Chapter Twenty-Two
Rue
Arriving on the ranch, Rue was riding the high of the last week spent with his guys.
He wasn’t giving too much thought to the emphasis he placed on that.
Okay, he was, when it slid so effortlessly over his concerns about how living with Kendrick would work.
Living with one man was hard enough—he’d never done that, but he suspected it was—so living with two should be very difficult. Yet somehow, it wasn’t.
Kendrick was easy to be around, much the same as Monty.
Rue found himself eager to get home—something else he’d noticed was how, after seven days, he thought of the house as home—at the end of the day.
Whatever he’d anticipated, none of it matched his expectations.
Rue worked hard not to think too hard on that.
He wasn’t always the easiest person to be around, finding peopling all day to be fucking hard work.
Usually, he preferred to take himself off and be alone in the evening but he was realizing he didn’t want to do that: shocker.
As he watched the two men striding towards him, filthy, exhausted and if he wasn’t wrong, mightily pissed—Rue got the sense that his balloon was about to burst.
“What happened,” he asked without preamble, nose wrinkling at the distinct smell of horseshit scenting the room.
Ethan took off his ball cap and slapped it against his palm. “The omegas. The cabins aren’t gonna work for them. It seems they’re too close to the other ranch hands. Last night, things came to a head.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Explain that to me when things seemed to go okay, cause I was there when the omegas picked which cabins they wanted. How is that now an issue?” Rue glanced at the stoic Oakland. “You scouted out the area, did we miss something important?”
Ethan’s ball cap slapped rhythmically against his thigh.
“It’s not the cabins themselves, but the alphas in the other cabins in the vicinity.
In the daylight, it wasn’t so much of an issue.
One of the alphas brought home a playmate last night, and things got a little loud.
The omegas freaked out big time. The quiet here makes any noise travel easily.
They got spooked and thought—shit, who knows what they thought?
What I do know is I spent half the night trying to find them and the other half reassuring them that none of my men would attack them.
Which they don’t really believe ‘cause they don’t fuckin’ know the men well enough,” Ethan grumbled in frustration.
“I didn’t consider how much they’ve come to rely on my men to feel safe.”
The weight of Oakland’s confession pained Rue. “Then how do we fix it?”
On hearing the approach of someone else, Rue glanced and did a double take at the dirt covered man entering the room. There wasn’t a part of Brier that wasn’t covered in filth. His face bore streaks of something that looked like the shit stinking up Oakland and Ethan.
“What the hell happened to you?” Rue found himself amused, despite the situation. He’d never seen Brier looking so… out of sorts, and he wore his dejection like a jacket.
“Cace, he…” Brier blew out a breath, his nose wrinkling as he looked at his filthy hands. “Ventured in with horses, let’s leave it at that.”
“Is he okay now?” Cace was the jumpiest of the four that they’d brought to the ranch.
“Yep. He’s sleeping upstairs next to Ivo. The four of them are all in the master bedroom. It was the only one with a bed big enough for them to share.”
Rue nodded, his attention going back to Ethan. “Weren’t you using the master suite? Is this going to be an issue, their staying in the house?”
Ethan shrugged nonchalantly, although the hat slapping never stopped. “Nah, I was already considering the main house as the best bet now, for everyone’s sanity. The terrified crying frightened the fuck out of some of the ranch hands.”
“Christ, what a clusterfuck!” Rue had only gotten Oakland’s report on what happened during the chaos of the heat incident at the hotel. Ever since, things had been difficult for the four omegas.
“That about sums it up.” Ethan put the ball cap back on, shielding his eyes.
“Doesn’t matter where I sleep. I have a suite of rooms up on the top floor, which is probably far enough away from the omegas, but close enough if we have a repeat of last night.
As there is only me living in the house and it has a dozen bedrooms, Oakland and Brier can move from the cabins, too.
” Ethan turned to Oakland. “Will that work for you?”
“Yes. It contains them in a smaller space, something they’re used to.
I underestimated how something so normal for the ranch hands would impact the omegas, despite reassurances.
The smooth transfer here, and the ease with which they appeared to like it here, should have had me on guard. ” Oakland’s expression was grim.
“No one can understand fully what damage those fucking alphas did, so you can’t shoulder this blame, Oakland.
Dad still hasn’t confirmed from what we’ve found in Amatus’s records how long Cace, Ivo, Eric, and Otis remained imprisoned for.
They aren’t sayin’ and pushin’ isn’t the answer.
They’ve been through so much, it’s only to be expected there’d be relapses.
Maybe we should count ourselves lucky they had a week without issue. ”
“We knew it wasn’t gonna be easy,” Ethan muttered, staring at the doorway leading to the hallway. “They taught us a valuable lesson: don’t make any fucking assumptions when things look to be going smoothly!”
“You got that right,” Brier said wearily. “I need a shower and a hot meal.”
Oakland scratched at his jaw. “You do that, and take a couple of hours to catch some shuteye. I’ll watch over the omegas.”
“You need to rest, too,” Ethan pointed out, frowning. “You’ve not slept either. Brier, you’ll find the beds ready for use down the end of the hallway on the second floor. Last three doors, pick whatever room you want. They all have bathrooms attached.”
Brier’s lips parted, then shut as Oakland growled, “I’m fine.”
Rue shook his head, noticing how Brier became watchful of his boss.
“Nope, you both can go and get some food and shuteye. I’ll grab Monty from Silas’s office, and we’ll set up our laptops upstairs in the room next to the master suite and work from there for today.
The omegas seem comfortable around me and Monty, so it shouldn’t create an issue.
They’ve also had a busy night, so I’d say they’ll be out of it for a while. Take the opportunity while you can.”
“It’s my job—”
“To be rested enough to respond effectively.” Rue held up his hand when he could see Oakland was going to argue with him.
He had done plenty of ops in the army that involved a degree of sleep deprivation.
Oakland had way more experience than Rue, but that didn’t mean he was going to shut Rue down.
They all needed to be on their A game. “This is not up for discussion. Be sensible, Oakland. Take the time to eat and rest. If I have a problem, I assure you I’ll get Monty to come get you. ”
It wasn’t until Oakland stomped wordlessly out of the room ten seconds later that Rue believed the other man listened to reason.
Brier walked to the door at a slower pace, halted and then looked back at them. “It’s personal for Oakland. For all of us, after all these months… so don’t be too hard on him when…”
“When what?” Rue questioned, frowning when Brier sighed heavily, his expression showing how conflicted he was.
The silence lengthened, and Rue thought Brier wasn’t going to answer, but finally he muttered, “It’s personal.”
He was gone before Rue could ask what he meant, his emphasis on ‘personal’ clearly was supposed to convey some deeper meaning.
He ran through what he recalled from the last week, but found nothing out of the ordinary to account for what Brier was referring to.
Oakland had done his job. One he was exceptional at.
Was it that? Did he somehow perceive the omegas’ freak out as some kind of personal failure?
“What am I missing here?” Ethan asked, pulling Rue from his thoughts.
“Not a damn clue.” He shrugged off the uneasiness in his gut that said there was more to all this, and focused on Ethan for now.
“You sure you’re alright with moving out of the master suite?
Is me being in town an issue?” It had to be asked, as much as he didn’t want to face the possibility the answer might be yes.
“We talked ‘bout this when you arrived and nothing has really changed. Last night was unexpected, and your being here wouldn’t have made any difference to how those men reacted. As for moving, I only went down to the second floor ‘cause Silas insisted it was stupid for me to stay up in the attic when the house was empty.” He chuckled, pushing the brim of his hat back to reveal his eyes. “I’ll move my things back up there once the omegas go to get food.” He glanced at his wristwatch, groaning.
“I gotta head out, I’m already way behind. ”
“Shit, can’t you take a couple of hours, too?”
Ethan’s laughter held a wealth of ‘you gotta be kidding me’. “Who’s gonna run the ranch? You?”
Rue had enjoyed the ranch experience more than some of his brothers, but he could admit he had no clue where to start with the endless shit that seemed to need doing. “Yeah, sorry. Not sure that would work out so good for you.”
“You got that right.” Ethan wiped his eyes, grinning widely. “I’m a big boy.”
Monty came into the room at such a pace his sneakers skidded on the wooden flooring, a scowl forming as he stared at Ethan wearing…
Was that a ‘back the fuck off’ look? The thought tickled Rue as Ethan continued eyeing Monty with speculation. Ethan already knew there was something going on between him and Monty, as well as Kendrick, he just didn’t bring it up—thankfully.
“I can manage with no sleep, so it ain’t no biggy. I’ll come back later and check in.” Ethan gave Monty a nod, striding out.
“Why the look?” Rue asked tongue in cheek, because Monty was too fucking darling.
Monty sniffed, his nose going in the air, not looking in the least contrite. “This is my normal look, I don’t know what you mean.”
Rue strolled over and hooked his fingers into the belt loops of Monty’s jeans, tugging him into his body so he had to tilt his head back to look at Rue.
“Oh, you don’t?” The pouty lips were too much to resist. He waited until Monty’s lips parted before he took a kiss they both wanted. It was fast and dirty.
Releasing a breathless and flushed Monty, Rue walked off toward Silas’s office whistling, counting in his head.
“Hey… we aren’t finished, Mr,” Monty aimed at him, the sound of his sneakers squeaking as he gave chase.
He swung around when Monty reached him and scooped him up in his arms, chuckling at how unprofessional he was being during working hours.
His brothers would be shocked. Heck, he was shocked.
But after the start of his working day, he needed some light-heartedness.
“No, we aren’t. I thought there wasn’t a problem? ”
“Ethan was flirting with you.”
The chuckle turned into a belly laugh. “Ethan isn’t my type.” He kissed the pouting lips because he could, free of prying eyes. “You and Kendrick are more than enough for me to handle. Does that satisfy you?”
Monty claimed his mouth, lips devouring his in an ardent kiss that melted his legs. He wiggled out of Rue’s arms and spun, heading to the office.
“It does now,” he quipped.