We sat there in the quiet of the stable, the morning light growing brighter around us, dust motes dancing in the golden shafts, and I felt something shift in my chest. Not trust—not yet, maybe not ever—but something adjacent to it. Something that felt almost like hope.
I crushed it before it could take root. Or tried to, anyway.
As Nolan settled back against the wall, his long legs stretching out again, and turned his attention to Bella, giving mespace to process without pressure, I couldn't quite manage it the way I used to.
Something was changing. Something I couldn't control.
For the first time in as long as I could remember, I wasn't sure I wanted to stop it.
CHAPTER SIX
ASTER
Bella went into labor two days later. I was dozing on my hay bale when she started pacing, my head jerking up at the sound of her hooves restless against the straw. Her breathing was shallow and fast, her sides heaving, and she kept circling the stall with wide, rolling eyes that showed too much white.
I was on my feet in an instant, my heart pounding, watching her with growing dread.
"Easy, girl." My voice came out rough from sleep, but I tried to make it soothing, the way Nolan did. I kept my distance, not wanting to crowd her, my hands spread in front of me like I could calm her through sheer force of will. "Easy. You're okay."
She wasn't okay. Something was wrong—I could see it in the way she kept lying down and getting back up, in the sweat darkening her chestnut coat, in the sounds she was making. Sounds that didn't seem right. Sounds that made my stomach clench with fear.
I ran.
The morning air was cold against my face as I sprinted across the yard toward the main house, my boots pounding against the hard-packed dirt. I didn't know where Reid was, didn't know if Nolan was on the ranch today, didn't know anything except that Bella needed help and I was useless, and if she died because I didn't know what to do?—
I nearly collided with someone coming around the corner of the barn.
Hands caught my shoulders, steadying me, and I looked up into a face I didn't recognize. Alpha—the scent hit me immediately, different from Reid's and Nolan's, earthier somehow. Sun-baked grass and dust and wind, with something wild underneath. Like open fields and endless sky.
"Whoa." The voice was low, rough, like gravel over velvet. The single word was calm, unhurried, even as his pale eyes swept over my panicked face, taking in the fear written there. His grip on my shoulders was firm but not painful, steadying rather than restraining. "Where's the fire?"
I jerked back, out of his grip, my heart hammering for a different reason now. He let me go immediately, his hands dropping to his sides, palms open and visible. No threat. No pressure. Just waiting.
He was solid—that was the first thing I noticed. Not as tall as Reid, but broader, built like someone who spent his days wrestling cattle and winning. Maybe six feet, with shoulders that strained the seams of his worn work shirt. Auburn hair, the color of rust and copper, cropped close on the sides but longer on top, catching the early morning light and gleaming with reddish highlights. His skin was ruddy, weathered by sun and wind, and stubble covered his strong jaw in shades of copper and brown.
It was his eyes that made me freeze—pale blue, almost gray, watching me with an intensity that felt like being pinned inplace. They were the color of a winter sky, sharp and clear and seeing everything.
"The mare." I forced the words out, my voice ragged from the sprint, my chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath. "Bella. She's—something's wrong. I need to find?—"
"I'll get Nolan." He said it calmly, cutting me off, no panic in his voice. His tone was matter-of-fact, efficient—a man who knew how to handle emergencies without losing his head. He was already pulling a phone from his pocket, his rough, callused fingers moving over the screen with practiced ease. His pale eyes never left my face, even as he typed. "He's on his way over anyway. Go back to her. Keep her calm."
I didn't wait to hear more. I turned and ran back to the stable, my lungs burning, my legs shaking with exhaustion and fear.
Bella was worse when I got back. She was down in the straw now, her sides heaving with labored breaths, and the sounds she was making—I'd never heard anything like them. Pain sounds. Fear sounds. The kind of sounds that made something primal in my chest clench with answering terror.
I dropped to my knees beside her, my hand finding her neck the way I'd watched Nolan do it. Her coat was slick with sweat, her muscles trembling beneath my palm.
"It's okay." My voice cracked on the words, but I kept talking, kept stroking her sweat-damp coat with trembling fingers. "Help is coming. You're going to be okay. Just hang on. Please, just hang on."
I don't know how long I knelt there. Minutes, maybe. It felt like hours. The stable was too quiet except for Bella's labored breathing and my own ragged whispers, and I kept thinking this is my fault, I should have noticed sooner, I should have done something?—
Then footsteps thundered down the stable aisle, and Nolan was there, his medical bag already open, his green eyes sharpand focused. He was wearing a flannel shirt thrown hastily over a t-shirt, like he'd dressed in a hurry, and his sandy hair was disheveled, but his hands were steady as he dropped to his knees on Bella's other side.
"How long?" His voice was calm, professional, even as his hands moved over her belly with urgent efficiency, checking, assessing. His green eyes flicked to mine briefly before returning to the mare.
"I don't know. Maybe twenty minutes? She was pacing, and then she went down, and—" My voice broke, cracking on the words, and I had to stop, had to breathe through the tightness in my throat.
"You did good." Nolan's voice was warm despite the tension in his jaw, and he glanced up at me again, his green eyes soft with reassurance even as his hands kept working. "Getting help fast. Staying with her." He held my gaze for a moment, steady and calm. "She knows you're here. That matters."
