Page 51 of Claimed By the Cowboys
He nodded. “I just had a few errands to take care of. Did you sleep okay?”
“I did,” she confirmed, smiling up at him, still wrapped up in my twin brother’s arms. “But I need to go grab a shower before Maisie gets done with the chickens!” She scrambled out of Montana’s lap, grabbing her mug of coffee.
“Want some company?” I asked.
“If you join me, my quick shower will become far too long!” she laughed as she quickly scampered out of the room.
Clay’s eyes remained locked on the door she had just left through for a minute, and I could tell he was debating following her anyway.
“Hey, leave our omega alone. We need to chat,” I said, waving my spoon around as I spoke.
Clay turned on his heel to face me, the smile slipping off his face. “What have you done?” he asked, his voice far more serious than it had been moments earlier.
“Why are you assuming I've done something?” I grumbled.
“He actually hasn't, for once,” Montana said. “We wanted to get your opinion on sorting out some space for a pack bedroom. Piper is going to need a nest. We were thinking of maybe gettingrid of the wall between her bedroom and my office and maybe even extending it a bit.”
Clay nodded, deep in thought. “Ah, yeah, she’s going to need space. This house is in no way suitable for an omega. We should get on that…”
“I’ll go into town and start getting some materials today. If we get some of the ranch hands to help us, the job could be done pretty quickly.”
Clay crossed his arms. “No. We’ll do the building ourselves.”
It wasn’t that unusual for the ranch hands to help. The previous summer, they had helped us lay the decking outside of Piper’s room.
“They’re good, and they won’t mind a little extra work,” I reasoned.
“Do you really want other men in Piper’s space? Around our omega?”
I paused, putting my cereal bowl down on the counter, suddenly finding my breakfast unappetizing. The very idea of Piper around other men set my teeth on edge.
“Oh, fuck,” I murmured.
“Yeah, for now, until the bond settles down a bit, maybe the ranch hands should stay away from the house,” Montana suggested with a frown.
It seemed none of us particularly liked the idea of Piper being around others.
“My alpha wants her only around us,” I admitted. I wasn’t usually so possessive, but fuck, bonding had brought out my aggressive side, it seemed.
Clay shook his head, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He was the most possessive out of the lot of us, so Piper was in for an interesting time.
Hopefully, she wouldn’t hate us.
Chapter 24
Piper
My pack.
That was such a weird thing to say—I had a pack and a daughter.
The first time I woke up, Clay was still wrapped around me, and even though he was the only one in the room, the others were there, in our pack bond.
It wasn't an overbearing sensation. It was like a small echo of them. Comforting and reassuring. Like no matter where I was or where I went, they would always be with me.
It just felt insanelyright. How had I missed out on this all my life? Naturally, I’d read about bonding and packs in romance books and dreamed of having my own one day, but the reality was so much more.
Clay had needed to get up and run errands, so he’d kissed me goodbye and left me alone in bed. I was exhausted from the previous night, so instead of getting up like I usually would, I drifted off to sleep for another hour.
