Page 16 of Unbar the Barred
Cassidy had long since given up thinking about what folks thought about him, he just didn’t want them gossiping about his Trey situation.
Mates, not a situation. He’s our mate. We are mated. Mated to Trey.
How many ways do you have to say it?
As many as it takes for you to go strut your stuff and show off in front of this lot.
Cassidy’s amusement grew as he shook his head and strode up to the array of heavenly smelling dishes laid out on the counter that separated the room from the kitchen where Petey and Orion spent their day. The two men were mates and loved to wind up the ranch hands for fun. Cassidy could see the second Petey’s gaze found its mark—him.
“Well I never, Cass done gone and got himself a mate,” Petey announced the second he got a good whiff of him, his gaze on Cassidy’s throat.
I’ve got a mate. Trey is mine. Guess what, I’m mated to a hottie.
All of it fit the occasion, yet none of that fit how monumental it felt to Cassidy. He had secretly yearned for this. Now he just didn’t know how to share the same way he had with his chicks. They didn’t judge. The men in the bunkhouse would.
At his lack of response, the noise in the bunkhouse grew with shouts and laughter.
“One of your gal’s got your tongue?” Stark, an enormous bear of a man who loved to tease and always wore a mischievous grin, asked when he came and stood way too close to Cassidy and sniffed. Cassidy felt his hot breath on his skin, and immediately went to draw away, only to freeze when he inhaled a very familiar scent…
“Get the fuck away from my mate.” A threatening snarl made the hairs on Cassidy’s arms rise.
The situation in Cassidy’s jeans was wholly different. They became way too snug for comfort as he spun around and met Trey’s hungry stare.
Oh my.
Chapter Nine
Trey
It hadn’t taken Trey much persuading to get Kendrick to step in and work the bar for him today so he could go find Cassidy and set him straight on a few things.
Like leaving without so much as a word.
Showered and dressed, Trey headed out of his apartment with one goal; hunt up Cassidy and find out why he’d not bothered to wake him or leave a damn note before he left. Wasn’t that thepolite thing to do? The more time he’d thought on it—dwelled—the need to find Cassidy had grown like an itch he couldn’t quite reach to scratch.
Mates.
They were mates.
Trey, who never had expectations before, had them now. It was lowering that he was more needy than his omega mate. He would never have believed it of himself. Except, here he was, ruminating over the fact Cassidy left without so much as a kiss goodbye.That just wasn’t on.
He cringed at his own stupid self, and how he could not persuade himself differently on the drive up to the ranch.
It was new, this mating thing, but he was dang sure that sneaking out of bed and leaving a mate was not the done thing.
Yep, he was like a damn broken record. Problem was, he couldn’t find the needle to pick it up and stop it playing. So he had driven at breakneck speed to the ranch to have a discussion with his mate about expectations.
There, finding Cassidy had proven harder than he’d expected. First, Trey had never set foot on the ranch. He’d had no need until now. Second, the place was fucking huge, and it had taken several wrong directions to get him to the bunkhouse. He’d also received several amused looks when he had questioned the ranch hands about Cassidy’s whereabouts.
Even scenting Cassidy hadn’t worked initially with how many other smells there were to distract his wolf. So when he finally found Cassidy, he had a wealth of pissedoffness going. Then, seeing Stark getting cozy with his mate was the last straw. His wolf was all for tearing the big fucker’s nose off his face for getting it too close to Cassidy’s neck.
“What did I say?” he growled around his fangs, scenting his mate's arousal, pushing back his cowboy hat to get a better look at Stark. “Get the fuck away from my mate.” His own bodyreacting to Cassidy’s scent, further pushing Trey to act and show his dominance.
Cassidy was the first to move in the way too quiet, tension filled room. “He didn’t mean no nothin’ by it.”
“Is that so? Then what the fuck was he doing with his nose in your neck? Didn’t look like nothin’ to me.” His wolf flashed in his eyes, issuing a threat to all in the room.
“Trey, we don’t want no trouble here.” This came from Orion, who came around the counter, nudging Stark away from Cassidy and keeping his distance, too.
