Kaid smiled lovingly at her, “Yes, Baby, yours.”
She looked down at the pie her arm was now wrapped around, then back at Kaid, “All mine?”
“Absolutely.”
She placed the bite on her fork into her mouth and smiled, pulling the pie plate closer to her chest, her eyes just beginning to show a little of the violet shade they normally were.
“What is this?” she finally asked.
“It’s pecan pie, Baby. Do you like it?” Kaid answered her.
“I have never had this before. I want to eat only this,” she said, nodding her head like a very important decision had just been made, as she placed another bite on her tongue.
“Well, now, Delilah, I can make sure you have some often, but you need to eat other things too, so you can be healthy and strong. Alright?” Sadie told her in a motherly fashion.
“But I like this best.”
Avaleigh stood up and went to the cabinet, pulling out a cake and another pie, this one cherry. “Look, Delilah, we have these desserts, too. Pecan isn’t the only one.”
Delilah paused a moment in her devouring of the pecan pie to look at the others that Avaleigh had placed on the table. Ave sliced them up and started serving them around. She placed a saucer with a slice of the cherry pie and the chocolate cake on it in front of Delilah also.
Delilah looked at the saucer, then at her pie.
“You don’t have to share your pie if you’d like to taste these, too,” Avaleigh told her.
“Truth?”
“Truth”
Delilah tightened her hold on the pie plate the pecan pie sat in and reached out with her fork to try the cherry pie. “This one is good, too. But I like mine better.” Then she tried the chocolate cake, “This one is good. Does it come in pie?”
“Yes, actually it does,” Sadie told her. “But we have to eat our growing food first, or we cannot have our dessert.”
“Why?”
“Because the growing food fuels your body, helps you grow strong and healthy. The dessert is a treat for having eaten all your growing food.”
Delilah looked at Sadie suspiciously, “How do you know this?”
Sadie, flustered, sputtered for a moment, “Well, because I’m a mom. Moms know these things.”
Immediately Delilah became subdued, even putting her fork down on her pie plate.
“What is it, Lilah? What’s wrong?” Kaid asked her.
“I did not know.”
“Didn’t know what?”
“That you must eat your growing food first.”
It would have been comical if wasn’t so sad. Delilah truly believed that she had done something wrong.
“It’s okay. You’ll learn these things,” Sadie told her.
“No. I will not. I fear I will make many mistakes.”
“You’re a smart girl; you’ll figure it out, Honey,” Sadie tried to reassure her.
Delilah didn’t say anything for a moment. When she finally raised her eyes to Sadie’s, there were tears in them, “I have no mother. I have never had a mother. Who will teach me?”
Sadie just about melted at the agony, loss and confusion in Delilah’s eyes. She rushed around the table, wrapping her arms around Delilah and hugging her tight. At first Delilah stiffened in Sadie’s arms. But when Sadie told her in a tear-filled voice, “I’ll be your mom, Delilah. You have me now. I’ll teach you anything you want to know,” Delilah hugged her back. Not trusting her own voice not to crack if she spoke, she didn’t; she just nodded and continued to hold onto Sadie. After a few more moments Sadie reached for Delilah’s fork and leaned back away from her, so she could look at her, placing it into her hand. “You ate plenty of growing food, Honey. You eat all the pie you want.” Delilah grinned at Sadie and went back to her pie. Sadie only made it halfway back around the table before Delilah dashed to her and wrapped her up into another hug. “Thank you, Miss Sadie,” she whispered. “You’re welcome, Child,” Sadie told her. The little lady had to reach up on her tiptoes to pull Delilah’s head down gently so that she could place a kiss on her forehead. Delilah grinned at her again and went to take her seat next to Kaid.
Kaid brought up the subject that Bane had tried to broach. “Lilah, can you tell us a little about when you were at Lurin’s?”
Delilah looked at Kaid as she placed more pie in her mouth. “You want to know how to protect your family?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Kill the beaver,” she said. Then suddenly, she was no longer paying attention to Kaid. Janie had stood to go over to the refrigerator and get a drink. Delilah was watching Janie. Bane noticed and watched closely, not sure he trusted this new female around his Mate. Nobody even knew what the hell she was yet. And she’d almost bitten him when he reached in the direction of her pie. Just when he was ready to go stand near Janie, Delilah moved her attention to Avaleigh. She moved her eyes up and down Avaleigh’s body. Then flicked her eyes back to Janie as she returned to her place beside Bane, roving her view up and down Janie’s body. Bane looked up and down his Mate. She was dressed in a cute little sun dress, white with little blue cornflowers all over it. It hugged her figure. He turned to Avaleigh; she was wearing a pair of grey capris with a white fitted teeshirt with tiny pink and grey polka dots on it. He couldn't see anything wrong with what either of them were wearing. He looked back at Delilah and saw her look down at her own clothes, then up at Miss Sadie who was wearing a denim skirt and pink blouse. Then back down at herself. Suddenly, it hit him. She was looking at what the other women were wearing and measuring it against her own clothing. He reached out for Kaid through their connection. Kaid immediately looked at him. He sent Kaid thoughts of Delilah and then of a dress and jeans. Kaid looked at him, confused. Then Bane flicked his eyes at Delilah and then at Janie. Kaid followed Bane’s eyes still not getting it. Bane, frustrated at Kaid’s cluelessness, turned to Avaleigh. “Ave, maybe you and the girls could take Delilah shopping tomorrow. Let her get a few things of her own.”
“The girls do not go off anywhere, especially with Delilah, without me!” Kaid announced.
Delilah just smirked at him, “What is this shopping?” she asked Bane.
“Oh! Bane!! That’s a great idea!! Delilah, do you want to go with us?” Avaleigh asked her.
“I do not know…” she started to answer Avaleigh, but Bane was already explaining.
“It’s a store, or several stores actually. They have clothes and shoes and makeup and whatever a woman may want or need. You could go and pick out anything you would like to wear.”
“Do they have clothing like your female wears?”
“Yes, they do. And like Avaleigh wears, and like Miss Sadie wears. And even some clothes totally different from what they wear. They have things for all types of tastes. You can pick anything you like.”
“I do not know what I like,” Delilah said quietly.
“You know what, Delilah? When Kaid and I first escaped Lurin, I didn’t know what I liked either. I didn’t remember anything about myself beforehand. I still don’t. It took me a while to figure out what I did and didn’t like. Sometimes I’m still not sure. But that’s okay. I’m figuring it out as I go along. And you will, too. If you’d like to go shopping tomorrow, I’d love to take you. We will go to as many stores as you want to go to; you can try on all kinds of things and pick out any clothes that you like. Anything that catches your eye or makes you feel pretty. You’ll need clothes for the daytime, nightgowns to sleep in, panties, bras, shoes, makeup. You can smell shampoos and conditioners and choose which scents you like best. We’ll help you!”
She didn’t say anything for a minute. Then she turned to Kaid, “I do not have to trade, right?”
“No! You do not have to trade. I’m going to buy you whatever you need. Whatever you want. It’s yours,” Kaid told her.
“It will be okay if I go to this store with the human women? They will let me choose clothing from this store?”
“Yes, Baby. It will
be fine. And it will please me greatly if you go with them, with us, and choose some things for yourself.”
Delilah grinned, turning back to Avaleigh and Janie, “I will go to the shopping with you. I will choose things!” she said proudly.
Amos added his own opinion, “There ain't nothing wrong with what she’s wearing. She’s covered.”
“Amos, it looks like she’s wearing your clothes. She needs some pretty things that fit her properly,” Avaleigh told him.
“She is wearing my clothes; my Mate’s things weren’t big enough.”
Kaid snapped his eyes to his friend, ready to read him the riot act for inferring that his Delilah was too big; she was fucking perfect! Amos laughed out loud at the look on his face, “No, you misunderstand, Boy, she’s tall. My Mate was short; yours is tall. Besides, don’t you know what a monster you creatin’? Encouraging your woman to go shopping and to buy whatever she wants,” he hooted again, laughing.
Delilah, serious as a heart attack, didn’t raise her eyes to either one as she continued to run her finger around the edge of the pie plate, trying to scoop up every little bit of the pie filling that might happen to remain there, “No, you are all safe for now; my Monster is sleeping. She does not wish to wake.”
Several eyebrows were raised, and Bane put his arm around his Mate protectively at her announcement that she had a Monster. But before anyone could ask about that particular statement, the back door was flung open. “Pretty Lady!!!” Mav called from the doorway, “Come on, I found you some,” he grinned at Delilah as he gestured behind himself at the yard.
She snapped her head up, “This is the pissing?!” she asked excitedly.
“What?” Kaid asked, head moving back and forth between the two of them.
“Yes, Ma’am! This is the pissing. Come on, I’m gonna help! We gonna do it outside.”
“The fuck are you talking about? You better rethink whatever the fuck you thinking about doing, Maverik! I will rip your fucking head off!”
“No, do not rip his head, Alpha Kaid. We are doing the pissing!” she all but giggled on her way around the table to follow Maverik outside.
Kaid almost overturned the entire table trying to make it outside before his Mate made it all the way to Mav. He didn't know what the hell was going on, but pissing usually meant no pants, and if that was the case, he was going to strangle Maverik with his bare hands.
Daniel, still sitting with Avaleigh on his lap, simply lifted her and stood with her cradled in one arm to follow the others outside to watch. “You don’t seem surprised,” Avaleigh said to him as he walked them out the door. He grinned at her, “I’m not. And for once, I’m with Mav. He did good this time. At least I think he did.”
Chapter 5
When they got outside, there was a portable camping toilet sitting in the clearing, and around it was an A frame, kind of like a teepee. “There it is, Pretty Lady, and look in here.” He lifted the lid to the little toilet and shined a flashlight into it. There on top of a little pile of dirt were some ashes.
“The fuck, Mav?” Kaid asked again, coming to a stop beside Delilah.
Maverik just ignored Kaid, held up a finger in his direction, and kept watching Delilah.
Delilah leaned over and peered inside the toilet, “Are you sure, Ass?”
“Ass? Really? I bring you Lurin’s ashes to piss on, and you call me Ass?” Mav asked her.
Bam snorted, knowing immediately why she called him Ass.
“Ass is not your name? Bam said that I should pay no attention to you because you are Ass.”
“No, my name is not Ass; my name is Maverik. He meant I was acting like an ass,” Mav clarified.
“Ahh, now it is clear. You are Maverik, but acting the ass. Okay. I understand.” She looked down into the toilet again, “Are you sure they are Lurin’s ashes, Maverik?”
“Yes, I had to dig a little, but I’m pretty sure.”
Delilah reached for the snap on the pants she wore.
“Wait! I have a blanket to cover that frame with to give you a little privacy,” Mav said.
Thank fuck, Kaid thought. Maybe I won’t have to kill him after all.
Mav tossed the blanket up and over the A frame, standing back to hold one corner up for her to step under.
She grinned at him, stepped under the edge that Maverik held for her, and unsnapped her pants. When Maverik dropped the corner and stepped back to give her more privacy, Kaid caught his attention and started to ask what was going on. For the most part he had figured it out, but he wanted more details. Maverik held up his hand to ask for silence for a moment and shook his head no, ever so slightly.
Just a minute or two later, the blanket lifted, and Delilah came out from underneath. She had tears in her eyes, but was giggling. She walked straight to Maverik and hugged him tight. She looked into his eyes; they were just about the same height, “Thank you, my friend. It is the greatest gift. I feel, different. I have had the last word!”
“You are most welcome, Delilah. I hope it makes you feel at least a little better. It’s not revenge, but it at least gives you a little closure,” he brushed the tears off her cheek with the back of his hand.
She nodded, stood back, and looked up at the stars. “I wish I could have killed him myself, but this is not bad. The pissing. I like it.”
Amos clapped Maverik on the back, “You are a genius son of a bitch, my friend!”
“Was there ever any doubt?” Maverik answered him.
Delilah turned to Kaid, “May I cleanse now? I wish to cleanse and rinse away any ash that might have attached to me.”
“Of course, Baby.” Kaid answered, then “Ave, could you show Lilah where the bathroom is and the towels and all.”
Avaleigh started to take Delilah by the arm and head into the house, but she stopped short, remembering the woman didn’t like to be touched. Instead she swept her hand in the direction of the house, “Come on, Delilah, I’ll show you where everything is.”
Delilah started toward the house as Avaleigh indicated, but she suddenly stopped, turning toward the group once more, “Will you be coming to stand outside the shower?” she directed her question to Kaid.
He wasn’t sure what to say. He didn't know if she wanted him outside the shower or if she assumed he would stand and watch like all the previous males in her life, “I can, if you’d like me to. Do you want me to stand outside, Lilah?”
“Yes. You are a strong male. You will keep me safe while I cleanse.”
Her words gave everyone further insight to the tortures she had endured to the point that they seemed common place to her, and they cut Kaid even deeper than before. He could have prevented some of this, if he’d just taken her with him and Avaleigh. How did we not feel her? Bear asked him. I don’t know, Bear. But we failed her. We didn’t even know her yet, and we failed her, Kaid answered his Bear.
He realized that Delilah still stood on the stairs waiting for his reply, “Of course, Lilah, I will stand guard. No one will enter. No one will hurt you.”
She gifted him a beautiful smile, nodded once in affirmation, and turned to follow Avaleigh inside.
Kaid turned and stepped closer to Maverik; he wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and just looked at him for a second. He didn’t know what to say. Something so simple, so bizarre, and completely out of left field, had made a lot of difference to his Mate. And no one other than Maverik would have ever thought of it. He owed him a shit load of gratitude. He just smiled at Mav, nodded his head once, placed his forehead against Mav’s and whispered, “Thank you.” Mav winked at him, patted him on the shoulder, and turned to start disassembling the blanket and A frame he’d thrown together. Daniel stepped forward to help him pick up, “You’re a good male, Maverik. You’re insane half the time, but you are a good male.”
Maverik snorted his laughter, “Don’t go saying that shit, Man. People will expect me to do the right thing. All. The. Time. I’d much rather be underestimated.”
T
hey laughed together and put everything away as they watched Bane and Janie walking off into the tree line across the way, heading away for some alone time. It was dark, but they could see perfectly.
“Daniel, I’m gonna head on over and shower and get to bed early, okay?” Bam told him.
“Course, Bam. Go ahead. You don’t need to tell me that.”
“Yeah, I do. It’s your house.”
“Brother, go take your damn shower and stop being ridiculous.”
Bam smiled at him and headed over to Avaleigh’s to get a shower before they both headed home.
Kaid went back into the house, making his way to the hallway bathroom. When he arrived there, Delilah was planted in the doorway, halfway in, halfway out.
“Come on in, Delilah. I’ll show you how the shower works, and you can get started. Kaid will be here any minute.”
“No.”
“No? Why, No?” Avaleigh asked her, her hands on her hips.
“I will not cleanse without him here. He will protect me.”
“You don’t need protection here, Delilah. None of us is going to hurt you. We all want you to feel better. To get stronger and know that it’s safe here,” Avaleigh tried again, “So come on in, let me show you how to work the shower and where the shampoos and lotions and all are.”
Kaid waited just down the hallway, listening to the exchange.
Delilah stood there, a slight frown on her face, “I cannot. My Beast will not allow me to enter the cleansing room without Alpha Kaid,” Delilah answered, then muttered to herself, “stupid Beast.”
Delilah’s Beast immediately hissed at her, curled deep inside, and Delilah hissed back, out loud, where anyone could hear. Avaleigh’s adrenalin spiked, and she took a step back, alarmed. The back kitchen door slammed open, and Daniel came charging down the hall, his Dragon having picked up on his Mate’s fear, only to have Kaid motion him to a stop. Daniel reached out for Avaleigh through their connection and felt that she was calming, so he did what Kaid asked.
Kaid's Queen Page 4
