Page 10 of Meant for Her

The shower was still running in Luke’s bathroom. Since his brother often accused him of messing things up, Ryan wanted to prove to him that he could carry his weight.

After donning his jacket, Ryan went out to make sure that Atlas and Zeus had returned to the barn. They’d be hungry that was for sure. Hoping that the horses fared better than they had, Ryan headed there. When he stepped inside, he let out a breath.

“Hey, guys.” Zeus pranced over and nudged him, clearly upset that they’d missed their feeding time. “Sorry, I’m late. Just give me a sec. Let me get those saddles off you two.”

Once he removed their saddles and brushed both of them down, he put them in their stalls and filled up the grain in their buckets.

Both of the horses seemed content. He stroked Zeus’ muzzle. “I’ll take you for a ride tomorrow, boy. Give a snort if you hear anything.”

They would make a ruckus if they heard rustlers—not that the thieves would have any reason to be this close to the barn.

Zeus snorted, but Atlas ignored him. That animal was too much like Luke.

Yes, he was being silly, but Ryan considered the horses part of the family. When he made it back to the house, Luke was sitting on the sofa with a beer in his hand.

“How are the horses?” he asked.

“They’re fine. I brushed them down and fed them.”

“Thanks. At least one thing went right today.”

Luke’s anger seemed to have lessened a bit. “I’m going to shower.”

The lack of response didn’t surprise him. Ryan went upstairs to his bathroom. When he undressed, he checked out where his wounds had been. While they hadn’t totally healed, by tomorrow, the bullet holes would be hard to detect.

He turned on the water, let it warm, and then stepped under the hot flow. As he washed, he let his mind wander to Malia. He was certain he hadn’t imagined his body going crazy every time she came near him. He’d been in lust many times in his life, but this was different. His freaking teeth had sharpened. His dad had never explained about having a mate, but kids at school had talked, and the teeth and nail sharpening, along with some eye color change, were the symptoms.

Even if Malia recognized that she was his mate, how fun would it be for her to be around Luke? The man could ruin any party with his sullen attitude.

Not wanting to waste too much water, Ryan washed his hair quickly and scrubbed his body hard after spotting dirt and blood in places where they didn’t belong. Once he finished, he dried off, tossed on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and headed downstairs.

Luke was in the same position, other than he had one empty bottle on the coffee table and another in his hand.

Ryan grabbed a beer from the fridge and dropped down onto the chair next to the sofa where Luke had planted himself. “Can we talk about what we’re going to do about our situation?”

“What situation?” Luke asked, sounding disinterested.

“Fuck man. I can’t do this without you.”

Luke chugged the rest of his beer, set the bottle down, and faced him. “Are we talking about Malia or our cows?”

He had been talking about Malia, but it applied to the cows as well. “Let’s start with Malia. I’m not asking you to like her, but can you at least not be a dick around her?”

His brother sat up straighter. “Are you delusional? We will probably never see her again. And why would we? She was our nurse because we were injured. She treated us. End of story.”

“I always believed that if I sensed she was my mate, that she’d feel the same way.”

“Let’s pretend we live in some alternate reality, and Malia actually likes you. What will happen if those men come back and try to take more of our cows?”

“You think they would?”

“I can’t be certain, but it was easy pickings the last time. If we had ten men working with us, they might never have come near us in the first place. But there’s only the two of us. And you and I both know there are a lot of places where the fence is down. Dad didn’t exactly leave the place in pristine condition when he died.”

Luke had a point. “What are you saying?”

“Let’s get those cows back, and bring those rustlers to justice. If—and that’s a big if—you and Malia hook up, I’ll stay out of your way.”

Ryan smiled. “That’s a deal.”

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