Blaidd
I stuffed a pillow beneath her belly and slid off the bed. The urge to load the dishwasher and clean the kitchen reached its peak. I tugged the covers over her shoulder and went downstairs. Everything was exactly as we’d left it. I started at the table and worked my way into the kitchen.
She hadn’t left much of a mess. It was nothing like the horrendous chaos she’d leave at Caer Virel. Once everything was loaded into the dishwasher, I ran a heated wash.
I needed a cigarette, so I decided to join Hanson in the garage.
His wrists were bleeding from slouching against the restraints. I grabbed a knife and cut the rope. His eyes were swollen and bloodied; I couldn’t tell if he was conscious or not. I lit a cigarette and sat on the metal stool, nudging one of the circular tree trunks his foot was nailed to.
His whimper made me smile.
“It’s your hands tomorrow, if I can find the right type of wood,” I said, blowing smoke over him.
“Those nasty fucking hands that touched my woman,” I snarled, kicking the other wooden block as the image of him grabbing Lielit and drugging her surfaced again.
His screams of pain made me feel slightly better.
I want his last breath, Fenrir hissed, pacing at the thought of killing him.
The arsehole is going to stain my floor, I complained when I noticed the two dark circles spreading beneath the wood.
“I’m sorry,” he whimpered.
“I’m sorry,” I echoed flatly. “Did you think I’d let you live?”
Silence followed as I finished my cigarette, flicking ash onto him every so often.
“Have you ever been in love?” I asked.
“W-what?” he stammered.
“Probably not,” I sighed, leaning forward to stub the cigarette out on his foot.
Monsters needed to feel first.
He was still sobbing when I left the garage. I wasn’t concerned about leaving him untied—not when his feet were nailed to two massive chunks of wood.
Fenrir snickered as I pictured him trying to crawl.
Lielit was in the same position I’d left her in. The larger her belly grew, the more support it required. The last trimester would be hard on her.
I exhaled when I held her again. Sleep came more easily when she was close.
When they were close.
I rested my palm over her belly and closed my eyes.
?
?
?
After a lazy Sunday morning, I took Lielit shopping. She wasn’t very happy about it until I told her it was for the twins. What I didn’t tell her was that the internet had suggested it to me. I remained cautious after the flower fiasco.
We went from shop to shop, and the more items of clothing and furniture we explored, the more excited Lielit became. She took a million pictures and sent them to her mum and Anji. The sales assistants were far too friendly. A few touched Lielit’s belly without invitation.
I drew the line when one tried to touch her hair, pulling Lielit out of reach.
“They’re going to leave their stink on you,” I murmured.
She had the cheek to try to elbow me.
I didn’t understand women.
Or mates.
Holding up matching twin outfits and imagining a nursery in our home made me sweat at the thought of how to get my ring on her finger.
The ring doesn’t matter, Fenrir snapped. The bite does. Complete the bond, moron.
Why are you so agitated?
Why are you letting so many strangers touch her?
What do you want me to do—smack women in broad daylight?
He didn’t reply.
Yeah. Idiot.
?
?
?
Lielit’s security was doubled. I added a female guard to remain with her. She wanted to keep Guard 3, which annoyed me. Apparently, Anji was attached to him. I felt slightly better when Fenrir saw to the demise of the traitorous driver. He was replaced by a woman.
“I thought I might find you in here,” Lielit said from behind.
I turned to see her standing in the doorway.
“You’re obsessed.”
I was.
She took the tiny onesie from my hand.
“My parents invited you for dinner,” she said, admiring the womb-mate onesie. “There may be some backlash.”
I didn’t need the warning.
If anyone took my children from me, I’d be wearing their skin—not inviting them to dinner.
“How do you feel, knowing you helped free those women and children?” she asked, placing a hand on my chest.
“I don’t know them,” I murmured truthfully, shrugging.
She smiled.
“It could have been me.”
I took the onesie and placed it on the chest of drawers before pulling her into me.
“Bouda would have made a mess of them,” I said, resting my chin on her head.
“Not everyone has an animal in them.”
She’d asked me to intervene in any child exploitation cases I came across in the future. Although it wasn’t my business, seeing the photos of children among the adults scheduled to be shipped out had unsettled me.
The sad fact was that child abuse was far more common than Lielit could ever imagine, and I never wanted her exposed to the material I’d encountered in my lifetime.
I changed the subject back to the family dinner, switching off the nursery light as we left.
Some things were best left unsaid—like the tracking implant inside her, and the ones I’d place in our children.
It was the only way I’d ever be able to sleep at night.