The Men of Ramshire - Season 2

by Diane Lennox

  “I’m sorry you had to deal with that, Rex, but let’s move onto happier topics,” Lucifer said. “You get a little scary when you get all worked up.”

  “Fine,” Rex grunted. He didn’t always listen to Lucifer, but it did work most of the time.

  “Thank you,” Lucifer said and reached over to gently touch Rex’s forearm.

  Rex just nodded, seeming placated for now.

  “And since it seems to be my turn I’ll just say that business is going well, our newest stylist is starting to find his bearings, and there’s this gorgeous new palette coming out from Laska Cosmetics that looks so good!” Lucifer said, nearly bouncing in his seat.

  Pasha’s grip on Alice’s hand loosened as he focused on his other father and the way his excitement seemed to dispel the tension in the room.

  “What? There is?” Yuri asked, looking to Lucifer.

  “They just announced it this afternoon. I’ll email you the link to the page. It’s gorgeous, Yuri, it’s all these deep metallic colours, with just a hint of shimmer. I’m going to place a pre-order Monday so we can test it out.”

  “Perfect,” Yuri replied, his smile slowly returning.

  “You’re going to love the one colour, it’s this gorgeous dark silver. I hope it looks as good in real life as it did in the photo. You know, I’ll order two, one for father and I and one for you. You can test it on your brothers since you all have different skin tones.”

  “You’re assuming Pasha can hold still long enough for me to put makeup on him,” Yuri teased.

  “Hey! I can hold still if I want to!” Pasha exclaimed, though he was hardly mad. The light teasing was making him feel far less tense. “I’m more worried that you’ll turn me into a jester.”

  “Pretty sure everyone knows you’re a jester even without the makeup.”

  There were little chuckles from around the table from Lucifer, Ezra, and Alice at that.

  “Be nice to your little brother,” Lucifer lightly admonished with a pleased smile on his handsome, boyish face.

  The rest of the dinner was filled with idle chatter, usually directed by Lucifer. Though every time Rex opened his mouth to add something useless Pasha tensed.

  The dinner wasn’t as bad as it sometimes was, but once it was over Pasha still felt that nausea inducing stress clinging to him. The only reason he tried to eat as much as he did was because he knew their grandfather worked hard on the meal for them and he didn’t want to upset him.

  After they finished helping clean up Pasha followed his brothers upstairs to their wing and joined them in getting into their pajamas before heading back downstairs to go curl up for movie time as promised. Luckily for them, Rex returned to work after dinner so there was no need to stress about him anymore.

  “I wanna sit next to Yuri!” Pasha said and sat down in one corner of the couch, patting the space beside him.

  Yuri rolled his eyes, but sat down beside Pasha without further fuss. Ezra sat down next to him and Alice took his spot in the other corner of the couch. They all fit, but just barely, and there really was no option but to cuddle with how tightly packed they were.

  “So what shall we watch tonight?” Ezra asked as he picked up the remote, turned the TV on, and flicked through the movies they had on their streaming service.

  Nobody said anything until Alice let out a cute little gasp.

  “What is it?” Ezra asked.

  “Well, um, the last movie you just went by, I think it has the actor who plays Mr. Kindleson in it,” Alice replied.

  “Ooo,” Pasha called teasingly at Alice from across the couch. They all knew that Mr. Kindleson was Alice’s new favourite character from Forbidden Forest. “We should be nice and let Alice ogle his new crush.”

  “No no, we don’t have to!” Alice cried, hiding his blushing face behind his hands.

  “Done,” Ezra said and put on the movie with a fond little chuckle.

  Pasha knew the movie wasn’t going to be entirely his thing, it seemed to be some historical romance drama judging by the synopsis, but right now all he cared about was being together with his brothers and if it made Alice happy then that worked for him.

  “You okay with this?” Yuri asked as he turned to look at Pasha, seeming to have read his mind.

  “Yeah,” Pasha replied and snuggled forcefully into Yuri’s side. “I don’t mind dramas sometimes and I know you guys like them.”

  “Ow, Pasha, stop burrowing into me like some rodent.”

  “I’m not burrowing, I’m cuddling, now put your arm around me or else I’m gonna keep bothering you until you do this right.”

  Yuri sighed loudly and put his arm around Pasha and squeezed. Hard.

  “Yuri!” Pasha squeaked as he squirmed, trying to escape Yuri’s iron grip. “Stooop!”

  “This is what you wanted.”

  “I wanted you to cuddle me, not squeeze the life out of me!” Pasha cried.

  “Behave you two, the movie is starting,” Alice said, gently throwing a pillow at them.

  “Oof,” Pasha said, taking the majority of the hit in the face as he was unable to move his arms to protect himself.

  “Yes, Alice,” Yuri said then gave Pasha one last big squeeze before loosening his grip and shifting so he could actually cuddle nicely with him.

  “You’re lucky I’m sturdy,” Pasha muttered.

  Yuri seemed ready to retort when Ezra’s large hand went over top of his mouth.

  “Nope, no more from either of you,” Ezra said. “It’s movie time now.”

  “Yes, Ezra,” Pasha said for the both of them.

  “Good,” Ezra said then moved his hand from Yuri’s mouth.

  There was a bit more shuffling about as the four of them got cozy and soon enough they were all focused on the movie which had surprisingly more action than Pasha had anticipated. It wasn’t that he didn’t like romance, but having the leads swordfight did make it a lot better in his opinion.

  Everything was going quite well until the love scene started. Pasha didn’t mind love scenes, but it was a little weird to watch them with his brothers, and he was feeling more and more awkward as the leads kept kissing. And kissed some more. And then locked themselves in an empty bedroom.

  “Oh shit,” Pasha cursed softly, surprised at just how daring the scene was getting.

  Alice let out a soft squeal and hid his face against Ezra’s shoulder.

  Ezra chuckled. “Is it too much seeing Mr. Kindleson like this?”

  Pasha saw Alice nod against Ezra, his dark curly hair bouncing a little against his cheeks.

  “By the trees,” Pasha cursed again, his eyes widening as he realized they weren’t going to be fading to black any time soon. Clothes were coming off, hands were going all sorts of places, and the sounds they were making was enough to make Pasha squirm a little.

  It wasn’t just Pasha squirming though. He could feel Yuri fidgeting beside him and when he looked over he saw Yuri’s hand on Ezra’s thigh, looking as if he was squeezing it.

  “Oh!” Alice cried softly as the two men on the screen fell onto the bed together, their bodies rolling and writhing with only their underthings left on now.

  Pasha could hear Yuri’s breath deepen and he glanced back down at his brother’s hand which was now slowly moving up Ezra’s thick thigh. It wasn’t something Pasha had never seen before, but usually Ezra was a little quicker about stopping Yuri who probably wasn’t even realizing what he was doing.

  Except for some reason Ezra wasn’t stopping him this time, and Pasha was getting increasingly nervous as Yuri’s hand kept moving higher and higher.

  Pasha could feel his heart start to race in his growing panic and he looked across at Alice who seemed to be watching the same thing. Then Alice looked up at him, the two of them locking eyes, and Pasha was sure they were sharing the same thought – what were they supposed to do?

  It wasn’t like Ezra to tease Yuri like this. They all knew it wasn’t Yuri’s fault for getting a little too worked up,
it was simply part of his wendigo nature. It was also a part of that nature to not really care how he fed that side of his hunger. The fact that Ezra was his brother made no difference, so long as Ezra was willing. So why was Ezra not stopping him?!

  Pasha let out a soft gasp as he realized what might be conflicting Ezra.

  Though none of them liked it, when Yuri’s hunger for sexual release became too much for him to handle, he went to Ortega Amberwood, the most dangerous wendigo in the entire city, to satisfy himself. Pasha still wasn’t sure why Lucifer, their father, set up that arrangement, but he knew it had something to do with a past romance between his father and Shar Amberwood and the fact that Lucifer seemed to think he could trust the Amberwoods implicitly. Pasha didn’t exactly agree, but he didn’t want his brother to suffer, either.

  And, usually, they could go about using this less than perfect arrangement as much as they hated it, but there was a tiny little problem this time – Ezra had told Pasha and Alice what Marius had said about keeping Yuri away from other wendigos right now. If Yuri went to Ortega he may be tempted to pledge himself to him and Pasha knew there was no way in hells Ezra was going to lose Yuri to the notorious older wendigo.

  Fuck.

  Moans floated around the room as the two men on screen continued their incredibly steamy scene and Pasha’s pounding heart was getting out of control. What was he supposed to do?! He couldn’t let this happen, not when Rex would lose his shit if he found out. Pasha would never purposely out his brothers for any incestuous acts they committed, but he couldn’t lie if he was ever directly asked. He wouldn’t be able to hide their secret.

  Suddenly Ezra’s hand darted down to grab Yuri’s and he let out a shuddering breath.

  Thank the fucking gods.

  “We can turn off the movie, if it’s too much, Yuri,” Ezra said softly, understandingly.

  “No, I’ll be alright, I’m sorry,” Yuri replied and Pasha watched as his arm moved, trying to pull his hand back no doubt, but Ezra held it there against his leg.

  “I don’t want you to be sorry,” Ezra said and looked to Yuri. “I never want you to be sorry for this. I’m not offended, or disgusted, or anything I know you’re worried about right now. If… if things were different…”

  “Don’t say it,” Pasha quickly blurted out and caused all three of his brothers to look at him. He swallowed hard, feeling a little bad when he knew Ezra was trying to comfort Yuri, but he had to stop Ezra from spilling the secret they had all silently agreed to keep until now. “We all know what you want to say, but it’s a bad idea to say it in front of me.”

  It was as if Pasha had ripped Yuri’s heart right out of his chest with how pained and betrayed the wendigo’s expression looked.

  “No!” Pasha exclaimed in a panic and reached up, pressing his hands against Yuri’s cheeks and staring him right in his devilish yellow eyes. “I only meant that I don’t want to be put in a position where I might betray my brothers. If asked directly, I can still say that you three have never said or done anything overly taboo. There’s only so much tip-toeing around the truth I can do, you know.”

  “I’m sorry, Pasha,” Yuri said with a frown. “I’m sorry I’m like this.”

  Pasha rolled his eyes. “I’m going to say the same as Ezra – I don’t want you to be sorry. And stop acting like this is the first time this shit has happened, we just don’t usually talk about it after. I’m not totally oblivious, you know. And, uh, since we’re trying to be a little more open about stuff, I think we should probably address the actual problem here, about why this is a little more tense today,” Pasha said then let go of Yuri’s face and looked to Ezra, hoping his older brother caught his drift.

  Ezra nodded and paused the movie. “I don’t want you going to Ortega yet, Yuri,” he said bluntly.

  Both Alice and Pasha nodded in agreement.

  “I know it’s cruel of me to ask you not to go, and to stay strong despite how hungry you might get, but until you feel like you’re one of us again I cannot allow it,” Ezra said firmly.

  “I agree,” Pasha immediately chimed in. “You’re ours and we’ll do whatever we can to help.”

  “Agreed,” Alice said as well. “For now we can change your diet to be more carnivorous, we’ll make sure to cuddle more so you can at least get some comforting physical contact, and we can find ways to make sure you get enough exercise as well so you don’t get too restless.”

  Ezra nodded. “We’ll make sure you are well fed in every other way, I promise you this, but you must promise me in return you will not go to him, not until I explicitly say you’re allowed.”

  Despite all the comforting words and promises Yuri was still frowning. “None of you trust me to go?”

  “No,” Ezra said, blunt once again. “You’re not yourself right now and I don’t trust Ortega not to take advantage of you and the situation. You’re ours, Yuri, and we’re all going to do what we have to to convince you of that. I don’t know why you can’t see it, but you’re so very precious to us, and I’m intensely proud and honoured that I can call you mine.”

  “He means it, Yuri,” Pasha said, knowing Yuri would try to argue it, but Pasha had heard the truth clearly in Ezra’s words. “And I feel the same.”

  “So do I,” Alice said.

  Yuri hung his head and hid his face in his hands. “I don’t deserve this. I know you all mean well, but it’s just really fucking hard for me to accept it. I’ve only ever been a pain.”

  “Oh come on, that’s not true!” Pasha exclaimed, getting a little exasperated. “Yeah, you’re a little brat, but you do a lot for all of us.”

  Yuri disentangled himself from them and stood. “I’m sorry. Thank you, for being understanding, all of you, but I need some space.”

  “Alright,” Ezra said. “We’ll let you cool off for tonight, but don’t expect us to leave you alone for long.”

  Yuri nodded a little then headed up the stairs and softly shut the basement door behind himself.

  “Fuck,” Ezra swore and leaned back against the couch. “I’m sorry, Pasha, for earlier, I know I should watch what I say. That’s why I usually don’t say anything.”

  “It’s fine,” Pasha said and moved over to cuddle up against Ezra’s side now that Yuri was gone. “Why don’t you just do it though? The thing you can’t say? I mean, we know how Rex-fahn feels about incest, but fuck, we risk losing Yuri!”

  Ezra shook his head. “It isn’t about Rex-fahn. I mean, it is, he’s the reason this is a problem at all, but it would tear the family apart and I can’t do that to grandpa, not when he’s already lost his family once.”

  Pasha sighed heavily. He couldn’t do that either. Despite knowing his loyalty was firmly with Ezra, their grandfather was still his Shar, and he still loved him and respected him deeply. And there was also the fact that it would put Lucifer and Ezra right in the thick of it and Pasha hated the idea of doing that to either of them.

  “Right now all we can focus on is getting Yuri to understand that we want, no need, him to stay with us,” Ezra said.

  Pasha nodded. “Alright.”

  “We’ll do it,” Alice said.

  “I know,” Ezra said to them both and wrapped his big arms around them, pulling them tight to his sides. “And I think, if we can pull this off, we’re going to be a lot stronger than we ever were.”

  Pasha grinned at the thought. “Yeah, I think so too.”

  Episode 3

  As soon as Evgeni Desjardin’s alarm gently rang out into his otherwise silent bedroom he was immediately wide awake, though it took him a moment to remember where he was. The white and gold walls should have been enough to clue him in, but instead it was the faint, familiar scent of lemon and the emotions that went with that that made him realize he was undoubtedly back in his childhood home.

  Home… the idea of it was rather foreign to him now. He’d spent a third of his life, his most formative and life-altering years, away from this place he called “home”. Of cours
e he had visited fairly regularly during the past ten years, but that was just it, he was a visitor. It was like the very walls knew his stays were only temporary, and maybe that was why they didn’t help him remember where he was when he woke up.

  An ache settled in his chest as he realized how much work he was going to have to put in to make the place feel like home again when the only thing that brought him comfort now was the smell of the cleaner their maid Kai used. He supposed it wasn’t surprising considering Kai, unlike the house and the other people in it, always acted as if Evgeni had never left.

  Evgeni let out a weak, breathy chuckle. He couldn’t afford to feel sorry for himself right now, not when there were far more important problems to be dealing with and very little time to fix them. His father was going to disown Rafe in a day if he didn’t intervene and they were already a few weeks into a play that was heading straight for disaster.

  So instead of pouting about his own shit he needed to get his thoughts in order. The most time sensitive problem was currently the Rafe situation so that was what he would tackle first. He needed to save his little brother somehow, though how Evgeni intended on doing that really depended on whether or not he felt Rafe fully understood the choice he was making. His brother’s boldness in choosing Paris was not necessarily a bad thing if he was seriously committed to that path, but he was going to have to play it just right for it to work out for everyone involved. Evgeni was not going to waste his time if Rafe was, in fact, simply going through a bit of a rebellious or curious stage.

  And Evgeni also needed to make sure that Paris was just as committed to his brother. The man had a reputation of sleeping around and from what he knew had never actually courted anyone, but Evgeni knew that didn’t mean the man wouldn’t be capable of it. Sometimes it simply took the right person to come along. Evgeni just needed to make sure that Rafe was that special someone.

  With his battle plans at least somewhat laid out now Evgeni got out of bed and made his way to his closet to put his expensive, dark grey robe on over his pajamas, then headed out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen.