3. Chapter 3
Ewan
Fuck. This was really happening. It wasn’t a dream. This was my life. Gods, I was going to kill my cousin. Sure, it was my own dumb fault, but I wouldn’t have been there to make such bad decisions if it hadn’t been for doing my cousin a favor, and I was going to throw this back on him.
Never in a million years did I think that I’d be waiting to be sold off to the highest bidder in my animal form. I hadn’t even experienced this scenario in my worst nightmares, although I did have one dream where I was part of a bachelor auction. That had been a very different kind of dream.
The only thing that could’ve possibly made this day worse would be if I were standing here naked, in my human form, with people trying to decide if I was worth the starting bid.
As it was, I was technically standing here naked in my hooved form, save for the halter than someone had put around my head.
It wasn’t even a nice halter. I deserved leather, not this rope thing.
Where was the respect for my gorgeous animal?
Still, someone had given me some delicious hay, and I currently chewed the remnants of that. So to say I was unhappy would be unfair. The food was good, and as long as I didn’t think about what came after the auctioneer yelled “sold,” well… then I would be just fine.
I reluctantly took a few steps into the ring.
Some guy pushed on my butt, and as bad as that was, I knew it would get worse if I didn’t obey.
This was so freaking degrading. He barely stopped short of twisting my tail, which was a good thing for him.
Because if he had, I’d have swatted his face instinctively.
And honestly, I wasn’t against kicking him on purpose.
If I hadn’t been afraid of what sort of consequences I’d have faced if I did, I’d probably have already done it.
My fate was sealed, though. And instead of fighting back like I wanted to, I forced myself to keep moving. I dragged my feet, but cattle moved slowly. Didn’t he know that? My guess was he was a horse guy. They had a tendency to be much more compliant when it came to obeying strangers.
With all this freaking fur, I was roasting to death.
They might as well have said my name was pot-roast at this rate.
This entire auction was a shitshow. They kept the animals too hot and didn’t pretend to present us with our best foot forward.
No one had spent any time brushing my fur, and they really should.
It needed to be cared for, and when done right, I’d fetch a much better price than the disheveled version they were seeing now.
Not that I should be worried about their profit margin. They stole me, after all. But my pride refused to accept that I might be sold for peanuts.
Finally, I reached my destination. Thankfully, my dossan—which was the hair that fell in front of my face like bangs—made it hard to see, so I had no stage fright as I stood waiting to be purchased.
I could pretend the crowd wasn’t even there.
This was embarrassing, and while they didn’t know I was a human underneath my beast, I knew.
They plopped more hay in front of me, and I went to town chomping on it. Gosh, the hay was delicious. After this was over, I needed to go find the field where they cut this and beg them to sell it to me in bulk. The things I would do for good hay.
Unable to resist the temptation, I swept my gaze over the room. The crowd was hazy through the thick strands of my hair. I let out a long moo. That seemed to make people happy, and I wanted to continue their admiration. There was really something wrong with me.
I began to circle around so they could get a good look at me. Maybe I’d get lucky and someone would purchase me as a pet. I was cute enough, and I wasn’t saying that because of an overinflated ego. Objectively, it was true of all of my breed. Highlands were the adorable cows.
Family pet was the best-case scenario. Being pampered and relaxing for a little while, while I plotted my escape, was so much better than the alternative.
If someone wanted to purchase me to eat, well, they were going to be real disappointed when I made my escape, and if I managed to traumatize them by running out of the barn buck-ass naked, so be it.
It was impossible to tell who was who amongst the crowd.
There were so many smells, so much activity, and it was all so loud.
Thankfully, I had this delicious hay to distract me when it got to be too overwhelming.
So much for the auction being in rapid succession.
A baby crying to the side had me whipping my head around.
A scent hit my nostrils for the first time and nearly knocked me off my hooves.
It wasn’t just any scent, either. It slammed into me and suddenly nothing else in the world mattered.
What was that smell?
No. That was the wrong question. Who was that I smelled?
I swept my gaze around, getting more and more frantic by the second.
I needed to locate the source. It wasn’t an option.
Nothing else mattered. Not the people trying to buy me, not being captured while I was out minding my own business, not the fact that I could be loaded onto a truck and headed to be processed for a family’s freezer.
Nope. All of that faded away, and my entire focus was on that one scent.
Finally, I spotted him. A farmer by the looks of him, and his eyes were locked on me.
He was dressed in a plain white t-shirt that was stained with grease, a pair of jeans that were tight on his hips. The man was attractive, there was no denying that, but my pull toward him went so much deeper than good looks.
He stood toward the end of the bleachers, leaning against a pole, and his eyes were wide as he looked down at me, and for a split second, I could’ve sworn I saw a hint of recognition of what I was. Only he didn’t scent shifter. That I’d recognize immediately.
Wait, who was I?
For him? No one. But he didn’t look at me as if that were true.
He was now looking at me like I was more than just a piece of meat, or maybe that I was a piece of meat he was interested in?
No, wait, that wasn’t good. I was in my Highland form.
He shouldn’t look at me like I was sexy in this form.
He should look at my human form that way.
Maybe the hay was contaminated and I was hallucinating.
That was probably it. Because none of what I was seeing was making any sense.
Still, it was like he could see into my soul. He stared at me. And because I couldn’t help myself, I stopped moving and stared back at him as the auctioneer was rattling off numbers.
Shit. I hadn’t even noticed what was happening around me and how the auctioneer was no longer describing me. It was as if once I scented this farmer, everything else in the world had completely faded away.
Then the numbers started climbing, the auctioneer speaking faster than I could follow. I watched as the farmer’s arm went up more than once. I didn’t pay attention to the number he was agreeing to. Then the gavel hit and the auctioneer yelled, “Sold.”
My farmer received a pat on the back from the people around him. He seemed shocked that he’d won, even though he had been the one to agree to the bids.
And he wasn’t my farmer. But also… he was. Or legally, I supposed I was now his cattle. He bought me. It shouldn’t have surprised me. What was he here for, if not to buy cattle? And yet, I stood there, unable to process what had just happened fully.
My new owner looked nice enough. I’d be a little sad that he was out all the money he just spent on me when I escaped.
He could’ve used that money to buy multiple other animals here.
But there wasn’t much I could do about that.
Maybe I could send it to him once I got back home.
Yeah. I was going to do that, but first, I had to make it through another freaking trailer ride. I was so not looking forward to it.
Then again, I was not opposed to getting closer to my new farmer. Which should’ve been the first hint that that glorious scent was more than good fabric softener.