Page 1 of Claimed By the Cowboys
Chapter 1
Piper
Ididn’t expect the mountains of Sweetwater Springs to be sobig.
Coming from the city, I was used to skyscrapers and dense concrete jungles. The countryside ranch my sort-of pack had decided to visit for “networking opportunities” was so vast compared to home. Everywhere I looked, there were large expanses of space. Dusty plains and rolling hills.
Of all the places I expected to spend my vacation, a ranch-themed cabin wasn’t what I’d had in mind. It was the sort of place where businessmen went to put on cowboy hats and pretend they were rugged, manly men.
“They have horses here,” I said, looking hopefully at Lance as we ate our breakfast in the quaint little dining hall. Everything was Old-West themed, from the decor to the staff uniforms.
Lance Adamar looked down his nose at me, his pale, flawless features and ashen blond hair as cold as his ice-blue eyes.
The withering look made me shrink back. “We aren’t interested in horses, Piper. I told you we were going to look at antique guns today.”
My other two sort-of alphas were also at the table, focused more on their breakfasts than us.
Ralph, with his tanned skin and close-cropped dark hair, lazily mopped up some runny egg yolk with a bit of toast as he backed up Lance. “We have plenty of time to take a ride later, or you could always go without us.”
Kyle, frankly, looked bored with the conversation. He was the youngest of Pack Adamar—seeing as I wasn’t officially a member. They had talked to me about bonding in passing a few times, but every time I tried to have a serious conversation about it, they became evasive.
Then they had dropped the bomb that they didn’t want to bond until I was pregnant.
They thought I wasdefective.
In the early days of our relationship, they had all been so sweet, going out of their way to make me feel special and loved. Last year, we had decided we were ready for a family and started throwing ourselves into trying with enthusiasm.
I wanted to be a mother more than anything. Children were innocent and refreshing. No meanness or manipulation.
Only, it’s now a year later, and not a single positive pregnancy test.
Pack Adamar hadn’t exactly been subtle about their disappointment at my failure after an entire year of trying. Of course I was heartbroken each time I got a negative test, but the boys never concerned themselves with comforting me.
They had their own big feelings to deal with, after all.
When they had mentioned this place as a little getaway, I had jumped at the opportunity, thinking it would be good for us, only to learn once we arrived they were there to network with businessmen in the same field as them. It was essentially a week of kissing ass and ignoring me.
Same old, same old.
I didn’t particularly want to go look at a bunch of old, rusty guns, but I had desperately hoped that we would get some quality time together on this trip. They had asked me to come along, so I assumed they wanted to spend time with me.
“I know,” I said, cutting up my breakfast sausage slowly, “but I thought it would be nice to spend a little time together. There are plenty of adorable little boutiques in town. We could always visit one of those.” Usually, Pack Adamar would take any opportunity to flaunt their wealth, but Kyle’s sneer spoke volumes.
“We didn’t come here to spend time together. We came here because this place has some excellent networking opportunities for us,” he said in a scolding tone one would use with an errant child.
I nodded, pushing my scrambled eggs around my plate, appetite gone. Maybe if I were better, they would want to spend more time with me. Lance had even said it was embarrassing that all their colleagues knew they wanted kids, yet I still wasn’t pregnant. My designation as an omega meant I was supposed to get pregnant at the drop of a hat.
A small part of me wanted to beg, to ask them to spend just one freaking day with me, but I knew my pleas would fall on deaf ears.
Sitting up straighter, I smiled brightly at them. “In that case, maybe I can go into town today while you’re busy?”
Lance frowned. “On your own?”
I would be naïve if I thought he was asking out of concern for my safety.
“Yeah, I want to check out the boutiques.”
“No, stay here. It won’t look good if you’re off in town on your own—you don’t want us to look bad in front of these guys, right? They could help us bag some insanely profitable contracts this year.”
