by A. J. Winter
Ryan kissed her cheek. “That sounds like a good idea. Good night, Pauline.”
VII.
The Bismark group gathered at the cooking fire in the morning for porridge, much to Ryan’s disappointment. Still he and Sean ate what they were given. It was going to be a busy day, and if the restless crowd growing along the invisible line between the camps was any indication it might turn out to be a rough day as well.
Anne and Damian were talking together in hushed voices as they ate their breakfast and finally Anne stood up and addressed the group.
“We’re not going to find a place to take us in, that much is very clear. We have the option of staying on the move and scavenging what we need to survive and trade but it’s a long walk from settlement to settlement. Another option has presented itself to us. Just down the road here there is a cluster of houses. With some work we could secure the area and make our own settlement.”
“I’m tired of walking,” Evan said.
“The kids won’t survive it we have to keep walking,” Sue said.
Sam and Dave stepped across the line, standing in front of their entire camp. “And where will you get food? Where will you get heat if the power finally fails? What about your water?”
Anne shrugged. “We’ll deal with each problem if and when it arises to the best of our ability and maybe we’ll have to abandon this place. Damian and I are staying and we welcome others who are willing to help and work to be a part of this community.”
Dave shook his head. “We won’t stay. We’re leaving. You’re all crazy.” He stalked off, disappearing behind a wall of people.”
Sam shrugged. “Good luck. We will not be seeing you again.”
“If you don’t want to settle here you’d best pack up and leave with Dave and Sam and their group. Everyone willing to settle here with us just sit tight. We’ll get started once the others are on their way.”
Ryan and Sean made a break for the other camp but Damian stepped in front of them. “You two aren’t planning to leave, are you?” The question wasn’t threatening, in fact he seemed genuinely concerned.
“We’re staying,” Ryan said. “But we made a friend who wanted to stay too, and we want to make sure she doesn’t get forced to leave.”
“Go then, but I need to speak with you both.”
They nodded and took off through the milling crowd. Around them tents were coming down. Sue was arguing with an older woman from the Wyoming camp while a group of grubby children huddled together nearby. They reached Pauline’s tent to find her taking it down. “Please tell me you’re packing so you can join us,” Sean said.
“Dave and Sam gave the order. We’re moving out.”
“Didn’t you hear Anne? Everyone who wants to stay is welcome.”
“No one cares what I want.”
Ryan grabbed her by her shoulders and spun her to face them. “What do you want, Pauline? If you want to leave, really want to walk away, we’ll turn around and leave you alone. If you want to stay in this community we will carry your stuff over there and we will not let anyone stop you. This has nothing to do with us, with the future of our relationship. That can wait. This has to do with you. What do you want?”
“They made it very clear we all had to go.”
“They don’t own you. And maybe if you walk over that line others will follow you. But this has to be your choice.”
“Get me out of here,” she said. “They don’t give a shit about anyone in this group, we’re just here to protect and support them and they don’t want to give us anything in return. I don’t want to whore for food anymore.”
Ryan nodded. He shouldered her pack while Sean quickly finished dismantling her tent. “Let’s go.”
They passed a few young men from the Bismark camp who had loaded up as much as they could carry. “Not everyone wants to settle,” Sean murmured. “Do you think we’ll be lucky enough to see Matt go?”
Ryan shook his head. “We’ll never be that lucky,” he murmured back. Sue was herding children and carrying a large pack but no one else was making any move to abandon the Wyoming group. And then Ryan saw a few young men heading for the central campfire.
“I wonder, how many people are leaving who would rather stay?” Sean said.
“Don’t your leaders ever make decisions on your behalf?” Pauline said.
“Sure, they decided we had to share just about everything we scavenged so that everyone had shelter and food and water and a few changes of clothes. Mostly we have choices, it’s usually take it or leave it, but we’re not forced to stay here if we don’t like the management.” Ryan shrugged. “They listen to what the group wants and needs and they try to provide so when they say ‘we’re doing this’ it’s usually something most of the group wants anyways.”
“You’re lucky,” Pauline said.
“There’s Damian, he’s probably waiting for us,” Sean said, pointing. “We should go get this over with.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “You make it sound like we’re about to be scolded.”
Damian spotted them and met them halfway. “Good, you’re back. Anne and I have decided to take the house closest to wherever we put the gate so that we can get there faster to deal with people who show up here. We were hoping the two of you would agree to be our housemates. We’ll keep things quiet, I promise. It would be good to have the bulk of our reliable firepower closest to where we need it.”
“Are we getting a promotion?” Sean said.
Damian just grinned.
“We’ll get back to you by the time you have a location picked out,” Ryan said.
“Understandable. Once the people who are leaving have left we’ll need to do a proper scouting. We need to know how many rooms are in each house, the condition of the outbuildings, and what building supplies we have to work with. If we’re lucky we may even find a few quads with trailers which would make it easier to get building supplies from elsewhere.”
“We’ll go gear up.”
They led Pauline to two single-man tents set up side-by-side. “Not much to offer you,” Sean said. “We ran out of coffee two days ago. But at least we’ve got somewhere to sit.”
“I guess you want to talk?” Pauline said.
Ryan shrugged.
Pauline sighed. “You two made me feel very special. I never meant to get caught up with two men. Can something like this even work? I don’t want to break up your friendship.”
“Maybe we can get a place where we have two rooms. You can have one to yourself, Sean and I can bunk together. We can do things just like we did last night, all on your terms.”
“And what if I only want one of you on a particular night? The other one will be jealous, you can’t deny that.”
“Of course I’ll be jealous,” Sean said. “But that’s because I think I fell in love with you sometime in the last day. But I love you so that means respecting you.”
Ryan just shrugged. “Things are different out here. Maybe this will work for us.”
VIII.
It was nearing midday but the wind kept the heat at bay. Ryan, Sean, and Pauline sat on the front steps of the next house they were supposed to map enjoying the stack of sandwiches that had been sent with them. The bread was a little dry and a little stale but the peanut butter was still good.
Pauline closed her eyes and smiled into the sunlight. “This is almost like being normal again.”
Two men came around the corner of the house. “Hey Pauline, got an hour?”
The second man snickered. “Maybe two?” he added.
Pauline retreated up the stairs as Ryan and Sean stood. “Haven’t had the chance to meet you yet,” Sean said.
“Shut up,” the first man said. “We’re not talking to you.”
“We’re here to see Pauline. Come on Sweetie, I found some chocolate in the house next door and the shed back here looks comfortable enough for you. What do you say?”
They were sneering as they came up the stairs. This time Pauline stoo
d her ground. “Sorry, I’m not interested.”
“What? I’m not good enough for you? I never met a fussy whore before.”
Ryan blocked their path. “Even a prostitute is allowed to turn down a job. She said she wasn’t interested.”
The punch caught him off guard and sent him sprawling down the steps, leaving him dazed.
The other man grabbed Sean, pinning his arms behind his back as the puncher turned on him. Pauline was screaming but Ryan couldn’t see her. He tried to leverage his body up but the world went in and out of focus. He closed his eyes and sat up, breathing hard. There was a heavy thump and he guessed that was Sean being tossed aside.
In the distance he heard shouting but whoever was coming wouldn’t get here in time. Ryan opened his eyes and the world stayed in focus. He stood, drawing his gun and pointing it at the two men.
“Back away.”
“Some fucking hero, you can’t even stand straight.”
He clicked the safety. “Want to take the chance I can’t shoot straight? She said ‘no’, so clear off.”
“You do know you’re protecting a fucking slut, right?”
“I’m protecting a human being, you don’t own human beings, not even out here in the middle of nowhere. She doesn’t want to fuck you, that’s her choice. You want to try to rape her, you go ahead and try, but I’ll shoot your fucking cocks off.”
The second man who seemed to be more of a follower nudged his buddy. “Come on, it’s not worth it. I can hear people coming. Let’s just go.”
“We’ll see you later, Pauline.”
“No,” Ryan said. “You won’t.”
They were booking it around the side of the house when Evan and his mapping team jogged up the driveway. “We heard screaming,” he said. “Is everything all right.”
“For now, yes. We’re going to head back to camp. Can you guys look this house over when you’re done yours? It’s the last on our list.”
“Sure. Are you sure everything’s okay?”
Pauline stepped forward with a shaky smile. “Everything is going to be okay now.”
IX.
It was put to a vote, proof that Anne and Damian knew the security of their leadership lay in keeping their people safe and content. Turned out no one felt safe with two would-be rapists in the community, there were too many single women, too many girls on the edge of womanhood, and too many men who had lost daughters or nieces in the war. The two men were sent out, with food and water.
The community was mapped out and the camp moved into their more permanent homes. The two-story house at the corner where the gate was set to be built had three bedrooms, one upstairs and two down. Anne and Damian took the upstairs room while Ryan and Sean took one downstairs and Pauline the other. An entire house near the center of the community was set aside for the children. It had a large, empty shop in the back yard that Sue wanted to turn into a school.
There was a lot of work to be done, a lot of building and planting and scavenging, but as Ryan sat on the back deck listening to his housemates talk about crops and walls, he knew he was home.
Coming May 14 2015
The Alphas: Emergence
Matt watched in horror as the girl of his dreams gave herself to another man. There was nothing he could do unless he wanted to incur the wrath of The Goons. He watched even though it was wrong. His cock was hardening as he watched the scene of passion unfold before him. Only after they had dressed and started back across the field did he dare move.
He reached the end of his driveway as Damian was coming down from the wall. “Matt! Is that you?!”
Matt stopped and waved.
Damian jogged over. “You’re a hard man to find. Look, I’ve been talking to Ryan.”
Matt stiffened.
“And we agree, you’ve really been working hard since we settled here. I know you had some disagreements with Anne while we were on the road but that was a hard time for all of us. So I wanted to let you know that there’s a spot in the next trade envoy for you, if you want it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We need someone with sharp eyes to help guard the caravan and you’ve handled watch just fine. You’re a man, not a child, you deserve the chance to do real work, not just odd jobs. They leave day after tomorrow – guess it’s actually tomorrow, isn’t it since it’s midnight already, but you know what I mean. Will you go?”
Matt nodded. “Yeah, I’ll go. What about Eddie? He must know the roads pretty good.”
“Maybe. I’d rather keep him closer to home until we know more about him.”
“Is something making you suspicious?”
“A little, actually. But it’s probably nothing. Just stress, you know. See you in the morning.”
“Yeah, sure.”
Damian jogged back to his own house where Anne was keeping the bed warm for him. He hadn’t really thought about Eddie all day but Matt’s question had renewed that line of thought.
He found Anne in bed, reading.
“What’s troubling you?” she said, sticking in a book mark.
“What do you think of Eddie?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t see him at all today. Why? Was there a problem?”
“No, not unless you think working too fast is a problem.” He told her about the wood pile and how much bigger it had been than the last time he’d gone to check.
“Maybe someone else has been going back there to work off some frustrations,” she said.
“Maybe.”
“Or what?” she teased. “He’s some sort of super-human nuclear mutant?”
Other Titles by A.J. Winter
'The Alphas: Dawn of the Alpha' Book 1 in 'The Alphas' series
'The Alphas: Emergence of the Alpha' Book 3 in 'The Alphas' series
coming May 2015
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"Rehabilitation" by C.B. Stone
"Avoidables" by Rachel Medhurst
"The Alpha's Mate" by Eve Adrian
"Halo Bound (Redneck Apocalypse Book 1) by eden Hudson
"Owned by the Alphas" by Faleena Hopkins
"A Trespass in Time" by Susan Kiernan Lewis
"His Wicked Game" by Ember Casey
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A.J. Winter is an erotic romance author with a keen interest in unique scenarios, locations, and time periods. She enjoys writing both realism and fantasy romance with strong female characters. A.J. lives in Vancouver with her boyfriend, her German Shepherd, and a lot of ski gear. When not at her keyboard creating new ideas and stories you can find her exploring the mountains.
If you enjoyed this book, then please post a review on Amazon!
Thank you!
A.J. Winter
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