Chapter Two
Rue
Tired and tense, Rue drilled holes into Silas as Ethan, Darling Ranch’s manager, spoke.
“So, you and Silas will share this cabin, Ziggy,” Ethan stated, looking at the sheet of paper he held as he stepped off the porch. “Jupiter, you’re next door with Wilder.”
Just this once won’t change anything. Those words rang like a bell tolling his doom with what was about to go down, when he’d been struggling for weeks to keep his distance from Monty after his return from Drinkwater.
“Say fucking what?” Jupiter growled, and Rue bit back a groan, rolling his eyes to the blue sky, knowing this would not go down well. How could it when he knew what Ethan’s announcement meant for him to.
Ethan didn’t so much as blink at the challenge in Jupiter’s gaze when the two faced off. Ethan nodded in a measured way. “You heard, darlin’. You and Wilder are in there.” Ethan pointed to the cabin next to the one that he’d allocated to Silas and Ziggy.
“He’s not my PA anymore, Ziggy is!” Jupiter spat out.
“No one told me you guys had swapped.” Ethan shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by Jupiter’s behavior.
His baseball cap shielded his eyes, making Rue wonder if Silas had indeed not given Ethan the updated information.
Silas, like all of them, had a fucking lot on his plate…
but Rue’s gut—which he always listened to—said Silas was up to something.
“You worked with Wilder, so what’s the issue? ”
Silas remained inside the cabin, possibly staying out of the bomb blast.
“I’ve no issue with who I’m sharing with.” His gaze shifted to Taylin, who grinned widely.
“You’re mated, why would you care?” Rue questioned, unable to stop his eyes skipping to where Monty stood looking unconcerned. Why wasn’t he pissed?
Monty lounged against the railing of a cabin on the other side of the one Ethan allocated to Jupiter.
“Are we all sharing with our PAs?” Kodi asked with an icy control he wasn’t known for.
“Yep,” Ethan replied with a wide grin, his gaze sweeping over the group of men. “I emailed y’all with how this works. How many of y’all actually read what I sent?”
Isley was the first to put his hand up, then Lennon, Hollis, Frey, Bowie, and Monty followed.
Monty knew.
He knew we’d be sharing.
Fucking great.
Ziggy looked sheepish, whereas Wilder’s head shake came with a sniff and a puppy dog expression.
Ethan chuckled and shook his head, a gleam of unmistakable interest appearing as he stared at Wilder.
Wilder, the cheekiest of the bunch, had dressed to impress in painted-on skinny jeans and a T-shirt that stated he ‘likes to ride a cowboy’.
“Never mind, although it looks like this is your first lesson. Read shit you’re sent when it pertains to you,” chuckled Ethan.
“Silas, get your fucking ass out here,” snarled Laken, which caught Rue’s attention.
Silas appeared in the doorway looking unconcerned, arms crossed as he leaned against the door frame. “You bellowed, Laken?”
Laken pinned Silas with a hard stare. “Why didn’t you say something about this plan?”
“You think I’ve got time to fucking spoon feed you?” Silas brushed past Ziggy, striding down the steps, his cowboy boots clacking on the wood.
Rue was already over this shit when he’d avoided sharing with Monty after…
Don’t think about it!
“I’m not. I don’t have time for that shit, and neither does Ethan.
This is a working ranch.” Silas’s stormy gaze traveled over all of them.
“You’re here to work. To learn what the true meaning of being a team is.
Here, everyone pulls their weight because it’s the only way to get everything done.
Sunup to sundown, there is shit to do, animals to be taken care of.
Y’all will learn how to do that, together.
That was what was in the emails you failed to read.
Sharing a cabin will be the last thing on your minds when your body is aching and all you want is some food, a hot shower, and a bed to sleep on. ”
“Now if we’re done with the hissy fit part of the day, drop off your gear and I’ll show you around the ranch.” Ethan sent an arched look at Jupiter, before his gaze swept the group of men.
There were grumbles and mumbles, but no one said anything more about their sleeping arrangements as Rue moved his head from side to side to release the tension gathering across his shoulders.
Rue wasn’t sure whose ass he wanted to kick for finding himself in this damn predicament, but it was most definitely one of his brothers’. Silas for sure, except the alphahole group chat everyone used to bitch and moan in meant it could be any of them. Himself included.
Why hadn’t he kept his goddamn thoughts to himself?
Rue dropped his bag onto the single bed nearest to the door in the rustic cabin and did his best to avoid looking at the silent man sharing with him.
It wasn’t the basic accommodation that annoyed him.
Being in the army, he’d put up with much worse.
In fact, the cabin had a bathroom, which was a luxury not afforded to him for five years of slogging through rainforests and deserts.
The issue was the man quickly emptying his things and taking his wash bag into the bathroom. How would he keep the element of professionalism between them when they were fucking sharing breathing space at night?
Monty was too fucking tempting, and after the once he’d given in to his emotions, he’d worked hard to put the professional boundaries that he should never have removed back in place.
By Rue’s estimation, as he looked at the gap between the beds, they were barely three feet apart. Monty’s aftershave was subtle, sweet almost, with a sexy undertone that was all Monty and impossible to avoid in such a confined space.
Could he find a way out of this situation?
Dad had been clear; they all needed a reality check, and Rue got it.
But this? Why did it have to be this? Rue wasn’t sure whether he believed Silas hadn’t done this to them.
The only upside was that Jupiter—who absolutely had the blame sitting on his doorstep for this crap shoot—had to share with Wilder.
Rue hoped the cheeky raccoon tormented Jupiter.
Rue might be the youngest brother, and not aware of Jupiter’s backstory, but he wasn’t blind to the effect Wilder had on Jupiter.
As the youngest, he’d been the butt of many a prank, and Jupiter had been the worst. Rue wouldn’t suggest Jupiter was spiteful or after causing hurt, just that he liked to keep shit light by causing mischief.
In the beginning, Rue hadn’t…
“Shake a fucking leg, daylight’s a wastin’.” Ethan’s shout brought groans loud enough Rue heard them through the wooden walls.
He masked his frustration and walked out of the cabin, looking at his surroundings and ignoring Monty.
Before Silas became the face of Starling Enterprises, the family fashion business, he had split his time between Darling Ranch, which he owned, and his job in the company.
A part of Rue understood why Silas became pissed at having this taken away from him.
There was something about the vastness of the land, the rocky mountains reaching skyward to a blueness that didn’t seem real, that spoke to Rue’s restless soul.
“Jupiter, haul ass,” Ethan grumbled when everyone appeared except for Jupiter.
“You miss me already? How sweet,” Jupiter fired back in a sickly sweet tone that belied the scowl he wore as he stomped down the wooden steps, causing dust to billow around his cowboy boots.
Jupiter encroached on Ethan’s space, and Rue compared the two men.
Similar heights, but that was where the likeness ended.
Jupiter was willowy whereas Ethan was solid, lean muscle.
The cowboy was sex on legs, with ruggedly dark good looks.
His skin was the color of caramel and a stark contrast to Jupiter’s pale, golden skin and flawless complexion.
The lines around Ethan’s eyes, despite the baseball cap, were sunbaked deep from working outside.
There was much about Ethan that Rue found appealing, and the way Jupiter casually placed a hand on the other dude’s arm suggested he was laying claim before anyone else.
Rue found his humor returning at just how bad that would turn out for both men if they tangled in the sheets.
Ethan glanced at the hand, chuckled and batted it away like swatting a fly. “This is a working ranch…”
Rue followed behind at the back of the group, listening with half an ear as Ethan explained expectations for their stay, and who was in charge—him.
Silas remained silent, and Rue figured it was because he was too preoccupied with Ziggy by the way he kept casting glances in his direction every three seconds. Rue counted.
Coming home and living with his brothers was like stepping back in time.
The angst that came from having eight alphas—seven now that Taylin had moved in with Hollis—under one roof vying for attention was unexpected.
They were all grown men, and yet they’d somehow slipped back into old behaviors.
One scroll through the group chat revealed they might have aged in years, just not in mental ages.
He couldn’t discount himself in that. They all could rile each other up when in close confines.
He supposed he should count himself lucky that he wasn’t sharing a cabin with one of his brothers.
One quick glance at Monty, who was the ever-attentive suck up—alright he wasn’t that bad—made Rue reconsider. Sharing with one of his brothers had to be better than Monty.
A nudge on his shoulder brought his attention to Laken’s grim expression. His jaw was tight with tension. “What?” Rue questioned, giving Laken an arched look, slowing to match his brother's stride.
Laken was probably the brother that Rue spent the most time with outside of work. The one brother who had come into the Starling family through the same route as Rue, though not in the same circumstances. As far as Rue knew, Laken’s family was still out there somewhere.
“You believe this shit?” Laken hissed through his teeth, keeping his voice low.
“Yep.” Rue swept his arm out toward the paddock of horses they were passing. “Not like we get horses in downtown Hazardville, is it?” he replied with sarcasm.
“Ha fucking ha.” Laken pinned Rue with eyes sharper than daggers, and Rue’s lips twitched in response. “Taylin and Booker are the only two that fucking win in this situation,” he grumbled louder this time.
Booker shot them both a smug grin and tugged Frey closer to him. His mate. Taylin was the first to mate, but now Booker had fallen down that rabbit hole.
Except Rue was envious of Booker’s situation.
It differed from Taylin’s situation with Hollis.
First, Booker had become a father before he’d mated with Frey.
Second, Booker had shown no interest at all in wanting anything more than keeping things casual when he dated.
How fucking wrong Rue had been on that score?
The big bear, fuck he was like a bear with three damn dicks.
Back to thinking about three dicks? his animal half scoffed.
And your point is?
“Over there is the bunk house where you’ll find food pretty much all day. Breakfast gets served up at five-thirty—”
“A M?” Jupiter interrupted, looking aghast.
“What other time would it be?” Ethan’s dark eyes held a wealth of amusement and didn’t wait for Jupiter to reply. “Lunch is anytime from eleven to two. After that, there’s food in a cooler that you can heat up if something happens to delay you…”
Rue stopped listening when Monty stepped closer to Ethan, his gaze lingering on the guy's wide, mobile mouth. Monty chewed his lower lip between white, even teeth, a habit he had when something interested him.
The conversation was boring as fuck.
Did Monty find Ethan attractive?
The second the question leapt to the front of his thoughts, Rue squashed it.
Working colleagues, that’s all you are.
Bullshit.