Flynn, Joyee - A Zane Po' Boy [The O'Hagan Way 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) (15 page)

“I’m not against helping,” Zane said when I was done. “And I like the idea of you guys having extra help when I might be taking short trips a lot. But we need to swear that we won’t ever keep things from each other like Rory did. I’m not judging him, I understand why he did it, but I won’t have secrets in our mating.”

“Right answer,” I purred, giving him a heated kiss.

“Aye, we be agreed in that.” Brian chuckled. And for the first time since we’d met our mate, I didn’t doubt that things would work out anymore. We were so on the same page, as mates should be.

Chapter 9

Zane

“He was trying to protect you, Isaac,” I said again with a sigh. I was sitting in Isaac’s office in a chair across from the desk where Isaac was, waiting to hear from my mates that they liked the vineyard before officially agreeing to my promotion.

“I know,” he replied in a distant monotone. Part of me just wished he’d start bawling and get it all out. This slow, eating-away-at-him distress was way worse than just crying. The theory that men, warriors especially, didn’t cry be damned. A heartbreak was a heartbreak whether you had a pussy or a dick. “My head understands it.”

“Buddy, I hate to say you’re overreacting,” I said gently, raising a hand to hold him off when he snarled and his eyes flashed with anger. “I’m not saying you are. I’ve not been mated to someone for almost a year, so I can’t know what you’re going through. But Rory loves you. He didn’t keep the wolf from you because he was boinking it on the side. He made a judgment call, thinking it was the best thing for you. He was wrong, but he didn’t have any ill intent.”

“But he lied to me. I can’t help but wonder what else he’s been lying about.” His voice was still that awful monotone.

“Enough,” I growled, not willing to listen to my best friend question the loyalty of his mate and my new friend. “Rory’s not a cheat. He’s completely loyal to you. I’ve never seen someone so in love with their mate, almost to the point of it being sickening.”

“I know, I do, but that fucking voice is in the back of my head.” He sighed, looking like a lost puppy.

“Well, if that wasn’t an invitation to beat you upside the head, I don’t know what is,” I replied with a chuckle, trying desperately to lighten the mood. I saw his lips twitch, and knew I was finally getting somewhere after an hour of comforting him. “Rory is new to our world. Shifters don’t have warriors and founding families or the same rules as we do. He did the best he could in a tough situation, trying to protect his mate.”

“True,” he hedged before groaning again and letting his forehead drop to the desk. “He’s going to kill me for the way I blew up and accused him of cheating.”

“With who?” My eyes went wide, not thinking Isaac had said the evil thoughts aloud to his mate.

“The wolf.”

I just gaped at him for a few moments. “Isaac, the wolf is stuck in animal form.” Ewww.

“I know that, but I said if he’d been keeping the wolf from me, how did I know the wolf really can’t turn into a man and they were having an affair?”

“You. Idiot,” I gasped as I burst out laughing.

“Shut up,” he growled as he lifted his head, but I couldn’t stop. It took me a few minutes to calm back down.

“Did you smell a random man on your mate?” I asked, deciding to deal with this logically.

“No.”

“Did Rory seem less interested in sex or not as affectionate?”

“No.” He winced, realizing where I was going with my line of questioning.

“He ever slip out when it was an odd time or you ever realize you didn’t know where he was?”

“No! Okay? I suck. My mate is great and always lets me know where he is, what’s going on, and never treats me like anything other than the best thing that’s ever happened to him.” He was breathing heavily after his outburst.

“Want me to look up the number for a local florist?” I asked with a smirk. Might be good information to have myself since I had two mates.

“No, I have them on speed dial,” he mumbled as he pulled out his cell phone. I threw back my head and roared with laughter. At least I wasn’t worried about Isaac and Rory anymore. They were going to be just fine…as soon as Isaac was done groveling.

* * * *

Brian

“Rory, honey, ya have to calm down,” I whispered as our friend started hyperventilating again. He’d long since cried out every tear in his body, probably dehydrating himself in the process.

“Isaac’s going to leave me,” he whimpered, pulling his knees tighter to his chest. “He’s going to throw me out and tell me to hit the road. He already thinks I was cheating on him. I just lied about finding a wolf. Well, technically I didn’t lie. He never asked me if I had found a wolf lately.”

“Lying by omission still be lying,” Banning said gently. I wanted to smack him. We all knew that. Why rub it in?

Rory’s facial expression didn’t change. He still had that look of complete loss and sadness. “I know, but I was trying to protect him.” I think he would have said more, but Hester, one of the house staff, came into the study with a smile on her face.

“You need to come see this, Rory.” She gave him a wink and left the room.

“I don’t wanna,” Rory whined. Banning rolled his eyes as we dragged him off the couch and out of the room. When we got to the main entrance, our friend bitching the entire way, I gasped. “I didn’t order flowers.”

“They’re
for
you.” Hester chuckled and handed him a card. “Isaac mess up again?”

“I did, but I guess he thinks he overreacted,” he said, finally smiling. We glanced over the dozens and dozens of white roses in vases littering the foyer. “I love him so much.”

“Then call him.” Banning snickered, bumping his shoulder into Rory’s.

“Right!” His eyes were as wide as his smile as he stared at his haul. He pulled out his cell and pushed a few buttons.

“I’m so sorry, baby. I love you. Will you forgive me?” Isaac rambled the moment he picked up the line. We could all hear the conversation given our enhanced vampire hearing.

“Of course I forgive you,” Rory blubbered. “You have every right to be angry with me. Just promise you won’t leave me or divorce me!”

“Never, Rory. You’re my other half, the reason I get up in the morning. Nothing’s more important than you, baby.”

“Me, too,” he whispered, wiping his eyes and smiling slightly. “Fight over?”

“Yes, but you have to promise not to ever keep anything from me again. I don’t care if you think you’re protecting me, okay?”

“I swear. I’ll tell you everything. Even when I jack off when I’m going into heat because I’m horny and you’re at work.”

“That sounds promising,” Isaac purred seductively. Then he cleared his throat, probably remembering he was at work. “Did you guys go see the vineyard?”

“No, the twins were comforting me while I sobbed and freaked out,” Rory admitted with a chuckle. “We can go now. I know Zane’s waiting to accept his promotion until they say they like it.”

“We’ll like it. Tell the damn man to accept the job already,” Banning grumbled. I agreed, but Zane wouldn’t hear of it. He didn’t want us agreeing to more than we could handle and wanted us to check it out first. It wasn’t hard to understand why we’d fallen so hard and so fast for the man.

“Okay, we’re going now. I love you,” Rory said before hanging up. I realized I’d missed part of the call while I was lost in me musings. That was okay, I felt a little intrusive as it was. “He forgives me.” Rory’s smile was jubilant.

“Aye, we got that when we saw the flowers.” I snickered. Banning had already grabbed our jackets and Rory’s car keys. We teased Rory relentlessly as we headed out, wondering if Isaac cleaned out all the florists in just Virginia or the whole East Coast.

Half an hour later, we were pulling off the main road onto a dirt drive. I glanced around, noticing there were posts for a sign, letting people know what the name of the vineyard was, but it was gone. It seemed so sad to me. The couple that died had probably put their hearts and souls into this place and wouldn’t be happy to know this was how it ended up.

We would fix that, I realized with a smile. We would make this place great again.

Banning hopped out to open the gate and the damn thing practically broke off in his hands. I pulled out me notebook, ready to start making lists. That would be first on the
needs fixing now
list. As if agreeing with me, Banning ripped the thing off the hinges with one good tug and tossed it to the side of the drive.

“Interesting approach.” I snickered when he got back into the SUV.

“What?” He shrugged at me as Rory pulled forward. “There be no point in having a broken gate. We’re gonna need to replace it anyways.”

“We haven’t accepted the gift yet,” I sighed, rolling me eyes. “Until we do, this not be our place.”

Now it was me twin’s turn to roll his eyes. He gestured out the window. “Right, like we be saying no to this.” I followed his hand, getting me first good look at the place as Rory steered toward the main house.

It was breathtaking. Mostly because I knew it was ours without a doubt. Because the vineyard itself would need a
ton
of work. It was overgrown, dying, warped, run-down, and in desperate need of some tender care. But it had history, character, and we would just be fixing things instead of having to start completely from scratch.

I surveyed the vineyard, taking in the beautiful fields with their delicate fencing. The fields seemed to roll out before me, a thin layer of snow covering them as well as the big barn and numerous greenhouses, which were charming even in their dilapidated state. “Me answer be yes already,” I said quietly, swallowing around the lump in me throat. “But there’s no way we have enough in our savings to fix all of this, Banning.”

“Aye,” he whispered sadly. “Unless we started out small and just kept improving as we go.”

I nodded, not thinking that would work. We climbed out when Rory pulled up in front of the main house. Now I just wanted to cry. It was an enormous ranch-style house. Although it only had two stories, the house stretched across a large portion of the property. As we got closer, I noticed the light brown paint was chipping off the siding and a number of the rails were missing in the wraparound porch.

Many of the shutters on the windows were also in need of repair as they hung precariously from their location, the breeze blowing them gently back and forth.

“We’re farmers, not carpenters,” I said more to myself than everyone else, me heart filling with despair. “We can’t fix this.”

“Aye,” Banning agreed, looking as if someone just ran over his puppy. We both turned to head back to the SUV, totally heartbroken, when Rory cleared his throat. We turned to face him and I had no idea how to thank him for a generous gift we couldn’t accept.

“You didn’t think we were going to give it to you in this condition, did you?” he asked with a raised brow.

“Ya bought us the land. That be the most generous mating gift ever,” I answered, not sure what he was getting at. There was no way Zane would let Isaac pay to fix this place up.

“But we’re not the only ones giving you presents.” He giggled, handing us a few cards. Banning glanced at me as I reached for them. I opened the first one and gasped, quickly handing it to me twin.

“Dillon, Shane, and Sean contracted a crew to fix the house and update it as we want!” Banning exclaimed, reading what I just had.

“Holy fuck me,” I yelled as I read the next one. I passed it along as well. “The Marius family be replacing the glass and broken items in the greenhouses!”

“We can’t accept all this, ma would kill us,” Banning whined but still took the third card. He broke out laughing as he read it, handing it back to me.