Dela's Hunters (The Harem House Book 1)

by Charissa Dufour

The barn? Mason dismissed the barn as Lath and Gareth would both know the dairy cows needed milking in the afternoon. His eyes ran to the few branches peaking over the roof of the cabin. He had never noticed trees behind the cabin, suggesting it wasn’t a place people often tread. He slipped around the corner of the cabin and found Lath and Josie huddled behind a low-growing apple tree. They were both grinning, whispering to each other as though they were girlfriends scheming against their enemy. He approached them silently, ducking his head to hear what they were saying as he stood behind them.

  He had barely heard a word before he caught sight of what they were spying on—Dela and Gareth. Before he could stop himself, he let out a cry of anger, surprising himself, the whispering pair, and those trapped in the bonds of intimacy. Dela and Gareth jumped back, scrambling to adjust their tangled clothing. Josie and Lath jumped, too, turning to find Mason hovering over them.

  Mason stepped out from under the tree, followed by the other peepers. Mason couldn’t tell what emotion controlled him as he stomped across the back lawn—rage was certainly a contender, along with the arousal caused by watching them together, but there was something else, something along the lines of betrayal.

  Ever since kissing Dela as a joke, he had found himself more and more attracted to her. Each day he learned something new about her making him want to know her each and every day for the rest of his life. It would take his entire life to know her truly, and, because of all those emotions, he had kept his distance fearing he would ruin her for the Harem House. And yet, after days of temptation, he found Gareth—of all people—just about to take her virginity.

  At least Gareth had the good nature to blush as Mason stomped up to them. He glanced back at Lath and Josie, annoyed to see them still looking pleased. He couldn’t fathom what was going on. Were Lath and Josie trying to get the other two together? Jealousy reared its ugly head, taking over some of the other emotions contending for the forefront in his mind.

  “What is going on?” he finally stammered out.

  Dela and Gareth both stumbled over a few words, neither of them conveying any sort of real message. He looked at Lath again, hoping for an explanation from that corner.

  Lath shrugged. “You’ve kissed her too.”

  “I gave her one kiss!” snapped Mason. “I didn’t try to undress her!”

  “She is standing right here!”

  Mason turned to look at her. “Are you interested in forming a union with one of us?”

  Dela’s mouth hung open, a darker blush spreading across her neck and cheeks. It became obvious no coherent message was to be gleaned from her. Mason turned to look at Gareth and Lath. Gareth’s features had turned angry, as though the very idea of uniting with their catch disgusted him. Lath’s expression was a little harder to translate. Lath almost looked as though he was annoyed with Mason for interrupting them. Mason couldn’t comprehend what was going on.

  “You’re right, Mason,” Gareth said. “It won’t happen again.”

  Mason glanced at Dela, who hung her head to hide her expression.

  “Is this really the time to worry over all this nonsense?” asked Josie. “My men are back, and the McMillians will be here tomorrow. We have more important things to worry over.”

  Slowly, the men nodded. Mason turned, heading back toward the front of the house. He felt, rather than saw, the others follow on his heels. As they walked, he heard Gareth say, “I’m on to you, girl,” giving Mason more to think about.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dela stood beside Josie, surrounded by her younger children, as they watched the small army head out down the road, their horses’ hooves turning up the dust. In the end, they recruited twenty-six men, young and old alike. They had the four Hunters, nine men from Josie’s family, and thirteen men from the McMillian ranch. Dela hoped it would be enough to take on Angel’s forces. Truth was, she had no idea what sort of support Angel had. Then there was the child-army meeting them up in the Dead Zone. She wondered if the other men knew about the children or how they would allow them to help. Like Dela, the children wanted to be in the thick of it.

  She glanced down at the younger children. Anyone under the age of fifteen had been left behind. Dela still didn’t know how many children Josie had conceived. She guessed ten children, based on the six left behind and the four leaving with their fathers, but she had no idea if there were others already married off like in Alice’s family.

  Finally, the men disappeared into the dust cloud. Dela turned to look at Josie, who sniffled, trying her hardest not to cry in front of her children. Dela tried to come to the rescue.

  “Okay, boys, you’ve got chores to do! Get them done, then maybe we can go swimming if you do a good job.”

  The boys let out a whoop of excitement as they ran off toward the barn, the youngest of them waddling after them, calling for them to wait for him. Emma, Josie’s one daughter, took the baby from her mother’s arms and headed into the cabin without any prompting.

  Dela rested her hand on Josie’s plump arm. Josie flinched and gave a mighty sniffle.

  “They’re doing the right thing,” Dela said.

  “Don’t. Please, just don’t. I know they’re doing the right thing.” She turned her puffy eyes to Dela. “But that doesn’t change the fact that chances are at least one of them will not return.”

  Dela considered Josie’s words as she watched the woman walk away, heading toward the fruit trees in the back. At least she knew to be prepared. Dela thought back to all the times someone had left her and not returned. She doubted being prepared for it made it any better.

  A thought had been tickling her consciousness, but she had refused to let it take shape. Now, though, it bombarded her, unwilling to be ignored.

  She had to go with them; she had to help.

  Dela glanced over her shoulder as if someone might be spying on her and somehow overhearing her thoughts. She would have to hide her intentions from Josie and the children. If Josie got even a hint of her plans, she would tie Dela up—as per the Hunters strict orders. Dela decided the best way to hide her intention was to simply get to work. As much as she wanted to rest up for a night of running through the desert, it would become obvious that something was up. And so she headed into the cabin to help Emma get dinner ready.

  That night, Dela, Josie, and Emma were pushed to their limits getting the rowdy boys to bed. A few got spankings, one got a precious toy taken away, and all of them received threats of “what might happen when your father comes home.” Finally, the last child was tucked away and fast asleep.

  “I never realized how much the men did,” Josie sighed. “I’m off to bed. You okay, Emma?”

  The quiet girl nodded, turning toward her own bunk. Dela went through the motions of stripping her boots and combing her short hair with her fingers before climbing into bed. She waited, barely able to keep her own eyes open. During the day, Dela had hoped to pack up some supplies, but she had never been left alone. Not even once.

  Leaving her boots off, she tiptoed across the cabin and into the kitchen area, cringing every time the floorboards creaked. She pulled a bag of jerked beef from the cupboard, filling a sack made out of one of Gareth’s shirts. She cringed again, imagining how mad he would be. It would be even worse if her stitches failed and the sack became useless. Along with the jerked beef, she found a few jars of canned vegetables, their dates rather old. Lastly, she added an empty tin canteen, which she would fill out at the well. She wouldn’t risk the inside water pump making too much noise.

  Finally, she grabbed her boots and tiptoed to the door, where the night-time candle burned low. To her amazement, she found the door’s lever not only lowered but tied off as well. Some sort of wire tied the lever down. To top it off, empty cans hung from the lever, ready to rattle the moment she touched it. Dela thought back, wondering when Josie had had a chance to rig up such a contraption. Dela had been at a run all day long… but Emma. There had been a time when Josie and Dela had been in the ba
thing room, trying to clean up one of the youngest boys who had tipped himself head first into the cold stew pot. It would have been easy for her to tie the door down while they bathed the child.

  Rather than give up, Dela settled onto the floor, pulling her knife from her belt. With her breath held in her chest, she gently placed her fingers on the first can, cutting the twine with her knife. The trap gave a little rattle and Dela tensed, fearing that alone would wake Josie or Emma. She waited for a second, expecting a shout at any moment. When she was finally forced to breathe again, she assumed everyone was still asleep. She set the can on the ground and went for the next one. Overall, Dela guessed she had spent more than an hour on the trap before the last can was removed. Her body dripped with sweat and her head hurt by the time she slipped the door open, tossing her shoes and bag out the door. She slipped out, using the rope to lower the lever back into place as quietly as she could.

  Outside, with the cool breeze of night on her face, Dela let out a long sigh. She put her boots back on, lacing them up with practiced ease. Grabbing her make-shift sack, she jumped off the porch and took off at a jog, only stopping to fill her canteen. She had considered stealing a horse, but she didn't know about them enough to handle one by herself. She was stuck with walking or rather running as fast as she could. The men, on their horses, would easily outstrip her unless she kept her pace at maximum…and didn’t stop to rest.

  Dela ran as long as her legs would carry her, until one leg finally gave out, sending her sprawling into the dust. She remained in the dust for a few minutes before rolling over and sitting up. She took a long drink from her canteen before climbing to her shaky legs. She tried to run again, only to have her legs send her to the ground again. Finally, she decided to walk. As much as she needed to hurry, it wasn’t worth risking a broken ankle while alone in the desert.

  Slowly, as she walked, her muscles recovered and her breathing returned to normal. When she felt stronger, she began to jog again, keeping her pace to something more manageable. At her next stop, she ate a few pieces of beef and drank more water. As she sat with her canteen in one hand and a piece of beef in the other, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

  Dela woke with a start, spilling her canteen. She looked around, taking a moment to remember what she was doing. The sun was just beginning to crest the horizon. Dela looked down to find her canteen overturned, its water long lost to the dry dirt.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” she muttered as she realized what had happened. She stuffed her empty canteen in in the sack, the piece of jerky still in her hand went to her mouth, and she took off again, adjusting her course according to the sun’s position. She had lost hours of progress and only hoped the men had taken a long rest during the night.

  Once again she jogged, trying her best not to think about what she was doing or why she was doing it. Of course, the more she tried not to, the more she thought about the Hunters. Whether she liked it or not, she couldn’t let them go out into a danger she had created. Sure, she was giving herself over to the Harem House in exchange, but she hated the idea of any of them getting hurt. They were hers.

  Dela slid to a stop with the idea. Her men. Hers and no one else’s.

  “Oh, you idiot.”

  With another deep breath, she took off again, all the more determined to find her Hunters.

  Mason trailed behind the new army, glancing back every once in a while. He had no doubt the other Hunters expected Dela to follow them. He hoped Josie’s contraption would help keep her locked up, but knew the chances were barely fifty-fifty. He also knew Dela. She was a fighter. Mason squeezed his eyes shut, becoming more and more aware of the stirrings within. The thing was, he refused to go it alone. He’d done that once.

  Never again.

  The question was, what did the others think about her? Obviously, Gareth liked her, in some fashion or another, but Mason doubted it was enough to change Gareth’s lifestyle. And Lath did whatever Gareth did. But Adrian? Mason knew Adrian didn’t consider himself worthy of a woman. Not a real woman, anyway. He didn’t know why, but whatever Adrian’s reasons, they were weakening each day he spent with Dela.

  Mason wanted it. That much he knew, but he wouldn’t risk it without all of them. This was something he couldn’t do alone. As much as he hated the idea of sharing Dela with the other Hunters, it was too dangerous to be alone in the dark, post-Great-Extinction world.

  Before he could start imagining such a life, the head of their army came to a stop. He tried to look through the heads of the other mounted soldiers to see what the holdup was. Slowly, he realized where they were. They had reached the outskirts of the Dead Zone, where they planned to meet the children—something they had refrained from telling either family.

  Hearing voices from ahead, Mason urged his horse around the line, trotting up to the head where Gareth and Lath were talking to the leaders of the families.

  “What do you mean ‘kids’?” asked Leroy.

  “There is a group of kids who have escaped from Angel. They live in the Dead Zone. They want to help us sneak in.”

  “Sneak in?” demanded Greg.

  “Sneaking in is better than charging in full throttle,” added Mason. “We have to be smart about this.”

  Gareth nodded. “Let’s at least see what the kids suggest. They may have a really smart idea.”

  “When have you ever seen a kid do something smart?” asked one of the other older husbands.

  No one replied, all knowing that most kids took a few years to mature. Mason searched for an argument, but couldn’t come up with one. Thankfully, a little head peeked out from behind a dilapidated building, catching their attention. A second later, the child turned and ran.

  “What now?” demanded Greg.

  Gareth dismounted his horse. “We wait. The boy’s going to get his leader. We agreed upon it.”

  “We wait?” demanded Leroy.

  “Yes. Give it twelve hours. If they haven’t come to us in twelve hours we’ll head out.”

  Mason chimed in, trying to support Gareth’s leadership. “It will give us time to rest the horses and maybe do a little scavenging. After all, when was the last time any of you were in the Dead Zone.”

  “Exactly,” replied Leroy. “It’s the Dead Zone. We should be trying to avoid it, not taking a damn siesta.”

  “Fine. Let’s give them 'till sunup,” offered Gareth.

  “That makes sense,” replied Mason. “We shouldn’t be launching an attack at night anyway.”

  Leroy spat off to the side of his horse. “Fine. ‘Till sunup.” And with that, Leroy dismounted.

  Mason finally looked around the area. They were stopped in a large lot with peculiar metal buildings. On one side, there was a rusted frame of a structure that appeared to have only a roof and three walls. Based on the rusted lumps within, Mason guessed it had been used as some sort of protection for people’s cars—though what remained didn’t look like the cars left out in the parking lot. They were larger, for one, and they degraded differently than the metal cars. Mixed in, he spotted a few boats, with only a splattering of rust.

  As Mason looked to the other side of the lot, he slid from his saddle. On the opposite side of the opening was an enormous building. It reminded him of the brick structure Angel had claimed as his own, only this building was made of long strips of sheet metal—rusted and weathered like everything else. Through the holes, Mason could see various dark shapes. What it was, he couldn't tell, but a piece of him wanted to explore. Instead, he began unsaddling his horse.

  Mason had barely hobbled his horse when he heard a soft clunk from beyond their camp. He turned to see a child of eight or nine peeking out from behind a rusted beam. When he took a step toward the child, it ducked back and scampered away. Mason eyed the other holes in the walls and the rooftops. He spotted numerous little eyes peeking through. He was just about to find Gareth when five kids appeared in the entrance to their campsite. They stood in a V-shape, their spear tips reflecting in the
sun. Mason didn’t know how old they were—most likely barely reaching puberty—and yet they looked fierce. He had no doubt the children were deadly when they needed to be. They couldn’t have survived in the Dead Zone otherwise.

  Gareth approached the five children with Leroy and Greg flanking him. The rest of their make-shift army began to huddle near the center of their camp. Mason took a few steps toward Gareth without actually approaching. He just wanted to be able to hear the conversation in case Gareth needed his support. With a quick glance, he spotted Lath and Adrian stepping closer to the meeting point.

  The two groups stared at each other for a long, silent moment. Mason grimaced as he considered what Leroy and Greg must be thinking. The child looked like… actually, Mason couldn’t think of a comparison. To call them wild was an understatement. They were garbed in the skins of animals. That alone wasn’t uncommon—all of them had at least something made of skins—but combined with the poorly-cured hides, the children wore bones, bits of metal, and beads. They even wore animal skulls on their heads a bit like an unsafe helmet. To family men like Leroy and Greg, they might as well have been demons sent from Hell itself.

  “You want us to work with these things?” Greg asked, perfectly matching Mason’s expectations.

  Gareth let out a sigh, his own annoyance with the older men apparent. “Greg, please. Can we at least try to be civil? Just ‘cause they look a little odd doesn’t mean they can’t be useful.”

  Greg ground his teeth for a few seconds before giving one jerk of his head. “Fine.”

  “Now, I didn’t get your name when we last met,” Gareth continued. “I’m Gareth. This is Leroy and Greg.”

  “Jak. Sym here is my second.”

  The men nodded as the children examined the masses huddled in the center of the camp. “How many?”

  “We were able to bring twenty-six men.”

  Jak glanced around the camp as though assessing their army. “More would be better.”

  “Yes, I realize that. But it’s what we could get. Now, what is this plan of yours?”