Page 41 of Destined Predator
“Not alone. And you’ve got to eat first.”
“Sure, Mom.” Casey failed to dodge the punch to his arm Rhett gave him. “Ow. My mom never did that!”
Rhett was serious—shifters needed a lot of food, and Casey was healing after being poisoned, for God’s sake. He needed protein.
“Oh, you gave me plenty last night. And this morning,” came from the shameless coywolf.
He wasn’t laughing a little later, in the kitchen—he was moaning with joy as he filled his face with scrambled eggs and crisp bacon. “Dear Lord.” He shoveled another forkful of eggs in. “A good fuckanda good cook. Seriously? You made this? Just now? It’srealgood.”
“Thanks. It’s not that I love to cook as much as I really like to eat.” Rhett poured coffee. He ignored Casey’s lust-dripping “Good to know,” beamed brain-to-brain. “So it works out fine.”
“Ain’t the only thing. We’re workin’ out well, too.” Casey reached out and gave Rhett’s hand a quick squeeze, then returned to demolishing his plate of food.
We seem to be.Rhett’s doubts had gone, sure, but he still felt the need for caution.Or that we should be cautious.Not move so fast.He kept it to himself. Guarding his privacy was easy to do, despite them able to read each other’s thoughts. He’d asked Jack how it was to have someone else in his head, and his brother had explained there was a surface level—the one where things were shared—and lots of deeper layers that he felt noincentive to go poking around in, and neither did Ben, to him. Doing so would be snooping, a violation of his mate.
They loaded the dishwasher, and Rhett set some chili and rice to slow-cook for the men before he and Casey headed out. “This way,” Rhett said, when Casey looked to be going to the stables. “To the small barn. Thought you might have had enough of horses, for the meantime.” He enjoyed the way Casey gaped when the barn door was thrown open and the utility task vehicle was revealed. “’S’matter? You ain’t never seen a UTV before?”
“I’vestolenUTVs,” Casey said, deadpan, then cracked. “Kidding. Mostly.” The grin earned him a shove. “I guess a ranch this size would have a side-by-side.” Casey got the measure of the vehicle while Rhett loaded what he thought they’d need into the back.
“Or two. Plus ATVs.” Rhett was proud of the Double T and all its holdings—land, livestock and equipment. He laughed. “When I was a kid, I thought these were kiddy-sized trucks, so ranchers’ sons—and daughters—could help, get used to the life they’d be leading, you know?” He tossed the key to Casey. “Here. Bet you wanna drive.”
“Thanks.”
Casey seemed a little quiet and subdued as they paused for Rhett to check with the men that his orders had been carried out, then set off again. Rhett flickered a glance at him. Casey was surveying the land and the ranch buildings, his gaze on the newer barn and shed Rhett had had built, the improvements he’d made. “Family,” Casey was thinking. No, not that exactly. Rhett had just been telling himself neither of them would pry into the other’s personal space, and here he was doing, well, not exactly that but something close, maybe. He didn’t like himself like that.
“What?” he asked, as they lurched, Casey getting the feel of the Mule’s powertrain. “What’s bothering you?”
“Bothering? Nothing. Just thinking about…dynasty, I guess is the word. Your family, here on this land. You mention growing up here, being a kid here quite a bit, you known and now you’re— Just wondering if you ever thought about having kids of your own?”Because now you’re with me, there won’t be any. He wondered if Rhett had caught that last part. He must have—it chimed like a bell.
Rhett gave a half-shrug. “Suppose I kinda assumed it’d happen. But there’s plenty of time to figure all that stuff out, right? Right?” he repeated, when Casey didn’t answer. “Casey?”
They were approaching the ridge where Jerry and Javon had dug up and burned all the wolfsbane they’d been able to find. Smoke puffed in the air, and Rhett’s eyes watered. “Stop,” he ordered Casey, who was more affected. “Wait while I get you something.”
Of course Casey didn’t, following Rhett to the back of the UTV, where he uncased a breathing mask. “For when we have to use chemicals. They’ve got respirators, too.” Rhett cast a proud eye over the hard boxes of equipment. He’d erred on the side of caution, and the cargo bed was crowded.
“Charcoal filters.” Casey examined the mask.
“And an exhaling valve.” Rhett put his on, adjusting the elastic.
Casey followed suit. “Thought this was the Cowboy State, not the Technology State,” he commented, as they rounded the ridge and examined the incinerated patch on their way to the filled-in pit.
“I sort of like—”
“Toys. I see that,” Casey finished for Rhett, his face innocent. He gave a fake-cough, one that almost concealed him saying, “Geek.”
“Oh, coywolf, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Rhett promised him. He opened the case containing the unmanned aerial vehicle and its ground control system.
“Adrone? You got adrone?” Casey pointed.
“Sure! How we gonna inspect the land and cattle quickly enough and get a detailed look for any damage after a storm, for instance? A UAV with a GCS and GPS and infrared camera with an FPV’s what you need.” Rhett couldn’t keep it up and laughed. “C’mon. Help me set up the video camera, the first-person view.”
“It broadcasts a live feed to that screen?” Casey asked.
“Yeah. So you know where you want to fly to next. Visualizing by looking up into the sky means you can only fly so far and so high, and probably not over hills and treelines. This is better.”
Casey adjusted the strap on the controller, oddly charmed by Rhett’s competence—callused hands moving with a surgeon’s care.
“Don’t let Robin and Emil get their paws on this,” Casey warned him. “Or the girls.”
