“She’s fi-ah-ine,” their spokeswoman said, drawing out the word with an unusual accent. “They ain’t touched her… yet.”
“And they won’t. We promised you choice, and we stand by that.”
The spokeswoman gave a hard nod, shaking her well-used breasts and the fat around her cheeks. Truth was, the woman was old, likely past childbearing years, and rather ugly. Lath doubted she would have to worry about choosing for herself.
“You bettah, or we go elsewhere for our girls.”
“As you should. This won’t happen again.”
By the time Lath turned back to the crowd, Leroy and Greg had heard from their sons. They handed their sons over to other husbands of Josie and Alice and met Lath in the middle of the mob. Leroy scratched the back of his head, mussing his salt-and-pepper hair.
“This is getting out of hand,” Greg said before anyone else could speak.
“You have to get your sons in order,” Lath replied. “You notice none of my Hunters badgering the women.”
Leroy stopped scratching at his head. “None of your Hunters have skin in the game.”
“All the more reason to get our boys in line,” said Greg.
Lath nodded. “These women will bolt if they don’t feel safe.”
Greg nodded, slowly followed by Leroy.
“Look, the sun is near setting. Why don’t we stop here? You and your boys camp down the path a bit. The Hunters will guard the women. In between, the women can meet with the men if they choose to.”
“It’s still early. We need to get moving.”
“We’ll get out early tomorrow morning. I promise,” Lath said in reply.
“Fine,” grumbled Leroy. “I’ll talk to the boys.”
Lath watched as Leroy raised his arms to get the attention of their massive group. Slowly, the masses quieted and Leroy began his speech.
“We’re going to stop for the night. The wounded need to rest. The women will camp up the path, with the Hunters for their protection. The McMillians and Perkins move down the path a bit. Ladies, if you still want to talk to one of the boys, you can meet in the middle under the supervision of a father or a Hunter. Move boys. We have some more talkin’ to do!”
Lath turned away from the mass of men and guided the women back up the path a few yards. Mason and Adrian handed their horses off to Lath and went to work to build fires for the women. He and the other Hunters were kept up half the night overseeing the meetings between the braver women and the men still in their fathers’ good graces. By the time the meetings ended, Lath was beginning to see couplings form. He even caught a kiss be passed between two of the younger romancers. Lath suspected the women were in a rush to solidify their new lives.
Truth was, he couldn’t blame them for fearing their unknown future.
Adrian blinked, trying to work moisture into his heavy eyes. Despite the conflict, romance was in the air. Not counting his turn on watch, he was kept up half the night overseeing awkward dates between the potential husbands and wives. Thankfully, the women were as tired of being on the road as much as he was, and they hustled to get the caravan moving with first light.
Now, Adrian caught his first sight of Josie’s ranch. They were still miles away from the house itself, but the land was now fenced, a few lonely cattle grazing on the dried grass. It was another mile or two when they noticed a dust cloud, quickly followed by a spritely little boy racing toward them. Adrian recognized the boy as being one of Josie’s but he couldn't remember his name. She had half a regiment in children. Sometimes, Adrian wondered how she remembered their names.
“Papa!” he cried, jumping into Dean’s arms. “We been takin’ turns watchin’ for yas.”
Dean smiled at his son, bopping him on the tush and setting him back on the ground. Adrian knew that most of Josie’s children didn’t know exactly who their father was, but the child and Dean could have been the same person. They had the same floppy brown hair, the same long nose, and the same thin lips.
“Run home. Tell Momma we’re comin’ and we have lots of guests. Tell her some of them are wounded. Do you understand? This is very important.”
The little boy nodded gravely, his eyes wide with shock. He did an about face and raced off as fast as his little legs could carry him. Adrian smiled. Thankfully, everyone who had seen the boy’s reunion with his father was smiling, too. Adrian knew he wasn’t the only one to long for what Dean had with his boy—not just the opportunity to get a wife and have children, but to know the child was yours. Adrian wanted to know if it was his and only his. But the truth was, it was impossible to have a woman to oneself. Adrian knew. Adrian had proof, but it wasn’t his proof to dwell on.
Adrian shrugged, trying to clear his thoughts as they got the group moving again. It didn’t matter. He was a Hunter, not a husband. He would never have a wife, much less a wife to himself.
He glanced at Mason, wondering if his friend was remembering his own wife and child. Based on the dark sadness closing off his features, Adrian had no doubt Dean’s little boy had brought the memories back.
It wasn’t a topic they discussed. Ever. In fact, Adrian only knew his partner’s past from piecing it together over the years—the information coming mostly in drunken moments within the tavern. He wanted to broach the subject but knew it was beyond his grasp. His only job was to support his friend.
Adrian continued to mull over his friend’s hardships and loss as they made their way into the enormous ranch. They were halfway down the long road leading to the ranch house when they spotted Josie and all her boys approaching. The older boys carried enormous milk canisters between them while the younger children carried baskets of corn cobs. Adrian watched as Leroy kept the caravan moving while Josie organized her troops. Each traveler was given a drink from the milk canisters—currently filled with water—and a corn cob.
“Where’s Dela and Gareth?” Dela asked as she worked her way back up the slower-moving caravan.
Leroy cleared his throat. “We were attacked on the way back. Dela and Gareth and another girl got separated.”
Josie’s face crumbled into a look of fear.
“I’m sure Gareth found them and is just half a day behind us,” said Adrian, trying to comfort her.
“Did you send a search party out?” demanded Josie, the classic warrior woman coming to the front.
But Adrian didn’t focus long on her belligerent stance. It had never crossed his mind to send out a search party for the lost people. All he thought about was caring for the wounded and getting away from the gang they had accidentally crossed. Adrian assumed Gareth went after them on purpose rather than by any force of an enemy. He assumed they would be right behind them, but Josie’s glare made him question all his motives.
“Dammit, woman,” grumbled Leroy. “You weren’t there. Don’t go makin’ these boys think they done wrong. We had to move or else we’d all be dead. Now, c’mon.”
Adrian struggled to hide a little grin. He suspected Leroy was the only one of Josie’s husbands who could control the feisty wife. She was fire and water, both equally strong and both persuasive depending on what her husband needed to hear. Leroy, though, was iron, both fire and water resistant…at least in the short term. Adrian wondered if there had ever been an argument Leroy lost and how long it had taken Josie to wear him down.
He shook his head. His mind was as random as a lightning strike. He was tired, sore, and dirty. Maybe tomorrow he would be able to think seriously on Dela and what their own future might hold.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gareth watched Dela walk in front of him, the infant tucked into her good arm. He had tried to carry the child more during the day, but she insisted on pulling her weight. Like so many times before, Gareth couldn’t decide if he adored her spirit or if it made him want to strangle her. The poor girl was battered, bleeding, dehydrated, and toting something like seven pounds of wiggling, screaming infant.
Granted, Gareth wasn’t exactly ready to go dancing hi
mself. Though they had packed up as much of the fruits and vines as they could manage, they had already gone through most of it, reserving a few for the child. They just had to make it a few more miles. A few more miles and they would be on Josie’s property.
Gareth tried not to think about the miles between the border of the property and Josie’s homestead. At least on the property, they would be safer and might just come across one of the sons riding the fences or checking the herds. He picked up his pace to catch up with Dela. It had been miles since the desert had offered them a clear path. Poor Dela could barely step over some of the ever-present scrub brush. When she couldn’t, she found a gap between the bushes resulting in a rather circuitous path—and a thousand more steps per mile. The scenery left their legs in danger of attacks—from both snakes and a variety of other animals.
As the first fence just come into focus on the horizon, Gareth heard a faint rustling of the underbrush. His eyes ran up to the sky as he focused on the breeze. There wasn't any, and the sweat dripping down his back could attest to it. The scrub brush on their other side shifted, and Gareth heard a soft growl, followed by another shudder from a larger thatch of greenery.
“Dela,” he whispered, trying to stay relaxed; as far as he knew, it was just as likely to be an extremely sneaky gang of murderers as it was to be an organized mob of rattlers—Gareth had little faith in reality since meeting Dela.
“Yeah. I saw it,” she breathed.
He watched as her hand lowered to her knife, unsnapping the safety strap on her sheath. Over her shoulder, Gareth noticed a small clearing directly ahead of them. He followed Dela’s example and prepared his dagger to be extracted. He had a revolver on his hip, too, but last he checked he only had a few bullets left. Within the close proximity, he suspected daggers would be just as deadly… depending on what stalked them.
Just as Dela reached the center of the clearing—the infant pressed tightly into her chest—four wild dogs jumped from the bushes. Dela screamed, dropping to the ground and covering the infant with her own body. Gareth’s instinct led him a step toward her before he realized what he was doing. He yanked his knife out of its sheath and planted his feet as the largest of the dogs jumped upward, snapping at his arm. Gareth let the dog knock him down as it landed right on his dagger. He rolled the dying animal off his chest, yanking the dagger from the wound. Blood spilled out, covering half his body.
Gareth scrambled to his feet in the direction of the next dog, barely catching sight of Dela. She was screaming, but based on the split-second glance, she was fighting, too. Gareth had barely made it to his feet when he felt teeth sink into his calve. He fell forward, turning with the fall as far as the dog’s grip would allow. Gareth scrunched up, slamming his knife down, slicing the animal's shoulder open. It gave a yip and jumped backward, releasing his grip on Gareth’s leg.
Though the dog was still circling, acting as though it planned to attack again, Gareth dismissed it as a lesser threat. Before long, the animal would bleed out. He rolled again, right onto his knees. Gareth nearly lost his lunch at the sight before him. Dela’s knife thrashed above her head from side to side. She had caught her two attackers a few times based on their bleeding cuts, but it was nothing compared to what they had done to her.
Gareth couldn’t see her face, but blood dripped into her white-blonde hair. Her vest and shirt had been shredded across her back down to the flesh, where claws and teeth had done yet more damage. The baby’s wail mixed with her own screams of pain. As Gareth scrambled toward her, one dog sunk its teeth into her thrashing arm and gave it a yank, sending her falling to the side.
She slashed blindly at the dog gripping her arm, cutting deep into the animal’s back. The animal released her arm, and Dela wrapped her bleeding limb around the child, still protecting it. The last dog had circled around them, looking for a gap in their makeshift defense. Gareth stood over Dela, his bloodied dagger at the ready. The injured animals tried to join the fight, but the one with the cut shoulder barely took one step before collapsing into the dust. The one with the gash across its spine couldn’t even stand, but Gareth paid them no heed. The animal still on its feet was all that mattered.
The last remaining dog was a beast of black fur and muscle. One ear appeared to have been chewed off and a scar ran across the side of his long snout. Gareth took it all in in a moment before the animal attacked. The large beast barreled into his legs, its teeth snapping at his knee. Gareth fell forward over the animal, his heel catching Dela’s body. The dog continued forward, catching Dela’s other arm up near her armpit. Gareth rolled, catching the dog by the tail. He gave it a jerk and the beast released Dela. As it turned, Dela slashed at it, cutting it open across its nose. It yelped and jumped back, giving Gareth a chance to fall across its back, slamming his dagger into its side.
The dog gave a grunt and went limp, and Gareth breathed a long sigh.
Dela had never been in so much pain in her life. Her scalp was on fire, both arms hurt, and her back pulsed with each beat of her heart. One eye was stuck closed with warm liquid. She had no doubt it was blood. Rather than panic, she tried to focus on the problem at hand.
The infant wailed in her bleeding arms. She looked down with her one eye good eye, trying to determine if the child had been injured. The cloth wrapped around the baby was stained red and wet with her blood. She stripped it off, wincing at the pain in her arms, and examined the screaming infant. Its face turned red as it screamed. Finally, Dela spotted a cut across her tiny shoulder.
One cut.
Four enormous dogs had been trying to snatch the infant from her. Four dogs had attacked her. Four dogs. And only one little claw got through. Dela felt the darkness begin to close in as she realized the child was safe. The world began to spin and tilt.
“Dela!” Gareth screamed, sliding to the ground beside her.
Dela toppled sideways, right into Gareth’s chest. The act of falling jerked her from the brink of unconsciousness. “I’m okay.”
“Like hell you are. We got to get these wounds bound.”
Gareth went to work, stripping her destroyed vest and chemise from her body. She ignored him, focusing on the infant lying before her. She dug into the pack, pulling a purple fruit out and cracking it open. She used her dirty finger to scoop a bit of it into the infant’s mouth. To her relief, the screaming abated a little with each new bite.
“Dela, hold still,” Gareth ordered as he tried to tie a strip of cloth around her head. She turned to glare at him, but he spoke before she could. “Holy shit!”
“What?” she asked, still only looking at him through one eye.
Dela raised her hand to wipe the blood out of her eye, but Gareth grabbed her wrist and stopped her. Gareth scrambled for another piece of usable cloth. Before she could ask him what was wrong, he was tying the folded cloth to cover the side of her face.
Slowly, she began to feel more detail in the pain. Like her scalp, the side of her face was on fire too. A whimper escaped her tightening throat. The pain was building, almost as though her brain had taken its time recognizing all of her injuries.
“It hurts,” she hissed unnecessarily.
“I know, babe, I know. Just breathe. Just breathe through it.” Gareth kept working, taking his own shirt off and slicing it into strips. He bound both her arms, slowing the blood flow. Dela tried to look down. Her chest was bare, revealing her stained breasts. A moment of ridiculous panic filled her. He could see her breasts.
Why are you thinking about nudity? her confused mind asked.
“It hurts,” she whispered again, not recognizing her own voice.
“I know. Just hold on.”
Even as the pain increased, she noticed the strain in Gareth’s voice. She turned her eye onto his own face. It had turned gray, and wrinkles she had not noticed before stood out in stark relief to the dust and grime on his skin. Her gaze traveled downward, and she noticed a growing stain on his leg.
“You’re hurt, too.”
The pain increased, and Dela whimpered again. She clenched her teeth together until her jaw hurt, too, and turned her eyes onto the infant. The little girl lay on the soaked dress, her little arms trying to wave about. One little fist smacked her in the cheek, bring forth a momentary wail of disdain.
Dela focused on the tiny baby, willing herself not to feel the pain. In her years of running from the Harem House, she had thought little on the idea of romance or family. She knew she would end up with Quiq for lack of any other options, but she had never considered children with him. Then her world had turned upside down and she ended up with four handsome Hunters and an orphaned infant, which she had risked her own life to protect.
Even as the pain drummed against her consciousness, she knew she would do it all over again to keep the little girl safe.
“I need to make a gurney to carry you on.”
“I can walk.”
“You lost a lot of blood.”
“And I’ll lose more if we don’t get to Josie’s soon. And we’re at risk out here. All of us are. Let me walk. I can do it.”
Slowly, Gareth nodded.
“Have you dealt with your own wound?”
Gareth looked down at her calf. With his dagger, he cut off the ragged end of his pants and used it to wrap the wound. “Happy?”
Dela didn’t answer but reached to pick up the little girl. Gareth beat her to it and began wrapping her back up in the bloody cloth, then tucked her into the crook of his arm. He climbed to his feet, wincing as he put weight on his own wound, and reached for her. Dela groaned as he pulled her up to her feet, stretching the wound on her arm and her back.
“Shall we go visit Josie?” Dela asked.
Gareth gave her the saddest smile she had ever seen.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Each step was agony, but, over time, Dela found too many things to think about other than her pain. Though she couldn’t check her own reflection, she knew her features were ruined. Deep down in her heart, she knew the dog had damaged her face beyond repair. As she let the idea settle in, she wondered what the Hunters would do with her. After all, she wasn’t pretty enough for the Harem House. Not anymore.
Dela's Hunters (The Harem House Book 1) Page 18