Goated by the Gods (7 page)

The next week flew by in a haze for the brothers. It took Zach four days before he was up and mobile again. Quentin shuffled around the house, moping and irritable, and it took all Jared had to hold everything together. They had a group coming to the campgrounds in a little over an hour and he was running ragged trying to get all the last minute things arranged.

“Zach, they are arriving any minute. Have you found the campers list with the counselor names yet?” Jared asked in frustration as he watched Zach stare out the office window in thought. “Never mind. We can figure it out when they get here. Are you going to be able to help this week or not?”

Finally, with a huff, Jared stormed out of the office and left his brother to his thoughts.

Zach vaguely heard his brother, but he couldn’t seem to dredge up enough energy to care. He couldn’t get Gareth and what had transpired between them last weekend out of his mind. His mate fascinated him as no other ever had. He could admit he wanted him and not just for sex, but he just wasn’t sure he could trust him. Gods were fickle and cruel.

A loud slam brought Zach from his thoughts and he turned to see Jared standing beside him. “They are here. Now get your ass out of that chair and come greet our guests. I can’t do this alone.” Jared turned and stormed out of the office, leaving Zach shocked and speechless.

He slowly climbed to his feet with a weary sigh and followed after his enraged little brother. In the hall, Quentin was waiting for him with a scowl. “What is wrong with Jared? He is in a foul ass mood.”

Jared turned and stormed back to them, rage evident in his angry stride. “What’s wrong with me? Did you seriously just ask me that? You two fucktards have done nothing but mope and stare off into space and it’s only getting worse. I can’t take much more of this. Zach, you have your head so far up your ass that you don’t see what is right in front of you. You are rejecting the one man who was made just for you. You are literally dying because of it, but all you do is stare into space like that is going to fix anything.” Zach sputtered but couldn’t come up with a retort. Deep down he knew it was true. “And you, brother mine, are just as bad. Wake up and smell the coffee. Stop hiding and if nothing else, let the man show you a good time. When was the last time you had some fun?” The two men lowered their heads in shame as Jared once again stormed away, muttering under his breath.

“Let’s go, we have campers to get settled and some issues to help resolve and standing in here having a pity party isn’t going to help,” Jared shot back as he pushed out the front door to meet the arriving buses.

Zach and Quentin shared a sheepish smile before following their youngest brother. “Never knew he had the balls to say shit like that,” Quentin whispered.

“He takes after Mom more than I realized,” Zach replied.

***

Zach stopped before the lead bus and waited for the home’s director to descend.

This was one of his favorite parts of running the camp - seeing these kids’ faces as they climbed off the bus with looks of distrust, apprehension, pain and anger and then seeing them leave a week later with smiles and sadness at it being over. Their lives sucked, but it was the least he and his brothers could do to give them a much needed escape from their everyday lives.

A tall, strikingly good-looking woman climbed off the bus and approached Zach. “Hi, I’m Marguerite. I run the center and I just wanted to say thank you for letting us come here on such short notice. Like I said on the phone the other day, the camp we had originally contacted fell through and I was so afraid I would have to cancel. These kids have been looking forward to getting away.”

Zach smiled as the woman rambled and repeated most of what she had already told him on the phone a couple weeks earlier. “It’s our pleasure. Let’s get your kids unloaded and we can get everyone settled in cabins.”

“That would be wonderful, it’s been quite a day. One of our regular counselors had an emergency and couldn’t be here. I had to call another in from vacation to cover. We are all looking forward to this week, I can assure you.” Marguerite smiled and waved for the kids to disembark from the buses. “Kids, line up in two rows in front of your bus, we will get you all settled quickly into your cabins with a counselor and then the fun can begin.”

The brothers smiled as the quiet of the camp was shattered with sounds of laughter, words and grunts as the kids jostled for position.

“Hey, gang. My name is Zach, these are my brothers, Quentin and Jared. Welcome to Camp Kid. If you guys will give us five minutes, we can get you all settled in.

“Don’t grumble, if you can wait patiently we will have a campfire tonight and we can roast marshmallows and stuff.” Zach smiled as the kids shifted anxiously from foot to foot as he spoke. “Sound like a deal?”

A chorus of ‘Yeah’ and ‘Yes’ filled the air.

“Marguerite, we can’t seem to find the list of how many campers you have nor who your counselors are. Without that, we weren’t able to split the kids up among the cabins,” Jared piped in as he shot a glare at Zach.

“That’s quite all right. At the moment, I have five counselors and twenty-seven kids, including me. A sixth counselor is on his way, but since it was last minute he wasn’t able to make it to ride the bus with us.”

Zach nodded, “Perfect. We can do the six cabins closest to the mess hall and the activities. Would you like to split the kids up?”

“Sure, that would probably be easiest.” Marguerite smiled and called the remaining four counselors over. “Each of you are going to be in charge of five or six kids.”

“You will all be given a cabin that is identified by color of the paint and the animal on the flag that flies from the top,” Jared added as Marguerite took a breath.

Zach supplied a cabin name and waited as she assigned a counselor and a group of kids to it before giving the next name.

“We have five kids left, but their counselor isn’t here yet,” Marguerite said as shit bit her lip in worry.

“If they don’t mind, I can be their counselor till the real one arrives,” Jared said in a rush of excitement.

“That would be lovely, thank you.” Marguerite called over the five kids and introduced them to Jared. “He is going to be your counselor until Mr. G arrives. You will be in the…” She paused and looked at Zach for the answer.

“Oh, sorry. The Red Phoenix cabin,” he supplied as the kids whooped and hollered their excitement.

“Come on, gang, let’s go get settled in. There is so much to do, you guys will be begging for this week to never end.” Jared winked and led his campers away.

“That’s my cue I think. I have to get my kids set up as well.” Marguerite called her group forward and headed off.

Zach turned to look at Quentin. “So…”

Quentin shrugged and stared off in the direction Jared had just gone. “Guess I will get things set up for the roast tonight. You wanna check the firewood and get the pit ready?”

Zach nodded, “Yeah, sounds like a plan.”

***

The long winding road through the woods calmed Gareth, as nothing else had been able to accomplish it over the last week. Being called in to work, as much as it sucked since he was on vacation, might have been the best thing to happen for him. Besides, he was going to be camping in the woods, close to nature. He was getting the best of both worlds.

He pulled up next to the main building and turned off his car. Camp Kid looked just like he would expect a camp to look like. Guess the movies got one thing right in this instance. He climbed out of the car and stretched, feeling the soothing presence of the wilderness fill him and soothe the never-ending urge to be with nature.

Gareth walked to the main office and rapped on the door. After a few minutes, he gave up and walked down the couple of steps to look around. Someone had to be close by to give him directions to his cabin to unload.

A curse from the blue cabin to the right drew his attention. He didn’t see anyone, so he called out. “Anyone here?”

“Yeah, inside,” a vaguely familiar voice called out. Gareth couldn’t hear the voice well enough to place it, for some reason it was muffled and garbled. He climbed the three steps and entered the dim cabin. Gareth frowned and looked around in puzzlement. “Hello?”

“Back here,” the voice answered. “Don’t let the door…shut,” the voice called just as the door slammed of its own accord.

“Shit, sorry. It kinda closed on its own,” Gareth said as he turned and pulled on the door handle. “What the fuck?” Gareth mumbled as he pulled harder on the handle.

“The door gets stuck. It’s why we leave it open,” the voice said as it drew closer.

Gareth froze as he finally recognized the voice he should have known. His body had been trying to tell him his mate was close, but he had been too preoccupied to pay attention. He turned slowly and faced the man who kept rejecting him.

“What are you doing here?” Gareth asked in bewilderment.

“That’s a better question for you. My brothers and I own this place. What are you doing here?” Zach demanded in shock.

“I’m a counselor with the group here this week,” Gareth trailed off as he laughed in spite of himself. “I swear if I didn’t know better, I would think the gods had a hand in this, but since all their endeavors end up backfiring, this has to be a major coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in coincidence. Are you sure this wasn’t set up by one of your brethren?”

Gareth shook his head, “No, I was on vacation and wasn’t even supposed to be at this camp. It was a last minute request when one of the others had to leave town for a family emergency.”

Zach sighed and sat down on one of the empty cots. “Might as well get comfy, we could be here awhile.”

“Why is that?” Gareth asked in confusion.

“Cause no one knows I am here. We don’t use this cabin except for storage for the winter. No one has reason to come to this cabin to look for me. I just happened to come in because the axe I was using to chop fire wood broke and I knew we had an old one in storage.”

“Won’t one of your brothers come looking for you? Surely they will need you for something before long. You run this camp after all.”

“Nope, when I was done I told them I was going to get cleaned up and run into town for a few necessities and that I would get dinner while there.”

“What about my car, won’t someone notice it and wonder who it belongs to?”

“That’s a possibility, but the cabins your kids are in are down the road a bit. They really don’t have reason to come up here considering all the events are happening down there and even our house is down that way.”

“Well, fuck. What about my group of kids I am the counselor for? What’s happening with them?”

“Jared.” Zach sighed and rubbed his hands down his face in frustration. Being this close to the man who had been slowly driving him insane all week was playing havoc on his body. “He volunteered to be acting counselor till you arrived. Marguerite wasn’t sure when you would show up after all.”

The two men lapsed into silence as they took turns trying not to look at the other. Zach couldn’t deny the pull he felt in his gut to get close to his man, but his head still screamed to be cautious.

“How did you become a counselor for a youth home?”

“It’s a long story. You sure you want to hear it?” Gareth asked in a low tone.

Zach nodded and leaned forward, as if to make sure he could hear every word out of Gareth’s mouth.

“I grew up in one, not a good one either. When I become an adult, I knew I wanted to give back and help kids have a better beginning then I did.”

“How in the hell did a god grow up in an orphanage?

“I’m not sure who told you I was a god, but I can assure you I am only half. My father was a troll my goddess of a mother fell for. She got pregnant and left me to my father to raise. He died when I was a toddler, the state sent me to a home and that’s where I lived until I turned 15 and ran away. I went to that cave where you found me and lived there for the next couple of years.”

Gareth sighed and moved to lean against the wall so he could stare out the window at the woods that called to him. “One day my mom showed up. She had been unable to come to me due to some errand she had been on for Odin. I stayed in that cave until I thought I would go mad from lack of human contact.” Gareth laughed in self-deprecation. “It’s forever my curse to long for the solitude of the woods, caves and mountains while in the city and crave the city when I’m in the wilderness.”

Zach didn’t say anything in response, he couldn’t as his mind whirled with the things he had just learned. Gareth wasn’t what he thought at all. “How long have you been working with the kids?”

“About fifteen years now. I know you thought I was like the gods, but I grew up here like a mortal human being. I know nothing of their ways, and if I am to be honest, I only tolerate them. They took my mother away for seventeen years and left me to live in that forsaken home of pain and loneliness. I vowed one day to do my best to help kids like me and give them something to hold on to, something that would make them want to be better. I live in a crappy apartment with nothing, because every waking moment I am either in my cave or with those kids. Every dime I make is spent on getting them things they need or the home needs.”