Beautiful Bargain

by Skye Jones

  I stared at him, my eyes wide.

  “What?” he asked.

  I pointed to his groin, and he looked down and burst out laughing. “I didn’t even know. Must be a side-effect of all the adrenaline of changing.”

  “Cover it up,” Jackson went and fetched Ben’s pants, throwing them at him.

  I laughed as he sheepishly covered the huge erection he sported.

  When we got to the den, as I now thought of the boys’ game room, I saw Doc pulling a needle out of his arm, and one out of Slim’s sister’s arm.

  He turned to us. “She’s had blood, and she’s got another IV with fluids. We’ll see how she is tomorrow. Right now, she’s in a coma, I think. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on without proper scans and stuff, but she’s not aware at all.”

  “We’ve made her as comfortable as possible, while still keeping her safe,” Ivan said.

  “Can we bring her downstairs, so I can be safe from the sun but watch over her?” Slim asked.

  Ivan nodded. “Yes, of course. We can tie her to one of the beds, and you watch over her.”

  “We’ll see how she is doing tomorrow evening and decide where to go from there,” Doc said.

  Slim nodded, but he looked drained.

  We all filed out of the room, after bidding Ivan, Slim, and Angel goodnight. I didn’t want to hang around and watch them carry the emaciated mess that was Emily down the stairs. Too upsetting.

  I was heading to bed with all my men, and it felt good.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Milly: Butterfly Wings

  I was in heaven. Ben was inside me, fucking me. Jackson and Doc were both watching and jacking off, giving me a hell of a show, and Alex drank from me.

  Ben was on top, moving slow and sensual inside me, his clever fingers working me at the same time. Alex held my wrist in his hand and drank from me there, heightening the experience for me.

  The sounds of aroused males filled the room and took me even higher. Ben’s gaze held mine. This was his moment, his claiming of me, and I loved it. We’d grown closer in many ways than all the others, which surprised me because if anyone had told me when all this began, I’d become close to Ben, I’d have laughed.

  “I’m going to come so hard. I’m going to fill you up with me,” he said. The words reverberated against my neck where his lips lay against my fevered skin. “Then Jackson and Doc are going to come all over you too. Alex as well. You’re going to be filled by us, covered in us.”

  Oh, Lord. His dirty talk wound me higher, and I knew I wouldn’t last much longer.

  “Then we’re going to do it all over again, only this time I’m fucking you while the others watch.”

  Jackson’s words tipped me over the edge, and I came with a cry. Alex gave an extra long pull at my wrist, sending me tumbling toward a second orgasm that crashed headlong into the first, until I didn’t know what day or even what year it was.

  Ben came, giving a deep cry of his own, and the sights and sounds of me and him coming must have sent the others over the edge because soon the air was full of the sound and scent of males reaching their release.

  “Shit, you’re going to kill me,” Ben said with a laugh as he kissed either side of my mouth and then rested his forehead against mine for a beat.

  “Oh, poor you,” I replied. “There’s four of you and only one of me. If anyone’s dying of exhaustion, it’s me.”

  “Come here,” Jackson said. He practically pushed Ben out of the way, and for a moment I thought he was going to take me there and then, but he didn’t.

  He pulled me into his arms, and my legs wrapped around his waist, arms around his neck as he threw the covers back. Taking us into the bed, he wrapped me up in big, warm male, and kissed me hard.

  The others got in around us, mumbling about the size of the bed and how they really needed one custom made because this was ridiculous.

  As we settled in, I sensed tension in Jackson. Not wanting to ruin the mood, but also not willing to let it go if something bothered him, I looked up at him. Resting my hands on his chest, and my chin on my hands, I stared at him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He blew out a breath. “I need to talk to you all. I was going to keep it until tomorrow, but seeing as you’ve raised it.”

  For an awful moment, my heart stuttered. What if he was going to tell us he wanted to be rid of us? Wanted to be on his own? The idea might seem ridiculous, but he hadn’t seemed fully himself since his head injury.

  “Spit it out then,” Ben groused. “Because I can’t sleep in here; there’s not enough room, and I’m heading to my own bed when you’ve got whatever it is off your chest.”

  There were occasions I found myself wondering how these men hadn’t killed one another before I turned up. I often found myself the peacemaker these days. Before I could speak though, Jackson did.

  “Okay, asshole. I’m getting to it, no need to get your panties in a wad.”

  “It’s knickers, in Britain, arsehole, and it’s twist.” Ben shot Jackson a triumphant look, and then they both shook their heads laughing.

  Maybe I only thought I was the peacekeeper, and this was simply what passed as banter between them? Who knew?

  “Okay, here’s the thing. I’ve been feeling uncomfortable for a while about staying here. Ivan and his… well, basically they’re going to be his coven, let’s get fucking real. They will want to stay here. And earlier today, I got a call from your ex-husband-to-be, Blake.” Jackson turned his whisky gaze my way for a moment. “He’s got a small band of men together, and they’re fighting back. They’ve all but saved the compound. He wanted to know if we wanted to stay there, as a favor, in return for us offering him shelter here.”

  “You want to go live at Milly’s compound?” Doc sounded as confused as me.

  “Not finished,” Jackson groused.

  “Oh, excuse me for speaking out of turn, do go on.” Doc made a dramatic sweeping gesture with one hand.

  “Thing is, the war is coming. There’s going to be open battle if the compounds get together and start working with one another, which is what Blake was saying. Plus, we now have enough of the cure to start distributing it to people who can immunize themselves and take the fight to London.”

  My heart sank. It sounded as if Jackson had a battle plan of his own in mind.

  I looked at him to see his jaw working, a tick in his cheek giving away how difficult he found this conversation.

  “I don’t want us to be part of that fight.” His words didn’t compute.

  He carried on. “We’ve been working for the resistance for a long time now. We’ve risked life and limb repeatedly. Then we found Milly. At first, she seemed more of a reason to fight, but now… I’ve been speaking to Jakob, the Altered who runs a cell like ours. He and two other cells are planning on an assault on London. They had asked me if we wanted to be involved. I said I had to speak to you guys, but my instincts were to say no. Told him I wanted out. I want to take my people and go somewhere new. Probably the Highlands where there are still vast swathes of land untouched by all this.”

  The silence in the room was heavy. My heart was hammering. Jackson wanted to walk away from this? I had harboured similar ideas myself and simply never believed they’d be reciprocated. What of Alex though, Doc, and Ben too?

  “You want to walk away from the war. Turn your back on the fight?” Doc blinked in disbelief.

  “I know you’re all probably about to punch me right now,” Jackson said. “Probably figuring out I’m a coward, but hear me out. Jakob said they are going to need people at work on the governmental dark web portal that we now have access to. I can do that. Ben, you can too. They are also going to need a safe place where they can send people hurt and injured to recuperate. There’s a stately home in Scotland. It’s kind of more of a castle, to be honest. Well positioned. Guardable as shit. We could head there. Make it our home. It would be a safe place for Milly, and we could still continue to fight in
the resistance, but in a different way. It wouldn’t mean if there was an important battle we couldn’t be involved if we so chose, but we’d be in a safer location. Plus, we’d be helping to do good by providing care for the injured.”

  He looked at me. “You said to me your dream had been to be a vet, but when I saw in your head once, a long time ago, you had wanted to be a doctor originally. Your parents forbade it. Well, now you could. You could study under Doc, learn as much as you can about healing people. Nurse the injured and we can try to help that way. Ben and I will do the computer work, and Alex too. We’d all be useful, but in a different way. One that keeps you safe because, Milly, I swear my heart can’t take much more of you being in harm’s way. It also means we’ll be far out of the grasp of Sienna and any of her men.”

  “I can’t simply become a doctor, Jackson.” My brain stupidly picked this particular point to focus on in all that he’d said. “You have to study for years.”

  “You’ve already done quite a bit of studying, and Doc’s not officially fully qualified either, but how do you think medicine began? You’ll have textbooks, medical science on your side. We might have limited drugs and limited equipment, for a while at least. Things aren’t going to change overnight; there’s a bloody and long fight heading humanity’s way. But I want us to get our happiness now. I don’t think any of us could walk away completely.” He paused. “Don’t get me wrong, I considered the hell out of it, but figured we’d all end up hating ourselves. This way, it’s a win-win. We get to make an actual life. One where we aren’t at risk of death day in and day out. We also get to help the resistance in important ways.”

  “I’m in,” I said, and looked around to see Ben grin.

  “Wow. Thought I’d have to argue with you,” Jackson said.

  “Nope. Since seeing you almost get killed, I’ve lost my appetite to fight.”

  Jackson gave a low growl. “It’s not about my safety, Milly; it’s about yours. I need to find somewhere you can be safe. Particularly with what my last few dreams have shown me.”

  “What have they shown you?” Oh, God, had he seen me hurt? If that was the case, maybe moving wouldn’t be enough, and I’d still get harmed. After all, so far what Jackson had seen, had come true.

  He grinned wide and looked around the rest of the men and back to me. “I saw you, a year or two from now, I think. You looked different. A little softer. Happy. You had a baby in your arms.”

  I gasped. “What?”

  “Yeah, and at first, I thought, it can’t be. She can’t have kids. Maybe it’s someone else’s, but then you undid your top and you fed the child.”

  Oh. My. God.

  “I’m going to have a baby?” I asked, voice shaking, full of emotion. “The tests said I can’t.”

  Doc gave a small, astonished sound and pulled me to him, out of Jackson’s hold. “The tests only show you’re not ovulating. It could mean you never do, or it could mean you do, but erratically. I haven’t been able to do anything more in depth, and of course we don’t have scans or other things to look at and give us a clearer picture.”

  “I had a vision of you with a child, Milly. I think you do get pregnant, and I think it happens with me.” Jackson’s eyes were bright as he watched my reaction.

  “My dreams are often correct, but they aren’t always absolutely factual. For example, when I saw Slim hurt you, it wasn’t in the center where we were held, but that’s what ultimately happened. I think they show me one possible future. Then, of course, a myriad of things can change that future. Perhaps something happened in the course of events that meant that the dream about Slim we shared came true to a degree, but not quite as we pictured it. You know the old saying about a butterfly flapping its wings?”

  I nodded. I’d heard of the butterfly effect. That a butterfly can flap its wings in one country and cause a tornado in another.

  “Maybe that’s all life is,” Jackson said. “A series of missed events with one or two that make it through the chaos to become real. I want to give our future child the best possible chance to make it through the chaos.”

  “I concur,” Alex said, and I looked to see him wearing an expression I’d never witnessed on his handsome face before. Soft… content somehow.

  “If Jackson is right, you’re going to be a dad,” I told him. Because he would, all of them would. The child wouldn’t only be mine and Jackson’s; it would belong to the five of us. We’d all care for it, love it, and protect it.

  “Wow,” Alex laughed.

  “You’re all going to be fathers, if my dreams are correct,” Jackson said, showing me and the others he felt the same way. “This child will be loved by us all, and we need to keep fighting to make the world better for him or her, but we also need to keep Milly safe.”

  “You know…” Doc started to speak and then trailed off as he chewed his bottom lip.

  “What?” I wanted to know what he was thinking.

  “This is only a thought, an idea, but stress can cause women not to ovulate. It can mess people up big time. If you’re somewhere safe, somewhere we can live as normal a life as anyone can in this world, maybe you’ll find your periods become regular. Perhaps you haven’t been ovulating because your body knew it was far too dangerous to bring a life into this world.”

  “It still will be dangerous,” I said.

  “Yes,” Jackson replied, “it will, but less so. The people of this kingdom have a real chance to fight back now. We will be living in an exponentially safer place anyway, even if they fail, but I have hope they won’t.”

  “God, we’re moving to Scotland?” I clapped my hands together and laughed. “And I get to learn medicine and maybe become a mother.”

  Tears came then, and unlike many other times recently, they were tears of happiness. I didn’t know what I had done to deserve this. Four men who loved me, that alone would have been enough for me, but to get the chance to help heal the sick? To possibly be a mother? Those things were the absolute icing on an incredible cake.

  “My dad’s always loved Scotland,” I added with a small smile as I wiped my happy tears away.

  “Are you all in?” Jackson asked.

  “No need to even ask,” Ben replied.

  “Yes,” Alex said immediately.

  Doc pulled me around, kissed me hard, and said, “It will be wonderful to get the chance to teach you and work alongside you, Milly.” Then he looked at Jackson. “I’m in.”

  Jackson scooted across the bed, wrapped his arm around me while Doc still held me. Their limbs were around me but tangled around one another too, and then Jackson kissed me.

  Doc breathed in the scent of my skin at my nape, and Jackson kissed me until I thought I’d faint from the drugging pleasure of it.

  My God, my men and I were moving to Scotland.

  As Ben and Alex argued about who had more space, I closed my eyes, unable to stop the grin on my face.

  EPILOGUE

  Milly

  I stared out the window as Jackson tackled Ben to the ground, the two men rolling over. An oval ball popped out from under Jackson, and Doc grabbed it and ran with it, dodging their tangled limbs as he did, heading for a make-shift goal post, put together from two upturned cans, about thirty feet apart.

  They were playing rugby, and I smiled at the sight. They were glorious, half naked, hot, and sweaty.

  Since we’d been in Scotland, the guys found they had a lot of excess energy to burn. Hunting here was easy. There were hardly any Feral gangs and few Foamers. An abundance of deer and hare meant meat was plentiful. Ben had astounded me with his knowledge of gathering food, something he said he’d learned from reading mostly. He loved to take me foraging, showing me what could be eaten and what would make you sick. He said that I needed to know these things in case I ever needed to fend for myself. Then I’d get sad and he’d kiss my unhappiness away, but he said every person in this world needed to know how to fend for themselves.

  He said in my condition, it might one
day save the life of me and my child. I patted my stomach, rounded now at over four months along, and a feeling of indescribable warmth filled me.

  We’d been here for over a year, and after awhile, I had thought maybe Jackson’s prediction wouldn’t be coming true. My periods had never gotten regular, but I’d been happy anyway. I had my parents with me. Tils too, who now walked with a slight limp due to doggy arthritis. It was more than enough.

  Then one morning, I had awakened feeling groggy, as if I was getting sick. Then a week later I was sick. The next day too. Doc had looked at me and grinned when he told me I looked like crap. I’d been puzzled as to his glee on the matter, until he held a foil wrapped packet out and told me to take it to the bathroom and pee on the stick.

  I’d done so and not expected to see anything, but I did. In front of me, swimming in and out of focus, was a pink line. My hands shook, and my heart picked up speed. I’d run through the house shouting for Doc and Jackson. Alex had been asleep, and Ben out foraging. That evening we’d all had a celebratory meal. Mum and Dad couldn’t stop beaming. Even later, my men and I had celebrated a different way, in the ginormous bed Jackson had made himself to fit us all.

  Now, he was going to have to make a cot to go alongside it.

  “What time do our guests arrive?” Mum came and stood by me at the sink, watching the men for a moment.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know, but Angel said they’d be here today. It’s a long and hazardous drive, and I’m assuming they won’t get here until nightfall. She said they have special transport for the vamps.”

  Angel, Ivan, Slim, and two Altereds named Ronan and Finn were on their way to see us. They were coming, ostensibly to bring new medical supplies, taken from London, where the resistance was fighting back against the corrupt government and increasingly winning. Their efforts meant the cure was still valid. The government had been busy fighting the resistance, and they didn’t have time to create new strains of the virus. The fact the resistance kept destroying their labs helped on that front.