Logan kissed Vinia's cheek. "Don't kill her while we're gone. I think all of us need to help get those horses ready."
Colton paused at the door and turned back. "You may be an adult, but until you start acting like one, you can plan on being treated like a teenage hellion. I'm not going to keep breaking up these fights. One day we're just going to let Mama whoop your ass."
He had walked into a real shitshow when he tried to get a cup of coffee. Vinia had been up half the night worrying about Sarah, who apparently had a guy somewhere that she was shacking up with. Colton didn't care about that. Sarah was old enough to make her own mistakes. But what he did care about was her sneaking off and then telling everyone it was none of their business. All she had to do was tell them that she'd be gone for the night, but every time it happened, the fighting got worse.
Tyson slipped the key into the padlock. "Where do you reckon she's going?"
Drake sighed as they pulled the barn doors open. "The real question is who do you reckon she's seeing?"
Colton flipped the lights on. "Obviously someone she thinks we'll disapprove of."
"But we know all the people who age in a fifty mile radius," Tyson argued. "There aren't any visitors or tourists in her age group right now."
Logan snorted. "Maybe she's doing someone's daddy. She's afraid the wife will find out."
Tyson caught him in a headlock. "Do you know how sick that is?"
Colton sighed. "Sick, but very possible. It's something we have to consider since she's being such an ass about everything."
Tyson shoved Logan away. "Do we dare leave those two here alone while we go to Wyoming?"
Drake and Logan both spoke up at the same time.
"I'm not staying here because of them."
"They're not robbing me of this trip."
Colton grabbed a saddle. "For one thing, it's an auction, not a vacation. And for another, we need all hands on deck for that auction if we're going to replace some of our trail horses without breaking the bank."
The annual Western Horse Society horse auction was the following week in Laramie, Wyoming. The four boys went every year to find high quality but inexpensive trail riding horses to use for their guests. But Colton had to agree, without the others knowing, that it was nice to get away for a long weekend.
He turned to his brothers. "And since we don't have any guests before the snow comes, there's no reason that we can't all go. If Mama and Sarah can't get along without killing each other while we're gone for a few days, then we're going to be nothing but babysitters. And I'm not all about that."
Tyson agreed. "There's no reason for any of us to stay here. Sarah is going to do what she's going to do. If we find out who he is, then we can do something."
"Like what?" Colton asked. "What are we going to do? Beat up everyone that Sarah screws around with? I get that she's our little sister, and if she ever needs help, someone is going to have hell to pay. But unless she wants our help, I don't think there's much we can do one way or the other." Unlike his brothers, Colton didn't feel the need to jump every time Sarah said now. He was the protective oldest brother, but not to the point where he went looking for trouble.
Drake led one of the horses out to be saddled. "How many horses are on the lookout for this time around?"
Colton swung the saddle across the horse. "I want each of us to get at least five into a holding pen. Then we can sift through them and keep the best ones. We only need four, but I want them to be the best four."
Logan sat on a bail of hay and exhaled loudly. "Are we just wasting our time? I mean, how do we compete with technology?"
Tyson bopped him in the head. "You want to go get a real job? That'll be something, trying to watch a dragon fit into a human world full time. We have enough trouble now when we can still shift any time we want."
Drake snorted. "Not that it happens very often since we have people on the mountain all the time."
Colton slammed his hand down on a railing and made a loud cracking noise. "Are you guys going to sit around bitching or do something productive? Because if you want to bitch, you can go back in the house and join the women."
"Watch it, Cole," Tyson chastised, "or we're going to have to fix the railing again."
Colton sighed. "I don't like this new outfit anymore than the rest of you. But it is what it is, and our hands are tied. So deal with it." He put the saddled horse back in its stall.
Logan raised his brows. "You forget that we need that horse for our guests?"
"Not a bit." Colton smirked at the others. "But you all are gas bagging about being dragons. Put your wings where your mouths are. We all know that the hoity toity people aren't up this early. First one to the summit picks the bitches to muck out the stalls." He ran to the door.
His brothers whooped and hollered as they chased after him. They all shifted and tore off up the mountain, four dragons in various shades of green, from emerald to forest. They twisted and turned through the trees like they were shaloming down a hill on a ski course, their wings whipping up the patches of snow and wet leaves along the ground. Pine trees swayed in the currents their strong wings created, and deer spooked and rushed to get out of the way as they flew past.
