Page 60 of All's Fair in Lion and War
Penny glanced up at Naomi across Erik’s crib and shook her head. “It’s so much better than anything I imagined. Although I would’ve been quite alright with them coming one at a time.”
“Preaching to the choir. We need a village to raise them all.”
“We will single-handedly repopulate Mystery.”
It was Naomi’s turn to shake her head. “That’s the truth. In twenty years no one will recognize this place.”
Twenty years?She looked down at her son and couldn’t breathe.Nope. Nope. Nope.She wasn’t ready to think about that. He was a cute cuddly baby, not a hormonal lion shifter teenager. What did that even look like?
She glanced over to Kela and met Naomi’s gaze. Naomi had the same terrified and just-realized shock painted across her face that Penny imagined she currently wore. “A village. We have a village. And the men know what to do. They grew up with this.”
“Yep. Exactly. It’s going to be fine. Damn, I wish I wasn’t nursing so I could drink.” Naomi’s brown eyes twinkled and Penny knew everything was going to be fine. Their little tribe would keep growing. They would keep adopting people and more babies would be born and they would all be fine.
They would be better than fine.
They would be great because they had each other. Family was everything.
21
Lorelei
The pain in her stomach where she’d been shot throbbed less, but the rest of her felt like she’d been tossed into a white water river and beaten against the rocks.
They were outside. It was dark and cold. They’d taken her coat and her beast was so weak, her lion couldn’t warm her enough to beat back the frigid temperatures of this land. The cold alone would end her suffering soon.
“You thought you’d gotten away, didn’t you?” Rivian’s voice cut through the haze in her brain like a sharp blade.
A rush of air preceded the shock of impact. His foot collided with her chest and she hurtled through the air and landed on a rocky area bare of snow.
Pain exploded, and every bone connected to her hip rattled together in protest. The agony was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. The bullet wound had opened back up. Blood gushed between the fingers she had pressed over the hole.
She couldn’t walk.
Hell, she couldn’t draw breath, but she’d crawl inch by inch if that’s what it took. She just had to last long enough for Saul to find her. For any of them to find her. And they were looking, she knew they were.
Lorelei scrambled away from the approaching footsteps. Her knees and hands and feet were all tangled, but she miraculously dodged the next blow and thoroughly enjoyed Rivian’s onslaught of curses.
Forward.
Move forward.
We can do this.She told her lion.
Hand, knee, foot, hand, knee, foot.
But the break didn’t last. Weight came down on her back, crushing her to the ground, grinding her face into the rock and dirt until she could taste it in her mouth. Her arms gave out.
She was trapped again.
Trapped by the man who’d taken pleasure in watching his brother die. The man who’d taken pleasure in torturing her for nearly a year. The man who would likely end her existence today.
Rivian turned her over and pinned her hands against the rocks above her head. “I’ll kill you before I let them have you again. But it doesn’t matter, because either you’ll be dead or tomorrow you won’t remember a thing. And everything will go back to being the way it’s supposed to be.”
But it wouldn’t. It would never go back. Lorelei fought for a breath and closed her eyes.
He grabbed her chin and turned her face to his. “Look at me, Lorelei.” He spoke softly, but spittle still landed on her face. She flinched, wanting to wipe it off. Wanting to wipe him from her body and mind completely.
But she was so tired.
