“You knocked him out?” he asks, eyes widening. “I’ve seen grown men piss their pants around him, and you knocked him out?”
I cringe. “Well, he wasn’t exacting expecting it.”
He grunts at that. “I’m sure he now knows never to underestimate you.”
“It would have hit his pride,” I say. “I know how men are. Maybe he didn’t even tell his men what happened.”
His men probably thought what I wanted them to think, that I fucked the shit out of him and then left. Instead, I broke the deal, knocked him out and got the hell out of there. However, if he kept what really happened to himself, it might save me. The men would wonder why he was out for me, and that would mean that Aaron would have some explaining to do.
Dane smirks. “Don’t worry about Aaron. He’s shit scared of me, and if he wants to live—he won’t so much as look in your direction.”
“What if his men want to fight?”
“Then we will kick their asses. We outnumber them anyway.”
“We have women here though. Gina, Jordan and her two friends can’t fight.”
He massages my neck gently, making me moan in pleasure. “I’ll handle it. You don’t need to be worrying about any of this right now.”
“But I do.”
“I’m here. Jase and Sam are here. Wyatt. Do I have to keep naming all the men that won’t hesitate to take a bullet for you?”
“That’s the thing,” I try to explain. “It’s not me I’m worried bout. It’s everyone. I don’t want anyone getting hurt and I sure as hell don’t want them endangering their lives for me.”
He continues to massage me, making me want to stop for a break and just lie on the grass. “You worry too much. It’s okay to give up control sometimes Olivia.”
“I give you control in the bedroom,” I muse. “That’s as far as I can go.”
Dane grins. “Okay now you’re making me horny.”
I smile widely. “I’ll be happy to take care of that at the first available opportunity.”
Luckily I’d found some mint leaves to clean my teeth, or I’d be avoiding his mouth at all costs.
“I’ll take you up on that,” he growls, letting go of my neck and slapping my ass. Wrapping my arm around his waist, we continue to walk.
“So how did you get Jordan to shut up?” I ask.
“Told her to call Lars if she needed anything. One look at him and she kept her mouth shut. Plus Gina might have told her off.”
I knew I loved that girl.
After what felt like ten hours of walking, but in reality was much less than that, we come to Aaron’s camp. We decide to skirt around the edges of it, knowing they were going to see us but curious as to what they were going to do. I know when the men spot me. Whistles and cheers break out.
“Back for more?” one man calls out.
“Going to fuck him into a coma again?” another laughs.
Oh shit.
Did they have to be so fucking loud and obvious?
I glance at Dane who has a look of pure fury on his expression. His jaw is so tight it might break and his left eye is ticking a little. The vein in his neck looks like it’s about to pop.
“What the fuck are they talking about?” he asks, holding his hand up to tell everyone to stop.
Fuck.
“They think that I… But I didn’t... And…”
Aaron storms out of his tent, his gaze searching for me instantly. When he sees me, he crooks a finger at me. Seeing that, Dane stands in front of me, blocking me from view.
“Any reason you’re even breathing in my wife’s direction?” Dane booms, making me jump.
Shit, he can be scary when he wants to be.
“Wife?” I hear Aaron say, sounding shocked. “You’re telling me that little blonde is your wife?”
Dane walks to Aaron, pulling me behind him. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Now do we have a problem here? Because with the shit I just heard your men saying, if you’re looking for a fight, I’d love to give you one. Or hell, maybe it’s me who’s looking for a fight.”
I cringe at the unmistakable anger laced in his tone.
“We don’t want a fight,” Aaron replies, glancing behind at all our men. “Take her and get the fuck out.”
Dane turns and hands me over to Sam, telling him something silently with his gaze. Sam pulls me back away from the two men. “What the hell Sam?”
Before I know what’s happening, Dane punches Aaron square in the jaw. Aaron falls to the ground, but holds his hand up to stop when his men come after Dane. “Speak a word to my wife again and everyone in this camp will be dead.”
Dane storms to me, pulls me to his side, then yells, “Let’s go everyone, before I change my mind.”
We get the hell out of there.
After telling Dane in excruciating detail exactly what happened with Aaron, I feel terrible as I watch him hit both Jase and Sam. He was angry. No that wasn’t the word for it. He was raging. Fury was dripping from him. When I told him Aaron had seen me naked and had touched my breasts, he’d actually tried to storm back to the camp to kill him. I had to talk him out of it, but it was hard.
“I did what I needed to do to get us out of there without anyone hurt. Or raped,” I tell him. He’s sitting on a log, with his head buried in his hands.
“He fucking touched you. No one touches you Olivia. He saw you fucking naked! I’m telling you right now, the next time I see him, the man is dead.”
“Dane--”
“Dead!” he snaps.
I run my hand through his long, tangled hair. “It’s over.”
“I can’t fucking deal right now Olivia,” he says through clenched teeth, standing up. “I need to be alone for a little while. I need to calm down.”
“Dane--”
“If I stay here I’m going to do something I will regret.”
I watch him storm through the bushes. He punches a tree as he passes one. Sitting down in the spot he just vacated, I expel a heavy sigh.
At least no one was killed.
A loud growling sound wakes me up.
Lifting my head and looking around, I realize I fell asleep by the log.
Shit.
I bolt up, grab my knife and slip behind the tree. Slowly tilting my head to the right, I instantly see the source of the growling—another one of those bear-rexes. All I see is sharp teeth, dark fur and yellow eyes. This one seems even bigger than the last. I shift on my feet. How the hell was I going to get out of this one? I didn’t even have my bow and arrow on me. I could throw my knife at his heart but who knows how deep the knife would puncture. It wasn’t that big.
“Olivia!” I hear Dane call out from somewhere behind the beast. “Run!”
I don’t run.
Instead I grip my knife tighter.
I watch in horror as Dane jumps on the beast’s back and stabs his knife in its chest. The beast grips Dane, pulling him to its front and tears into Dane’s neck. I run towards them, but it’s too late.
There is blood everywhere.
Dane is lying on the floor, unresponsive, his throat torn out.
Is he dead?
The pain in my chest constricts my breathing.
I stand there, panting, trying to get some air, not even concerned with the beast. If I died right now, I don’t think I’d care. Finally able to get my feet to move, I run to Dane and crouch by his body. I grab his wrist. There is no life in his body. Pushing his hair from his face with trembling fingers, I start to cry.
I shake him.
He doesn’t wake.
“Wake up Dane,” I whisper hoarsely. “You need to wake up.”
He’s indestructible. He can’t die.
He just can’t.
I won’t let him.
I look up to find the beast gone.
And I’ve just lost… everything.
“Olivia, wake up.”
Someone shakes me gently. Opening my eyes, I stare into familiar hazel ones.
I can only see half of his face properly in the moonlight.
“You were crying in your sleep,” he says, brows furrowing. “What’s wrong baby?”
I sit up and look around. We were sleeping underneath a tree, and everyone was close by. A few men sat by a fire not too far away.
“It was a dream?” I whisper, looking to Dane. I sit up and wrap my arms around him, pulling him as close against me as he could possibly go. “I thought I lost you.”
“I’m right here Olivia,” he says gently, kissing the top of my head. “It was just a bad dream.”
I remember Dane storming off in anger, but returning only ten minutes later. Then, we ate, cleaned up and went to bed. I must have been dreaming the whole thing.
Thank God for that.
Dane tugs me onto his lap, so I’m straddling him. Wrapping his arms around me tight, he murmurs, “Sleep. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
And I do.
Chapter Nineteen
I kill my first zombie on the way home.
I took his head off with a long sword that Dane had given me. Three of them had surrounded us, and luckily no one had gotten bitten.
“You handled yourself well,” Sam says, pride in his tone.
Even Jordan gave me a begrudging nod of respect, not that I needed it.
I look to Wyatt, who was carrying some of the supplies in a cart. “You okay?”
He nods, cheeks reddening.
Dane smirks. “Don’t embarrass the man.”
“He’s been pushing that heavy cart all day. Can’t someone else take a turn?”
“I will,” Lars offers, swapping places with Wyatt. I grin at Wyatt, who wipes the sweat of his brow and avoids my gaze.
“Wyatt needs a girlfriend,” I whisper to Dane.
He looks down at me like I’m crazy. “What, are you a matchmaker now?”
I grin, wiggling my eyebrows. “Regan’s mum is single, and she’s a babe.”
Dane just shakes his head at me. “Let’s get home in one piece first.”
I wave my hand in front of me, scoffing. “What do you mean those few measly zombies? We killed them in like three seconds.”
Amused hazel eyes regard me. “Don’t get cocky Olivia.”
Gina stops at my side, gripping my arm. “Lars says about two hours until we’re home.”
I exhale slowly.
For the first time in my life, I couldn’t wait to see those walls.
I was naked and on my back on our bed. Dane was undressing, his gaze never leaving mine. We’d both taken baths as soon as we’d gotten back to the castle. After checking on everyone and everything, Dane had told me to get into bed and wait for him. So here I was, bared to him, waiting for him to join me.
“Beautiful,” he whispers, his eyes wandering over my breasts, my flat stomach and my parted thighs. “Reckless, but beautiful.”
I didn’t think I was reckless, but right now, I didn’t want to argue. I just wanted him inside of me.
“You put yourself in danger for me,” he says, stroking his cock.
Holy hell, that was hot.
“I said I’d be back, but you didn’t believe me,” he says. I don’t raise my gaze though, it was stuck firmly on his magnificent penis. “Did you think I’d leave you alone?”
“If you were hurt then you wouldn’t have had much choice,” I manage to say. “Life and death isn’t always a choice.”
I look up in time to see him smirk. “You underestimate me wife.”
“Never,” I reply, licking my lips. “Now are you going to continue to tease me? Or are you going to come here and show me how much you love me?”
I cringe as the words fall from my mouth.
“I mean… Ummmm…”
Yeah, there was no saving this.
“I do you know,” he says in a quiet tone, making my heart race. He lets go of his cock and gets on the bed, straddling my waist. “I love you. I have ever since I first spoke to you. You’re beautiful, strong. Captivating. How could I not?”
I’m stunned speechless.
“Nothing to say?”
He grins boyishly, making my lips curl upwards in response.
“You were mean to me,” I decide to point out.
His eyes smile down at me. “I was being forced into marriage. I didn’t see it for what it was, a blessing.”
“I love you too Dane,” I whisper, leaning up to kiss his lips. “I always have, and I always will.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” he says, before kissing me like his life depends on it. Soon his fingers wander, down to my breasts, tugging on my nipples. When his mouth follows, licking my breasts, his fingers trail even lower, dipping inside of me.
“So wet,” he growls softly, lifting his fingers up. I can see my wetness on his fingers, and moan when he rubs his finger on one of my nipples, and then licks it off.
“I think I just came,” I say, feeling so turned on.
Dane chuckles deeply, then rises on his knees. Knowing what he wants, I turn my head and open my mouth wide, eager to taste him. Taking him in as deep as I can, I hollow my cheeks and let him take control, moving in and out.
“That’s a good girl,” he says huskily, letting his head fall back on his neck. I reach down and cup his balls, playing with them gently. When he pulls away, I open my eyes and glare at him.
“You’re going to come at least three times before I come,” he says, flashing his straight, white teeth. He lies down onto the bed, turning his head to look at me. “Sit on my face Olivia.”
My eyes widen. Biting on my lower lip, I sit up and move to straddle his face. Holding onto the wall, I lower myself until my pussy is on his mouth. He starts eating me straight away, using his tongue and mouth in ways that should be illegal.
I come once, twice, before he grips my hips and pulls me down, sliding himself inside of me in one long, hard thrust.
“Ride me,” he demands, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. I push my hips up and down, taking him inside me and loving every second of it. Thrusting my chest out, let my head fall back, my hands gripping onto his strong thighs. He sits up and sucks on my nipples, making my thighs start to tremble. Finally, when I’m about to come for the third time, he lifts me off him and places me on my knees. Pressing his dick against my opening, I squirm, wanting him back inside me. Thrusting so hard the bed moves, he slams into me over and over again.
I come, screaming his name.
He follows me a few thrusts later, telling me how much he loves me.
I felt loved.
I felt like I was on top of the world.
The world was empty, but my heart was full.
I’d rather live on earth like this, gone to hell, with Dane by my side, than to live how it was, without him.
I was crazy in love.
And luckily, I wasn’t the only one.
I was sitting outside, watching Regan and the other children play, eating the honey flowers Dane brought me. I’d shared, of course, and was only left with about five flowers.
“Olivia watch me!” Regan calls out, shooting an arrow and hitting the target.
What a little champion.
I cheer and wave my flowers in the air.
Suddenly realizing I forgot to ask Dr. James about the medicines we brought, and whether they’d be of use to him, I say bye to Regan and the kids and walk towards Dr. James’ room. When I hear raised voices, I stop in my tracks and listen.
“You can’t keep threatening me.”
That was the doctor.
“Just keep your mouth shut and everything will be fine.”
I knew that voice too. It belonged to Lars. What the hell was going on here? I strain to listen, but nothing else is said. Instead Lars exits the doctor’s room and sees me standing there.
I try for casual. “Hey, is Dr. James in his room?”
Lars studies me. “How long have you been standing there?”
I look around, shrugging my shoulders. “I just wa
lked up the hallway, why?”
His face softens. “No reason, and yeah he’s in there. You see Sam?”
“He’s helping build a tree house for the kids,” I say, stepping forward and knocking on the door. “They probably need a hand if you’re not busy.”
“I’ll go there now,” he murmurs, walking past me.
Opening the door, I find Dr. James standing by the window, staring out of it.
“Hey,” I say. “I forgot to ask about the medicines Dane found.”
He jumps and turns to me. “Olivia. I haven’t had a proper look through everything but I did see some antibiotics and some disinfectants, so that will help.”
“Good,” I reply. “Is everything okay?”
He looks lost in thought, and I get the feeling something isn’t right.
He sighs tiredly, but nods. “It’s fine. A few of the kids have bad coughs and I don’t have anything to offer them. I read pineapple juice might help but we have none of that either.”
I stand straighter. “I saw a few tins of sliced pineapple in the kitchen. I’ll go and give them to the sick kids.”
He smiles then, a little sadly. “You’re a good woman Olivia. Just like your father was a good man.”
“Thank you,” I reply quietly. “We do the best we can in times like these.”
“Yes,” he murmurs, “We do.”
Chapter Twenty
“If she puts her hand on him one more time,” I threaten, staring daggers at the back of Jordan’s head.
Gina laughs. “She’s doing it on purpose. Dane isn’t even paying attention to her.”
I look at my friend and raise an eyebrow. “How’s things with Lars?”
She shrugs. “A little weird to be honest. It’s like he’s dating me and Sam.”
That was exactly what he was doing.
“I don’t want anything too serious though,” she adds absently. “And he’s good in bed so I shouldn’t complain.”
I wrinkle my nose. “That’s as much information as I’m going to need. What did you do all day?”
“I made candles,” she replies. “We’re running out and we desperately need more. I think we’re going to need to stay in darkness as much as we can.”
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