Chapter 52
Ashlynn
I was wrapping up in the clinic for the day. We had processed the five mares that arrived today. According to the data sent by the owners, they all should be in heat within the next four days. A horses heat cycle lasts four to seven days, so now we just had to wait and see when it began and start trying to impregnate them as soon as it started. It was to hard to know how each horses cycle would go, some were shorter than others. The window of opportunity was debatable. All the mares passed the health check and all arrived vaccinated, with papers and tracked heat cycles from their ranch veterinarians. One of the ranches veterinarians had asked to stay for the process. They were breeding a six figure mare for the first time and the owner was anxious about it. The Alpha took an understanding to this and occasionally allowed guest veterinarians or horse handlers. Typically we put them up in the bunk house. Thankfully, the bunk house manager handled all of that. This particular vet, I think I caught his name as Charlie, was a surely old werewolf. That was another thing, anyone not a werewolf was placed off site and only allowed to be present for the breeding process. There were rare exceptions, but that was the standard of practice around here.
Putting away my files, I heard the front door of the clinic open and peaked my head around. “Oh hey Mom, I’m just finishing up. Give me five minutes, she had mind linked me that she wanted to talk over dinner.
I went to the back to tell Garrett I was leaving and reminded him to lock up. Mike was on call for the night, so Garrett could pass any information on to him after he finished cleaning the stall that had held the last mare we inspected.
Mom and I made our way to my loft. “I hope you don’t mind honey, I brought some groceries to your kitchen so I can cook. You can shower while I get our dinner ready.” Mom smiled at me. My Mom was one heck of a cook and I was not going to say not to one of her home cooked meals. So while I headed to shower and change, she got to work in the kitchen.
I walked out of my room to the smell of roasted garlic and onion, my mouth watering instantly. I sat down at the counter watching my Mom work. She was making quick work of a garlic and white wine sauce, noodles boiling on the stove. “Let me guess,” I asked, as I popped a cherry tomato in my mouth that was in the salad already set out on the counter, “Linguine in white wine sauce and shrimp?“. It was one of my favorites, though we rarely ate it since moving here away from the ocean. Mom preferred fresh seafood.
“Yes it is, I thought I’d make your favorite to celebrate you finding your fated mate. That’s something very special and rare you know,” Mom smiled at me as she continued to stir the sauce, now throwing in the shrimp.
“Right,” I said. I just hoped it turned out better than her and my father did, though I cannot imagine Dawson ever treating me like my father had treated my mother. Then again, he wasn’t always like that, so who knows. As Mom finished up our dinner and plated it, I grabbed us some glasses and filled them with ice water. We sat to eat, for a few moments just enjoying the delicious meal my Mother had cooked for us.
Twisting her linguine on her fork, Mom looked over at me,“So you know that some of the men went to Godsend Ranch this morning, don’t you?” she asked.
I nodded, “Yes Garrett mentioned it first thing, it’s why it was just he and I today checking in the mares. I don’t know why Dawson didn’t tell
me.”
“That’s not really his fault. The Alpha didn’t give them any time to let anyone know, he was trying to keep it as quiet as possible. He did ask me to tell you though, so I figured we could talk about it over dinner.” She put her hand on my arm for a moment, a soft smile. “Besides, I wanted to catch up with you on other things too.”
I gave Mom a knowing smile, “Ok you first!”
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