Maybe he should just let Bacon live in the barn like the rest of the animals? Maybe she would be happier in the barn. Sterling walked right out of the living room, which was now full of people, and out the front door. He stepped off the porch steps and headed for the barn.
Was he being cruel to Bacon by keeping her in the house? What did he actually know about pigs beyond what he had read in the book in Pa’s library? Maybe pigs really needed to be outdoors. Maybe Bacon needed to be with her family.
Sterling’s heart weighed heavy in his chest as he walked into the barn and crossed to the pen holding the sow and her piglets. The mama pig was resting but raised her head when Sterling stopped at the railing, as if she knew he was there. After sniffing the air, and making a small piggy grunt, she dropped her head back down to the straw.
“What do you think, Bacon?” Sterling whispered softly to the little piglet as he held her up to his face. “Is this where you want to be?”
Bacon snorted and wiggled her little feet furiously.
“Well, that’s no answer,” Sterling huffed and settled down onto the floor in front of the pigpen. He cradled Bacon to his chest for a moment, stroking his hand down her back as he considered what he was about to do.
He loved Bacon, but he loved Riley even more. If he continued to spoil Bacon then people would continue to make fun of him. Not only did it hurt Sterling’s feelings, but it made Riley angry. And an angry Riley was a very bad thing.
Sterling knew what he had to do.
Tears started to fill Sterling’s eyes and spill down his cheeks as he pulled the bow from Bacon’s neck and then set her on the floor inside the pigpen. He pointed her toward the mama pig and her piglets and then scooted Bacon toward them with a hand on her rump.
“Go on, Bacon,” Sterling whispered.
Bacon snorted, sniffed the ground, and then spun around, making a beeline right back to Sterling. As soon as she reached him, she tried to climb up onto his lap. Sterling rolled his eyes and picked her up, setting her right back inside the pig enclosure.
“Bacon, you need to go to your mama.” Sterling hiccupped, trying to suppress the cry building up in his throat at the idea that his precious little pet was about to become just a pig again. “Go on, Bacon.”
“Bacon, now that’s a delicious-sounding word, but I prefer human.” Someone laughed quietly from the shadows. “Humans taste so much better.”
Sterling yelped and spun around so fast that he fell backward, hitting his head on the wooden railing of the pigpen. He rubbed the back of his head as he righted himself and searched the barn for the source of the words.
A shadow moved in the corner, sending shards of fear spiking through Sterling. It wasn’t so much the shadow that scared him but the sharp-looking fangs in the man’s mouth.
Oh, he was in such deep shit.
* * * *
Riley frowned as he walked into the kitchen, the very empty kitchen. He thought that was the last place he had seen Sterling. He spun around and went upstairs, looking for his mate. Kenway wanted to apologize for making fun of Bacon, but Sterling needed to be there for that to happen.
The bedroom he shared with Sterling was just as empty as the kitchen had been. Riley started to grow concerned when he searched the rest of the upper floor and found no sign of Sterling anywhere.
He paused for a moment in the middle of the hallway and rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to figure out where Sterling could be. A sudden thought hit him. Riley ran back to the bedroom and searched the room for Bacon. He even looked under the bed.
Riley ran out of the room and down the stairs as fast as he could, grabbing the handrail at the bottom to stop his forward momentum. He started toward the living room when he heard a loud squealing noise coming from the door in the kitchen. Riley instantly changed directions and ran into the kitchen, pushing the back door open.
He just about fell back on his ass when Bacon darted into the room and tried to climb his leg, squealing as loud as he had ever heard her. Riley bent down and picked the scared little piglet up in his arms.
“Where’s Sterling, Bacon?”
The piglet squealed and squirmed until Riley set her down on the floor. The second her feet touched the hard tile, she ran toward the door and started rooting at the edges with her nose. Riley pushed the door open. His jaw dropped as Bacon took off toward the barn as fast as her four little legs would carry her.
“Pa, Sterling’s in trouble in the barn,” he shouted just before he darted out the door after the damn pig. He was about halfway across the yard when he heard the kitchen door bang open and several sets of pounding feet followed after him.
Riley slowed his running down to cautious steps when he neared the barn. Bacon was wiggling and squirming for all she was worth as she tried to squeeze under the edge of door and get into the barn.