Genesis Lost - Books 1 - 6, page 86
He still loved me.
“Why are you sending me away then?”
“Because it is dangerous. You know it is. But… there’s more.” His face turned rigid, and his gaze turned to Rose for two eternities before he went on. “Max ran some barbaric tests, and he confirmed that… I know now that I…”
“That you can’t —”
“Don’t!” He silenced me with his hand. “I’m sick of being such a fucking wimp. I couldn’t give you Rose, and I won’t be able to give you another child. Because I can’t. There. I said it. I can’t make children. Shit… I should have done this years ago.”
Disappointment slid over me. Not because he couldn’t give me a child, but because he thought it mattered.
“It was never about children, Rowan. We could have adopted. It was about —”
“Me not being there for you. Ignoring how much you suffered from my damn ignorance. I understand that now.” He fisted a handful of his hair and rested his forehead against his palm. “Shit, I feel so ashamed. I was so scared you would leave me if I had myself tested and… you got no idea how sorry I am. This is all my fault.”
I leaned over to him and pressed my head against his, Rose cradled between our two bodies. “No, it isn’t. I shouldn’t have run away.”
“Running away was the best thing you could have done. It was just the right boom I needed for a wake-up call. Besides, it gave us Rose. I didn’t mean to send you away, Darya. When Max confirmed the results, it seemed so much easier to split than taking responsibility for this mess.”
“Then don’t send me away,” I whispered, my body trembling from the tip of my nose down to the soles of my feet. I stabbed myself in the heart with my own plea. I waited for his answer, one agonizing heartbeat at a time.
“They will try to replace me.”
“Then let them try!” I dug my gloves into his sides, shaking him in desperation yet still barely moving his massive body. “We went through things together far worse than this. Let me be there for you now and make up for the time I wasn’t. Please!”
A tear landed on my sleeve. It wasn’t mine.
“I feel so fucking weak,” he said, his vocal cords a drowned, shaky mess.
I let go of his sides and wrapped my arms around his head, pressing kisses onto that hair I loved braiding so much. “I know you feel like a lesser man, but believe me you’re not. How many men would have the strength to accept a child like Rose as their own? How many men leave bastards behind and never look after them? Those are lesser men, not you. You put your family above your own life. Without hesitation. That’s something only a true man does.”
“So, you ’don’t...” a sob ripped through his words, “want to leave me? You ’don’t think ’I’m a joke?”
“Rowan,” I whispered into his hair. “Of all the men in our Clan, other Clans or beyond walls, you are the very best of them.”
Seconds ticked into minutes without a word said. I cradled my husband’s bobbing head, sheltered underneath my folded arms. Rose gave the occasional coo from underneath this web; not upset or impatient, but rather eager about being enclosed by the two people who loved her the most.
Rowan freed his head from the tangle, his silver-speckled beard standing wild in all directions. “Did you really think I would let you run away again?”
“Yes,” I whispered and brushed the unruly strands of hair back into his beard. “But I’m happy that I wasn’t successful this time around. And even happier that you found me. Did you read my note?”
He shook his head. “Nope. And I won’t ever open it. But I appreciate you tried leaving something behind this time.”
He used the snowmobile to push himself up together with Rose, then offered his hand and helped me up. His arm slung around me, and he pulled me into his muscular chest. A good kind of dizziness overcame me, and he sealed it with his trembling lips placed onto mine.
“I’ll bring you back home, woman, where you belong.” He grabbed the orange backpack, flung it over his shoulder, and grabbed my hand to pull me behind him.
“But the snowmobile…”
“That piece of junk is beyond saving,” he said and pointed at the juniper, some thirty feet in front of us. “Now mine, on the other hand, is in great shape, so you better hold on tight because I got no time to waste.”
He wasn’t kidding. Impatient and with an unchecked strength, he picked me up by my waist and sat me onto his snowmobile.
With Rose tugged into my coat and zipped in front, Rowan’s hurry and the speed of the engine let tears skitter across my cheeks. I clasped my arms around his chest and pulled us closer against him, the strong but even beat of his heart pounding against my palm.
By the time we reached the cabin, a handful of scattered stars had pushed through the thick, loaded clouds.
I let my hand rub across Rose’s back, her face pale and soft underneath the night sky, except for the red tip of her nose. “She fell to sleep.”
“That suits me just fine.”
He helped me off the seat, then slid one arm underneath my butt and the other around my shoulders to scoop me up.
“What are you doing?”
“Carrying my wife over the threshold,” he said, making his way up the stairs. He turned sideways, picked up his leg, and supported my weight with his thigh while he turned the knob. “Feels even better than the first time. Probably because I carry you two as a bundle now.”
He lowered me onto the kitchen rug. “Think she’ll wake up if you put her in the crib?”
“Let’s find out.”
I walked over to the bedroom and stepped up to her crib, lowering her down slowly, and placing her onto her mattress with skillful ninja-mom movements. All the while, Rowan pushed and pulled our bed frames, leaned mattresses against walls, and rearranged them a moment later.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Getting her out from between our beds. Go lift the other side.”
I did as told, and together we carried bed and baby over to the wall. He pushed our bed frames back together, and I helped him drag the bulky mattresses back onto the frame of welded wire.
“What do you think?” he asked, placing his hands onto his hips with a pride smirk on his face.
I leaned against him and pressed my head into his hard chest. “Looks like a marital bed to me.”
“Damn right.” He scooped me up once more and wrapped my legs around his waist. Then he walked me over to the bed and threw me onto the mattress. “And you need to quit running away from your husband.”
“Or…” I said in a drawn out way, freeing myself from my coat and opening the button on my Thermo pants.
“Or I’ll start chaining you to this bed, Darya.” He climbed onto the bed and pulled the sweater over his head, the look at his strong, inked torso making the hairs along my neck stand on end. “And have my way with you twice a day. Or four.”
He crawled across the mattress and closed in on me, unbuttoning and losing his pants on the way. His cock hung between his legs like a metal rod, pointing right at the target.
He gave a tug at my pants. “Take that ugly thing off.”
“But it keeps me so warm.”
“Oh, you won’t feel cold one bit, I’ll make sure of that,” he said in a voice so deep and husky, I could feel my pussy quiver from the inside.
I kicked it off with my legs and sent it to the ground along with my sweater and the Thermo shirt from underneath. Then I leaned back onto my elbows and raised my hips, swaying my white panty from one side to the other.
He lowered himself onto me, kissing my cheeks and licking my earlobe. His fingers reached for my thighs, working themselves up and stroking between my lips. They pulled my panty down, then he one-finger-dived inside, rotated along my walls, only to come out again and spread my juice across my entrance.
I closed my eyes and let myself fall onto my back, clueless as to how he had sunk his head between my legs. Until his tongue worked my pussy, that is, licking my clit and sucking my lips wide open. I arched into him, rubbing my drenched pussy across his mouth.
“Turn around,” he said, the lust in his voice offering little preparation for what came next.
He plunged his arms underneath my legs and, without effort or strain, flipped me around and onto my stomach.
The tip of his cock rubbed against my folds, wetting himself on me, and testing my patience. I had none and pushed myself up on all fours, arching my back and offering myself to him.
I wanted him.
Needed him inside me.
His fingers slung around my hips. He pulled me against him, driving his thick cock inside me, leaving no time for my walls to stretch.
I moaned. Reason enough for him to grab harder and push deeper. Each thrust he gave turned my body into a landscape of shivers and trembles.
“Shit,” he said with a quiver and let his thrusts come to a stop. “Don’t move an inch, or I’ll blow.”
I clenched my pussy around his cock, teasing a deep groan from his lips. His hips swung into desperate mini-humps. “I told you not to move.”
I stretched out my hands in front of me and lowered my upper body down onto my breasts. “Did you now?”
“Oh, I know what you’re doing. Stop teasing me like that.”
“Or what?”
He quickly wrestled his thighs between mine. “Or this.”
A kick of his knees spread my legs apart. He split between me, leaving my pussy wide open and exposed, ready for him to take.
His rocking motion continued, and he plunged inside of me full force. He fucked me hard and fucked me good, pounding against me until there was nothing between the wall and my head but my outstretched arms, palms pressed against a log.
“You won’t run away again,” he said, then slapped his burning hand onto my ass. “Say it. No more running away.”
“Ah.” I threw my hand between my legs and fingered my clit, pushing back against him with the other. “No more running away.”
He raked his hand through my hair and grabbed a fistful, pulling my head back and himself deeper inside me. My clit quaked, sending trembles through the inside of my pussy.
I let out a whimper. “Shit, Rowan, fuck me.”
He didn’t. Instead, he pulled out and had me turned onto my back faster than my mind realized. Hot and hard, he pushed back inside of me and began pumping once more, cupping my face inside his palm.
“Look at me,” he said and slowed down his thrusts, turning them into an intense rubbing against my clit. “You’re my wife, and nobody will ever take you from me.”
His voice shook, and his face turned into a grimace of pain and relief as my body vibrated in response.
I slung my arm around him, pulling myself against his chest, my orgasm ripping through the clouds of our past. All the while, he emptied himself inside of me, leaving nothing behind — nothing but love, protection and an unbroken bond between us.
Twenty-Seven
Rowan
The morning sun touched Darya at the right angle, painting her face with peace and contentment. A knotted strand of hair rested on her shoulder.
If her snowmobile hadn’t broken down only a few miles outside the village, she probably would have gotten away, leaving me behind with the heartbreak I would have deserved. And her daughter — a sacrifice I would have never accepted, but one that deserved my gratefulness, nonetheless.
“I know you’re staring at me,” she whispered without opening her eyes. “I can literally feel your eyes on me.”
I placed the softest kiss onto her forehead. “Of course. I gotta keep an eye on you from now on. Rumor has it you suffer from wanderlust.”
“Very funny.”
She stretched her arms above her head, the wool blanket covering less than half of her beautiful breasts.
I rolled myself on top of her and caressed her nipple with my tongue, my cock waking up for good and growing hard between the hollow of her covered legs.
“Mmh,” she moaned. “What are you doing?”
“Loving my wife.”
“Can’t you do that after breakfast?”
She tossed onto her side. Something she clearly didn’t think through.
I spooned myself behind her and wrapped my arm around her, my hand cupping her breast and gently kneading it.
“That depends,” I whispered in her ear. “You gonna burn the bacon again?”
She gave a tired smirk. “Maybe.”
“You did it on purpose, right? To piss me off?”
Her ass moved away from me faster than I could grab for it. She turned around and put a quick peck onto my lips, then sat on top of me and ground herself against me. “Maybe.”
She rubbed herself on my boner, her beautiful body arched back, giving me a stunning view at my gorgeous wife. Over a year ago we could have resolved the issue if I would have been man enough. Instead, we wasted a year apart from each other. That’s how long it took me to grow into the man she deserved; then some.
Coos and babbles made us turn our heads at the same time. Rose banged her caterpillar rattle against the rail of her crib. Nothing but a fair warning, because soon she’d cry for her breakfast.
“I’ll get her,” Darya said, climbed off me and hurried over to the crib. She pointed at my erection. “How about you collect yourself, while I fix her a bottle and see if I can find some eggs.”
My white bathrobe hung lazily across her shoulders, and she rolled up the sleeves what must’ve been seven times. No matter how much she tightened the belt, the thing seemed to swallow her whole. Not to mention the way she dragged two feet of excess fabric across the floor and out of the bedroom, Rose clinging to her hip.
“Scrambled or over easy?” came from the kitchen.
“Neither.” I got up and stretched my body, my muscles lighter than they had been in a long time. “Make it sunny side up for me, please.”
I grabbed the nearest sweater I could find and pulled it over my head when a knock on the door made me look around, combined with a familiar voice.
“You dressed, chieftain?” River asked, his shadow looming at an appropriate distance behind the half-open door. “Can I come in?”
I looked down at the tent in my briefs, not entirely broken down yet. “Not unless you want to be impressed. Give me a second. I’ll be right out.”
I pulled fresh sweatpants from the closet and got dressed, joining River and my two girls in the kitchen. The room filled with what a lazy Sunday should smell like, plenty of butter and a hot iron skillet. River didn’t seem to notice, however, and his eyes remained focused on the blue flame of the range.
“It’s a bit early to rule a Clan, don’t you think?” I gave him a manly pat on the back, grabbed a plate, and offered it to him. “Had breakfast yet?”
“Nah, I’m good,” he said, his eyes still locked on the fire glistening underneath the skillet for a few more seconds before he turned to look at me. “Adair came back half an hour ago. Said he needed a shower first and asked me to give a heads-up before he gives you a detailed report.”
“So? Did he find anything that might give us a clue as to what the hell is going on out there? Any trace of the pastor?”
“No sign of him. But… they found bones.” He said it quickly as if the words alone drove fear into him.
“What do you mean with they found bones?” I placed the plate on the counter. “People from the Districts aren’t exactly skilled hunters. Where would they get the meat from?”
His eyes turned flat, and he jerked away from the stove. “They were human bones, Rowan. Burnt black, like the surrounding area. Around seventeen feet. Perhaps a bit more.”
“I’ll change her diaper,” Darya said, turned the flame off and hurried out of the room, puffed cheeks hiding behind her palm.
A chill licked over my bare neck, the draft coming from underneath the front door more noticeable than ever. It drove the cold right into my marrow. A lot of gasoline is needed to burn a corpse down to the bone.
“Max’s dad?”
“They don’t know,” he said, his voice sounding more and more distant. “Adair said it was a femur, and appeared to belong to a woman. But he can’t say for sure. Said he needed to come back with shovels and other equipment, to see what exactly happened.”
“I won’t let him go down there a second time. And to be clear, neither will you.” I wiped my sweaty palms on the kitchen rag and leaned my backside against the counter. I always knew being a chieftain was a shitty job but… damn… it turned worse by the day. “Over there, people are being burned a few miles away from the District’s gate. Over here, guys can’t wait to stab a knife in my back. Fucking shit.”
“Yeah, things went to hell the moment Ayanna set foot into our village.” His shoulders dropped, and his gaze went from flat to lifeless. “Sometimes, I feel responsible for all this mess. If I wouldn’t have fallen in love with —
“Bullshit,” I said. “You can’t choose whom you fall in love with. And even then, it wouldn’t have changed my sister bringing Max. We knew the high roll with the council wouldn’t last forever. Guess we didn’t expect it to be this bad.”
The floor creaked. Darya was listening around the corner.
“What are you planning to do?” River asked.
“Talk to Adair, I guess. Maybe he’s got more details. I might drive down there myself. As long as we don’t know who that person was or what happened, there’s no reason for me to do anything.” I couldn’t hide the big breath I took, the volume of it wearing down on my shoulders. “I know Max wants answers, but right now, I need to concentrate on keeping myself and my family alive. How’s Ayanna doing?”
“You know, the usual. Morning sickness now and then. We keep a stack of cookies on the stool beside the bed. It helps if she takes a nibble before she gets up.”
“And you?” I asked, boring my eyes into him. “How are you doing?”
The corners of his mouth lifted into a smile. “I feel like I’ve finally come home.”
“Good.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” he said and stepped outside into the cold, sunny morning. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Why are you sending me away then?”
“Because it is dangerous. You know it is. But… there’s more.” His face turned rigid, and his gaze turned to Rose for two eternities before he went on. “Max ran some barbaric tests, and he confirmed that… I know now that I…”
“That you can’t —”
“Don’t!” He silenced me with his hand. “I’m sick of being such a fucking wimp. I couldn’t give you Rose, and I won’t be able to give you another child. Because I can’t. There. I said it. I can’t make children. Shit… I should have done this years ago.”
Disappointment slid over me. Not because he couldn’t give me a child, but because he thought it mattered.
“It was never about children, Rowan. We could have adopted. It was about —”
“Me not being there for you. Ignoring how much you suffered from my damn ignorance. I understand that now.” He fisted a handful of his hair and rested his forehead against his palm. “Shit, I feel so ashamed. I was so scared you would leave me if I had myself tested and… you got no idea how sorry I am. This is all my fault.”
I leaned over to him and pressed my head against his, Rose cradled between our two bodies. “No, it isn’t. I shouldn’t have run away.”
“Running away was the best thing you could have done. It was just the right boom I needed for a wake-up call. Besides, it gave us Rose. I didn’t mean to send you away, Darya. When Max confirmed the results, it seemed so much easier to split than taking responsibility for this mess.”
“Then don’t send me away,” I whispered, my body trembling from the tip of my nose down to the soles of my feet. I stabbed myself in the heart with my own plea. I waited for his answer, one agonizing heartbeat at a time.
“They will try to replace me.”
“Then let them try!” I dug my gloves into his sides, shaking him in desperation yet still barely moving his massive body. “We went through things together far worse than this. Let me be there for you now and make up for the time I wasn’t. Please!”
A tear landed on my sleeve. It wasn’t mine.
“I feel so fucking weak,” he said, his vocal cords a drowned, shaky mess.
I let go of his sides and wrapped my arms around his head, pressing kisses onto that hair I loved braiding so much. “I know you feel like a lesser man, but believe me you’re not. How many men would have the strength to accept a child like Rose as their own? How many men leave bastards behind and never look after them? Those are lesser men, not you. You put your family above your own life. Without hesitation. That’s something only a true man does.”
“So, you ’don’t...” a sob ripped through his words, “want to leave me? You ’don’t think ’I’m a joke?”
“Rowan,” I whispered into his hair. “Of all the men in our Clan, other Clans or beyond walls, you are the very best of them.”
Seconds ticked into minutes without a word said. I cradled my husband’s bobbing head, sheltered underneath my folded arms. Rose gave the occasional coo from underneath this web; not upset or impatient, but rather eager about being enclosed by the two people who loved her the most.
Rowan freed his head from the tangle, his silver-speckled beard standing wild in all directions. “Did you really think I would let you run away again?”
“Yes,” I whispered and brushed the unruly strands of hair back into his beard. “But I’m happy that I wasn’t successful this time around. And even happier that you found me. Did you read my note?”
He shook his head. “Nope. And I won’t ever open it. But I appreciate you tried leaving something behind this time.”
He used the snowmobile to push himself up together with Rose, then offered his hand and helped me up. His arm slung around me, and he pulled me into his muscular chest. A good kind of dizziness overcame me, and he sealed it with his trembling lips placed onto mine.
“I’ll bring you back home, woman, where you belong.” He grabbed the orange backpack, flung it over his shoulder, and grabbed my hand to pull me behind him.
“But the snowmobile…”
“That piece of junk is beyond saving,” he said and pointed at the juniper, some thirty feet in front of us. “Now mine, on the other hand, is in great shape, so you better hold on tight because I got no time to waste.”
He wasn’t kidding. Impatient and with an unchecked strength, he picked me up by my waist and sat me onto his snowmobile.
With Rose tugged into my coat and zipped in front, Rowan’s hurry and the speed of the engine let tears skitter across my cheeks. I clasped my arms around his chest and pulled us closer against him, the strong but even beat of his heart pounding against my palm.
By the time we reached the cabin, a handful of scattered stars had pushed through the thick, loaded clouds.
I let my hand rub across Rose’s back, her face pale and soft underneath the night sky, except for the red tip of her nose. “She fell to sleep.”
“That suits me just fine.”
He helped me off the seat, then slid one arm underneath my butt and the other around my shoulders to scoop me up.
“What are you doing?”
“Carrying my wife over the threshold,” he said, making his way up the stairs. He turned sideways, picked up his leg, and supported my weight with his thigh while he turned the knob. “Feels even better than the first time. Probably because I carry you two as a bundle now.”
He lowered me onto the kitchen rug. “Think she’ll wake up if you put her in the crib?”
“Let’s find out.”
I walked over to the bedroom and stepped up to her crib, lowering her down slowly, and placing her onto her mattress with skillful ninja-mom movements. All the while, Rowan pushed and pulled our bed frames, leaned mattresses against walls, and rearranged them a moment later.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Getting her out from between our beds. Go lift the other side.”
I did as told, and together we carried bed and baby over to the wall. He pushed our bed frames back together, and I helped him drag the bulky mattresses back onto the frame of welded wire.
“What do you think?” he asked, placing his hands onto his hips with a pride smirk on his face.
I leaned against him and pressed my head into his hard chest. “Looks like a marital bed to me.”
“Damn right.” He scooped me up once more and wrapped my legs around his waist. Then he walked me over to the bed and threw me onto the mattress. “And you need to quit running away from your husband.”
“Or…” I said in a drawn out way, freeing myself from my coat and opening the button on my Thermo pants.
“Or I’ll start chaining you to this bed, Darya.” He climbed onto the bed and pulled the sweater over his head, the look at his strong, inked torso making the hairs along my neck stand on end. “And have my way with you twice a day. Or four.”
He crawled across the mattress and closed in on me, unbuttoning and losing his pants on the way. His cock hung between his legs like a metal rod, pointing right at the target.
He gave a tug at my pants. “Take that ugly thing off.”
“But it keeps me so warm.”
“Oh, you won’t feel cold one bit, I’ll make sure of that,” he said in a voice so deep and husky, I could feel my pussy quiver from the inside.
I kicked it off with my legs and sent it to the ground along with my sweater and the Thermo shirt from underneath. Then I leaned back onto my elbows and raised my hips, swaying my white panty from one side to the other.
He lowered himself onto me, kissing my cheeks and licking my earlobe. His fingers reached for my thighs, working themselves up and stroking between my lips. They pulled my panty down, then he one-finger-dived inside, rotated along my walls, only to come out again and spread my juice across my entrance.
I closed my eyes and let myself fall onto my back, clueless as to how he had sunk his head between my legs. Until his tongue worked my pussy, that is, licking my clit and sucking my lips wide open. I arched into him, rubbing my drenched pussy across his mouth.
“Turn around,” he said, the lust in his voice offering little preparation for what came next.
He plunged his arms underneath my legs and, without effort or strain, flipped me around and onto my stomach.
The tip of his cock rubbed against my folds, wetting himself on me, and testing my patience. I had none and pushed myself up on all fours, arching my back and offering myself to him.
I wanted him.
Needed him inside me.
His fingers slung around my hips. He pulled me against him, driving his thick cock inside me, leaving no time for my walls to stretch.
I moaned. Reason enough for him to grab harder and push deeper. Each thrust he gave turned my body into a landscape of shivers and trembles.
“Shit,” he said with a quiver and let his thrusts come to a stop. “Don’t move an inch, or I’ll blow.”
I clenched my pussy around his cock, teasing a deep groan from his lips. His hips swung into desperate mini-humps. “I told you not to move.”
I stretched out my hands in front of me and lowered my upper body down onto my breasts. “Did you now?”
“Oh, I know what you’re doing. Stop teasing me like that.”
“Or what?”
He quickly wrestled his thighs between mine. “Or this.”
A kick of his knees spread my legs apart. He split between me, leaving my pussy wide open and exposed, ready for him to take.
His rocking motion continued, and he plunged inside of me full force. He fucked me hard and fucked me good, pounding against me until there was nothing between the wall and my head but my outstretched arms, palms pressed against a log.
“You won’t run away again,” he said, then slapped his burning hand onto my ass. “Say it. No more running away.”
“Ah.” I threw my hand between my legs and fingered my clit, pushing back against him with the other. “No more running away.”
He raked his hand through my hair and grabbed a fistful, pulling my head back and himself deeper inside me. My clit quaked, sending trembles through the inside of my pussy.
I let out a whimper. “Shit, Rowan, fuck me.”
He didn’t. Instead, he pulled out and had me turned onto my back faster than my mind realized. Hot and hard, he pushed back inside of me and began pumping once more, cupping my face inside his palm.
“Look at me,” he said and slowed down his thrusts, turning them into an intense rubbing against my clit. “You’re my wife, and nobody will ever take you from me.”
His voice shook, and his face turned into a grimace of pain and relief as my body vibrated in response.
I slung my arm around him, pulling myself against his chest, my orgasm ripping through the clouds of our past. All the while, he emptied himself inside of me, leaving nothing behind — nothing but love, protection and an unbroken bond between us.
Twenty-Seven
Rowan
The morning sun touched Darya at the right angle, painting her face with peace and contentment. A knotted strand of hair rested on her shoulder.
If her snowmobile hadn’t broken down only a few miles outside the village, she probably would have gotten away, leaving me behind with the heartbreak I would have deserved. And her daughter — a sacrifice I would have never accepted, but one that deserved my gratefulness, nonetheless.
“I know you’re staring at me,” she whispered without opening her eyes. “I can literally feel your eyes on me.”
I placed the softest kiss onto her forehead. “Of course. I gotta keep an eye on you from now on. Rumor has it you suffer from wanderlust.”
“Very funny.”
She stretched her arms above her head, the wool blanket covering less than half of her beautiful breasts.
I rolled myself on top of her and caressed her nipple with my tongue, my cock waking up for good and growing hard between the hollow of her covered legs.
“Mmh,” she moaned. “What are you doing?”
“Loving my wife.”
“Can’t you do that after breakfast?”
She tossed onto her side. Something she clearly didn’t think through.
I spooned myself behind her and wrapped my arm around her, my hand cupping her breast and gently kneading it.
“That depends,” I whispered in her ear. “You gonna burn the bacon again?”
She gave a tired smirk. “Maybe.”
“You did it on purpose, right? To piss me off?”
Her ass moved away from me faster than I could grab for it. She turned around and put a quick peck onto my lips, then sat on top of me and ground herself against me. “Maybe.”
She rubbed herself on my boner, her beautiful body arched back, giving me a stunning view at my gorgeous wife. Over a year ago we could have resolved the issue if I would have been man enough. Instead, we wasted a year apart from each other. That’s how long it took me to grow into the man she deserved; then some.
Coos and babbles made us turn our heads at the same time. Rose banged her caterpillar rattle against the rail of her crib. Nothing but a fair warning, because soon she’d cry for her breakfast.
“I’ll get her,” Darya said, climbed off me and hurried over to the crib. She pointed at my erection. “How about you collect yourself, while I fix her a bottle and see if I can find some eggs.”
My white bathrobe hung lazily across her shoulders, and she rolled up the sleeves what must’ve been seven times. No matter how much she tightened the belt, the thing seemed to swallow her whole. Not to mention the way she dragged two feet of excess fabric across the floor and out of the bedroom, Rose clinging to her hip.
“Scrambled or over easy?” came from the kitchen.
“Neither.” I got up and stretched my body, my muscles lighter than they had been in a long time. “Make it sunny side up for me, please.”
I grabbed the nearest sweater I could find and pulled it over my head when a knock on the door made me look around, combined with a familiar voice.
“You dressed, chieftain?” River asked, his shadow looming at an appropriate distance behind the half-open door. “Can I come in?”
I looked down at the tent in my briefs, not entirely broken down yet. “Not unless you want to be impressed. Give me a second. I’ll be right out.”
I pulled fresh sweatpants from the closet and got dressed, joining River and my two girls in the kitchen. The room filled with what a lazy Sunday should smell like, plenty of butter and a hot iron skillet. River didn’t seem to notice, however, and his eyes remained focused on the blue flame of the range.
“It’s a bit early to rule a Clan, don’t you think?” I gave him a manly pat on the back, grabbed a plate, and offered it to him. “Had breakfast yet?”
“Nah, I’m good,” he said, his eyes still locked on the fire glistening underneath the skillet for a few more seconds before he turned to look at me. “Adair came back half an hour ago. Said he needed a shower first and asked me to give a heads-up before he gives you a detailed report.”
“So? Did he find anything that might give us a clue as to what the hell is going on out there? Any trace of the pastor?”
“No sign of him. But… they found bones.” He said it quickly as if the words alone drove fear into him.
“What do you mean with they found bones?” I placed the plate on the counter. “People from the Districts aren’t exactly skilled hunters. Where would they get the meat from?”
His eyes turned flat, and he jerked away from the stove. “They were human bones, Rowan. Burnt black, like the surrounding area. Around seventeen feet. Perhaps a bit more.”
“I’ll change her diaper,” Darya said, turned the flame off and hurried out of the room, puffed cheeks hiding behind her palm.
A chill licked over my bare neck, the draft coming from underneath the front door more noticeable than ever. It drove the cold right into my marrow. A lot of gasoline is needed to burn a corpse down to the bone.
“Max’s dad?”
“They don’t know,” he said, his voice sounding more and more distant. “Adair said it was a femur, and appeared to belong to a woman. But he can’t say for sure. Said he needed to come back with shovels and other equipment, to see what exactly happened.”
“I won’t let him go down there a second time. And to be clear, neither will you.” I wiped my sweaty palms on the kitchen rag and leaned my backside against the counter. I always knew being a chieftain was a shitty job but… damn… it turned worse by the day. “Over there, people are being burned a few miles away from the District’s gate. Over here, guys can’t wait to stab a knife in my back. Fucking shit.”
“Yeah, things went to hell the moment Ayanna set foot into our village.” His shoulders dropped, and his gaze went from flat to lifeless. “Sometimes, I feel responsible for all this mess. If I wouldn’t have fallen in love with —
“Bullshit,” I said. “You can’t choose whom you fall in love with. And even then, it wouldn’t have changed my sister bringing Max. We knew the high roll with the council wouldn’t last forever. Guess we didn’t expect it to be this bad.”
The floor creaked. Darya was listening around the corner.
“What are you planning to do?” River asked.
“Talk to Adair, I guess. Maybe he’s got more details. I might drive down there myself. As long as we don’t know who that person was or what happened, there’s no reason for me to do anything.” I couldn’t hide the big breath I took, the volume of it wearing down on my shoulders. “I know Max wants answers, but right now, I need to concentrate on keeping myself and my family alive. How’s Ayanna doing?”
“You know, the usual. Morning sickness now and then. We keep a stack of cookies on the stool beside the bed. It helps if she takes a nibble before she gets up.”
“And you?” I asked, boring my eyes into him. “How are you doing?”
The corners of his mouth lifted into a smile. “I feel like I’ve finally come home.”
“Good.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” he said and stepped outside into the cold, sunny morning. “Let me know if you need anything.”
