Chapter 40
Lemon sweetness coated my tongue. The loaf cake they had bought for me was freshly baked and perfect. I had wanted a treat, something simple, but I hadn’t been able to make myself ask for it. Apparently Wyatt and Carter were mind readers.
“We should get a sleigh,” Colt said, looking at Carter but draping his arm over the back of my chair.
“A sleigh for what?”
“For the kids. We have draft horses, and they can make some lightweight sleighs now. I think it would be fun in the winter once we finally get a good dump of snow.”
“Like jingle bells?” Paisley asked, wearing the adorable pink princess cowboy hat they had purchased for her.
“Exactly like that,” Colt replied with a smile. “We could definitely get them some bells.”
“It sounds idyllic.” I could see it already in my head; rolling hills with sparkling snow, prancing horses, and jingling silver bells. “What about skating?”
“The river wouldn’t be safe for it,” Wyatt said. “We could make a rink, though. I know people who’ve done it, and it’s not too difficult.”
“Mama, it’s snowing!” Cody raced to the window, abandoning his afternoon lesson. “Can we go out and play?”
“Sure. Let’s get your coat on.”
Outside, the kids caught snowflakes on their tongues and threw tennis balls for the dogs to chase.
Wyatt lifted a giggling Nora, spinning her until she shrieked with laughter.
My heart was so full watching them. I sat snuggled up on the porch with Bryan.
Carter and Colt opened up the stable doors, letting the horses go free to trot around in the falling snow.
It all felt like something out of a dream.
“This will be my first winter in Montana,” Bryan told me. “I’ve heard they can be rough.”
“When Carter moved here, he said that New York winters are really wet, and that Montana winters are longer and way colder. He didn’t mind it when it wasn’t a cold snap because it was a dry cold, but we’ve got a lot of weeks where it’s basically too cold to leave the house for long, except we have to anyway, because everyone likes to ignore the threat to life and limb. ”
While the kids played, Bryan and I told each other about winters we had experienced, and I imagined myself in some of his stories, as if it was a life I might’ve lived in another world.
My children didn’t get cold enough to come in until dinner time.
By then they had played themselves out, half asleep while eating.
It was a battle to actually get them ready for bed, but once they were washed up and in their pajamas, they went down without complaint.
“Do we have a plan for tonight?” I asked the others when we reconvened in the living room.
The plan floating around in my head was more hubris than anything else.
I wasn’t ready for all four of them at one time, but I thought about it nonetheless.
Maybe we could make it work if Carter helped.
We could play side-by-side so I wouldn’t have to twist my brain up in knots over trying to manage four people myself.
“Did you have something in mind?” Colt asked.
“We could take advantage of the early bedtime.” I parked myself on his lap, tracing my finger down his chest.
“Yes,” he said, scooping me up and getting to his feet. “Absolutely yes. Who’s invited?”
“Everyone.” The word left my mouth before I could second-guess it.
Colt was already heading to the stairs, the others leaping up to follow. I giggled the whole way up to the nest until he sprawled me out on the bed, caging me to capture my mouth.
I tugged at his shirt, already breathless. When he moved to my throat, Bryan was right there to claim my mouth. I let myself melt into the sensations. Colt was already making his way south, my pussy clenching in anticipation, knowing exactly what he would do when he got there.
Dizzy with desire, I whimpered, trying to drag my shirt off.
The sound of breaking glass had everyone freezing.
“What was that?” I sat up, straining to listen. Abandoning the mood, I got to my feet, Colt holding out a hand so he could slip out ahead of me.
Bryan went with him, sneaking ahead of him on the stairs.
“What is it?” I called down.
“Broken window,” Colt called back. “Shit.”
Wyatt leaned around the corner. “What?”
“Someone threw a rock through the window. I can see people outside.”
I raced to the nearest window, looking down at the ground below. The porch lights were turned on, illuminating the falling snow and too many faces I recognized. Ice poured down my spine.
Carter looked out next to me. “Fuck. Paul is here and he has backup.”
Wyatt’s eyes widened when I spun around. He yelled downstairs. “It’s the Deckers. Carter, call your brother, get that cop cousin on the phone now.”
Panic pounded in my blood. They had at least a dozen people outside, including my father and my first bond. I couldn’t go back. I wouldn’t survive it, not after getting a taste of what it was like to be loved.
I ran down the stairs to the second level, Bryan and Colt joining me after hearing me thunder my way there. “Get the kids upstairs. There are locks on all the doors, right?”
“We’ve got them.” Bryan went for Cody’s room, and Colt got Paisley. I scooped up Nora, my children protesting at being woken. We got them bundled into the studio with a bunch of blankets.
“Stay here and stay quiet until one of us comes to get you.” I kissed each of their heads, making sure they were all tucked in.
“Are we in trouble?” Cody asked, eyes wide and bottom lip trembling.
“No, honey. Mama just has something she needs to deal with and you’ll be safer in here. I love all of you so much.”
Bryan closed up the curtains. “Do you want to stay with them? Or I can.”
“Please, stay with them. Protect them.” I kissed him fiercely, adrenaline pumping through me. “I love you, in case I don’t get a chance to say it after today.”
His eyes shone with tears and he hugged me tightly. “I love you, too.”
I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do, but I couldn’t let them take my kids. Whatever suffering came from what was about to happen was for me to endure, not them.
I closed the door behind me, finding Colt and Wyatt with hunting rifles.
“Do you know how to shoot?” Wyatt asked me.
“I’ve never even held a gun.”
He nodded. “Don’t worry, then.”
Carter ended his call, turning to us. “They’re on their way, but they’re probably half an hour out, maybe less if they speed.”
“Maisie!” Paul’s bellow outside sent a wave of nausea through me.
“Maisie!” My father this time.
I chanced going up to the window, pulling the glass aside so there was only the screen separating us. “What?” I growled.
“You selfish fucking bitch,” Paul snarled. “Get out here now.”
“No. Go home and leave us alone.” I knew there was no chance of that actually happening, but I said it anyway.
“Maisie.” My father’s deep voice carried. “You know you’ve done wrong. Come back home, cleanse the filth you steeped yourself in, and beg your alpha for forgiveness.”
“Please, don’t do this. Let me go.”
“Whores don’t get options,” Paul shouted. “You think I can’t see those men in there? You think I don’t know what you’ve let them do to you to give you that roof over your head?”
Fury burned hot through me. “Go fuck yourself!”
He looked as shocked as if I’d stuck a cattle prod up his ass. I had never sworn at him, never even raised my voice, but the Maisie he had imprisoned was dead now.
A bullet shot through the glass next to Carter’s face. I stared in horror at my father, his hand outstretched with a pistol aimed at the house.
“My next one won’t miss. You come out right now or this place gets burned to the ground.”
Wyatt dragged Carter out of view, my sweet omega love breathing hard. I pushed Colt away from the window. My father wouldn’t shoot me while there was punishment to be handed out.
Paul held up a bottle and a lighter. “Tick, tock, bitch. You’re not down here in thirty seconds, this is going through that living room window.”
Cold fear stopped my breath. My whole body shook as I turned toward the door.
Wyatt grabbed my arm. “You can’t go out there.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks. “I have to.”
“Absolutely fucking not.” Colt blocked my way.
I yanked him down for a kiss. “I love you, and I love the life we could’ve had, but I will not lose you,” I ground out. “They asked for me, not the kids. You guys have to protect them for me. Bryan is my bondmate. He can fight to keep them.”
Carter wrapped himself around me. “Don’t go.”
I kissed him sweetly, resignation taking over. I didn’t have time to linger, so I extracted myself, getting one last kiss from Wyatt.
“Promise me you’ll take care of the kids.”
“Fuck, Maisie,” Carter choked out. “Of course we will, but—”
I couldn’t entertain alternatives, not when we had no time. “Move, Colt. I won’t risk my children or you. I need you to make sure they get the life they deserve.”
Outside, Paul had started a countdown from ten.
“Colt, please.”
I pushed him aside and sprinted down the stairs. I ripped open the front door and my father grabbed Paul’s wrist, halting the lighter from reaching the Molotov cocktail.
“Come here,” my father ordered.
I didn’t want to take a single step off the porch, but Paul wiggled the bottle in a clear threat. The field had others scattered around, all compound alphas.
“You brought so many just for me?”
“No sense in wasting time.” My father shrugged. “A quick show of force and we can all go back to the way things were. We have twenty guns between us. You’ll come with us willingly, or we’ll make sure every one of those alphas you whored yourself out to is dead by morning.”
My eyes burned, my cheeks freezing from the tears. I slipped on my boots, struggling to do them up with my shaking hands. My coat followed before I demanded, “Promise me you won’t come after the kids.”
Paul rolled his eyes. “Fine, but you’re never leaving the compound again, even if I have to chain you up while I’m gone.”
My father glared at him, cuffing him upside the head.
Fear stopped my muscles from responding. How could I step toward that fate?
“Maisie,” my father growled, impatience sharpening his voice.
“How did you find me?”
“That fucking dog,” Paul spat.
“Dog?”
“The brown and white one.” He turned his phone toward me, showing off the photo I’d once sent him of Nora petting Foxtrot outside of the grocery store. “The cashier knew who picked it up, then I knew exactly where you’d run off to. I bet you thought you were so damn clever.”
I forced myself to take a deep breath and closed the door with trembling hands.
I tried to control my sobbing, but by the time I was in front of them, there was no hope of that.
Paul was going to hurt me—a lot, and for a long time.
Just because I had given myself up to save the people I loved didn’t mean a single second of this was easy.
“Back to the cars,” my father ordered, everyone except him and Paul filing down the long driveway. He cupped my cheeks, forcing me to look him in the eye. “All will be well. Let’s get you home.”
Before I could protest, he threw me over his shoulder.
Paul gave me a look of pure evil mixed with ecstatic glee before bringing his lighter to the cloth tucked into the bottle top.
“No!” I screamed. “Paul!”
He hurled the Molotov cocktail, the bottle crashing through the window glass and shattering, flames erupting in the living room.