Salvation: Saving Setora Book Seven

by Dark, Raven

  I raised a brow at Cherry. Her cheeks turned a dark pink I could see even in the dark. She cleared her throat.

  “It’s complicated, Violet.” She glanced over her shoulder at T-Mn’s wide back and her face went even redder.

  “Do tell.” I smirked.

  “Later,” she whispered.

  “Fine. Write to me,” I said, squeezing her one last time. “I want to hear all about it.”

  “I will, and you better keep writing to me. Take care of yourself…Mommy.”

  She winked at me, and my smile widened.

  Cherry turned and walked away with T-Man at her side. I heard her say something to their new General—Tyrant—about being pushy, and I swore he swatted her ass, but it was too dark to be sure. My eyes watered, a bittersweet smile pulling at my lips as I watched her climb onto T-Man’s horse. He swung up behind her and then slid his arms around her waist as if they belonged there.

  Cherry had left to find her place in the world, but I had a feeling she’d found much, much more. She’d found an adventure.

  Sheriff slid his arm around my waist and kissed my temple.

  “I miss her already, Master,” I told him as the ex-Brothers of Brimstone disappeared into the darkness.

  “You’ll see her again soon. Trust me.”

  I nodded. He slung his arm around me and steered us toward the cave where we’d sleep for the night before heading out ourselves.

  “Come on, sweetheart,” Sheriff said, kissing my temple again. “Let’s get some sleep. And then we’ll finally get you home.”

  Home. No word had ever sounded sweeter to my ears.

  Chapter 44

  The Symbol of Eternity

  Pretty Boy looked over his shoulder from the driver’s seat. “Welcome home, Princess.”

  With a yawn, I opened my groggy eyes and saw the most wonderful sight. Home.

  Thank the Maker.

  The past month of traveling, even though smooth and without incident, felt like it had taken fifty years.

  Laughter and smiles filled the carriage as we drove through the rattling gates, then along the darkened inner tunnels that led into the Grotto’s garage. In no time at all, Pretty Boy cut the engine.

  Sheriff unfolded himself from the seat beside him with a yawn. “You managed to get us here without giving me whiplash, Pretty Boy It’s a miracle.”

  Pretty Boy gave me a smirk as he came around and helped me out. “Sheriff, for a man who bitches that he hates the way I drive so much, you spend a hell of a lot of time in my passenger’s seat.”

  “Of course. It’s because I like to keep an eye on you.” Sheriff winked at me and shut his door.

  I laughed. Then I inhaled deep.

  “Kitten?” Hawk raised a curious brow at me.

  “Smell that, Master?” I smiled. “After how long we’ve been gone, everything about this place smells like heaven.”

  The smell of dust and exhaust, polish and chrome, all of it smelled like home.

  Hawk stroked my hair.

  “All right, fellas, let’s get these carriages unpacked. Bear, go get—”

  Footsteps of what sounded like half the Grotto clambered down the stairs to the garage.

  Sheriff laughed. “Never mind, they’re already here.”

  Diamond and Emmy bounced into the room with Gretle moving a little slower behind.

  Diamond and Emmy threw their arms around me, almost knocking me over.

  “Careful, Rats!” Pretty Boy admonished to the excited club girls. “Take it easy with my Princess.”

  I chuckled and hugged them back.

  “You were gone so long!” Diamond said.

  “Ladies, ladies, let the girl breathe.” Gretle gave me her grandmotherly smile. When Emmy and Diamond released me, she gave me a much gentler hug. “How are you, dear?”

  “I’m good, Gretle. Maker, I missed you all so much.”

  “Let me look at you.” Diamond held my arms out. Her gaze went to my belly and her eyes grew huge. “Already showing!” She and Emmy started jumping up and down, their delight infectious.

  I grinned.

  “And three of them, Light.” Gretle chimed in. “When we got your letter we were all so very happy. Congratulations, Setora. You will make a wonderful mother.” She flicked her eyes at my Four, busy unloading the bikes from the carriages.

  I shrugged sheepishly, then blushed. She winked at me.

  “Are you ladies going to help, or are you going to smother her all day?” Sheriff grouched.

  “Hang on, there’s one thing I gotta do first.” Emmy launched herself into Grim’s arms and he lifted her up with a happy growl and a long kiss.

  “Me, too.” Diamond wasn’t even halfway to Doc before he picked her up and whirled her around.

  “Fuck, I missed you,” he said.

  More of the club piled into the garage, all of them talking at once, clapping the men on the backs, and pumping them with questions.

  “Took you long enough, General,” Crank said. “You were only supposed to be gone a week.” He smirked and raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah, tell me about it, Brother.” Sheriff shook his shoulders. “Thanks for taking care of shit here for so long.”

  “What the hell happened?” Dozer asked Steel and Bear. “Someone said you guys nearly died.”

  “I didn’t,” Bear said. “Steel did. And Sheriff, and Blade, and Doc.”

  “How?” Someone else asked.

  “Long story.” Pretty Boy walked past them with a load of foodstuffs.

  “Did you really go blind?” Crank cocked his head at Sheriff.

  “I did.”

  Crank waved his hand in front of Sheriff’s eyes, and he swatted it away.

  “Stop that, I can see now, fuckhead.”

  “Oh, Sheriff,” Crank added with his hands on his hips. “Would mind explaining why exactly a fucking ho—”

  Sheriff stepped on his foot.

  “Owe! What the devil was that for?”

  “It’s supposed to be a surprise, dumbass,” he gritted out.

  “Setora, put that down,” Diamond said lifting more boxes out of a carriage and nodding to the box in my hand.

  “Hey,” Sheriff stole the box away from me and put it on his shoulder. “None of that in your condition, sweetheart.”

  I wanted to tell him it wasn’t heavy—it was only bread and fruit—but he was gone before I could reply.

  It was going to be a long couple of months.

  * * *

  When everything was unpacked from the garage, Sheriff found me in the clubhouse helping the women put the leftover food supplies back in the cupboards. He came over and took my hand. “There’s something we wannna show you, sweetheart.”

  His crooked smile made my stomach dance. I noticed that Pretty Boy, Steel, and Hawk were all waiting at the entrance. Pretty Boy rocked on his heels.

  “Uh oh. What are you four up to, Masters?”

  “Come on.” Sheriff led me with the others through the clubhouse and out onto the wooden walkway that ran through the main part of the Grotto.

  If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he was excited.

  Crank caught up with us, talking to Sheriff who went ahead, while Pretty Boy put an arm around my shoulders. His eyes sparkled with mischief.

  “What did you do, Master?” I drawled.

  He said nothing.

  With my imagination left to run, we clattered down the walkways to an area of the Grotto I’d never seen, one that led out to a large stretch of pasture with a fence around several hundred feet. At the other side of it, a large wooden building stood, one floor, with a padlocked door at the front.

  Crank walked ahead and opened it.

  As soon as he did, my heart gave a wild flip. The smell of hay, leather, and horse filled my nose.

  “Oh, masters, you didn’t.”

  I ran ahead of them to the single stall.

  Inside, Maja stuck her chestnut neck out and nuzzled my head, sniffing
my hair.

  A small squeak left me. I covered my mouth, reached up and petted her soft mane. I gazed up at my Masters through eyes blurred with tears.

  “Masters,” I half groaned, half sighed with pleasure. “How did you… I mean when…. How?”

  “Very carefully.” Sheriff crossed his arms, watching me with delight.

  “Magic,” Hawk’s lips were turned up as he stroked Maja’s head gently.

  “We’re sneaky like that.” Pretty Boy shrugged and winked at me.

  “No, really, how?” I asked with a grin. “The last I remember, I’d ridden her, and then next day she was gone. You were…” I widened my eyes at Pretty Boy. “Wait, she was gone, and then you were there!”

  His eyes gleamed.

  “I thought Damien had taken her away, but you took her?” I looked around at all of them. “How did you get her here, though?”

  “We paid someone to have her brought to Zone 2. Then one of our merchants brought her over.” Steel said.

  “Yeah, and she’s been nothing but trouble since,” Crank growled. I didn’t miss the amused light in his eyes, though. “It took four of my men to build this thing in three days, trying to get it done before you got back. She keeps biting me. And she eats like a…”

  “Horse?” Steel said helpfully.

  “I was going to go with elephant.”

  I giggled. Then I threw my arms around Pretty Boy, squeezed him, then gave Steel, Hawk, and Sheriff each the same. “Thank you so, so much, all of you.

  The men’s hands were everywhere, stroking my hair, rubbing my back.

  “And thank you, Crank, for taking such great care of her.”

  “Nah, it was nothin’.” Crank folded his arms, his cheeks reddening. “Only now, you take care of her. I don’t want to lose my hand.”

  “Amen, Brother. Fucking beasts are crazy.” Steel patted Crank’s back.

  Everyone laughed, and so did I.

  As I walked back to the clubhouse with my men, that’s when it hit me. We were really back.

  We were here, we were safe, we were together, and we were home.

  * * *

  That night, the men had another surprise in store for me.

  Shortly after dark, the men rode with me out to the well Sheriff had taken me to, what had now felt like a thousand years ago. Half the Grotto followed us on their bikes, along with most of the women.

  Something momentous was afoot, but no one would tell me a thing. Diamond had dressed me in a fancy silk tunic with puffy shoulders and long, layered skirts. Both were loose and white with gold trim, matching the sandals on my feet.

  “Now what are you guys up to?” I asked them when we stopped at the bottom of a hill.

  “You’ll see.” Steel enveloped my hand in his.

  Fifty or so of us trudged up the short hill. As soon as we reached the top, I knew.

  “Oh…” I covered my mouth again, staring up at the wide arch covered in a wreath of white and red flowers. Under it, near the stone well, stood a polished stone alter.

  At the arch, I turned to my masters. “Is this what I think it is?”

  Pretty Boy scooped me up in his arms. “This is what I should have done a long time ago, Princess, and not just Steel.” He laid a kiss on my lips.

  “We all should have,” Sheriff said, squeezing my nape when Pretty Boy set me down. “But I wanted it to be here. Where everyone could see that you are ours.”

  “Oh, I already am yours, loves. I always have been.”

  “Not as a slave,” Hawk said, running his hand through my hair. “As a woman who wants to be here. As a woman we love.”

  I laid a kiss in his palm and put the back of his hand to my cheek, kissing his knuckles. “I do. Always.”

  “I think that’s supposed to come later,” Doc teased, looking over the alter with interest, as if he’d never seen one before.

  Some of the men gathered with us laughed.

  “But I don’t understand.” I looked at all of them, stunned. “Marriages are illegal in most parts of the world. Crite is one of the few exceptions. Most priests won’t do it, and the Grotto doesn’t have one. Er…does it?”

  “It does. Me.” Grim strode forward, and when I looked at him with surprise, he lifted his shoulders. “I’m an ordained Anor of the First Veil. Which is just a fancy way of saying I read of lot of biblical stuff, do a lot of death rituals, and occasionally, I used to pull off a marriage or two, in secret.” He winked.

  I supposed I should have figured out he was a priest of some kind. I’d just assumed that as the Grotto’s Undertaker, he took care of the dead and preformed last rights.

  A thrill raced through me. I’d been overjoyed when Steel wanted this, and part of me had hoped that one day Sheriff, Pretty Boy, and Hawk would want the same, but I never imagined it was possible.

  I squeezed their hands, gratitude and love making my throat tight.

  “Well, if you’re all ready, let’s do this.” Grim went behind the alter, expectant.

  I stood before the alter, with Sheriff on my right, Hawk beside him, and Pretty Boy on my left. Steel gladly took the role of their best man.

  Grim smiled at all of us and opened a thick black book on the alter. “Members of the Dark Legion, we are gathered here before the eyes of the Maker…”

  As the marriage ceremony conclude with its final benediction, Sheriff, as the Legion’s General, slipped a ring onto my finger. Four bands of gold, it had a dark amethyst stone on each, with four diamonds. He kissed my knuckle and gave me a crooked smile that made my knees wobble with the promise in it.

  “And with the giving of this ring, the symbol of eternity,” Grim said, “in the presence of the Maker, and before all who are here, she who is pledged to these four shall be, now and forever, joined. You may kiss your bride.”

  I noticed he’d said four, not three—including Steel even though we were already married. Blinking back tears, I turned to each of my masters, the men I loved beyond words.

  Each of them kissed me long and deep until my knees threatened to fold under me. This journey had turned into a world of fear and chaos, death and heartbreak, but right here, right now, life couldn’t get any better.

  The world still had slavery, it still had so much wrong with it, but here and now, with my Four, I wasn’t a slave. I was a woman in love.

  Epilogue: New Beginnings

  Six months later…

  I could hardly believe how much the world had changed. In the six months that had passed since we’d arrived back at the Grotto, the world had changed so radically that it felt more like five years.

  Most of the time, I didn’t consciously think about it. It registered in the back of my mind with a word spoken here, a gesture there—like whispers; that the balance of power was shifting rather than outcries. But as I sat in my sunroom one morning responding to the latest letters that had arrived, I understood that things weren’t just different. The world was undergoing a transformation, seismic-level events that were about as subtle as an earthquake.

  Most of the letters I’d received contained ordinary, if interesting, news. There was a letter from the Serena, telling me about her new men. She had three—all lords, no less. Over the last few months, Serena’s letters had been more and more lucid, indicating that Julian’s control over her hadn’t left her mind permanently damaged. She was slowly getting back to her old self, enjoying her days with Adeline’s lovely little ones.

  Ali’san had written a few times, and her latest letter had mentioned all the work she had been doing in Crite with the Violets. She conveniently left out any details of hers and Ivek’s blossoming relationship.

  I sat back on my chaise and smiled at the letter from her that was mostly about the incoming winter storms. Ivek would have no problem keeping her nice and warm.

  And then there was one from my mother. She’d wanted us to visit with her and Mayhem as soon as we could. It had only been three weeks ago since she and Mayhem had left here after the ba
bies were born. I laughed, recalling this latest one, little every-day-things that may be meaningless to most, but were special to us. We’d spent so long apart that she could have written what she’d had for breakfast, and I’d have been riveted.

  Next came a letter from Marna, the General of the the Lone Rebels’ woman.

  Beside me, as I opened the envelope, a baby’s soft coo reached my ears. Unfolding the letter, I peered into the cradle and pulled back the blanket on the sleeping bundle within.

  My baby boy Galan gurgled in his sleep. A smile spread across my lips, my heart melting as I stroked his soft, dark curls. Being named after the general who had invented the first written MC communication code, it wasn’t surprising that he already loved communicating in his own, as yet, indecipherable baby language. He opened his eyes, offering a flash of stunning indigo before they slid closed again. He had Sheriff’s eyes, Sheriff’s thick head of dark hair, and sheriff’s cleft of the chin. He was going to be as much of a heart heartthrob, and probably as much of a pain in the ass, too.

  “Shh. Go back to sleep, little love.” I rocked Galan’s cradle while I read Marna’s letter.

  This letter made my eyes widen more with every word. Marna’s correspondence contained the kind of world-shattering news I’d been hearing more and more of as of late. The kind that sent such ripples across the world that I could practically feel the ground shake beneath my feet with the waves that woman was making.

  Shaking my head and reeling from the news she’d relayed, I set the letter down and went to the two other cradles nearby. Under her soft pink blanket, Angel had started to fuss, and the minute she did, so did her sister. That’s the way it always happened, and if the two of them got going enough, Galan inevitably joined in. And when he started up, all hope was lost.

  I rocked the cradles, one with my foot, the other with my hand, and cooed gently to them. “Shh. Five more minutes. Just give Momma five more minutes? Please? Pretty please, with sugar on top?”