by Randi Darren
“Yeah. She’s fixed now… and Brunhild said it’d be good for her to go back into the world. So she did. She has a small church and a growing following,” Leah said.
“Brunhild’s the oldest?” Alex asked
“Mmhmm. She’d like to meet you sometime. Probably after I smuggle you out of this world,” Leah said. “Then you can meet Ernsta, too. I think you’ll get along well.”
Not for the first time, Alex wondered about her commentary. It made him feel like he was somehow behind enemy lines.
“Stop trying to set me up with your sister,” Alex grumbled.
“Why? You two will do so well together,” Leah said, smiling now. She waved a hand at him. “She’ll just love you once she meets you and reads your mind. You’ve redeemed so many broken and mangled souls that I think she’ll try to talk you into bed immediately.”
“Anyways,” Alex said, trying to change the subject.
“Anyways. Not a whole lot going on. I have a warning or two for you, though,” Leah said.
“Oh? Alright. Hit me, my goddess,” Alex said.
“A few of your Numbered are trying to contact me directly,” Leah said. “I’m going to have to start responding soon.”
“Really? Huh. I mean… I guess it isn’t that surprising. I’m sure a few have figured out I basically work for you.”
“They have. Carla, Valeria, and Rebekah,” Leah said.
“Well, I can probably guess what Rebekah wants,” Alex said. It was weird to use their names rather than numbers. “Let me guess. Wants to tie her soul to mine?”
“And then some,” Leah said. “I can’t see a reason to disallow it. Would you mind if she jumped from life to life with you and Anna?
“And before you ask, Anna doesn’t care. Especially about Rebekah. She likes her.”
Chuckling, Alex rubbed a hand against his jaw. He should have figured Leah had already asked Anna.
He secretly suspected Leah and Anna talked more than he and Leah did now.
“Doesn’t care, or thought it was a good idea?” Alex asked
“Honestly? Hard to tell with Anna sometimes. Her mind… works differently,” Leah said.
“I mean… alright, fine. If Seven wants to be Seven for all eternity and little more than a bound concubine, fine,” Alex said and sighed.
“Okay. What about Valeria and Carla?” Leah asked.
“Huh?” Alex mumbled, looking at the goddess.
“I think they’re going to ask for the same thing. Same conditions?” Leah asked.
“Uh… I mean—”
“Anna had the same response for them that she did Rebekah,” Leah said. “Just with a little less immediacy.”
Closing his eyes, Alex gave up. He held up his hands.
“Fine, whatever. Guess I’m going to have some of my Numbered traveling with me for eternity,” he said.
“Just the really broken ones. Riley, Sylvia, Eleanor, and Nannie will probably all remain here and move to their destined afterlife. Which, by the way, is a much better place now since you got a hold of them,” Leah said.
“Any other warnings?” Alex felt rather annoyed now. He hadn’t planned on having to be with those three for the rest of all time.
He’d have to change his approach with them to a degree.
“Gaelis is going to fight to the death. He isn’t going to give up anytime soon. And when he dies, his wife might carry it on,” Leah said.
“Great. Suppose that answers that then.” Alex sighed.
“Just keep hold of that young lady you got from her. It’ll keep her in check. She was grooming her to be a personal bed-toy, blood relation or not,” Leah said.
Ew.
Speaking of bed-toy, though.
“Leah, can I ask you a question about Anna?” Alex asked. “I’m going to ask her when I get home, but that’s days away and I’m uh… well, I’m feeling a touch insecure all of a sudden.”
“Anna has twisted Mary and Regina both. They’d do whatever she asked in a heartbeat and are in a strange version of love with her,” Leah said. “Honestly, she could probably talk them into anything she wanted. She settles for kisses, hugs, and cuddling though. It’s also all she wants from them, I think. She’s not interested in women; she just wants to dominate them because they’re your wives.”
“Oh. Huh,” Alex said, frowning.
“Anna is… Anna is different. Be thankful she loves you for exactly who you are,” Leah said. “She’s you but… far more ruthless, devoid of morality, and thinks other people are just walking bags of meat.”
Alex grinned at that and nodded, looking to the ground.
Leah said that like it was bad. Alex heard it all and only thought of how Anna was perfect for him.
“Did you put her in my path, by the way?” Alex asked, looking to Leah again. “She’s absolutely perfect.”
“No. I had someone else in mind for you. No, Anna isn’t my doing at all.”
Chuckling at that, Alex shrugged.
“She’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” Alex said. “Anyways. Anything else going on that’s interesting?”
“Well… I checked in on your old world. Care to hear the latest?” Leah asked.
Grinning, Alex nodded.
Leah liked to gossip in the small hours of the morning about anything and everything. She always zapped him with energy when the sun rose so he’d get through the day easily.
This had become a fairly common occurrence.
Leah was his friend. And from what he could tell of her interactions with him, she didn’t have too many of those.
Chapter 2
Getting out of the carriage, Alex took in a deep breath and let it out.
It was good to be back in Brit. There was a smell to the place he’d never identified, but which he could only associate with Brit itself.
Even if it was so late at night it might as well be the next morning. Then again, Rebekah, Sylvia, and Eleanor had all slept with him in a pile in the middle of the carriage. They’d gotten out at the gate to start tending to their duties.
“Alex,” Carla said as she stepped up to him from around the corner of the carriage.
Turning, he smiled at the taller woman.
Her black hair was curling into ringlets now, her complexion looked very healthy, and she had a solid weight to her made up of firm muscle and good nutrition at the same time.
She smiled back at him, and the scar that ran from her cheekbone to her jaw gave it a grim look.
Carla looked healthier. Happier. Like a normal person.
But she was still his bad girl.
“Hey, Two,” Alex said, and then he walked straight into her and hugged her. “I missed you. I take it one of them is sleeping, and the other feeding?”
Carla froze up at Alex hugging her but then slowly relaxed, and she even hugged him back in return. Her arms tightened around him slowly until his back popped.
“I missed you, Alex,” she murmured in his ear.
Ever since he’d whisked away Carla’s family and provided them with the means for a stable life, Carla had changed towards him.
Calling him Master had fallen away somewhere, and now she had a zealot’s drive to dote on Alex.
Carla cleared her throat. Then did it again.
“I… I love you, Alex,” she mumbled into his ear, sounding incredibly awkward.
Shocked to his very core, Alex leaned back and looked up into Carla’s face.
Did the woman who would watch someone be raped, murdered, or beaten to death as casually as eat lunch… just tell me she loved me?
I think our darling Two might just graduate back to being Carla.
We’ve broken her so far beyond what she was that she can take up her name again.
If she wants. She might not want it anymore.
Something to think on. I’ll run it by Anna first to see what she thinks.
Or Valeria.
“I love you, too, Two,” Alex said, brushing his thumb
along her scar. “And what brought this on? You’re supposed to be my evil-hearted bad girl. Going to tell me you want a kiddo next?”
Carla nodded her head, then shook it rapidly.
Holy shit, she does.
“I’m… I’m your bad girl. I’ll always be your bad girl. But… I… I don’t like it when you leave,” Carla’s voice sounded incredibly insecure. “I talked to Mistress Anna about it, and she told me I loved you and—and I didn’t really believe her.
“Then I told my aunt and she said I was in love with you, and we had this really long talk about my life and what I’ve done, and I just couldn’t keep it together and I realized I want to love you and maybe have kids and—” Carla sputtered to a stop and coughed once as she ran out of breath.
Laughing, Alex patted Carla’s cheek and then kissed her.
“Oh, Two. Did you finally break?” he asked as he pulled away.
“I think I did,” Carla said, frowning severely at him.
“Good. Be my bad girl. Know that I do love you, truly, and that we can talk more about the rest later,” Alex said. “Now, I do need to greet the others as well. What am I walking into here?”
“Anna,” Carla said, her frown slowly turning into a smile. “She’s breastfeeding both Alex and Amelia. Mary’s asleep, Nannie is napping with her. They get along really well.”
“Got it. Anything else?” Alex asked.
“Messengers came in today with dispatches. The roads to the east are becoming passable, and a lot of the winter banditry will be going away as they head back to their farms,” Carla said.
“You ever miss it, by the way?” Alex asked, jumping subjects a bit. He continued to hold his hand to her face, his thumb brushing back and forth. “Being a bandit?”
“No. Never. Not at all,” Carla said, shaking her head. “Even at our worst together, it was better than banditry.”
Snickering at that, Alex patted Carla’s cheek, then gently slipped free of her grasp. “Speaking of, where’s Katherine? She make it back yet?”
Turning, Alex set off for the keep entrance and his personal apartments.
Katherine Lin, Alex’s ex-wife Holly’s niece, had left almost the same day Alex returned. Making it impossible for him to enact the clause he’d made in Holly’s marriage contract that would tie Katherine to him for a year.
Except now she’d be returning to find out she and her family were his direct vassals.
Along with Eleanor’s family.
“No. But if messengers are making it through, chances are she’ll be here in the next week or two,” Carla said, trailing along behind Alex.
Alex let his mind wander as he walked deeper into his home.
It wasn’t until he opened the door to the nursery that he came back to himself.
Sitting in a wooden rocking chair was his wife, Anna Brit. She was topless, with a baby on each breast.
Her brown curls were pulled back behind her, and her clear brown eyes locked on him. When he’d first met her, he thought they looked empty.
Now he would say they were full of life, determination, and a frightening amount of love.
Stepping into the room, Alex glanced at Carla, who stoically avoided eyes and remained outside. Realizing she intended to stay there, he closed the door.
Anna looked like she wanted to bounce out of her chair and smash herself into him. But at the same time, she was clearly unwilling to move at all for risk of disrupting her babies.
And that was what she treated them as. Both Amelia and Alexander were her babies. Even though Amelia had come from Mary.
Alex walked over to his wife and smiled at her.
“You look amazing, Lady Brit,” Alex said, getting an eyeful of her.
Anna wrinkled her nose at him as she grinned and shook her head.
“Stop it. I have my babies. You can’t make me fluttery when I’m doing mommy things,” Anna said.
“Sure, I can. It’s how I convince you to make more babies.” Alex came to a stop next to her. With one hand, he carefully smoothed Anna’s hair back, then leaned down and kissed her.
“Hello wife,” Alex said as he pulled away.
“Hi, hi, hi. I missed you, honey bear,” Anna said, wriggling in her chair just a little. “Stop looking at me like that. You’re making me fluttery. I can’t be fluttery right now.”
Fluttery was her way of describing being randy for him.
Despite being a mother, a woman who would murder someone with a smile, and one who happily broke women over her knee with heavy-handed contracts, she still was a bit too innocent and naive at times.
Laughing softly, Alex sat next to her in a padded chair and looked at his children.
Amelia and Alexander the Second were both pink-faced helpless little things. Amelia had a fair amount of brown hair, where her brother had almost none.
“Let me put them down. They’ve just dropped off,” Anna said. Standing up, she walked over to a curtain to one side, where a nursemaid appeared and gently took the children.
Anna refused to let anyone breastfeed her children other than her or Mary, but she was still acting the part of a lady of station.
“Oh, goodness. My nipples always hurt afterward,” Anna said, walking back to Alex. Her breasts were on full display, though they were both clearly wet. Anna was gently brushing at herself with a handkerchief. “And the… whatever the word is… dark circle… is getting bigger. It’s all getting bigger. Even my nipples.”
Anna sighed, then lifted the straps of her dress over her head and settled back into her clothes.
All the while, Alex just watched. He did his best not to sexualize Anna’s chest before, during, or after breastfeeding.
Then Anna was atop him, wrapping his head up and squishing his face into her cleavage.
“Welcome home, honey bear. I’m so fluttery right now. Do you think it’s too soon to… to play? Do you think I’m healed up down there?” Anna asked.
“No idea. And probably something you should ask the midwife,” Alex said as he pulled his head out from between her death traps. Wrapping his arms around Anna’s waist, he tried to start the conversation he needed to have with her. “The king granted us all the land grants. We own a considerable chunk Gaelis family’s land.”
“Ooh! Goodie!” Anna said, bouncing in place lightly. “Daddy will like that. He was thinking it’d be a good place for you to establish a barony and use every legal loophole available to make the duke lose money. Or just bother him.”
“Ha, fine. I’ll make him the baron. Baron Ulles of house Ulles. He can go make Gaelis’s life hell for me. I’m sure he’ll enjoy it,” Alex said with a chuckle.
“Oh? Oh! Yes. He’d like that, I think. He’s said he wants to turn over all the roaming and traveling assets to someone else. Apparently he wants to get more into this banking idea you two worked on,” Anna said. “He and Mother already bought a house here in Brit and started putting in furniture.”
“I figured that’d happen. Grandkid and all,” Alex said.
Anna grinned at him, nodding rapidly. “Yes. Mother wants to meet you. She should be around in a few weeks.”
“Oh? Good. She as beautiful as you are?” Alex asked.
“Mom’s prettier,” Anna said gravely.
“No one could be prettier than you, Anna my love,” Alex said. “I regret changing the subject away from such a lovely topic such as you, but I need your advice. I was thinking of having a vassals feast and calling everyone to Brit.”
Anna frowned and stared down into Alex’s face, her hands resting on the sides of his head.
The massive, steel-wrought gears that lurked in her mind were in motion now. Grinding up the entire idea.
He had no doubt that Anna was smarter than him, and a simpleton at the same time. Her mind was a frightening and fascinating thing.
“Yes. We should do that. It’ll give me a chance to decide if I want to keep Alanna,” Anna said. “We can invite Regina as a courtesy as well. Quinn, too.”
“Anna… are you… sleeping with Regina?” Alex asked.
“Whenever I can,” Anna said, nodding her head.
“No, I mean… are you having sex with her?” Alex clarified.
“Oh. No. We kiss a lot. Cuddle. And I like to touch and fondle her a bit, but… but bedroom… stuff… is only for you, honey bear. I just keep them warmed up for you is all,” Anna said. “I have them all on the line wanting more, but I make them go to you for everything. Just as it should be.”
Laughing, Alex didn’t even know how to respond to that. Leah had told him that was what she was doing, but he still didn’t quite believe it.
“Right. Thank you for keeping them warm for me,” Alex said.
“Of course! It’s fun. I like kissing them, but I’m not attracted to them,” Anna said.
“Alright, well, while your parents are here for the feast, they can receive their barony,” Alex said.
Anna blinked, her eyes focusing on him. “You’re being true, husband? You really want to make my dad a baron? We’re very far removed from any nobility. We’re the furthest a branch family can be before they’re no longer a branch and—”
“Anna, would it make you happy?” Alex asked.
Smiling at him, Anna nodded her head immediately.
“Of course it would, honey bear,” Anna said. “Silly man.”
“Then that’s what I’ll do,” Alex said. “And why I’ll do it.”
“Ooooh! I love you.” Anna squished his face between her hands. “Can we see if I’m all healed up yet? I really want to play in our bed right now. I’m so fluttery. So very, very, very fluttery.”
Anna paused, then leaned down and pressed her forehead to Alex’s.
“I want it. Now,” she said. Her tone was deadly serious. “Let’s go make another baby while I’m fluttery.”
Right. Got it.
***
Anna wore herself out, then fell asleep in her bed. She passed out so quick it was like a switch had been flipped in her.
Alex needed a bath, so he left as the sun was rising.
Sighing, he slipped into the study attached to his bedroom as quietly as he could. He wasn’t sure if Riley or Rebekah might be trying to ambush him from his bedroom.
