I look down the long, hard slope of my body to my cock, thick and steeled against my abdomen, painting me in precum that won’t fucking stop flowing.
“She is lactating,” I state plainly.
“What?” He rises to his feet, eyes bugging out with shock. “That’s— That’s brilliant news.”
I cross my arms. “She needs food.”
“I agree.” He moves to a crate and grabs a large cardboard box. “Full of military-grade rations,” he states. “The people who lived here must have raided a Trade vehicle or something.”
Cold, I grab the box and turn my back on him, walking away.
"Why is her innocence so attractive to you?” he blurts out.
I stop dead in my tracks.
“I know why I like it, but I don’t know why you do,” he goes on. “Is it because you're depraved? You want to break all the pretty things?"
Some fucking honesty from him in relation to her—for once.
Slowly, I edge around to face Tomar, the torch offering enough light to really study his exhausted demeanour.
“Tell me how you really feel, brother?” I glare at him. “I thought I won’t break everything I touch?”
He closes his blue eyes and shakes his head. “I didn’t mean that. I know you don’twantto break anything.”
Perhaps it’s because I know he cares for her, because he cares for me, or maybe it’s because I know men can’t control their instincts… I offer him honesty. "Maybe to start with.”
"See it from my perspective.” He opens his eyes, levelling me. “I have spent the last two decades watching you hate the world and yourself, kill hundreds of men and sleep soundly. I have tried to show you peace. I have tried to show you joy. I don’t want her to be broken… You will find her annoying and boring. And you will hurt her.”
"Annoying...Yes.She is fucking annoying, but that says more about me and my bitter view of life than about her.” I clench my teeth, already hating that I called her annoying. “And boring? The opposite. Everything is more when she is beside me. Things I've seen a million times are more remarkable, more beautiful. Her innocence sees the world the way I want it to be. The way it should be. It's not a big fucking fan... Is it?” I cross the room, shadow him, and grip the side of his neck with one hand, squeezing. I think I’m warning him or showing him affection. Perhaps, I want to snap it. I can’t tell. “It’s a fucking remarkable fan,” I admit, voice rough. “And I want to see more with her so she can open my eyes."
He frowns up at me, locking his jaw. “I tried to open your eyes many times, Lagos. You wanted to be blind.”
I release his neck. “Not anymore.”
“You found God in her.” He laughs without mirth. “I see The Cradle as remarkable because I know God made it, designed it, and I see God everywhere. In all of it. Even the punishing wind. Even in you. I see His incredible power and will.”
“I only see her.” My tone deepens, a threat thundering in my chest. “Don’t test me when it comes to her, brother. Bury whatever feelings you have. If I so much as suspect your hand is on your cock while you dream of the sounds I pull from her, I will remove your hands and your cock.”
“Vulgar,” he grumbles but saves further feigned disgust. “I was wrong to let myself feel that way. I see that now.”
“It’s not wrong. You’re a man after all. It took her for me to feel humanity. It took her for you to feel primal.” As the words growl through my teeth, the urge to kill him intensifies. I don’t want anyone feeling primal, or anything else for that matter with her.
Fuck.
I pause, lording over Tomar as moments roll by. Killing him would hurt her and pain me to an early grave, so I stride away from him.
Focus on my little flower.
ChapterThirty-Four
Dahlia
My breasts are tingling with sensation, milk rolling over the curve.
The torch is on, so I put a shirt over the spot to filter the beam. Outside the farmhouse, the Redwind howls and prowls, shaking the glass in the frames.
I sit naked on the blankets, with Spero cradled in my arms, his mouth latching onto my nipple almost immediately. Awe curls around me at the beauty of nature and life—the violent weather beating at the windows of the secure room where I breastfeed Spero for the first time.