Page 104 of Trapped to Tame
‘No. Never blame yourself for his actions,’ Fie said, drawing her to him and staring into her eyes. ‘We did enough of that when we met you and we’re all sorry for it. We were fools and none of this was your fault. You’re nothing like him, Eve.’
Eve’s eyes flicked to Drax. ‘He was the one though, wasn’t he? He took your mother from you.’
Drax’s jaw tightened. ‘Yes.’
‘My father began all of this,’ she said. ‘And, on top of that, he was doing Ceres’ bidding as well. I understand why you’d hate me. All of you. Please don’t pretend otherwise. Break the bond and you’ll never have to set eyes on me again.’ She looked down. ‘I promise.’
Fie glanced at the others, panic making his mouth suddenly go dry. ‘Is that what you want?’ he rasped.
‘No, but—’
‘You’re our Fourth,’ Drax said, ‘and, more than that, you’re our mate. We love you, Eve. You’re never escaping us ever again.’
* * *
Eve
‘Where are we going?You know you’ll have to tell me if you want me to take us there via a bridge, don’t you?’ Eve laughed.
‘You’ll see,’ Priest said, a gleam in his eye as he pulled her along through the rooms to the main entrance hall.
He was different now, she thought. Over the past days, he’d become lighter and happier. He joked with her and the others, surprised her with trinkets and treats. He and Drax hadn’t argued once since she’d brought them back to Kitore either.
They all seemed happy to be in the city and weren’t making any plans to leave anytime soon. They took her out in it almost every day, entertained her and showed her everything as if they were helping her make up for all the years she’d been a captive. And they never let her go out alone, which she blustered about, but secretly found endearing. They were all such different men than they had been in those first days. They cared for her. They were the family she had always dreamed of.
The only thing they hadn’t done was touch her. None of them had since the chase with Priest in the mountains. She found that she missed their caresses. She missed the feel of their bodies against hers. But she wasn’t sure how to tell them what she wanted from them. A small part of her feared that they had tired of her, that they no longer wanted her that way. It was just a stray doubt, but it was enough that even thinking about broaching the subject with any of the Brothers made her want to bury her head in the sand so, like a coward, that was what she’d been doing.
‘Come,’ Priest said. ‘They’re waiting for us.’
Eve giggled, giving into his carefree manner and couldn’t help her wide smile as he looked back at her with a grin.
They passed through the kitchens and out into the small courtyard behind the house, its high walls making it a secluded spot that wasn’t overlooked by prying eyes.
Fie and Drax were there and, as she walked outside, she saw that they’d drawn a fighting ring on the ground.
Her brow furrowed in question even as her body began to ready itself at the mere sight of it after her many years of combat.
‘What is this?’ she asked, half in excitement and half in fear.
None of the men said anything, each of them hesitating.
‘We thought—’ Priest began.
‘You said before that you needed the fights,’ Drax interrupted, looking at Priest meaningfully. ‘We wanted you to know that if you do want to compete in the rings, we won’t stop you so long as none of the fights are to the death.’
‘And we thought you might like to spar with us sometimes,’ Fie said, almost looking shy as he said it.
Eve walked around the pit they’d made, identical in size to the ones in every town and city.
She couldn’t help the smile as she unbuttoned her tunic.
‘Which one of you will be first?’ she asked, throwing it on a stone bench nearby.
They all looked at each other.
‘We thought you might like to take all of us.’
‘All of you?’ she asked, her boldness waning just a tad as she wondered at Drax’s choice of words.
