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Sam rode Castiel out to their spot by the creek, Hannah trotting in front of them. She’d made it clear that she wanted to meet with the two of them, although whether for a chat or another attempt at breeding was unclear. As soon as they were in their little clearing, she shifted, and Sam quickly slid off Castiel so he could do the same.
“We’ll need to figure out what to tell Crowley and Dean, because if they’re continuing to think of me as a horse, my foal will be premature,” Hannah said without preamble. “A typical unicorn pregnancy lasts approximately 310 days, compared with 340 for a horse. For Dean, I’ve gotten to know him the past month or so, and I’ve got no objection if you want to tell him the truth about me. For Crowley, I would very much prefer a different solution.”
Castiel snorted. “We are not telling Crowley about us.”
“Well, about Crowley…” Sam grinned a predatory smirk. “I’m glad you called us out here, because Dean and I just finalized a transaction with him. See, Crowley was never actually your owner, Hannah.”
“No, he was my trainer,” Hannah said with a puzzled frown. “What’s that got to do with this aside from someone else technically owns me and will own my foal? Last time I saw my owner was when he dropped by a couple days after I was born to name me.”
“Right. And part of the terms of the contract was that your owner, a Lewis Farr, had to pay boarding fees. You’ve been boarding here for the past three months while I ran the bloodwork and we tried to get you pregnant. Farr should have been paying that money to me, and for every day he’s late, I earned one percent ownership in interest that he could buy out as a late fee. He clearly knew where you were, Hannah, because he wasn’t paying Crowley saying that he wasn’t boarding you, but I never saw the money, either.”
“Meaning that if the payment is due monthly, you have at least 60% ownership of Hannah, and therefore of her foal,” Castiel said, his own smile growing as he did the math. “The transaction with Crowley is about Hannah?”
“The money is due on the 15th. Crowley and I checked the records, and Farr was late enough that I could claim 72% ownership. Crowley took the preemptive step of buying out the other 26% - Farr apparently needed the money anyway – and came to me to offer me a 50-50 split on you.”
Hannah shuddered. “I’ve seen how Crowley treats the horses he owns versus the ones he’s earning boarding fees on. I don’t know that you being half-owner would be enough to prevent that. Please, I know it’s probably going to be difficult, but…”
“Don’t worry.” Sam reached out and stroked Hannah’s hair. “Dean told him that they made great drinking buddies, but they’d be terrible co-owners of a horse. It took a bit of shuffling and things aren’t going to be easy for the next few months, but he was able to come up with the cash. You belong to the ranch outright now, Hannah. Which you’ve seen how things are here. You and Castiel, as far as I’m concerned, belong to yourselves.”
“We definitely need to tell Dean, then. Even if his reasoning was only he’s noticed the way you and Hannah have bonded, he had no hesitation.” Castiel shifted back into horse form, trotting away to the house.
“Sam? Your horse seemed… uh… hi there.” Dean stared at Hannah appreciatively. “Who’re you?”
“Dean, this is Hannah.” Sam looked over at her. “Did Farr give you one of those ridiculously long fancy names?”
“He called me ‘I Heart Pork Rainbow,’” Hannah grumbled. “If you ever look up my racing career, that’s the name you’ll see. Around the stable, I was called Hannah because one of the grooms was called Heart and another was called Rainbow and nobody wanted to call me something based on Pork.”
Sam did his best to keep the snickering to a minimum, but Dean and Castiel didn’t. Dean sobered quickly. “Wait a minute. Hannah, with a racing career? Like that horse we just bought from Crowley? What the hell, Sam?”
Castiel shifted back to human form. “Hannah and I are unicorns, Dean. We can shift freely between horse, unicorn, and human form, and a very few of us have the ability to take a centaur form as well. It’s why Hannah, until recently, was unsuccessful at breeding – we can only successfully reproduce with our own kind.”
“Until recently?” Dean raised an eyebrow. “Congrats, I guess, tell me it was your idea and not something Sam felt he had to do because that’s what she was here for?”
Hannah smiled softly at Dean. “Sam was quite considerate, offering to tell Crowley he’d found something in my bloodwork that made me infertile. He gave us the choice of what we wanted to do, and this is what we chose.”
“Good. Hate to think I might have to take my brother out behind the woodshed for a reminder of how to treat women or otherwise intelligent females.” He looked between Sam and Castiel. “Or males, for that matter. Sam, is this what you meant when you told me to back off on getting you laid because you were getting everything you needed?”
“The three of us are all involved with each other, yes,” Sam said. “I was invited in, and go ahead and get the joke about me having a boyfriend who’s hung like a horse out of the way because I know I’m gonna be hearing it for as long as he and I are together.”
“Well now it’s not fun,” Dean pouted. “All right. I’m assuming the reason you didn’t tell me is that the existence of unicorns is a big secret meant to be kept from us normies, but you’re telling me now because… okay, not sure on that one, although guessing it has something to do with the successful breeding.”
“Yes. You’re not the vet, Sam is, but I’m sure you’d still notice when I foaled a month earlier than expected.” Hannah placed a hand on her belly. “That and not hesitating to buy me from your friend instead of trying to co-own with him. Thank you.”