Page 82 of Ezekiel
“Help me, Talia. Tell me how to help you here.” I went with the only answer I had. Pure honesty. “All I want to do is take you into my arms and help you. To make this all better. But I don’t know how.”
“I want to leave this place,” she stated again. And I understood. I understood in a way that surpassed my longing for a life outside of this place. Sure, Zion had been hell on all five of us brothers, but this? This was something completely, astronomically, fucked up. Beyond all recognition.
She moved then, walking towards me, her eyes pleading with me.
“I don’t know what to do,” I murmured again through my own heavy emotion and spinning thoughts. Fuck, I would kill to not be the anxious, messed up man I was in this moment. She deserved someone kind, like Ollie. Someone strong like Malachi. Someone who always knew what to do, like Levi. But I wasn’t any of those things. I wasn’t my brothers. I was just… me.
“I want so badly to be the man you deserve right now. But I’m not like my brothers. I’m messed up. I’m—”
“You are my husband. And you are exactly who I need right now, Zeke,” she reasoned, her truth shining brightly in her eyes.
I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t have stopped myself if I had tried to. My arms wrapped around her and she went willingly, letting me hold her, pressing her close to me. This I could do. This soothed something within me. It made something deep within me ache with relief. Ache with…
The truth hit me like a ton of bricks. The thing that I had been feeling, that I had shoved down deep as to not name it, was love.
I loved her.
I loved her more than myself, more than my brothers. Hell, even more than the life I wanted when I left this fucking cesspit of a place.
I loved her, and I would not let her go. Not now. Not after all we had been through.
How the fuck had it only been two weeks? Two fucking weeks and my entire world had spun on its axis, shifted forever, never to be righted again. I didn’t want it to be righted. I wanted this. This was right. This was the truth. This was love.
And it scared the fuck out of me.
“I’m so tired,” she muttered against my collarbone. I could feel her heart beating against my chest, her body relaxing into mine.
“I’m sure you are. You need rest. You’ve been so strong; so brave, my love.” I didn’t care that I was speaking the word freely. It was the truth. I would tell her in more assured terms at a later date. Tonight was not the night for such declarations.
“I can’t go home right now, Zeke,” she whispered, her breath fanning against my skin through the fabric of my shirt.
“Of course not,” I agreed. I looked to Malachi, who simply nodded his head, pointing down the hall to the room that she had come from, the room I had stayed in on many an occasion. “We’ll sleep here tonight if it will help. Would that help, sweetheart?”
I longed to call her angel, to give her the safety of the submission she had begun to find peace in. But that peace had gotten torn asunder this evening. So much so, I worried we could never fix it. If that was the case, I would deal with it. I would rather have her here, in my arms and at my side, than a lifetime of kinky adventures. She was my adventure. She was my safety. She would be the place I called home. As long as she wanted me there.
“Let’s get you to bed, love,” I whispered against her temple, the ratted mass of her hair tickling at my nose.
“Are you ready for bed?” she asked, leaning back to look into my eyes. I looked to Malachi once more, who now sat hunched over, head in his hands.
“I need to talk to my brother for a bit, then I’ll be in. Okay?” She nodded her head, a soft, yet watery smile lifting her lips.
“I’ll see you in there soon, then,” she responded with a yawn. “Thank you, Malachi,” she finally directed at my brother. He didn’t even bother to lift his head at her words, simply raising a fucking thumbs up in acknowledgement. Classy, asshole.
I watched as my wife, my love, pattered her way down the hallway and into the bedroom. The door shut with a soft click and I exhaled so heavily; I swore I could see my breath.
“Fuck me,” I groaned in a whisper.
“Mmhmm,” Malachi agreed.
“Call the brothers,” I murmured, not sparing a glance towards Kai as I spoke. My eyes stayed focused on the hallway Talia had just retreated down, back to the room Kai had brought her to this evening.
“Yeah,” Kai spoke with barely a whisper. “Jesus fuck, man,” he exclaimed quietly with an exhale.
“Call them.”
CHAPTER18
EZEKIEL
