CHAPTER FIVE
Colten woke the next morning with his face pressed into his pillow, he had a horrible habit of laying flat on his stomach. Usually leaving him squinting awake from the swelling it caused his eyes.
He turned onto his back as the morning sun started to shine in his window. Today would be a slower day, all he had to do was some things around the house and then wait, for Saturday morning to roll around.
He heard the faint sound of the vacuum downstairs and knew he had a few minutes to just wake up and relax with Alma already taking care of Ella.
Rubbing his face, he sat up and looked around his barren room. It didn't seem to matter how much Alma tried to clean it or make it smell nice, it refused to accept a woman's touch.
He got up hoping the room would change it's mind one day, then dressed himself quick
and walked downstairs with a pair of socks in his hand.
The vacuum now off, he heard Peter in the kitchen talking.
Colten walked in and took in the situation, “Morning.”
Peter smiled at him as he chewed a doughnut in his mouth, “I brought food.” He pointed at the box of doughnuts as he grabbed another one.
Colten sat down across from him, “Why have you decided to come over?” Pulling his socks on.
Peter swallowed what was in his mouth, “Colten's grumpy this morning.”
The older nanny turned to the men, “Coffee?”
Colten glanced up as he finished with the socks, “I will, thanks, Alma”
She nodded and turned back away.
Peter started up again, “And what do you mean why am I here? You told me to come over Friday to help you fix the side of the barn.”
Colten thought that through, which it ended up being completely true, “Oh right.”
Peter smiled, “Are you losing it?”
“Close to it, I'm sure.” Colten stood and didn't let Alma completely serve him. He took the cup from her and started drinking it.
Peter let his alpha sit back down before he continued the torture on him, “Going to elaborate?”
Alma broke up the conversation before Colten could answer him, “Colten, there's some mail here for you here and I'm going to go to the grocery store for food but I didn't see the food allowance this morning.”
Colten paused and then looked to Peter, “Got any cash I can borrow?”
Peter pulled out his wallet, “At least I know you're good for it.”
Colten took the money from his friend and passed it to the nanny, “Would you mind taking Ella?”
“Of course not.” She smiled, “See you in a bit.” She left the kitchen and Peter was quick to pick up the same conversation again.
“So?”
Colten took another sip of coffee and creased his brow, “So?”
Peter rolled his eyes, “Are you going to tell me why you're losing it?”
“No.” Colten grumbled and stood, walking to the pile of mail, “It's nothing. I'm just exhausted from the week.”
“Boring.” Peter grumbled, “Oh, tomorrow I'm going to watch the Rodeo, are you going? Bringing Ella or something?”
Colten ripped open the electricity bill and made a face, “This house must suck energy.”
“This house should be condemned.” Peter laughed.
Colten dropped the bill to the counter and looked to him, “Something like that.”
“So Rodeo?”
Colten grumbled, “I'll meet you there.”
“Well, we can all go in my truck.”
“No. I have plans for the morning...” He trailed off and looked over the next bill.
Peter laughed at him, “Doing what? Picking your nose?”
“I have to take Abigail Redding and her horse there.”
Peter stared at him, “Why?”
Colten glanced over but looked back down to his mail, “Her truck broke down and she doesn’t have a ride.”
“Her dad has a brand new truck.” Peter argued.
He threw the mail all aside and walked back over with his coffee, “It's a long story.”
Peter lifted an eyebrow, “Dude, I thought you were doing Sarah.”
Colten stared at him, “What the heck, Pete?”
He backed off, “Just saying.”
“I'm just helping her out.”
“Okay, but why would you help out a human? Oh, is she paying you or something?”
“No.” Colten snorted and took another few mouthfuls of his coffee, “And what's wrong with helping humans?”
“You're such a good-doer, Colt.” He poked at him.
Colten rolled his eyes, “Let's go out to the barn and see what we can do. I want to fix it the best we can before another storm rips through.”
Peter followed him outside, “So Tyler said to me last night he thought he saw Mateo in town the other day.”
Colten looked to him and paused his step, “Well, did he?”
Peter shrugged, “He was drunk.”
“I doubt Mateo has enough balls-”
Peter smiled and Colten stopped mid sentence from it.
“What?” Colten snapped at him.
“Mateo took over Oscuro two weeks ago.”
“What!” Colten moved towards his beta, “Why didn't you tell me!”
“I thought you knew!” Peter argued.
Colten rolled his eyes and put a hand on his forehead, “What? No, I did not know!”
“Are you alright?” Peter looked him over.
“I just really don't need Mateo and Oscuro drama right now.”
“He's not dumb enough to test us.” Peter tried to brush it off for him but Colten wasn't feeling the reassurance.
“Do you know why he got Oscuro?”
Peter made a face.
“You know!” Colten pointed at him and stared, “Why do I not know anything!”
Peter shrugged, “I don't know, we haven't had a meeting in so long.”
“Alright!” Colten threw his hands up, “We're having one, we're having one next week... on Wednesday.”
“I can't do Wednesday.” Peter made a face.
“Why?” Colten exasperated.
“I said I'd go to the movies.”
“Peter!” Colten exclaimed.
“Okay, okay...” Peter tried to calm him, “I'll tell them I can't.”
Colten sighed, “Now, how did Mateo get Oscuro?”
Peter swallowed, “He's mated?”
Colten stared at him and his face fell, the corner of his mouth wincing as he took in the information, “Are you sure?”
Peter shrugged, “I think so. Run the Oscuro borders tonight, there is a different smell. It's got to be Mateo. I didn't really put it all together till last night though with Tyler saying...”
“Okay, this stuff needs to be told to me right away!” Colten snapped.
“Well, I'm telling you now.”
Colten rung his hands to his hair and walked away, “I hate you all!”
Peter smiled and ran to catch him, “Well, that's a strong word, you might hurt my one feeling with that one.”
“No more jokes.” Colten snapped, walking into the barn as Honey poked her head out of her stall to greet him. He patted her forehead and glanced at Peter, “I need to know this stuff, Peter.”
“It slipped my mind.” He walked up beside him and leaned into the barn, “And it was kinda through the grape vine.”
Colten made a face, “No more grape vines! Tell me! I have way too many pack members right now to deal with it, let alone other issues.”
Peter perked up, “What other issues?”
Colten walked through the barn to the back, ignoring him.
His beta became insistent though, “Don't worry about Mateo, he's a pussy-”
“Yeah, before, when I still had the upper hand!” Colten snapped, “He's the son of an alpha that my father killed, you don't think he's going mess with us now?”
“Well, it's not like Angelo didn't-”
“Enough, enough.” He didn't want to talk about it further, it annoyed him and at the same time brought back memories he didn't want to deal with at that moment.
“We'll have the meeting next Wednesday at seven, tell Tyler to be sober and make sure you are here early.”
Peter nodded, “Yes, Alpha.”
Colten rolled his eyes, “This isn't a joke, Peter.”
“I get it but come on, we are a way bigger pack and Mateo isn't-”
Colten was quick to turn to him, “And if he's mated, I don't want to give him any opportunity to mess with Fornone. There's a lot women and children in our pack. I can't stand to see that threatened.”
Peter stepped back and nodded, “I know.”
“So, even if you think I know next time, tell me.” Colten looked around the tiny barn isle, “Okay, so, this over here is all knocked out from the last wind storm so I want to fix it.”
“Cool.” Peter nodded, “Do you have any beer?”
Colten looked to him and sighed, “It's not even noon.”
Peter smiled, “I meant for later. Calm down.”
Colten rolled his eyes and walked to another door, pushing it open, he stepped inside to reveal the most of the damage from the windstorm but Peter wasn't looking at the fallen boards.
“What the mess is this!” Peter pointed at Abigail's white pickup truck.
Colten busied himself with looking over the damage of the barn, “It's a truck.”
“Why do you have a truck in your barn?”
“I just do!” He shot, exhausted from Peter but that was a normal symptom of his overly enthusiastic and nosey Beta.
Peter walked over the old Chevy and looked into the cab, “This thing is beat to all hell!”
“It's not that bad.” Colten grumbled as he inspected what type of wood he needed to find around back.
Peter smiled, “The seats are torn up! Who did you let pawn this piece of junk off on you?”
“Pete!” Colten snapped finally, “Just don't worry about it. Come over here and help me.”
The dishevelled haired man sauntered over, “So, it's like a project?”
Colten grabbed some broken boards and stood, shoving them in Peter's arms, “Yeah, it's a project.”
He smiled at him, “Sounds fun. Sounds beer fun!”
Colten rolled his eyes and walked outside, “There's some boards on the pen I want to fix today too.”
Peter trailed behind him, “Right. Right.”
Colten knew it was going to be a long day, mostly because his Beta had the attention span of a five year old, he only hoped that one day he would find a mate so his dysfunctional mind would start working properly. Though he did not wish the human issue on his friend at all, just the normalcy of another like mate.
“So, how's things with Sarah?” Peter prodded once they were around the side and Colten was digging for scrap pieces of board that would fix the barn.
Colten grumbled, “I don't know, she wants to visit more or something.”
“Whoa!” Peter exclaimed, “Like a girlfriend?”
Colten looked to him, “She's not my girlfriend.”
Peter lifted an eyebrow, “Well, I know you like her and all, but this whole thing is starting to confuse me.”
Colten went back to searching for boards, “It's starting to confuse me too.”
“I know you haven't found your mate, so really it's painless but isn't it like forced-torture, especially if she's getting attached?”
“She's not...” Colten slipped on a loose board in the pile and caught himself on the side of the barn, “I'm not attached. She can't be attached. She lost Dean and once you lose a mate, you can't want to be with anyone on that type of level again. This is all physical.”
Peter lifted an eyebrow, “Just cause your Dad was old school, doesn’t mean everyone is willing to die alone.”
Colten stopped and stared at him, “You think she wants to be with me forever?” His heart started to pound and he began to go through everything in his mind between him and Sarah.
Peter shrugged, “I don't know. I'm not even mated.”
Colten sighed, “I just feel bad for the kids.”
“You're such a softy, Colt.”
Colten grunted and found some more boards throwing them over to Peter, “I'm going to tell her I can't do it anymore.”
Peter smiled wide, “You're going to break up with her!”
“Well, you just said that she wants more! Like a husband or something and I can't do that!” Colten panicked.
Peter laughed at him, “You're losing it.”
“I'm not losing it.” He went back to the wood, “Forget it. I'm done talking about this.”
“Yeah, course you are, Colt.”
“I am. I'm going to the Rodeo dance tomorrow with Sarah, I'll do it after.”
“You're way too nice.”
“Hey!” Colten argued, “I'm fair.”
“Fair-alpha.” Peter mocked.
Colten finished with the wood and walked over to him, “Just help me and shut up.”
“Yes, Alpha.” He continued to tease him as they walked back inside the barn.
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