Page 16 of Bear the Burden

“But I had no idea what he was doing!” Wesley argued as his mind whirled, trying desperately to figure a way out of this nightmare. “I don’t do drugs.” Not illegal ones. The ones he’d taken earlier had been by accident.

He shouted when Seth hauled off and slugged him in the gut, the blunt dangling between his lips. He yanked Wesley up and punched him again in the face, causing him to crash to the floor.

“Save your whining.” Morton stepped back like he was horrified at the thought of getting blood on his shoes. “I don’t give a shit which one of you knew what or who cries innocent. I don’t even care if you knock over a few liquor stores to get my money. One week from today, you better have it, so I suggest you get to hustling.”

Seth squatted next to Jackson and shook his head. “If you don’t come up with the money, you and this piece of shit will be buried in the forest.”

Oh god. Wesley had no idea what he was going to do. He didn’t have ten grand and couldn’t possibly come up with it in a week. Why on earth would Morton allow Jackson to run up such a huge debt. How long had this been going on behind Wesley’s back?

That was probably why his dad had blown up his phone. He knew Morton was coming for his money. But why call him? It wasn’t as though he had the ten thousand dollars lying around.

He closed his eyes when he saw Seth heading toward him, his eyes gleaming with malice. Maybe the guy would beat him to death and Wesley wouldn’t have to wait until next week to die.

* * * *

Hyett heard the back door of the house open and close as he lay on top of the garage, staring at the canopies of trees silhouetted against the night sky. He was trying to count as many stars as he could see, but one of his family members was about to disrupt his peace and quiet.

A grunt and a few footsteps later, Killian lay down beside him. “You know you’re never gonna get an accurate count, right? So why bother?”

“Damn it, you made me mess up,” Hyett grumbled, wondering if he’d been at 280 or 300. “Because it was relaxing until you came up here.”

The truth was, counting stars was a distraction. Anything to take his mind off Wesley. No matter what approach Hyett tried—biting back, gentle, or playfulness—Wesley either tried to walk away or he’d become pissed off.

There was no denying he wanted to bond with Wesley, to get the human naked, and make him forget everything but Hyett. From the second he’d laid eyes on his mate, something in him had snapped, like some primal force taking over.

But Wesley wasn’t on the same page. Hell, he wasn’t even reading the same book. If his mate had been anything other than human, Hyett would have had him naked and begging by now. Regardless, nothing was going down until his mate’s guard lowered and he opened up. Wesley was hiding secrets, and he had it in his head that Hyett would judge him for those secrets. Nothing was further from the truth.

For Hyett, it was ride or die, and eventually, Wesley would come to the same conclusion and learn to trust him.

“I’m sorry,” Killian said, “for being a dickhead. I’ve never seen you look at anyone that way before and should have known something deeper was going on.”

Turning his head, Hyett squinted at his brother. “What look?”

Killian contorted his face into an exaggerated doe-eyed expression before grinning. “Like the entire world had disappeared and it was just you and the human and nothing could rip your gaze away from him.”

Hyett snorted. Yeah, that’s exactly how it had felt. “But you still acted like a dickhead when it hit you that he was my mate.”

Killian turned his gaze skyward. “Look, you’re our baby brother. You’re the one cool under pressure, while Ryker and I just want to knock heads and rip out throats.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“And you found your mate first,” Killian added, voice tinged with envy.

Hyett propped himself up on an elbow to look at him. “Are you seriously jealous? It’s not like I set out to find Wesley today. I was just as shocked as you were.”

“Yeah, well, tell me you wouldn’t be at least a little jealous if I found mine first.” Killian laced his fingers and rested them over his chest, still staring at the sky.

With a sigh, Hyett lay back down. “Yeah, I would, but so far, it’s not all roses and romance like I thought it would be when I found my mate. It’s more like thorns and heartache and enough attitude to give me frostbite.”

Killian glanced at him with a frown. “You actually thought it’d be easy?”

“You don’t have to point out how delusional I am.” Hyett playfully elbowed him.

“But you know fate pairs two people who need each other. As soon as you realized Wesley was your mate, your first question should’ve been: how broken is this guy, and how many battle wounds will he cause me before we get our shit together?”

“My first question was more like: who is this guy, and how fast can I get him under me?” Hyett grinned, but it quickly faded. “Your question would’ve been more appropriate.”

“Not the worst question. More fun, at least.” Killian chuckled then sobered. “You figured out what he’s hiding yet?”

---