Page 2 of Tusks & Saddles
Chapter One
Willamina
“ I ’m gonna kill him, who let him go out drinking the weekend before the final push!
About gods damn time he showed his sloppy ass back— Are those fucking crutches, Jacobus Herman Jones!
” Willamina shrieked, flying away from the wooden post she was currently fixing.
Roger stopped, narrowly avoiding smacking her with the mallet.
She’d apologize to the baffled minotaur later.
Willamina jumped over the hole Levi, their goblin farm hand, was currently digging, to storm up to Boone.
Of fucking course . Not a day went by that she didn’t rue the day that Jacobus met Boone at the train station.
She’d been there to drop off mail that needed to go to the stronghold, taxes and shit, and her brother tagged along.
He ran into the massive mountain of an orc that day and Willamina would never forgive him for it.
I’ll strangle them both! Her fury filled her to the brim and spilled over like lava pouring out of the volcano.
It scorched the earth around her. Thankfully all the grass was in the field and not on the dusty, gravel driveway the orc was stalking up.
With my fucking brother on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes!
Willamina’s hands shook as she closed the distance. “What the fuck happened?!”
Boone, the orc in question, leaned the crutches against the steam-powered tractor. His yellow eyes flashed to her in a warning that only made her insides roar. How dare you! But, he set her brother down swiftly after, letting the daemon on thin ice hobble a step or two to the crutches.
“Will, I am so—”
“You can’t ride like this!” she blurted out sharply, her gaze scanning him with worry. “Is it broken? Why are you on crutches? Boone, what the fuck! What did you get him into this time?”
Boone huffed, throwing his hands out to the sides.
Jacobus jutted in between them, “Will, I did this to myself. Boone tried to make me not go.”
“Should have tried harder!” Willamina snarled, sidestepping Jacobus.
“I was on a security detail,” Boone growled lowly, his right eyebrow quirked as if daring her to accuse him of something…
when he wasn’t even there. And that was the worst part, Boone wasn’t even there to help Jacobus.
For the last seven years, her brother only listened to one person other than their father, and that was Boone.
Jacobus looked up to the Paladin, and not just because he was taller.
It didn’t matter that Willamina kept that boy from dying since the moment he could crawl.
The second he met Boone, it was like she didn’t exist.
And somewhere deep in her spitfire soul, she knew she resented Boone for it.
But she had to give him the credit he was due.
Jacobus told her Monday of last week that Boone was on a week-long security detail.
The flame-colored daemon pouted about it the whole week as he was left to his own devices.
It’s the whole reason those idiots Timothy and Simon convinced Jacobus to go out drinking with them.
Willamina thought she’d be scraping her brother’s hungover face off the floor, not… riding without him .
“Shit,” she hissed, ripping away from the pair. Her thumbnail was already in her mouth, her poor cuticles cut up from the anxiety in hopes of saving her unfortunate stomach lining. It didn’t help as much as she wished it would.
“Will, I’m sorry,” Jacobus whined.
“Jacobus! I told you this push was important. The last push is always the biggest one!” She turned on her boot heel, glaring at him.
Not that he was going to listen to me. If Boone had been here, he’d just be hungover.
She hated it. Hated him! Hated everything about this.
Daddy would roll in his grave if he knew how far we’d fallen.
The truth was, without the last push of the ranch, they wouldn’t have the coin to pay anything.
And they desperately needed it to hire people back to the ranch, to fund more seasons.
Their father always ran the ranch an inch above even.
It was the pillar of the town; those who didn’t work for the guilds, the train, or the mines worked at Last Chance Ranch.
Unfortunately, until after the last push, they didn’t have the funds to bring on the workers for the next season.
Which is why they ran a skeleton crew for the last push.
Gracie gave birth two months ago, but Willamina wasn’t going to separate her from her pups. Couldn’t do that, not when the werewolf was so excited to start her family.
Willamina glanced at Levi, popping their teal head out of the earth and smiling at her. Even if Levi could ride with us… It wouldn’t mean shit. They needed someone with arm strength and someone as good with horses. Gracie was usually the muscle with Roger, Jacobus and Will the speed.
Now she was looking at three hundred heads of angry moo…and desolation.
“I’m going to take his place. ”
Her hackles rose up her back, rustling her metaphorical feathers and real ones. She bristled, left eye twitching. Oh, absofuckinglutely not. She slowly inched back to face him, snarl clear as day on her face. “You’ll what?”
Boone crossed his arms over his chest, settling against the tractor with that typical sigh of his. “I said I’m going in his place.”
“The fuck you are,” Willamina hissed.
“I’ve gone on a push with you in the past. I know the route,” he motioned with a slow, flick of his hand, “and you know I can ride. Who else is going to cover for him?”
Willamina’s face screwed up at the center, her fists curled.
Gods damnit. Despite herself, she knew better than to tell him off.
Boone, for all his faults, was a good man.
He was a damn fine Paladin. The city was better for having him.
He took jobs most wouldn’t—either because the pay was shit or the job was dangerous—and his record for saving people was impressive.
One of the many reasons Jacobus loves him.
Boone would be a blessing on the last push.
“Pay’s shit,” she grumbled, tucking her fists into her back pockets.
“I’m doing it for free—”
“The fuck you are,” she spat, kicking gravel away from her brother’s rickety crutches. “You’ll take Jacobus’ cut.”
“That’s fair,” Jacobus beamed over his shoulder at the tall orc. “Levi and I will hold down the ranch.”
“You and what working leg?” Willamina teased, nodding back toward the house. “Think you can make it inside? Or does Boone gotta cart you everywhere?”
“I can make it,” Jacobus huffed, rolling his eyes.
“Then scoot and go tell Ma you’re home,” Willamina instructed, stepping around him.
“What…why? Will, please, be nice to Boone. He told me not to go! I just wanted some drinks before the last push. You know it’s the longest one; takes forever with no good whiskey.”
Willamina shot her brother a stern look, “Boy, if you don’t hobble your way back into that house and get your weight off that bad leg, I’ll break the other one.”
“Yes, ma’am .”
“I’ll flatten you!” She inhaled sharply through her nose as her brother cackled.
His crutches grinding the rocks beneath it all the way to the massive farmhouse.
Willamina stood awkwardly, her back to Boone, hands still stuffed in her back pocket.
Fucking shit piss motherfucking gods damnit cunt bag!
Her mother would box her ears if she could hear it, but then again, that would mean she stopped sewing or cooking or cleaning long enough to listen to her daughter.
Daniella Jones became a routine machine after Herc died.
Willamina watched her mother deteriorate into a ghost of the person she used to be.
A proud harpy that kept her nest spick and span, that loved her kids and her husband, and the little happiness they carved out in an unforgiving land.
Willamina got her temper from her mother, along with the leather wings that exploded out of her back when she was pissed.
When she was in control of herself, she was a daemon, just like her brother.
Her mop of strawberry blond curls, pointy ears, and fangs.
But when she was truly livid, she grew wings, her fingers turned into claws, and her feet into talons.
Erinyes are a fun mix, the best of both worlds, that’s what Daddy used to say.
Finally in control of her sharp tongue and temper, she twisted back to Boone.
He leaned against the tractor still, just as cool and calm.
Always an unbreakable mountain of a man.
Arms folded over the great expanse of his chest, strong tusks, piercing yellow eyes, and all his rust brown hair gathered in a soft bun at the back of his head.
She pursed her lips before letting go of her ire with a huff.
“Look, it’s just Roger and I tomorrow. We’ll be up at sunrise. You’ll need to ride Gracie’s girl, Kaffa. Jacobus’ little speeder will pitch a fit if anyone but her precious boy rides her.”
Boone snickered, a sweet smile gracing his lips. “Understood.”
“Pack what you need; we’ll be out for a few weeks, minimum.”
“Will,” he exhaled softly. It flipped her stomach as she glanced up from the hole she burned in the gravel with her stare.
Gods no. She hated that the most. Hated that despite how much she told herself he was the bane of her existence…he simply had to sigh, call her name, and cock his head, and her heart fluttered.
Why did you have to befriend him? Why couldn’t you just have ignored Jacobus?
Why couldn’t I have met you first, without my baby brother or the weight of my family hanging on me?
Cause if she’d met him on a night out at the tavern, something she hadn’t done in years, she’d be in love with Boone Larokson.
“I’ll be back tonight by suppertime; I’ll stay in Jacobus’ room. And I’ll be here in the morning. Do you need anything from the city before I come back? Gods know you’re going to be finishing up that fence till the last second.”
Willamina glanced over her shoulder at the half-finished fence and pouted to herself for a minute.
He’s right. There was no time to run out to town to get the last-minute things she wanted to snatch before the run.
She was hoping Jacobus would be back yesterday.
Sending him out to get supplies was easy, because all the people in the market loved her baby brother.
He was sweet, charming, and a people person.
They gave him discounts just for smiling at babies and talking with the elderly watching the people walk by .
“We could use a few things,” she grumbled, pulling the crumpled list out of her pocket.
Boone took it from her slowly, like she might snatch it back if he moved too fast. When their fingers brushed, her body lit up in sparks.
Stupid, pretty guy. He pulled out those damn cute spectacles off the front of his shirt and unfolded them with a simple shake.
Willamina focused her attention on the expanse of the ranch, looking at all the cattle taking up the opposite end.
All three hundred of them about to travel out to the stronghold for slaughter and trade.
“Next year we gotta have more people,” she muttered.
“Agreed,” he nodded.
“Would be easier if my bone headed brother…” she realized too late she was speaking out loud and snapped her attention back to Boone. “What are you still doing here? You’ve got stuff to pack and a grocery list. Go on, get! I got a fucking fence to fix.”
Boone chuckled, tucking the list away. The sound would live in her ears for until the end of time as he pushed away from the tractor.
Willamina tried her best not to acknowledge the tingles running up and down her back.
Get to work! Stop! Storming back to her fence, she jumped over Levi’s new post hole he was working on and returned to Roger.
The great thing about the minotaur was, he didn’t ask questions.
Didn’t judge, didn’t speak on whatever just happened.
Just eyeballed her once, then nodded back to the post. Willamina took ahold of it and held it straight as he poured the wet cement around the base of it.