinking. There was no way our daughter would be able to cope with being dumped on her mother.
At Blackwood Ranch, she had a loving home, where all her needs were met.
If the courts gave Caroline custody, she wouldn't look after her at all.
“We need to look into our legal options, but from the sound of it, Caroline has some pretty powerful people backing her,” Montana said.
“How?” I asked, frowning.
He shrugged. “I have no idea, but we need to get on top of this.”
“Is there any way to get rid of Caroline's rights to Maisie?” Piper asked softly.
I sighed. “I’m not sure.” I glanced at Montana and Zeke.
“The courts would favor us if we were a fully bonded pack with an omega. There's no way they would remove a child from a fully formed pack to live with someone who they had never spent a night with,” Zeke said.
“But yanking our daughter from the only home she’s ever known would be okay?” Dakota whispered furiously.
“When it comes to children, the court system generally favors omegas. They don't even need to be biologically related. They are hardwired to be maternal, so they side with them. It’s not fair, but it’s true.”
“Mail-order bride?” Zeke chuckled ruefully, running his hand over the sleeping child’s hair.
“You really want to trust a stranger with the health and well-being of a child?” I asked.
“There is another possible solution,” Piper said, looking at us intently.
“Do tell, city girl,” I said, but my tone was more friendly than argumentative.
“You need an omega to be part of your pack to help protect Maisie, but you want it to be someone you know. I can't have children, but I want a child more than anything. I love Maisie, and you guys aren’t terrible. Why don’t we bond?”
I stared at the omega, trying to understand the words that just came out of her mouth. Had she really suggested we bond for Maisie? A lifetime commitment?
“B-but why? We hardly know each other. We’ve fucked, but that’s it.”
Piper leveled me with a glare. “I’m not offering because you have semi-decent dicks,” she growled.
“I'll be honest, what are the chances of me finding a pack as an infertile omega?
I'm not exactly drowning in opportunities here.
I know you think I'm some idiot city girl, but I actually like it here, Clayton.
I could be quite happy living here, looking after Maisie and being with you guys.
I know we hardly know each other, and it may not be a romantic relationship.
Sure, the sex is great, but we don't know if that's going to last?—”
“Oh, it’ll last, Pipes.” Zeke smirked. “Rolling in the hay with you was the most fun I’ve ever had.”
A smile graced her face before she glanced back at me. “I want children. Maisie may be my only opportunity to be a mother, and fuck, I want to be the best possible mother to her.”
“You would bond us just to protect our daughter, not knowing if we had a real future?” Montana asked.
Piper nodded. “She would be my daughter as well.”
“Well, my answer is yes, please. With a side of oh holy, fuck yes,” Zeke chuckled, making moon eyes at Piper. “I want to be bitten by the pretty, sexy omega!”
She glared playfully at him. “I think you are talking with your cock and not your brain there…”
Zeke shrugged. “He and I are in perfect agreement.”
Could such an arrangement work? I would be lying if I said the thought of a mail-order bride hadn't been floated around once or twice over the years. Would Piper be a good fit?
She infuriated me, but at the same time, I couldn’t stay away.
There was something explosive between us, but not in the way Caroline and I had been.
Piper was warm and caring compared to Caroline's cold and impersonal demeanor.
She was far more willing to get down and dirty on the ranch, even when it was uncomfortable.
If we bonded, that would be it. There would be no walking away. There would be no fleeing in the middle of the night like Caroline had.
Bonding was forever.
Despite my doubts, there was a small part of me that loved the idea of having Piper connected to me in every way a woman could be.
Maisie also adored her, and it was obvious from the way they interacted that Piper loved spending time with her.
When I glanced between my pack mates, they all had curious and excited looks on their faces. There was no question when it came to Zeke and Dakota. They’d both been all in from the moment they met her.
Montana had been rapidly warming up to her as well.
Turning to my more levelheaded pack mate, I asked, “Thoughts?”
“I mean, it seems like a neat and tidy answer to all our problems. If we are a fully bonded pack, and Maisie already has a relationship with Piper, then they won't take her from us. They may still try to drag us to court, but it will be a futile attempt…” He turned to Piper.
“Are you sure? If you do this, there's no going back. You know that, right?”
Piper laughed lightly. “Montana Blackwood, I am well aware that bonding is forever. I'm the one who made the offer, and I stand by it. I love her…” She smiled at Maisie. “And you guys aren’t terrible,” she added with a soft laugh.
“You going to learn to put up with a bunch of grumpy cowboys?” Dakota asked, his tone tinged with hope.
That boy was already in deep.
“I look forward to it.” She beamed, turning to me. “What do you say, grouchy-pants?”
This had the potential to be the best thing that ever happened to us, or be our undoing, but something had to give. I needed to go with my gut and my instincts and try to do what was best for us.
I wanted Piper.
“I’m in, city girl.”