Page 33 of Knight Life In Vegas

I snorted. “Fuck that.”

“We might not have a choice,” Chico said sadly.

“There’s always a choice. Surely there’s some avenue we haven’t explored yet.”

“If you think of one, I’d love to hear it,” he replied.

I didn’t have the answers we needed, much as I wished I did. Night of Knights was home. I would do anything to save it.

“You need some horse time. Do you want to take Morty for a spin?”

“Sure, I could do a few loops.”

I slid off, and let him take my place, retreating back to the stable to get to work on one of the others while my packmates showed off the grace of our animals.

Sometimes I felt bad that all of the admin work for keeping this place running fell to Chico, but I wasn’t good enough at any of it to offer much more than support. I worked a lot of hours for free just so I could hang out with the horses and that at least saved us a bit of money.

I brushed down Applesauce while going social media stalker on all of the Charlottes in the city. Either our mystery woman didn’t have any accounts, or she was locked down tighter than Fort Knox. How was I supposed to snoop when she made it so difficult?

I couldn’t stop thinking about her: her cute as hell laugh, her beautiful smile beneath that feathered cowboy hat, or the way she had fallen apart for Eduardo and me. Even if she wasn’t a scent match, I wanted to see her again. I hoped we hadn’t done anything wrong to scare her off. She said she’d never played with two alphas before, so maybe she’d just gotten overwhelmed.

With a sigh, I laid my forehead against Applesauce’s neck. “Saucy, what am I supposed to do?

She nickered softly.

“Extra treats for you are not going to solve the problem, but I’ll get them for you anyway.” I grabbed a bag of carrots from our stash and distributed them through the stable, carrying two out for the ones in the arena.

“Are you spoiling them again?” Eduardo asked.

“I don’t have the same willpower as you. They want treats, so I give it to them.”

Eduardo rolled his eyes, but a smile graced his lips. “You just want to be their favorite.”

“And you don’t?”

Chico hopped down off Morty and we all diverted back to the stables so the active horses could get their brush downs. He used to be a stable hand like me, and I knew he missed when horses were his only job. Eduardo and I still got to perform together, but it wasn’t very often that Chico got to anymore. Filling in for sick time or vacations was the only time he got back in the saddle to perform.

I wrapped my arms snugly around Chico, squeezing tight. “You need a hug.”

“I’m fine,” he insisted.

“Nope.” I shook my head. “You’ve got stress vibes and we’re hugging until you relax.”

Chico sighed and hugged back, going through a few deep breaths.

“Eddie, get into this cuddle.”

“I’m coming.” He flattened himself against Chico’s back, the two of us boxing him in.

“You guys are ridiculous,” Chico grumbled.

“Don’t pretend you don’t love it. Everyone needs a cuddle once in a while, and since we’re omega-less, you’ll have to settle for awkward hugs in the stable.”

That got a laugh out of him, some of the tension holding his body hostage fading a bit. I couldn’t fix anything that was wrong, but I could be here to support him.

“Weshouldn’tbe omega-less, though,” he lamented. “She’s out there.”

“We’ll find her. There’s no way fate would be mean enough to deliver her and let her disappear forever.”

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