Page 144 of Born for Lace

Then, using my body to shield the Redwind, I carry her sleeping form into the house. She trusts me completely, even after… The marks on her neck growl the truth from a missing memory?—

I navigate through the dark interior, details and vision snatched by the hour. The air is thick with dust and promises.

Down in the bunker, a hidden cavity beneath the farmhouse, where the walls are cool, and the latch locks from the inside, I feel a sense of calm… This is right. She can be safe here with the babies, and she can lock me out.

Her guard monster.

At the doorstep.

This is right.

This is good.

I lay her gently on one of the beds, the fabric unused but dusty. Leaving her there, I head back up.

Now for the Shadow baby.

I stand in the open door of the car, muscles tense, staring athim. His wide eyes, ancient and knowing, gaze back at me, filled with as much suspicion as invitation. It’s an electric sense—repulsion and attraction—a silent communication that bubbles in my iron-blood.

When I held him at the Common Community, a primal instinct churned, like hairs on skin rising to duty, an army of impulses at the ready.

“I know you feel it,” I say to the infant, my voice a rough whisper, as I scoop him up. “You helped me find her, not once but three times. I hope you don’t regret that one day. You might want to kill me when you become a man. If you’re smart, you will. Protect your mother against all. Even me. You hear me?”

He babbles.

My chest aches—so vulnerable and simple.Was I like this once?

Who held me?

I know the answers.

I feel the chains that once tied me to a bed in the compound tighten around my lungs, suffocating all reason.

He is mine.

She is mine.

The unborn child is mine.

I take him into the farmhouse under a cloak of near darkness and carry him down into the bunker. I set him on the bed beside her, prop a pillow to wedge him safely against her, and I leave.

I fucking leave them there.

I will not allow myself to go in. We can share the farmhouse, but that is hers and theirs.

My cock pulses like a heartbeat when I slide down to the floor on the inside of the front door. I will not sleep.

I will not move.

Tomorrow, I need to secure the property, fix the wiring, and add latches, chains—measures to keep them all safe.

I stare into the house. Dark void. Shadows that stretch, though nothing moves, and there is no light. My mind tricks me, trips me, fucks with me.

Time rolls by…

Green eyes.

Pain.

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