Page 1 of Wrangler

Chapter 1

After their honeymoon, in which they’d flown to a tropical island, Archie decided that he wanted to bring a little of the place where they’d had so much fun. Their home and his brother, too. They’d enjoy some of the foods that they’d eaten while here. So, while waiting for the drinks, he wandered into a gift shop and found a cookbook on the local cuisine. He was looking through the pages, thinking that it had just the things that he’d wanted in it, when someone brushed up against him while standing still.

While not really thinking about it, he did turn to look at the person. He looked to be about ten years old and extremely malnourished. Archie thought that while clean, his clothing was worn through, and his little body did the same. He was sure that the kid had tried to pickpocket his wallet, but Archie had it in his breast pocket, having been told that there were a lot of undesirable sorts around the area. Archie was doubly shocked when the child spoke to him.

“Mister? You have any change? I’ve not been able to eat for a few days.” He asked him where his parents were. “I can’t go back there. They’re planning to sell me and my sister off. She’s got herself a job now but she doesn’t get paid for a few more days. We’re about starved.”

For whatever reason, he believed the kid. Pulling out the money that he had in his pocket, he handed it over to the kid. It was about forty dollars, and when the little man took the five and tried to hand the rest back to him, Archie told him to keep it. To get his sister a meal, too. He wrapped his arms around him.

The boy was shaking. He was crying so hard. He kept thanking him for the money and that he’d pay him back. He didn’t know how that was going to work but didn’t say anything to the boy. After he seemed to have a handle on his emotions, he stepped back and put out his hand. The connection to the kid was immediate and profound when he took the hand that was offered. Archie knew then that the kid had been telling the truth about not just him starving but about his parents as well.

Paying for the cookbook, he held onto the kid until they were out of the shop. The woman at the counter didn’t look happy about having the boy in her place, but she didn’t say anything other than what he owed on the cookbook. Hurrying out of the shop, he found Carrie just where he’d left her. Telling her briefly what had happened, he asked the boy for his name.

“William Damon. My sister calls me Wills. My parents called me Shit for Brains. Amber, she doesn’t allow me to talk like that, so don’t tell her if you see her. She’s the best but she can be a bit on the harsh side when I mess up.” He asked about his sister. “She’s on the cleaning crew here. Cleaning up after people when they get off the planes. People sure do leave a lot of crap behind when they leave, don’t they? She was…never mind. She talks about her job a bit sometimes.

“I agree. The beaches here are a prime example of that happening, too. Can you locate your sister? I have an idea that the two of you are in deeper with your parents than you told me.” Wills lowered his head and said that they were. That they’d been hiding from them for over a year now but that didn’t stop them from chasing after them when they were out and about. It was a painful reunion, he told them. “Get your sister, Wills, and we’ll make arrangements for you to come home with us. You’ll be safe there.”

“Just like that. You’re going to take my word for all this?” He asked him if he was lying to him. “No. Amber told me that if you start lying, it’ll catch up with you sooner rather than later and that it’s hard to keep track of what you say to people. Also, it’ll give you a heart attack, trying to keep it all straight. It’s just easier to tell the truth.”

“Your sister sounds like a brilliant woman.” Wills said that he could find her, and Carrie said she’d go with him. Archie went to the front desk, purchased two more tickets and was thrilled to no end that it worked out that there was enough room on the plane, even in the same place that he andCarrie would be sitting.

He had a moment of wonder. Like Wills, he wondered why he was doing this for strangers. He’d seen in the kid’s mind when they connected that their parents had beaten the two of them just recently, and it was only now that his sister, Amber, had been able to get up and around enough to work. Wills was too young, of course, but he would keep an eye on his sister when he could so she’d not be found by them. He just could not understand people nowadays. They all seemed to be a bit or more at times like his own mother had been. If you weren’t going to love your kids, and he also knew it was no fault of their parents at times, you shouldn’t have any.

Amber was coming toward them with Carrie and Wills just as he was beginning to worry over them. The young woman had a backpack in her hands, and Archie knew instinctively that she couldn’t wear it on her back because of the beating she’d recently had. Again he was sickened by the way that people treated their children. As soon as the introductions were made, the four of them sat in the airport lobby while he went to get them some food and drink. Wills came with him to help him carry whatever it was he was going to get. He had a feeling, too, that he wanted to make sure that he was on the up and up as well. It wasn’t like him to trust immediately, and he doubted very much that they did either.

“You don’t have to do this, mister.” He told him to call him Archie. “All right, Archie. We can get by on the money you already gave me for a few days. Amber is getting better, and we’ve found us a good place to hide at night. I think we can make it our place for at least a week before we have to move on.”

“My brothers, I have five of them and a sister-in-law that would murder me if I didn’t help you out. They’d be appalled if they ever found out that I left a young man and his sister that I knew was in trouble. That’s something that we’ve decided to do for anyone who needs it. To pay it forward. You know what that means. It’s to help out people that have been hurt by the very people that were supposed to love them.” He handed him three subs and asked him to pick out some chips that his sister would like. “You’ll be far enough away from them that they won’t be able to hurt you. And if they end up finding you, they’ll never harm you again. You have my word on that.”

When Wills agreed that he’d take the food to his sister, Archie picked up a couple of fruit cups along with several bottles of water. While they had asked for water to drink, he didn’t know that either one of them would turn down some more of it. As soon as he sat back with his little family, he handed out the things that he had and noticed that one of the subs was already gone. Good, they weren’t shy about eating when someone offered it to them.

When their flight was called, the four of them got up to stand in line. He could feel the exact moment that Amber was stressed out and turned to ask her what was happening. Apparently, their parents had figured out that they were staying at the airport, but today, they had shown up together. That didn’t mean as much to him right now as the fact that the kids were in trouble. He had to do something right now and so he called on the only person that he knew who could get to them quickly.

Calling to Sunny to help them out, it was her mom that showed up instead. Lily was dressed like the people in line with them but she glowed with magic that he was sure they were the only ones that could see her. Just putting her hands on Amber and Wills, she asked them both to stand very still. Archie let out a huge breath when the older couple walked right by them without noticing the kids.

He didn’t want to judge people without knowing them, but he felt like he might be justified in this. He’d seen in Wills’s mind what sort of people they were and was quick to judge their asses when they simply walked by them.

They smelled of old clothing, sweat as well as an odor about them that had him thinking that they’d stepped in some dog shit at some point and hadn’t done a good job of cleaning it off them. There was also the odor of pot or weed. Whatever they called it in their home, it was going to get them into nasty trouble without the kids to sell off. The two of them owed their dealer a great deal of money. He looked at Lily just as she was leaning down to talk to the two people that they’d fallen in love with in a short amount of time.

“My name is Lily. I’ve been keeping an eye on the two of you for a bit now. I’m so happy with the two of you. You’ve done so much for my earth every day by picking up things left behind that I wish to reward you.” She looked at Amber. “You’re in a great deal of pain. I can almost taste it on you. How about I fix that up for you and your brother?”

She didn’t wait for an answer but touched her hands to their faces. Amber was shocked, he could see that but it was Wills that seemed to be the happiest. Not knowing how he had been hurting, he was glad to see that the young boy was smiling. Then, what Lily had said occurred to him.

“Is Amber going to be a part of my family?”She just smiled at him, and he grinned back.“Oh, this is going to be epic. Which one?”

“I shant tell you. You’re much too eager to have entirely too much fun with this. They’ll be safe with the family and that is a great deal more important than anything else right now. But you’ll need to keep an eye on them for now. Things have a tendency to switch up with humans, as you well know.”He agreed with her. Archie didn’t like it but he did agree. The queen of the earth looked at their new family members. “All right. The four of you will be safe but you’re to keep an eye out for traps. The couple will stop at nothing to get you two back. No matter where you’ll be hiding. All right?”

“Yes, all right. And thank you for taking the pain away. I was sick with it.” Lily told Amber that it had been her pleasure. “I don’t know how to thank you, too, for keeping us safe. It’s been a very long time since anyone has shown any kind of compassion to either of us. Now we have had it twice in one day. Thank you all.”

When they were seated on the plane, he was glad now that he’d purchased the last two seats in first class. They were the first to board, and they’d be the first to disembark. While the flight wasn’t long, Wills must have been exhausted as he fell asleep almost as soon as they were allowed to take their seatbelts off. He did notice that neither one of the sister and brother duo looked as if they’d had a good rest in a while, so he was content to let them sleep until they landed. But he would watch over them with the help of Carrie.

“What do you think is going to happen once we get home? Do you think that their parents will follow them to our home?” He nodded telling her what he’d figured out about Amber being a mate to one of his brothers. “Good. I was willing to adopt the two of them, though Amber is about my age, just so they’d be safe. But this is so much better. He agreed and then thought of something else.

“Do you think that they’ll all meet us at the airport? It would be like them that everyone shows up but one of them and he’d be the mate.” They both laughed quietly. “I’m glad that we were able to do this for them. It feels really good to have the funds and the means to help someone who is in as much trouble as we’d been as children. I don’t understand people nowadays.”

“Me either.

Archie hoped that all his family was present when they got to the airport. He wanted this meeting between whoever was her mate to happen quickly. Archie only wanted the best for his family and honestly didn’t care which one of them would find a mate in Amber. He wondered too if whichever brother it was, they’d be fine with taking on Wills too. If not, he’d have a place with them. He had enjoyed talking with the boy and thought that he’d fit right in with the rest of the family.

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