Page 42 of Knot Her Cowboys (Big Sky Omegas #2)

“ W hat’s happening?” River asked me.

“Just my exes refusing to accept that’s what they are.”

“Gross,” said Carter. “They picked the worst possible day for a confrontation, considering you have so many extra people here to back you up.”

“Do you want us to come with you, honey?” June asked.

“Maybe just be on standby? Give me a second to talk to them first.”

“Someone call Jensen,” Levi instructed. “My cousin’s number is on the fridge. Tell him to get down here.”

My alphas were already heading out, creating a protective wall as the five of us marched down to the ranch entrance.

Bruce was trying to scale the gate while Bryan was desperately trying to stop him. “You’re being unreasonable. You weren’t even supposed to come.”

“Fuck you,” Bruce snapped.

Bryan froze when he noticed us, letting go of Bruce so quickly my much more ornery former alpha flung straight over the top of the gate and landed flat on his back with a groan.

“Riley,” Bryan gasped. “I’m so sorry. I tried to stop him.”

“What are you guys doing back here?”

“We—”

“You’re trespassing, is what you’re doing,” said Levi firmly, kicking the sole of Bruce’s shoe. “Authorities have already been called.”

Bryan paled. “I told you we shouldn’t have come.”

I sidestepped Bruce, going up to the gate where Bryan’s fingers were locked over the bars. “So why did you? You know we’re over. What’s the point?”

“I tried to come ahead and warn you that Bruce was coming early, but he found out my flight information and got himself on it too. I almost lost him at the airport but he caught up with me at the car rental.”

“That’s not telling me why , though. You’re not making any sense.”

“He—”

“Shut your fucking mouth, you coward.” Bruce struggled to his feet, using the gate to haul himself up, my alphas moving instantly between him and me. “You were never strong enough to do what needed to be done. That’s why she’s gotten so fucking unruly.”

“ Stop .” Bryan growled, scaling the fence more gracefully than Bruce had done, while my pack looked on warily.

“Stop talking about her like that. Stop talking about me like that. Why can’t you use some of your millions to buy some fucking manners when you’re around people you’re not trying to do business with. It’s exhausting.”

Whoa.

I’d never seen Bryan stand up to Bruce before.

Bruce looked just as shocked as I was. “ Excuse me ?”

“I’m tired .” Bryan angled himself between me and Bruce. “You chased off the one good thing in my life, turned me into someone I never wanted to be just trying to keep the peace, and I’m never going to forgive you for it.”

Bruce narrowed his eyes. “You don’t have to forgive me. You have nothing without me. We both need this deal, now stop being a fuckup and do your job.”

“Bruce, stop being such a cunt,” I snapped. “For god’s sake. You’re a grown man. What the hell are you even talking about for him to do his job?”

“He wanted me to…” Bryan grimaced, a shudder rolling through him. “Oskar and Karl wouldn’t accept the deal without you. They’re miserable, by the way. You’d have hated living with them. They told us to come back with you or it was all off.”

A cold shiver shot down my spine. “Why do they want me so badly?”

“I don’t know, but I had to make sure you didn’t come back.”

“Shut up!” Bruce snarled. “They’re perfectly fine if you just follow the rules. Something Anne used to know how to do.”

“That’s not even her name,” Bryan huffed. “She used it to hide, and she goes by Riley now.”

I tugged on Bryan’s arm. “What did he want you to do?”

His face flushed, his eyes dark with shame.

“We know you went on suppressants just for the move and that your heat would come quickly if you got off them. Bruce knew you were more comfortable with me, and he thought I could convince you to have your heat with us so one of us could bond you so you’d have to come with us. ”

“Absolutely the fuck not.” Cash growled. “Neither of you are laying one fucking hand on my bondmate.”

“Come with us,” Bruce said steadily, but to Cash, not to me. “We’ll cut you into the deal. You don’t need to stay here and work with this trash. She’ll go where you tell her to. She has to since you’re first bond.”

“Fuck this. I’m getting my rifle,” Cooper announced. “You have until I get back to be gone. Riley, you should go back to the house.”

“If you’re shooting my ex-fiancé, I’m going to be here for it.”

Bruce grabbed for Cash. “Come with us,” he insisted again. “This is worth a lot of money. More than you’ll ever see in your fucking life working here.”

Cash wrenched his arms away from Bruce with a sharp laugh. “You don’t know who I am, do you? Do you think you own the fucking world just because you have a New York City penthouse and a fat bank account? My family has that too and your dollars mean nothing to me.”

“Honey.” June waved at us. “I know you said to wait inside, but I was eavesdropping in the bushes.”

I snorted at that and looked through the trees, where the rest of our guests were also snooping.

June was picking her way through the underbrush toward us. She paused, staring at Bruce. “You look familiar.”

Bruce looked like he had no idea how to respond.

“What’s his name?” June asked me.

“Bruce Rochford.”

“Rochford, yes. Melvin, Duncan, George, and Kayla’s boy, right?”

Bruce paled, his mouth gaping for a moment before he recovered himself. “How do you know that?”

“Oh, honey .” The way she said the word was the opposite of how she said it to me, absolutely dripping with condescension. “I’m terribly afraid you picked the wrong family to fuck with. I do believe we own the building your family runs their little business out of, isn’t that right, Johnny?”

“Quite right, Junebug,” John replied.

Every ounce of color drained from Bruce’s cheeks, his knuckles white where he gripped the gate.

“Good boy,” June continued. “I’m glad to see you’ve got half a brain to remember your family isn’t as powerful as you think they are.

Now, Mr. Balor and I were listening carefully to everything you said to our son and about our beautiful new daughter and her pack.

I can imagine you’d like to recant some of those statements, wouldn’t you? ”

Bruce nodded sharply.

“Hmm, I thought so. Unfortunately that won’t be possible.

I liked your mother and I’m sorry to see that she and her mates raised an absolute snake of a son.

I’m sure your parents and our friends in New York will be very interested in how you’ve behaved today.

It will have a rather detrimental effect on your reputation, won’t it? ”

“Please,” Bruce gasped. “I can fix this.”

June carried on as if he hadn’t spoken at all.

“Now, my dearest son-in-law is almost back from fetching that rifle, so you should get going. I would hate to see you with an ass full of buckshot because you’re too stubborn to see reason.

Go on, dear. Tell your mother I said hello, and that I’m deeply disappointed. ”

Bruce looked like he was ready to launch himself at June, his muscles poised, but he turned to me instead, fury bright in his eyes. Bryan moved first, catching Bruce in the chest as he leapt forward, and Cash pulled me out of the way. Dakota and Levi formed a barrier between me and June, and Bruce.

“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Bryan hissed, wrestling Bruce to the ground. “Don’t touch any of them. I’m done with all of this! With us. With you . I can’t fucking do it anymore.”

The rest of our guests rushed over and Cooper returned, cocking his shotgun, but even that sound wasn’t enough to quell the rage in Bruce.

June could cost him everything, and while he wasn’t that intuitive about a lot of things, he knew when he was outmaneuvered. I’d never seen him lose it like this.

The alphas present dogpiled on both my former alphas as sirens wailed down the dirt roads, signaling the arrival of Levi’s cousin. Bruce spat curses from the dirt. “I’m going to sue every fucking one of you. Get the hell off!”

Levi opened the gate for Jensen, presumably giving him a rundown of the situation because once the alphas cleared enough space, Jensen got handcuffs on Bruce.

I intervened for Bryan so he didn’t get caught in the crosshairs of Bruce’s bad decisions, though Jensen did insist he’d have to come to the sheriff’s office to make a statement before he left Montana.

“I’m so sorry,” Bryan told me softly as Jensen and two of Dakota’s brothers helped get Bruce into the back of the car. “I was a terrible alpha to you.”

“You weren’t always.” He really had been a sweetheart at the start of our relationship, and Bruce had eroded that over time. “I’m confused, though. What did Bruce mean by you having nothing without him? I thought your family had money too?”

Bryan sank into the dirt, his hair tousled, dust coating him head to toe. “You would’ve found it distasteful if you knew the real reason we created a pack.”

I tilted my head, not any clearer on the situation. “Elaborate?”

“My parents basically forced it. They threatened to cut me off if I didn’t support a business merger by creating a pack that connected the Reeds and the Rochfords.

You’d have hated knowing it was for business, so I pitched it as a personal situation because I didn’t want to be cut off financially.

They told me I’d never be able to take care of an omega without their support, and I wanted to be able to take care of you.

Guess I ended up doing a shit job of that. ”

“I’m not sure I understand. Did Bruce even want me in the beginning? Is that why you had him join us instead of forming something separate with him?”

“ I wanted you.” He buried his face in his hands. “You didn’t understand anything of my world, and that made me feel like I was a real human for once. I did love you, and I should have been better. My parents tried to make me break up with you multiple times and I wouldn’t do it.”

“ What ?” They’d always been a little frosty to me, but I hadn’t known they’d pushed for that.

“I was selfish. If I had been a better alpha, I would’ve let you go and faced a lifetime under Bruce’s thumb all alone.” Tears streaked down his cheeks, leaving trails in the dust there when he lifted his face to look at me.

I followed my compulsion to comfort him, getting onto my knees and drawing him into my arms. I might not want to be with him anymore, but he deserved someone to show him compassion after blowing up his entire life.

His hands shook where he held on to me. “I didn’t really understand what was happening because the way that he treated us was how my parents had always treated me. I didn’t even know anything else existed until you, and I couldn’t even protect you. I’m so sorry, Riley. I never wanted to hurt you.”

My heart ached. I’d loved him once, and things had fallen apart so slowly I hadn’t realized how much of a gap had formed between us. “It’s okay. Not that you hurt me, but I understand. I didn’t recognize it either, but because it was so different from how I’d been hurt before.”

“Are you happy?” Bryan asked, eyes pleading. “They’re taking care of you here?”

“I am, and they are. I have a pack that adores me.”

“Good.” He took a deep breath, slowly collecting himself. “Good. You deserve that. Do you hate me?”

Did I? “No, I don’t, but I’m still firm on things being over between us.”

“I know. I wasn’t asking to see if you’d take me back. I just want to be sure you have what you need.”

“I do. You deserve to be happy, too. I’m sorry that we couldn’t be what each other needed.” In another life, another world, maybe we’d have worked out, but not in this one. With a sigh, I sat back and laid my palm on his shoulder. “Come inside.”

Cash squawked. “What do you mean, come inside? Why are we letting him in our house?”

“He came all the way here to warn me and get ahead of Bruce. I’m not going to make him sit in the dirt while we all go have dinner.”

My alphas frowned, tugging me into the protective phalanx of their bodies, but Dakota did offer Bryan his hand to help him stand.

“He can stay for dinner, but I think it would be better for him to stay in a hotel until he leaves,” Levi said.

“He can stay with us,” Carter blurted out.

I turned from Bryan to him, taking in the flush of his cheeks and the barely visible tremble to his body.

“If he wants to, I mean,” Carter amended. He looked at both of his alphas, neither making a peep against Carter’s offer.

Bryan let out an exhausted, bitter laugh. “Sure. Why the fuck not? I can’t go back to Berlin, and Bruce is going to destroy my entire network in New York so I can’t go there either. My whole life is basically over.”

“Well,” I said gently, “I know what it’s like to stare into the darkness, feeling that exact same thing. Lucky for you, the folks around here are pretty big on second chances.”