Chapter 7
AXEL
Settling back at the head of the giant dining room table we had built to fit us and any Little ones who come our way, I stare out at my siblings.
Grayson may be the one undeniably in charge of our business, and she may be fucking bossy as hell, but I’m still the eldest. The one who’s been keeping our family safe and protected for the past two decades.
Which means bearing a certain amount of responsibility, not just for my Little one, but the six people staring back at me.
“I’m going to marry her.”
The pronouncement is met with silence, and a few sly, knowing smiles. Gray, for her part, simply meets my eyes with her own stony gaze.
“You don’t know anything about her.” My sister’s voice is flat, giving nothing of her feelings away. It’s a skill she cultivated at a young age, and even now my heart aches for the need she had to learn it.
“I know she’s mine.” That’s all I need, but I understand if my siblings don’t see it that way.
It’s Elias who speaks now, his voice gruff with the anger that always seems to be simmering just beneath the surface. “She could have family, friends who will come looking for her. She stole a fucking church van, Ax. Means she’s part of a community.”
“And they’ll mourn her loss,” I say with a shrug.
“As soon as anyone comes across that van and puts the pieces together, they’ll assume she wandered out into the woods and succumbed to the elements during the storm.
There’s no reason for them to look for her, and certainly no reason for them to come looking here. ”
My family exchanges meaningful glances before Ford speaks up. “And what about her?”
“I told you. She’s mine.”
“I understand.” Ford’s voice is patient in that way he has.
While he may be as cutthroat as the rest of us when push comes to shove, his heart is far more tender.
If things had been different for us, I have no doubt he would have gone to medical school and become the best goddamn doctor the world had ever seen.
“But if she’s part of a community, she’s going to miss her people.
Is it really fair of you to keep her trapped here? ”
“No.” It’s the honest answer, even if it’s not the one that appeases my family.
“But we can’t send her back, either. We’ve taken enough risks, calculated as they’ve been, by growing our business and helping out our friends on the island.
The last thing we need is someone we have no control over out there in the world talking about us. ”
“He has a point,” Grayson says, her dark eyes never leaving mine.
“Moving the lumber to and from the island was only worth the risk because Maxwell could guarantee our family’s safety.
And because he writes checks with big fat fucking zeros on them.
Melanie is a wildcard. And there’s no telling what she might pick up while she’s stuck here with us.
Sending her home afterward is far too risky. ”
“We put it to a vote.” Bram runs his gaze over the rest of our siblings before returning to me.
As the second oldest, technically, he’s always been my rock, my conscience when I can’t see the forest for the trees.
“It’s how we’ve always made decisions, even before mom and dad died.
I don’t see why this should be any different. ”
Unease settles in my gut. The thought of leaving my fate up to the whims of my family doesn’t sit right, but Bram has a point. It is how we’ve always done things, and being the eldest doesn’t give me the right to shuck our family traditions out the window.
“A vote, then. All those in favor of Melanie staying, raise your hands.”
All but one hand slowly raises in the air.
Ford is the only holdout, which actually helps to ease the churning in my gut.
If Elias was against this, I know I’d have a fight on my hands, but Ford is only sticking to his guns out of worry for my Little girl.
As soon as he sees how happy she is here with us, I have no doubt he’ll change his mind.
“It’s settled then.” A slow smile curves Gray’s lips. “I guess we’re planning a wedding.”
Melanie
“Rise and shine, little one.”
The soft, feminine voice pulls me from my slumber, but I don’t recognize it at first. Whoever that voice belongs to, it certainly isn’t my mother, or any of the women in the church.
It isn’t until I open my eyes, blinking blearily at my surroundings that I remember. Fleeing my own wedding, the van running out of gas, ending up in a house full of terrifying giants.
And Auntie Gray, the owner of the voice. Crouched beside the couch, she runs a hand over my hair. “There you are. Time to get up, now. We have lots of work to do before the ceremony.”
Sitting up, I rub at my eyes. I’ve always hated the way I feel after a nap, groggy and disconnected from the world around me. The feeling is even more pronounced now, waking up in this strange place. So it takes me a moment for her words to really land. “Ceremony?”
“Mmhmm.” With an ease to rival Axel’s strength, she picks me up off the couch and settles me on her hip as she heads for the stairs. “Your Daddy is very anxious to get you tied down, so to speak. Though he might decide to take that literally if you fight him too much.”
“Tied down?” My brain is still too muddled from the nap and I can’t seem to focus. “What do you mean?”
At the top of the stairs, we turn right and head down a long hall to the very last room.
Unlike the rest of the house which has a much more masculine influence, this room is more feminine, but in a quiet, earthy kind of way rather than with frills and bows.
The large canopy bed is lighter than the other furniture, though it’s still gigantic, and it’s covered with a comforter in a deep blue that pairs beautifully with the green and purple silk of the throw pillows on top.
“Is this your room?” I ask, though I already know the answer.
“It is.” Setting me down in front of a large vanity, she winks at me in the mirror. “No boys allowed.”
For the first time since I woke up in this house, happiness flits through my veins. There’s something about being in this space where the men aren’t allowed that makes me feel that sisterhood with Auntie Gray that was missing before. “Really? So if Axel—”
In the reflection, Auntie Gray’s eyebrow kicks up toward her hairline. “Daddy. You call him Daddy, Melanie.”
Okay, apparently not enough of a sisterhood for her to drop that whole nonsense. “If Daddy wanted to spank me, I could just hide out in here?”
“You could. But then I’d have to come and get you, and when I did, I’d have to spank you for being naughty and hiding from your Daddy. So then you’d get two spankings instead of just one. Do you think that would be a good idea?”
Dammit. So much for that plan. “I guess not.”
“Uh-huh.” Picking up an old wooden hairbrush, she runs it through my hair, dispersing the curls my aunt worked so hard to get perfect this morning.
“As I told you before, nobody in this house is going to get between you and your Daddy, especially when you’ve been naughty.
I suggest you put any ideas of using us as human shields out of your mind right now. ”
“But he’s not my Daddy. He’s just some man who found me on the side of the road.”
Switching out the hairbrush for a comb, she parts my hair down the middle, securing one half of my hair while she gets to work braiding one side from the very front of my hairline.
“He wants to be your Daddy. And really, you could do much worse than my brother. I know Axel seems like a grumpy asshole, and he is some of the time, but he’s been waiting for a Little girl to call his own for a very long time.
If you let him, he’ll spoil you rotten and treat you like a literal princess. ”
There is some part of me that doesn’t entirely object to that idea.
Back home, marriage means becoming a wife, a mother, submitting myself to my husband’s needs and demands.
But Auntie Gray almost makes it sound like here the situation would be reversed.
Like I’d be the one taken care of instead of the other way around.
But no. I know how men think, and at the end of the day they’re all the same. Gray just thinks more highly of her brothers because they’re her family. And, from what I’ve gathered during my short time here, they’re all she has.
“I don’t want to be a princess.”
With one braid completed, she shifts to the other side of my head. “What do you want?”
I open my mouth to answer, but no words come. And I realize with a sudden, horrifying clarity that I have no clue what I want. Everything in my life up until the moment I jumped out that window has been decided for me with little to no input from me.
“I want… I want to be able to choose what I want.”
To my surprise, understanding warms her gaze as her fingers make deft work of the second braid. “Yeah, I get that.”
“You do?”
“I do. Growing up with six bossy-as-fuck older brothers made me realize early on that if I wasn’t going to just let them steamroll me, I had to stand my ground and stand it firmly right from the start.”
“I can’t see anyone trying to boss you around.”
Chuckling, she ties off the braid, picking both of them up to wrap around my head in a sort of crown as she once more meets my gaze in the mirror. “Oh, they try. Sometimes I let them succeed, because I know they love me and just want me to be safe and happy. Which is all your Daddy wants for you.”
Our reflection blurs as fresh tears well in my eyes. “How can I be happy when he’s trying to trap me here?”
Auntie Gray hesitates, and that hesitation is all the answer I need: You won’t.
“Your Daddy is a good man,” she says at length, giving my shoulders a squeeze. “And he’ll move heaven and earth to make you the happiest Little girl in the world if you let him. But for now…”
Reaching over, she picks up a worn wooden box from the vanity, running her fingers lovingly over the lid. “This has been worn by all the women in my family for… well, for longer than I can remember, honestly. Mama would have wanted you to wear it today.”
My heart skips a bit when she flips open the lid to reveal the most stunning tiara I have ever seen in my life. The soft gold is twisted into beautiful flowers with diamonds sparkling at their centers.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper, almost like a prayer as Auntie Gray fixes the gorgeous creation in my hair. I look even more like a bride than I did back at the church, and it’s then my brain finally catches up with what’s happening.
This isn’t simply some sweet moment between me and the only woman in the house. Just like my mother, she’s been sent to prepare the lamb for slaughter.
Fuck.