8
Jack was trying to help clear the table but Damien and another men were quicker, both taking softly about the workload the next day and then the one who had sat silently for the entire meal spoke, starting Jack with a feminine voice.
"I want to ride the Western Ridge where we lost that steer. I don't want a Blue bear to find him, he's prime stud" she said as she stood and stretched. Jack then saw her hair was short but also pinned at the back. She smiled at Jack and leaned forward to stare back at him.
Ianto then noticed Jack staring and he looked between them before saying "Suzie? You met my husband?"
"Yes, another fine looking stud" she leered.
Jack watched Ianto as his face changed and Jack finally recognised jealousy. Really? Ianto was being possessive? For some reason that REALLY appealed to Jack as he decided to push it, smiling back at Suzie as he asked if she was as fine as she made herself out to be.
"Well, you can ride me any time cowboy" she purred with a wink.
Jack saw the instant Ianto went past jealous to enraged, rising from the table to slam his plate into the sink as Mama Mae yelped, stepping back from the cascade of bubbles. Jack rose to apologise, say it was nothing… but to he paused as Ianto swung to stare at him.
Not jealousy.
Oh wow.
Jack smiled "Well, thanks for the offer but I am taken. If you will excuse us everyone, my husband and I need to talk."
Jack snagged Ianto's hand and pulled him from the room, heading for the office where he shut the door behind them both, then leaning against it. "So… did she turn you on or did I? Or is it the talk of cooking?"
"Excuse me?" Ianto asked in a dangerous voice.
"You're turned on. You are aren't you? You are practically panting for a good fight… or is it a fuck!" Jack said, making the last word sound like a slap "you wanna…. Fuck!"
Ianto looked at him like a predator, his chin tucked in and his eyes flashing with something akin to rage but Jack now knew better. Desire. He found Jack desirable. "If it helps she is not my type and we can move her to the outer ridge gang if she pisses you off…also… I would love a fuck."
Finally Ianto broke, seizing Jack and kissing him with such vigour that Jack felt his knees go weak. Holly fuck… this man is an alpha that was both demanding and commanding. Everything Jack liked when choosing a mate.
Then in the next instant... Ianto was gone.
Jack leaned against the desk, panting with lust and confusion as the smell of them both lingered in the air and he knew for certain that the six month trial period was already a mote point.
They were a fit.
Jack had found a bondmate that matched him.
Holy hell!
.
.
.
Next morning Ianto was absent and Jack felt the loss of their morning greeting keenly. The kiss last night still lingered on his lips and he now wondered if he had gone too far.
He settled at the table, looking around as a plate of food was placed down and Miss Mae said softly "If you are looking for Himself, he is in the barn. That foal is coming."
Jack scoffed his meal like it was his last one, Miss Mae shaking her head with amusement as he mopped up the last of it with a hunk of bread while trucking the plate to the sink, then he kissed her cheek and raced outside, only to return for his coat over the back of the chair.
She chuckled as she leaned over the sink to better watch him run for the barn while shrugging the large coat on, his excitement still filling the room he had just raced from.
What a breath of fresh air.
And Himself had that skip back in his step too.
Oh yes… she had noticed.
.
.
.
.
"Ianto?"
"End stall" came a faint reply and Jack ran for the large birthing stall to the left, his heart pounding as he entered to find the mare labouring quietly in a corner, Ianto holding her head as he crooned sweet nothings and stroked her face lovingly.
"How are we looking?"
"I can feel little hooves when I last checked, the head is in the right place and in the last half hour it's moved forward a little. Any time now she is gonna start to push for real" Henry said as he moved around the stall getting extra hay laid for the mess that as about to happen.
"I love this part" Jack gushed, moving slowly so as not to upset the mama horse, letting his hands glide over her taut stomach to feel the strain. "Strong, she still and her breathing sounds well, looks like for a first foal she is doing grand."
"She will be OK though, right?" Ianto asked, his eyes widening "She is … special."
"We lost one a few winters back. Breach and the vet could not get out to do the surgery in time. Lost her and the foal." Henry whispered to Jack as Ianto crooned some more. Jack knew this horse was important, the connection to his dead wife and he assured Ianto that everything looked good.
"Are you sure?"
"I have seen this a hundred times or more… you just need to be fine. You are calm, she is calm right? You panic, she will panic." Jack said soothingly as he soothed the man who soothed the horse.
"Any time now… you are gonna be a Granddad" Jack said as he watched her posture change, the strain now a push.
Ianto smiled.
Wow.