Snow Twink - Sue Brown Page 0,2

going to attract predators.”

“He’s young,” Gruff said. “It didn’t seem right to leave him there alone.”

He knelt and laid the body on the ground, gentle even though he knew the boy was beyond caring.

“Jesus,” Harry said. He had a shock of bright red hair and when he was being an ass the family called him the prince, because he’d been named after some prince in England who’d been born the same day. “He’s a babe.”

Gruff looked down at him. “He’s a boy.”

Not really a boy when he looked closer, a man. A very young man. Gruff’s heart ached for what he could have been. The potential, lost with one unwary step off the trail. Was a family hurting somewhere, missing their son? Did they even know he was missing yet? He was glad he wasn’t going to have to be the one to deliver that news.

“We’ll put him in the barn with the tools. We can lock that until the sheriff can collect him,” Alec said. He was number five and always practical.

He went to pick up the body, but Gruff stopped him.

“I’ll do it.”

He wasn’t sure why, but he didn’t want anyone else touching him.

As he knelt in the snow, Gruff looked at the boy’s face. He blinked and looked closer. He swore he saw a puff of breath coming out of the boy’s mouth.

“Hurry up, Gruff. It’s freezing out here,” Brad complained.

Gruff looked closer. It was difficult to see in the darkness, but he was sure he saw the boy’s lips twitch. “He’s alive.”

“What?”

The brothers hustled around him. He paid no attention to them, used to their constant jostling. He picked the boy up, feeling the pull in his shoulders at the dead weight. “We need to get him inside now.”

His brothers parted like the waves to let him through with his precious bundle. The warmth of the cabin hit him like a blast as he walked in. He hesitated, unsure what to do with the boy.

“Put him on the kitchen table,” Harry said.

Gruff grunted in agreement, then headed for the enormous pine kitchen table where they had all their family meals, and laid the boy down gently. His hair looked almost black, as snow and ice melted into little puddles and ran off the table onto the floor.

“We need to get these wet clothes off and get him warmed up,” Brad said.

Gruff looked up to see Brad and Harry with him. “Can you get blankets?”

Harry shook his head. “Skin to skin will be best. Take him to your bedroom and get into bed with him.”

Gruff stared at him. “What?”

“Body warmth is what he needs,” Harry repeated.

“I can’t hug a man,” Gruff stammered, his cheeks heating up.

“You’re gay. You’ve hugged guys before.”

“What if he’s not gay? It’s not like I can ask him for consent.”

“Then apologize to him when he’s not dead,” Harry snapped. “For now, he needs to get warm. If you don’t want to do it, then one of us can.”

“No!” The word erupted out of Gruff’s mouth before he thought about it. “I’ll do it.”

The boy was his! No one else could touch him. No one!

He realized he was growling, and he had to take a deep breath to get himself under control.

“Okay then, little brother,” Harry said mildly, his tone totally belied by his huge smirk. “Get naked and warm him up.”

PJ came in with blankets. Gruff told the three brothers to get out. They saluted him and left. He ignored them all, his attention focused on saving the boy. His boy. He carefully peeled off the wet jacket to reveal a sodden, thin, pale green, long-sleeved t-shirt which clung to his skin. He stripped that off too. The boy’s smooth chest was almost blue with cold, and he was thin, his ribs showing, as if he never got enough to eat. Gruff covered the top half of him with a blanket and pulled off his sneakers and pants. He hesitated at the briefs, but they were just as wet.

“Get it together,” he growled to himself and drew them down the slender legs covered with fine dark hair.

He wrapped the boy up. Not an easy thing to do as the boy was still lax and floppy. Gruff held him close and left the kitchen. Harry had waited for him; the rest of his brothers had disappeared.

Gruff blushed again at Harry’s curious expression, but he said, “Do you think we can save him?”

“I don’t know,” Harry said. “But now he’s got a chance, thanks to