14. Love

CHAPTER 14

love

By the time we got to the stables, a fourth mare had joined the party, and we were baby central for a while there. Leo, Junior, Trip, Lynn, Charity, Warwick, Joaquin, Colt, and I got to work.

Wick, who was something of a cover whisperer and had been key in helping Tiberius breed our mares, sent me a wry grin as he shoved his arm into a glove. "I was there when this little one was conceived. Now I'm here to see it delivered into the world. I can tell you that this end of the equation is significantly messier than the beginning."

We all laughed because we knew he wasn't complaining, not really. He'd kept a lot of his difficult background to himself before Joaquin and Colt got him to fall for them. Since then, he'd become somewhat more open, and those of us in his inner circle knew how much the horses had brought him back to life. Days like this were special for him.

The first two births went off without a hitch, and Rebel Sky had a colt and a filly to add to its numbers. I was sitting on a bale of hay, taking a break, when Lynn walked up, an uncommon urgency in her demeanor. "Love, I need you with me on this one."

The mare that Junior, Leo, and I were helping still had at least an hour to go, so I left her stall and put on a new set of gloves.

"Breech," Lynn said quietly. "Transverse dorsal presentation. What kinds of questions should you be asking now?"

Transverse dorsal meant that instead of coming front hooves first, the foal's back was facing the birth canal. This was bad.

"How long since Calliope's water broke?"

"Ten minutes."

"Have you already tried repositioning?"

"Yes, but my arms are a little short for this specific presentation. Honestly, if we were closer to a horse hospital, I'd try to get her in for a C-section. Absent that, this kind of presentation requires brawn, a light touch, and more time than we currently have."

Warwick had told me that a mare here once died of basically the same thing, and it had gutted Trip and the entire crew. On top of that, this was Calliope—Sprite's firstborn. Luke and Sparrow would be devastated if something happened to her.

I hadn't worked with Lynn for long, but we had already handled a couple of breeches together, and for her to say that she couldn't get a handle on the foal was unusual.

"Got it." I silently went through the steps for repositioning a breech in my head, then repeated them out loud to Lynn. She agreed and gave me a few more tips. The thing that worried me most was that my arms weren't that much longer or stronger than Lynn's.

I lubed up my arm and slid it in, and I immediately understood exactly how stuck this foal was. It wasn't just a matter of not being able to grab a leg; the hooves were caught on something, and even if we managed to wrestle it loose, there was no telling the internal damage it would do.

I did my best, moving it this way and that, but… Fuck. This was more than I could handle.

Pulling my arm out, I clenched my jaw as I noted the time.

"What's your read of the situation?" Lynn asked, still in teaching mode.

"She needs an emergency C-section, though without access to a hospital, it'll probably kill her."

She nodded stiffly, and I blinked back tears.

"Maybe…" I racked my brain. Then my eyes widened. "Leo."

Lynn shook her head. "He's not a vet."

"No, but he's got the longest arms of anyone here, and he's the strongest."

She bit her upper lip and stared at Calliope for a long minute. "You may be right," she said. "Leo might just be her best chance."

I brought Leo over, quietly explaining along the way what we needed him to do.

His jaw opened. "Love, I don't know anything about this."

"You know more than you think you do. You've spent the last day helping with the foaling."

Kicking at the hay by his feet, Leo thought it over. "I'll do my best if you give me instructions."

Lynn sent me a look, and I nodded. I trusted Leo with everything.

As he pulled on the long glove, I explained, "The foal's back is facing the birthing canal."

"And it should be front hooves facing down, right?"

"Yes. So you know that we're in big trouble," I said.

"Sounds like it. What if I fuck it up?"

I shook my head. "It's already fucked up. You're trying to unfuck it, and we may or may not be able to do that. The reality is, we've got less than twenty minutes to get this foal out before shit starts going sideways."

"Uh, not to contradict you, but if I'm the one shoving my hand up a horse's ass, I think we can assume that shit's already gone sideways."

Despite the gravity of the situation, Lynn put her forehead on my shoulder, shaking with laughter. "You do know that horses don't give birth through their asses, right?"

Leo sent her a dry look. "I was trying to avoid the words "horse vagina," thankyouverymuch. Besides, I came out butt first," he said, taking the lube from my hands. "I was literally born to help you with this."

Lynn snorted, her expression a mix of concern and humor. I placed a quick kiss on Leo's cheek and sent up a small prayer for Calliope.

"I tell you what—nothing about these last couple of days was on my bingo card," he said, slathering the length of his arm.

"It'll definitely be a story to tell."

I was encouraged by the gentle way he approached Calliope. I was also grateful that he couldn't see Lynn preparing for an emergency C-section.

"All right, mama horsey. I'm about to get real rude with you, but I'm just trying to help, so don't kick me," he said, patting her rump. She let out a grunt, which he took as a good sign.

I talked him through the steps to reposition the foal, and he nodded. "I think I got it: I need to move it so that the hooves come loose, then spin the whole thing around, but don't let it rip up the mama too much."

"Basically."

Leo jogged in place for a second, punching the air as he psyched himself up. With a final nod, he slowly—and with surprising confidence—slid his arm inside Calliope.

"I can feel its butt. I can feel its spine," he said, wonder and fear in his voice. "I can feel it trying to move around."

Lynn and I breathed out twin sighs of relief. At least the foal was still alive.

I carefully walked Leo through the steps to turn the foal. We had to start and stop several times, and at one point he was up to his shoulder, gently working it into position. He was drenched in sweat by the time the hooves made their appearance.

He'd done it. He'd really done it.

The rest of the birth went quickly, and Calliope immediately started tending to her baby. Lynn examined mother and foal and declared them both healthy.

When we looked up, Trip and Warwick were huddled by the entry. "I heard we had some complications with this one," Trip said, his eyes shiny.

A lot of the ranchers in this area were old-school, the kind that never showed emotion and only ever did things the way they'd always been done, but that wasn't Trip Goodnight.

"This was a tricky breech, one that definitely should've been a C-section," Lynn told him. "Leo was clutch, for sure."

Leo flushed at the compliment, then gestured down at himself. "I probably should've worn a rain slicker or something."

In our rush to help, none of us had worn protective gear apart from gloves.

We laughed, then returned to the final mare, whose delivery was, thankfully, proceeding normally. Within the hour, we had two colts and two fillies, each standing on rickety legs, nursing for the first time.

"All right, everybody," Trip said, clapping his hands. "Go get clean, then come up to the main house for breakfast. We've got a lot to celebrate."

After agreeing to bring a plate to Lynn so she could stay back with Calliope, we headed out. This had been a good morning, and it reminded me why I'd wanted to be a vet in the first place.

Leo and I returned to the bunkhouse and went into the bathroom together, not caring about the wolf whistles and kissing noises directed at us. We stripped out of our clothes, then stepped under the hot water and into each other's arms.

"You were amazing this morning," I said, tipping my face up toward his.

He gave me the kiss I'd been seeking, then shook his head. "I can't believe I had my entire arm inside Calliope. That was super gnarly."

I chuckled. "Yes. It really was. You did a good job of keeping it together, though."

"Every once in a while, I get it right."

"You get it right more often than you think, baby."

He flushed a bright red. "You just called me baby."

"Do you not like that?"

"Nah, I like it a whole lot."

He emphasized this with a rough kiss, pressing his hard cock into my belly. I reached between us, wrapping my hand around both of our shafts.

Leo reached over my head and grabbed the bodywash. He squeezed some onto our cocks, then groaned as I stroked us together. "Fuck, you feel so good," he said, his voice hoarse.

He enclosed my hand in his, intensifying the pleasure as we continued to devour one another. With his free hand, he grabbed my ass, sliding a soapy middle finger to my hole. I arched into it and rolled my hips, thrusting our cocks together, then pushing back against his invading finger… fingers .

Before long, his chest was heaving, and his response fired up my own arousal.

"Love," he whined, cum erupting from his cock.

Two strong strokes later, I joined him, burying my face in his powerful pecs, grateful to share this moment with him. Once we'd caught our breath, we quickly rinsed off, changed, and joined the group for breakfast at the main house.

Trip regaled everyone with the tale of Leo's help… and made sure they knew Junior had found us in bed together.

"You're an asshole," I said, throwing a napkin at my brother's head for snitching.

"Nah. I'm just happy for you."