by Marla Monroe
He could hear the annoyance in her voice. He ignored it and nodded at Jeremy. She huffed out a breath and stood up. She began clearing away the dishes. He knew she was miffed at him. He would rather her be safe and pissed off then hurt somehow. And there was the baby to consider. It wouldn’t be long before she’d be off balance with her belly sticking out.
The image of her round with their child hit him hard in the solar plexus. He realized that part of him was happy that she was probably pregnant. He hadn’t acknowledged that part of him until now. Something surged inside of him and he recognized it for what it was—love. He scowled as he got up from the table. He couldn’t love her. He still loved his wife and their child. Then he realized that he hadn’t thought about them once in the last few months. Her image was blurry in his mind. He needed to think and he couldn’t think with Jeremy and Rachael in the area.
“I’m going to go check the barn and be sure Maggie Mae has plenty to eat.”
Jeremy looked like he was going to say something, but one look and he obviously thought better of it. Rachael just nodded, clearly still worried about the strangers.
He pulled on his outerwear and settled his hat on his head before closing the door behind him. He realized he’d forgotten the rifle but didn’t feel like returning for it. He’d just keep an eye out and hope for the best. Nothing jumped out at him as he made his way to the barn by the light of the moon and stars. Inside, he fed the cow and horse, and then he sat down and thought about his first wife and their child.
He had been deeply in love with her back then. Losing her had nearly cost him his sanity. Then the business of surviving every day had taken over and gotten him through it. When Jeremy had turned up half starved and devastated by the loss of his entire family as well, he’d had someone else to focus on. There hadn’t been a day that had gone by where he had not thought about them all that time. Until now, that is.
He realized that since Rachael had come into their lives, he hadn’t thought about her as much and then lately, not at all. He thought he should feel guilty about it, but for some reason, he didn’t.
A strange sort of peace filled him. Maybe it was time to let them go. He could still love them and think about them on occasion without it paralyzing him. He had someone else he needed to be focusing his attention on now, maybe even two someones.
Micah drew in a deep breath and stood up. He needed to get back to the house. Leaving when they’d had unwelcomed visitors hadn’t really been a smart thing to do. He walked out the door after extinguishing the lantern and closed it up. Then he looked around and, when he didn’t see any wolves, he started across the yard to the house.
Each step he took seemed to lighten his load as he neared the house. He heard something and turned in time to see two wolves dart across the yard toward the woods. Taking the steps up to the porch two at a time, he didn’t glance back. He hurried into the house and closed and locked the door. Thankfully, neither Jeremy nor Rachael was in the kitchen to comment on his hurried return.
The sound of talking drifted from the other room. He walked into the living room to see Rachael sitting on Jeremy’s lap on the couch. He walked over to the fire and stirred it before taking a seat at the other end of the couch and pulling her feet into his lap. He pulled off her shoes and massaged her feet, paying extra attention to her arches. When he looked up, both of them were staring at him.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Rachael said hurriedly.
“We’re probably going to have a clear day tomorrow.” He hoped she would go to bed soon so he could talk to Jeremy alone.
“That will be nice for a change. Will it be warm enough to hang out clothes?”
“I doubt it. They probably wouldn’t get dry.”
They talked for another thirty minutes when Rachael yawned and stretched.
“I think I’m going on up to take my bath. Don’t stay up too late.”
Micah lowered her feet to the floor while Jeremy pushed her up from his lap. She smiled at them and headed toward the stairs.
The minute she was out of hearing range, Jeremy turned to him.
“What’s gotten in to you?”
“What?”
“One minute you’re fussing at her and the next you’re giving her foot massages. You’re confusing her.”
“Look, don’t worry about it. I’ve come to realize that she’s special to me.”
“Do you love her?” Jeremy asked.
Micah hesitated. Realizing that he loved her and confessing he loved her were two different things. He licked his lips and nodded.
“Let me hear you say it.”
“Fuck. I love her. Are you happy now?”
“So when are you going to tell her?”
That was a good question.
Chapter Thirteen
“Where is Micah going in the truck?”
Jeremy winced. He’d hoped that she wouldn’t notice for a while yet. It had been several days since he and Micah had talked about learning more about their neighbors. Micah hadn’t wanted Rachael to know, or she would have wanted to go. Evidently he was having trouble saying no to her now.
“Um, he went out for awhile.”
“Jeremy. Don’t lie to me. You’re not any good at it.”
“He’s going to talk to some of the neighbors about the wolves. He wanted to see if they are still hunting them.”
“Why didn’t we all go? There might have been women I could have talked to. He knew I wanted to meet the other women.” She slammed her hands on her hips and fumed at him.
“He was going to find out who had wives and then look at getting you together later. First he wanted to find out about them before you went with him. You have to admit that with those strangers around, it wouldn’t be safe for you to go yet.”
“Still, he shouldn’t have snuck off like that.”
“You would have insisted on going. No matter what he said, you’d have made him feel guilty.”
“He would have to care to feel guilty, Jeremy.” She started to walk off, but he caught her arm.
“Rachael, he does care. He cares a lot. He’s just not good at saying it right now. Give him some time. I told you he would come around, and he’s really lightened up around you lately.”
“Jeremy, I’ve given him over three months. Yeah, he’s better, but he will never love me.”
“I think you’re wrong, baby. I think he loves you now, but he doesn’t know how to tell you.”
“I wish you were right, but you’re not. I’m going to work on cleaning up some of the canning supplies that we’ve used so far.”
He watched her as she walked off toward the kitchen. He wished he could convince her that Micah loved her, but it was Micah’s place to tell her. Not his. He followed her into the kitchen where she was washing up jars.
“I’m going to go check the cattle. I’ll be back in an hour.” He picked up the rifle after putting on his coat and hat.
She nodded at him and gave him a brief smile. She still hadn’t said anything about being pregnant. He wondered, as he walked outside, if she was trying to ignore it for as long as possible? He didn’t like it. They all needed to come to terms with it and get it out in the open. He was sure it wasn’t good for her or the baby to pretend nothing was wrong.
Well, nothing was wrong. Having a baby was a perfectly natural thing to do. It was bound to happen. He hoped that Micah would find some families he was comfortable enough with to ask questions and maybe have over sometime. It would be good for Rachael to be around other women. It would be good for all of them to have others who had to deal with the same issues everyday to talk to about them.
Jeremy looked around and made sure there weren’t any wolves around. Then he headed toward the fence line to count cows. They hadn’t lost any so far. He didn’t know what the wolves were doing if not stalking the cows. He guessed that they could be stalking them, but what was the point? He put it to the back of his mind as he checked the cattle. Then he wal
ked along the fence line on both sides to be sure there weren’t any breaks. Once spring arrived, they would need to ride the fence line all around to be sure the back fencing was in good shape.
His mind drifted back to the problem of having a child with wolves and other animals around. How would they keep it safe once it was old enough to want to play outside? They couldn’t keep it inside all the time. It wasn’t humane, much less practical. Everyone needed sunshine for their health.
Health. That reminded him. Rachael needed more time out in the sun, especially since she was pregnant. She needed vitamins, too, but there weren’t any available now. That meant making sure she ate well. He would have to start watching what she ate.
He checked on the barn animals, making sure they had plenty of hay and water. They needed to get them out to walk around some the next clear day that they were both around to watch them. They planned to make a smaller fenced-in area that spring after the planting was done. Then they could turn the horse and the cow loose in it occasionally.
Fencing, that is what they needed. They could build a fence around the backyard and garden to prevent the wolves from getting close to the house. That would solve a lot of problems. He smiled to himself and hurried inside to talk to Rachael about it.
She wasn’t in the kitchen when he walked inside and closed the door. He looked around and noticed that the pantry door was open. He shed his coat and hat before crossing to see if she was inside. Instead, the cellar door was open. His heartbeat kicked up a notch. He hated for her to climb up and down those stairs. It was dangerous as far as he was concerned, especially if she was carrying something.
“Rachael?”
“Yeah. I’m down here.”
“What are you doing?”
“Putting up canning supplies. I told you I was going to be doing that.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t know you were going to be doing it in the cellar. I wouldn’t have left if I’d know that.”
“Why not?” She walked halfway up the stairs and stared up at him.
“Because it’s dangerous going up and down the stairs carrying things. Did you carry the lamp down with you or did you light the one down there after you went down the stairs in the dark?”
“Calm down, Jeremy. I’m fine. I carried a lamp down with me. I was very careful. If you’re going to worry like this all the time, I’m going to be angry with you all the time.”
“Well, you can be angry all you want as long as you’re safe and sound.”
She huffed out a breath and disappeared in the gloom once again. Jeremy sighed and ran a hand through his hair. What was he going to do with her?
“Call me when you get ready to come out again. I’m going to be right here in the kitchen.”
“Fine!”
He could hear her muttering from where he stood. He had to grin. She was cursing him and poor Micah loud enough that he could hear her. She was pretty inventive with the name calling, too.
He turned the stove on to warm up the coffee from earlier. He’d have a cup of coffee while he waited on her to finish. Then he sat down at the table and sipped it and passed the time thinking about putting up the fence.
Finally, after what seemed like hours later, she called out that she was coming up. Jeremy stood above the opening and waited for her to come into view so he could help her out. She was carrying the lamp. He took it from her and sat it on the floor next to the door. Then he grabbed her hand and made sure she didn’t fall back down the stairs.
She extracted her hand and picked up the lamp to return to the kitchen, leaving him to close the cellar door. He shook his head and did just that, locking it as well. Then he followed Rachael to the sink where she was cleaning up the area. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his hands on her belly. She instantly covered them then pulled them away as if remembering that she wasn’t acknowledging anything yet.
She turned pleading eyes up to him, and he knew he would follow her lead. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her and if pretending there wasn’t a baby for a little while helped her cope, he would do it—for now.
* * * *
Micah stopped at the house closest to theirs. It was a good five miles down the road. When he stepped out of the truck, the front door opened and a man stepped out with a gun in his hand. Micah raised his hands out by his sides.
“I’m Micah from down the road. I don’t mean any harm. I’m trying to find the people who are hunting the wolves.”
The man lowered the gun a hair. “What do you want with them?”
“I want to join them. We’re having trouble with them, too. I have a wife and a baby on the way. I need help thinning them out.”
Micah waited to see what the man would say. He seemed to be thinking it over. He sure hoped he’d come to the right house.
“Are you armed?”
“In the truck, but not on me.”
“Come on up on the porch.”
Micah walked up keeping his hands out to the sides as he walked. The man lowered the gun when he walked up on the porch.
“Name’s Grant. Come on inside.”
Micah walked inside the house and waited by the door for Grant to close and lock the door.
“Come on in and have a seat.” Then he walked over to another doorway and opened a door. “Luke, come on out. He wants to hunt the wolves.
Another man walked out. He was just as tall as Grant.
“Luke, this is Micah from down the road a piece.”
Micah shook both men’s hands and sat back down.
“We’ve been seeing them in groups of up to six or seven now for a month. They are coming closer and closer to the house. With that many together, I don’t think it’s safe for one man to hunt them alone.”
“Definitely not. They’ve been attacking our women, and fight when you go after them,” Luke told him.
“Some men came to our house not long ago wanting us to join them in helping thin them out. At the time, we rarely saw them, so we said no. Do you know them?”
Grant spoke up this time. “It might have been Brice, Garret, Joel, or Jonathan. There are six others as well. We’ve been working together to try and keep our women safe. Many of us have children, so we are serious about it. The other thing you have to worry about are the black-market dealers. They’re thick around here.”
“Yeah, someone came to the door while we were outside and tried to get in. I didn’t realize they would try and break in to steal a woman.”
“Oh, they’ll try to kill you to get to her. You’ve got to be very careful,” Grant said.
“What are you all doing about it?”
“We keep in touch with the other families to find out where the men have been seen, and we back each other up if there’s trouble.”
Luke nodded his head. “As for the wolves, we hunt them regularly and keep them thinned in the various areas. If you want to join us, we’ll see about helping you thin yours out.”
“How does it work?” Micah asked.
Grant stood up and stirred the fire before adding a log.
“We gather everyone together at one house. Women and children go down in the cellar with two men to watch out for them. Then the rest of us hunt. You have to keep a tight group because they’re smart. They’ll flank you in a minute.”
“Why do you put all the women and children in the cellar?”
“Because the wolves have split up in the past and attacked the house. Jumped through a window and attacked the women. They are lucky to be alive.”
Micah felt his heart jump in his throat. He’d left Jeremy and Rachael alone at the house. He started to get up, but it was important to find out all he could.
“How do I get in on this?”
“Have us all over and we’ll hash out a plan on when to hunt. Do you have a cellar?” Grant looked over at Luke.
“Yeah. It’s a rather large one, too.”
“We’ll bring our women to your house and your wife can meet them. It’s good for t
he women and children to meet others and talk. This is a lonely life we live.”
“When do you want to do this?”
“It will take us a day or two to get up with everyone. How about we meet at your place on Wednesday night?”
“Fine with me. I’ll have everything ready. Lamps, blankets, and chairs for the cellar. What else do they need?”
“Since there are pregnant women and some children, you’ll want to have food and water down there as well.”
“I’ll have it.” Micah stood up and held out his hand. “I sincerely appreciate it. I hope the men who came to our house before will forgive me not letting them in.”
“We all know the dangers of unattached men. They won’t hold it against you. They would do the same thing.” Grant walked him to the door.
Micah waved to them as he drove off. He went ahead and drove the rest of the way around the area and located several houses that were occupied. He didn’t stop at any of them. He would let Grant and Luke bring them to him. He knew they had a woman by the condition of the house. It had little cloths on the tables and looked clean. He figured he could trust them as much as he trusted anyone he didn’t know well. If they brought a woman with them, they would be allowed inside.
Nearly four hours later, he returned home. When he walked into the house, it was quiet. He locked the door behind him and headed toward the kitchen. He figured he had a sour woman to deal with.
Rachael stood at the stove cooking. He knew better than to walk up behind her when she was cooking and didn’t know he was there. He cleared his throat.
“So you came back.”
“I went to find people to help us, Rachael.”
“Did you have to sneak off?”
“I figured you would want to go with me, and it’s too dangerous until I know who has a family and who doesn’t.”
“So did you? Find families?”
“Yeah, I did, and they are coming here on Wednesday. We have a lot to do to get ready for them.”
“They’re coming here? Why?”
“To hunt the wolves with us. We need help, Rachael.”
