Page 22 of Laken's longing

Laken’s gaze skittered about, convinced the tiny culprit of his main torment would materialize out of thin air. Damn sugar gliders could hide in the smallest of places.

“Smells like Popi’s cinnamon rolls,” he muttered to himself when it was all he could smell, despite how lousy he probably stank right then. The damn sugar glider was all he could think about these days, and why—if he was being honest—he’d found himself staring into the bottom of an empty whiskey bottle. Because yeah, when the blackmailer decided to tell him what he wanted, Laken wasn’t sure he’d be able to pay the price if it came with a risk to his family.

“Escape who?”

Laken blinked groggily at the screen and worked to get his eyes back in focus, feeling like he was saying way too much for comfort. Except he couldn’t seem to stop the words spilling from his damn lips. “My iddy-biddy PA. Who else?”

He groaned and ran a hand over his beard. “How can someone be so small and take up so much room in a brain?” he demanded angrily, on a roll. “Do you know how small a sugar glider is? They can fly right into the palm of your hand when they’re pissed off and refuse to let go of your fingers!”

Laken balled that very hand to remove the odd tingling that he could recall too vividly for his liking, and resisted sniffing it.

“How long?”

Rue’s question gave him a sharp nudge back into reality.

“How long, what?” Laken had no fucking clue what Rue was talking about. Perhaps he was still drunk?

“Have you been in love with Isley?”

The sharp nudge became more of a fist plowing right into his solar plexus, and a memory of the night before attempted to float past his panic and failed.

“I’m not,” he spluttered, sobering right the fuck up at such a preposterous assumption. He was not in love with anyone. “He’s the bane of my existence.”

Laken didn’t need to look at his brother to know that he didn’t believe him, but he was stupid and checked anyway, feeling so damn lost. It was a feeling he hated because it came with a past he had fought hard to escape, but clearly hadn’t. Rue, no, all his adopted brothers had murky pasts they wished to escape—except they had never worked the streets like Laken had to survive. Done things that could haunt their present. They didn’t have the same sullied stain on them that could be exploited.

“Do you wanna talk about this?” Rue asked in a tone that brought Laken’s haunted gaze to the screen.

Laken unenthusiastically shook his head. “Nah… not now.”

Not fucking ever. He had nothing to offer. It was as simple as that. Especially for someone as pure of heart as Isley, so it was a total non-issue. And when the shit hit, Isley would not want anything to do with him.

Bullshit.

Fuck off.

Nice, real nice.

“I’m just at the end of the phone when you’re ready,” Rue said softly, causing Laken’s chest to hurt as he blocked his animalside. He pinched the bridge of his nose, pulling his thoughts from his troubles.

“What did you ring for?”

“I wanted you to be the first to know I’m mated.” He said it like he was ripping off a plaster, fast and without hesitation.

The phone fell through Laken’s lax fingers at the shock. It clattered to the floor, and Laken bent and grappled to pick it back up with hands suddenly like tentacles he had no control of. The stab of jealousy stole his breath, and he did everything in his power to lock that away. It had no place between him and Rue.

What he noticed when he met Rue’s gaze was sympathy, recognizing he’d failed. Rue knew more about him than any of his other brothers as they came from the same rescue home.

“You are!” Laken croaked past his closing throat, “Who is it?”

“Montyand Kendrick, the guy from the bar.”

The hook-up Rue had mentioned at the ranch.Holy fuck, two mates.“You claimed them both.”

He wore a flabbergasted expression, causing Rue to snort in amusement.

“If you could see your expression.”

“I can, you dork. We’re on video chat,” Laken pointed out, with some amusement returning at Rue’s dorky behavior.