Santiago, Lara - Range War Bride [Tasty Treats 11] (Siren Publishing PolyAmour)
Tasty Treats 11
Range War Bride
In a world where female infertility is the norm, two related men are legally allowed to marry one woman to produce an heir for their family property.
Brianna escapes a vile arranged marriage but is rescued by two brothers, Alex and Rafe Drakestone, on their own bride hunt for a woman to carry their child. Brianna agrees to marry Alex and Rafe, if she proves fertile. However, her stubborn and not-so-nice ex-fiancés won’t let her go without a fight and bring the local law into the mix.
And then all hell breaks loose.
Brianna harbors a horrible secret that threatens her freedom if found out. Will Alex and Rafe start a range war to keep her as their bride? And will they discard her once they learn what she’s done in the name of self-preservation? Can four men fight over one woman and settle their private war?
Genre: Futuristic/Multiple Partners/Western/Cowboys
Length: 31,604 words
RANGE WAR BRIDE
Tasty Treats 11
Lara Santiago
POLYAMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: PolyAmour
RANGE WAR BRIDE
Copyright © 2010 by Lara Santiago
E-book ISBN: 1-60601-979-1
First E-book Publication: September 2010
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2010 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
I’d like to dedicate this book to an American Airlines ticket counter employee in New York (JFK) named Angie. Without her amazing hard work in getting me and my family on our way after a delayed flight threatened a long awaited trip, my recent vacation overseas would not have been nearly as fabulous. Thank you so much, Angie, for getting us on our way. Your extra effort is greatly appreciated.
RANGE WAR BRIDE
Tasty Treats 11
LARA SANTIAGO
Copyright © 2010
Chapter One
Wyoming - 2098
“The new female breeders will be here tomorrow. I expect you to come and help me look them over.”
Alex Drakestone tightened his grip on the reins looped between his gloved fingers, straightened in his saddle as his horse Desperado cantered across the grassy northernmost edge of their vast Wyoming property, and answered his brother absently, “Tell me. Are they slated for our prize bull or for us?”
“Very funny,” his brother Rafe said, but he didn’t laugh. “Since you brought it up, are we ever going to select a bride?”
Alex sent his gaze right to the stern profile of his only brother. “Are you ready?”
“Yes. I’m very ready. Tell me again why you aren’t.” Rafe turned his head a fraction and glanced his way before his gaze focused on the pommel.
“My dick is certainly geared up for recurring activity, but having a permanent sex partner available isn’t a good enough reason to get married, just yet. Is it my imagination, or does every review seem to contain only giggly teenagers?”
“It’s just you. The youngest woman we’ve seen is twenty. And they don’t giggle, they assess our family fortune with glee.”
“That’s not very encouraging.” Alex huffed.
“That’s life. Get used to it. Besides, the younger the woman, the better chance they have of being fertile. So as to provide children for our future.”
Alex knew Rafe was right, but it didn’t alleviate his anxiety. Sixty years ago, a nasty virus reduced the world’s population of women by a third. The eventual cure for those other two-thirds caused sterility in a significant portion of the survivors and their children. Three generations later, women able to conceive and bear children were still in very short supply.
Alex shrugged. “Well, now that I’m over thirty, I’d prefer a wife not more than a decade younger at least.”
“That may not be possible. Choices are limited, and our options are running out. We need to make a selection. One that will yield children.”
“Please.” He gave Rafe an exaggerated eye roll. “All we have to do is flash our credit account balance and we can have any single female in the tri-state area that we want. Even if they’ve already negotiated for a husband.”
“So find someone you want, for Christ’s sake!” The terse tone wasn’t like his happy-go-lucky brother. Alex slowed his horse’s gait until they stopped and sent a questioning gaze to his brother, silently demanding an answer for his outburst.
Rafe ducked his head. “I want a family, Alex. I’m ready.”
“So you said. And you want to just settle for any female available?”
“No, I want to stop waiting for some perfect girl who may never appear. Grow up.”
“I am grown up, and seeing as how the woman we choose will be with us forever, I don’t want to make any hasty decisions.”
“Hasty? If I left it up to you, we’d be octogenarians before we got married.”
Alex couldn’t hide his amusement at the remark and felt the s
mile shape his lips before he could stop it.
“It’s not funny, Alex. I want kids to bounce on my knee before brittle bone injuries make it too dangerous.”
“Jesus, Rafe, we’re in our mid thirties. I think we have a few more years before adult diapers and drool cloths are necessary.”
“What do I have to do to convince you that I just want to have a wife and kids? Tell me the words to say, and I’ll say them.”
Given the expression in Rafe’s eyes and the stern cut of his jaw line, Alex figured he was facing a fistfight if he didn’t agree to consider marriage. And very soon.
“Fair enough. I didn’t realize you’d become so anxious.”
“Well, now you know.”
Alex nodded. He clicked his tongue to get Desperado moving again. They rode along in companionable silence for a few more yards.
“All right. Call the lawyers. We’ll organize a traditional official viewing for the coming weekend.” All of the viewings they had participated in to date were casual and only intended to introduce females into a certain family for the first time. Once lawyers were involved, it became a much more serious matter with permanent circumstances.
“Lawyers? Really? Statewide, Tri-state, or western district?” Tri-state would include not only their home state of Wyoming, but also included Idaho and Montana. The western district added on Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Alex shrugged. “Tri-state or western district will give us a larger pool of choices, but whatever. Statewide will likely yield the most willing women. Especially if they’ve heard of us.”
“We have the largest spread of privately owned land in Wyoming. I’m sure lots of women in the surrounding states have heard of us.”
In order to keep their vast land, they had to get married and produce a future generation to work it. If he and Rafe died without a child to inherit, the state would take custody of the land, offer it up for sale to the surrounding land owners, and sell it to the highest bidder.
Alex frowned. He truly did not want to get married to a giggly, immature, gold-digging female just to provide an heir to keep their land.
“Cheer up. We may find the perfect bride this time.”
“Or we’ll settle for a near-perfect one and I’ll suck it up.”
“Just because we both marry her doesn’t mean we have to share her right at first.”
Alex cut a sharp look to his brother. “Yes it does. Otherwise it’s harder on her. You know that.” His brother’s beaming, joyful expression wouldn’t be subdued with reason, and Alex inwardly sighed. Choosing a bride in the world today was a chore. Something he didn’t look forward to and his brother knew it.
“We can select anyone you want, Alex. Just fucking make a choice.”
“Fine. I’ll make a fucking decision, but I won’t be rushed.” However, the thought of selecting anyone made his heart go cold. Alex hadn’t met a woman yet that he wanted to spend an entire day with, let alone forever. Not even close.
“No rush, but by month end would be fine by me.”
Alex rolled his eyes and remained silent.
The casual viewings over the past few years consistently produced possibly fertile girls from the age of twenty to twenty-three, but none of them had ever displayed enough spark to entice him.
Over the past several decades, since the Richter virus decimated the population, females had been raised with one goal in mind: marriage for the purposes of procreation. Land ownership legacies would likely always be continued in this manner.
Marriage for love became second to securing property rights through inheritance. He knew this was how the world worked, and yet Alex wanted to experience love at first sight for the woman he and his brother would spend eternity with. Or at least the bite of lust at first sight. What was wrong with that?
He wanted to be intrigued. He wanted a zap of desire to hit his cock along with the unfathomable need to discover every facet of the mesmerizing woman who would share their bed and lives. Forever. And ever.
Alex hadn’t met a woman in any past viewings who generated any intrigue. Many knew they were rare and acted accordingly. Most had been brought up to be princesses and were invariably spoiled rotten due to their dwindling numbers.
While he’d certainly gotten a rise from several of the attractive debutants presented for his inspection, he’d never had his cock snap to lusty attention for a lingering second look. Given the world they lived in, love was a luxury they couldn’t afford. Tolerable was the goal for any marriage these days. A long sigh escaped before he could stop it. If Rafe heard, he didn’t remark.
They’d reached the outer marker of the northwestern border to their ranch before Alex realized it. Serious discussions of marriage certainly made the long ride go by much faster.
Rafe pulled hard on his reins and halted his horse fifty feet from the twelve foot high blue-tinted electrified fence separating their property from their neighbor, Cody Welter.
Alex drew alongside his brother and stopped, as well. The vast holdings their family had accumulated in the past seventy-five years were envied by many and closely guarded, which was why the fence line was checked each day. They didn’t often “ride the line” on their own property. Usually, they had a pair of stable hands do it, but today, Rafe had wanted to talk.
If Alex had known he was about to be prodded into selecting a bride, he might have declined and found something more agreeable to do. Like falling off his horse and being dragged through a mountain of bristle bushes by his heels.
“If things go well, I’ll have a baby snuggled in the crook of my arm before the new century arrives.”
“That’s ambitious. Guess we better ensure our bride’s fertile.”
“How?”
Alex sighed. “The usual way. We’ll opt for a short term guarantee. Once the pre-wedding paperwork is signed, we'll take turns fucking her twice a day until she’s pregnant, and if after three months she isn’t, then we can renegotiate and move on.”
“I won’t do that.”
“Okay, then I’ll step up to the chore—”
“No! We aren’t going that route.”
“If our intended bride can’t bear children, it defeats the purpose of getting married. The very purpose you convinced me of only minutes ago.”
His brother pegged him with an unreadable stare. “Aren’t you lonely, Alex?”
“No.”
“Well, I am. The truth is, I’d settle for a female to share my life with regardless of children. I miss having a woman in our lives.”
Alex turned in his saddle. “Here’s where you have to grow up. The whole purpose of the viewings and bride selection process etcetera is to ensure we get an heir. I won’t risk infertility. There is a reason it’s included as an authorized and viable custom when choosing a wife.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it or that we have to do it.”
“Yes. It does. There’s too much at stake.”
Rafe looked away, and several interesting curse words rumbled out from under his breath.
Alex prodded him. “Do you want Cody Welter to add our property to his and stick his hell-spawned progeny all over our land? Land that has been in our family for generations?”
“No. I just don’t want instant discord over announcing to the prospective brides’ families that we want to try out fucking their precious daughters for a few months before we offer a permanent home for them.”
“It’s either that or we waste a decade in a childless marriage and then go through the laborious process of dissolution on the grounds of infertility. Only to start the process all over again ten years from now. Would you rather do that?”
Rafe shook his head and refused to look at him. They both stopped talking altogether as they continued their morning ride. Neither choice was going to be perfect. Alex traveled along, oblivious to his surroundings and pondered the possibility of a young, boring wife in as soon as the next week, until Rafe punched him in the arm.
“You
see that?” He pointed at a group of riders galloping hell bent for leather toward them on Welter’s property.
Alex squinted. A single rider, with long flame-colored hair streaming behind her, was bent over the saddle’s pommel. She streaked across the flat ground on a trajectory straight toward them. A hundred yards behind her was a pack of Welter’s men in hot pursuit. She was about to cross into their land or smack into the barrier separating it from Welter’s property.
“Do you think she knows the fence is electrified?” Rafe asked. He pulled the barrier control from the pocket of his jacket.
“She’s about to find out.” Alex watched her turn her head around ostensibly to judge the distance of her pursuers. “Let her in. Just her.”
Rafe pushed a button on the remote control and allowed a hole to appear wide enough for a single rider to pass through.
Alex urged his horse closer to the fence at a saunter, and Rafe trailed along with him. They watched as she straightened in her saddle the minute the hole appeared. He thought he saw a relieved smile but was really too far away to be sure. She leaned over her pommel again and urged her horse faster toward salvation. If that was what she sought.
“Want me to shut it once she’s through?”
“No. Cody’s men know better than to start a range war by crossing into our land, no matter what the reason. We’ll wait here a minute and see what her story is. Maybe she’s a horse thief.”
Rafe grinned. “Even from here I can see she’s an attractive horse thief.”
“Whatever. I’m curious to see why she was about to throw herself against our fence. If she hadn’t killed herself and the horse, she’d have been hurt pretty badly.”