Several protestors carried signs that talked about how the hybrids were abominations and the general evil they brought with them. Sol snorted. He wasn’t thrilled with their lot in life, but he never thought of anyone but the Horatius Group as being evil. Guess they had different ideas of what evil was.
As Sol strode up to Titus, he could see where the flames had damaged the hinges. The hinges shook as people pressed against the gate.
“Any get through yet?” he shouted over the noise.
“Go back to where you came from, freaks!” one man yelled above the rest, his grizzled face contorted in rage.
Titus shook his head. “Few close calls but nothing so far. We need to secure the grounds and defuse the men. Remember what we talked about before. One incident, and we could have issues in the community.”
Sol nodded. That was the last thing they needed at this time. They should be showing the public that they were as average as the rest of them, despite their backgrounds.
Titus leaned closer. “You know they are going to smell her on you.”
He looked to his leader and nodded. There was nothing to be done about it now. Sol pulled away and went in search of his team. It didn’t take long. They were standing around where the fire had taken place.
The wood there had warped and turned to ash. Parts of it were so far gone that there were planks missing. Protesters on the other side reached through, trying to pull out more pieces of wood.
His hot breath created clouds of white air before him, and he wondered how they had the energy to keep this up when it was so cold. The fresh snow from earlier only made things worse. The ground below him had turned to a slushy mess.
“Enough,” he roared. Several hands snapped back.
“I heard that if they bite you, you become one of them,” a woman whispered on the other side.
He growled low in his chest.
“That’s right,” he said. “So you better stay the fuck back.”
Several people gasped on the other side.
Sol was done with this crap. Thinking quickly, he hopped into a jeep and drove it to the fence, parking it right on the other side of the burn. The vehicle would be just enough support to help until the local police arrived. He hoped they would arrive at least. There were too many PR issues for the hybrids to try and handle this all internally, even if the protesters were technically trying to enter their land.
Apollo walked by and Sol stopped him. “Gather the men. The jeep should hold them off until the police get here.”
He nodded and gave a shout for the others by the gate to come over.
They were covered in wet mud and soot from head to foot. If they had been normal men, the hybrids would have been shivering from the harsh winter air.
“What started the fire?” Sol asked.
Lucius stormed forward. “They tried to light it with a makeshift torch, but all the snow made it hard. One of those fuckers threw a Molotov cocktail on the wood and lit it that way.”
Sol sighed. Tensions were high, and he needed to defuse the situation as fast as he could before one of his men took matters into their own hands.
“Take some men, and walk the perimeter. I don’t want someone thinking that this is a good time to sneak in elsewhere,” he said to Lucius. Better to separate them and send them away.
Lucius started to walk away but stopped and smelled the air. His dark eyes pinned him, and it was clear he smelled Erica on him. Lucius glared at him before walking away.
“I need eyes on this from up high. Send Varius. He’s got the best sight.” Apollo nodded and sent off the orders via headset. When he was finished, he came back to Sol.
“We need to contain this shit,” Sol mumbled. He looked back over to the jeep. It seemed to be holding things, but the last thing he wanted was for a bunch of local cops to think they weren’t ready for this sort of thing.
He started to pace, the cold air chilling him. He looked back to the hole.
“Blankets,” he said.
“What?” Apollo looked confused and stared at the hole.
“We give them blankets,” he said a little more confident in his thinking this time.
“I don’t think I understand.” Apollo frowned.
“Look, they are all spun up and looking for us to do something back. They won’t expect this. Most of them don’t even view us as human.” He grinned. “So maybe we show them we are.”
Apollo started to smile and nodded. “It just might work.”
“It will,” Sol said with confidence. “But make sure it’s only hybrids handing out the blankets. I don’t want to leave them with any thought that it might not be us.”
He nodded and started to walk away but stopped. When he turned to Sol, he winked and grinned. It had been happening to him since he showed up. He was either met with open hostility or a smirk. One thing was certain. Being with Erica was compromising his leadership role. He really didn’t want to go challenge someone to maintain his position, but it looked like his night with her had left him with little choice.
When Apollo returned, they went to the top of the gate.
“We’ve brought blankets,” Sol said. Several stared with open hate, but a few others, shaking from the cold, seemed grateful.
They tossed a few blankets down to the people who seemed to want it the most. He smiled.
The moment faded quickly when a rock grazed his cheek just below his eye. He could feel his temper start to rise and took a few deep breaths.
“We don’t want your filthy fucking blankets,” the man who threw the stone said.
“Hey, speak for yourself man,” another man yelled out. “I’m fucking freezing my balls off out here.”
Sol ignored the pain on his cheek and tossed a blanket to the second man. The more blankets they tossed, the less angry the protestors seemed to be. As the last blanket got handed out, he looked up. Several media crews were focused on their good deed, and he wondered if it would play well with the general public. All he could do was cross his fingers and hope for the best.
Chapter Thirteen
By the time Sol returned home, it was nearly morning. The house was still quiet when he came in and pulled off his boots. He stunk of sweat and soot but was far too exhausted to take a shower.
The jeep held the fence like they hoped until the police arrived. Most seemed more than a little pissed to be there but did their jobs just the same. By the time everyone reported back in, things were pretty much back to normal.
Titus planned to have the construction crew take a look at the fence and maybe even look at something a little more permanent, something that wouldn’t burn.
Sol sighed.
Despite every intention of sleeping on the couch, he found himself standing at the door to his room. Not stopping, he stripped off the dirty clothes and crawled into bed next Erica. She rolled into his embrace and sighed when his arms came up around her.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“It is now,” he sighed and snuggled further into her embrace.
Her eyes winked open, and he nearly fell off the bed when she shot up.
“What happened?” Her gentle fingers prodded at the gash on his cheek.
He’d nearly forgotten about that.
“The protesters were getting out of control, so I went to try and talk with them. A few threw rocks, and one cut me,” he said. “It’s superficial.”
Erica narrowed her eyes on him and climbed out of bed. “Superficial wouldn’t bleed like that.”
He watched as she went to his closet and pulled out a t-shirt. Then, she disappeared into his bathroom. When she came back out, she was holding some medical supplies.
She climbed onto the bed and made her way up to his cut. He lay there as she worked on him and wondered what all he had missed in life. Aside from his time at the doctor’s office, he had never really had anyone take care of him. It was a nice feeling.
Erica hissed when she swiped the peroxide across the wound. �
��Sorry,” she said. “Did that hurt?”
He smiled at her concern. “No.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re lucky this wasn’t worse.”
Sol took her hand in his and kissed it. “Thank you,” he said.
He put the medical supplies on the bedside table and stripped off her t-shirt again.
“That’s better,” he hummed.
“You don’t like that t-shirt?” she asked innocently. The sly grin on her face gave her away.
“I like it better on my floor,” he rumbled.
Erica shrieked when he yanked her down next to him. Her soft body just the comfort he was seeking.
She gasped when other parts of him started to rise to the occasion.
“Now, how about we have a proper good morning?” he rumbled in her ear.
Erica giggled as she slipped away from him and hopped off the bed. His roaming eyes followed her naked form, and she shivered at the predatory way he watched her. She grinned at him from the foot of the bed and raced to the bathroom.
She had just made it to the door when he caught up with her. A large arm snaked around her middle and pulled her against his solid form.
Erica sighed into his embrace.
“Shower with me,” she said and turned in his arms.
His sleepy eyes looked at her in full force, and she shuddered at the intense way he stared.
She pulled away and started the water. Within a few minutes, the air was thick with steam. She looked back at him and climbed in. After a moment, he followed.
Slick and warm from the water, Erica enjoyed the way their skin rubbed against one another. She grabbed some gel from the rack and squeezed it on her hands. When they were lathered up, she spread the bubbles around his chest, loving the feel of hard and soft.
When she passed his nipples, her thumb scraped over them. He grunted at her ministrations. She worked around him. As her hands came to his hips, she stopped and looked at the landscape before her.
She grinned when she noticed that he was hard and resting against her belly. It still surprised her that she had been able to fit that inside her and just the thought of doing it again made her wet with anticipation.
“Erica,” he ground out and bumped his throbbing cock into her stomach.
She took hold of him and pumped him slowly. The soap made him slip easily between her fingers. He groaned loudly and pumped his hips quickly against her.
Just as she was certain he would come, he yanked back and turned her around, the hot stream of water rolling down her back and onto her ass. She could feel the stream of water run over her ass and around her aching clit.
She gasped when he nudged her open and slid all the way in. Erica cried out from the sudden intrusion.
“Are you okay?” he asked. Concern laced his voice.
Shifting her hips a bit, she pulled forward and then sank back on him.
The both groaned at the feeling.
“Faster,” she said to him.
She rubbed her clit. She was so close to coming, but she needed him to be there with her.
He picked up the pace, pushing faster and faster into her.
She cried out his name as he slammed in a few more times and came.
They panted as the water still streamed around and enjoyed the moment of quiet.
She looked over her shoulder and grinned at him. “Want to take a real shower now?”
He chuckled and pulled out of her.
“Only if you wash me,” he said.
Chapter Fourteen
Erica sat at work and yawned. It had been another late night, just like every other night this week. Sol was working to settle all the issues that had been brought up by the recent fire. It didn’t help that they found evidence of a breach on the outer parts of the land. Nothing had been found yet, but that didn’t mean there was nothing.
Her only hope was that it was one of the protesters instead of someone from the Horatius Group. The thought on who it likely was chilled her to the bone. Mark hadn’t given any indication that he would be back, and she hoped that to be true. The idea of him skulking around in the woods creeped her out.
Despite all that, Sol came to her every night. At first she tried to give him space, but gave up after being woken up by someone carrying her to his bed two nights in a row. On the second night, he growled, “You sleep in my bed.”
Yes, it had been a demand, but one she would willingly follow.
She huffed in frustration at her computer screen. Over the past week, she’s gone over all the invoices, and nothing stood out. She could see that there were a few issues, but those seemed more like honest errors than something deceptive. In the initial report she looked over, it had all been so clear, but looking over it here, things seemed as they should be. Sure there were some things that could be improved, but that was hardly criminal. Well, not in that way at least.
Erica leaned back and swiveled around to look at Marius.
“Are you going to the dance tonight?” she asked.
It was all anyone could seem to talk about. Hannah had decided it would be best to have a dance to celebrate the reopening of the main lodge. Looking at most of the men around, it would most likely be more like her seventh-grade dances than anything: hands-on hips, seven-inch rule, swaying like robots in time with the music. She supposed they had to start somewhere though.
Most of the men were excited since the rest of the staff had been included. That meant a chance to meet women. Titus still hadn’t hired someone to help with their manners, but she heard they had all received a few pointers on how to make conversation with women. She had also heard they were under strict watch. There was to be no fighting over women. They were to let the women make the first move sexually, and if they chose a partner, the men were not to fight. Any fighting would result in being kicked out and an ass kicking by Titus. Or at least that’s what Hannah said.
She would have found it all very silly, if she hadn’t seen enough chest beating over the past week. The men here settled things like warriors, and then had no clue that women were different from men.
Marius shot her an irritated look. “I don’t have time for a dance,” he snapped at her. “Besides, I don’t know how to dance.”
“Do you want to learn?” she asked.
Marius froze. Erica smiled. She knew he was looking forward to it as much as everyone else. He had specifically saved out enough in the budget to account for the party. That was good as a Marius stamp of approval.
“Stand up,” she said, standing in front of him.
Marius looked around the room like someone was going to jump out and get him, most likely Sol.
“I don’t…” he started.
Erica held out a hand to him. “I know. Just let me help you. It’s no big deal.”
Marius stood very slowly and approached her with caution. Without fear, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to her.
“Slow dance is simple. You put your hands here,” she said, moving his hands to his waist. “And I put mine her,” she said. “Then we just sway to the music.”
Erica hummed a tune as they began to sway. A few minutes in he smiled brightly at her, and she nearly forgot what an uptight ass he could be. His ear-length brown hair kept dipping into his eyes and gave him an almost boyish look.
She smiled back and moved closer. “If things are going well, you want to slip your hands all the way around her back, and she’ll lean in closer up top.”
When she pushed his hands further around his back, Marius froze. With stiff movement, he swayed with her.
“Nice,” she said and smiled at him.
“What the fuck!”
She turned to see a very pissed Sol standing at the door.
Erica smiled brightly at him and ignored the very chest beating-like look he was shooting to Marius, who was now clear across the room from her.
“I was just teaching Marius to dance,” she said.
“Is that what we pay you to do?” h
e shot back.
Erica’s smile fell from her face as she stared at him. Angry and hurt, she turned away from him. Things had been going so well that his words came like a gut punch to her.
“Erica,” he said softly.
She turned to look at him, tears pooling in her eyes.
“I think you should take a walk,” said Hannah’s sweet voice from behind Sol.
She watched as he stared helplessly around the room and turned away.
Hannah walked in the room and looked directly at Marius. “She’s taking the rest of the day off.”
Marius nodded and seemed upset that he had been the cause of their fight.
“It’s not your fault,” Erica said to him and tried to muster a smile. “But now you have to come to the dance.”
Marius laughed and nodded.
Erica smiled. Him coming was a good step.
Hannah walked over and linked arms with her. “Let’s go. You can help me.”
She smiled back to Marius before following Hannah.
* * *
“You know you’re an idiot, right?” Apollo asked as Sol beat on the punching bag.
“I don’t need you to tell me,” Sol said and hit the bag a little harder.
“No.” Apollo held the bag in place for him. “Apparently you do.”
He sighed as Sol got in a few more hard hits.
“You already have her. There’s not a chance in the world someone else is going to take her from you.” Apollo looked him in the eye as he gave the lecture.
Sol put his gloves down and sat hard on the bench.
“I know that. I really do. But seeing him with his hands on her.” The anger came back and his face contorted in rage. “It just makes me so angry.”
“You were a dick.” Apollo sat next to him.
Sol sighed. He was a dick. To see her so hurt by what he said, it cut him. He leaned forward and put his head in his hands
“What do I do?”
“On TV, they give flowers,” he said. Sol pulled his hands away to look at Apollo.
Luna Lodge: Sol Page 10
