Page 21 of The Untamed

Dad, who’d been feeding Dawson, freezes and whips his head around to Rowdy. “You’ve been leaving food out again?”

“No,” Rowdy grunts. “I don’t know why they’re interested in my cabin.”

“It’s time we build you your own cabin near your brothers,” Dad grumbles, voice stern. “You’re too far away for my liking anyway.”

Rowdy’s nostrils flare, but he nods. “Yes, sir.”

I wait for Raegan to throw a fit about boys getting cabins and the unfairness of the female life, but she shockingly remains quiet. I’m sure she’ll bitch about it to me and Ronan later.

“Can I help build your cabin?” Destiny asks, smiling toward the sound of Rowdy’s voice.

“You can’t see,” Dakota reminds her and then makes a show of waving four fingers in the air near her face. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Kota,” Mom admonishes. “Enough.”

When she turns away, Dakota sticks his tongue out at her. That kid’s a brat from hell. He’s lucky Dad didn’t see it or he’d be getting a well-deserved spanking.

“I can help,” Destiny huffs. “I can, Rowdy.”

Rowdy, a grouch to everyone else, gifts her a smile she can’t even see. “I know you can, Dez. Thank you.”

Destiny perks up and then holds up four fingers to Dakota. Lucky guess. It has Dakota frowning in confusion. Good. If he thinks she can really see, maybe he’ll stop terrorizing his older sister.

The table descends into silence, which has me, Ronan, and Raegan stiffening guiltily. So much for not saying anything.

Mom and Dad exchange a worried look and then Dad’s penetrating glare lands on me. Fuck. I shove a roll into my mouth—the whole damn thing—and chew like our goat, Fleabag, does with my mouth open and noisily.

Dad snaps his attention to Ronan. “Where did you all go this afternoon?”

Ronan shifts in his seat. “Huh?”

“What did you three do?” Mom asks, frowning my way. “You’re all acting weird.”

The second I finish swallowing my roll, Dad’s stare is back on mine, daring me to chew my way through answering. I drop my fork on my plate with a clatter and then blurt out my answer. “We went swimming.”

“I want to go swimming,” Dakota whines. “Not fair!”

Declan, who’s three and also loves swimming, starts whining, “Me swim too!”

Mom ignores them to probe more. “Swimming where? The river by Rowdy’s?”

Raegan sits straight up and smiles sweetly at Mom. “The creek.”

The creek where she and Ronan got caught swimming naked once. The creek we aren’t supposed to go to. The swimming hole that’s off-limits.

Fuck.

“Unbelievable,” Mom cries out, voice shrill. “You three were told under no circumstances are you allowed to go back there.”

“Mom, relax,” Raegan sasses. “We kept our underwear on. No babies were made.”

I cringe when Dad’s hot glare is back on me.

“D-Dad, we didn’t do anything bad,” I stammer out. “It won’t happen again.”

He doesn’t get to answer because Mom’s voice has risen several octaves. “You’re damn right it won’t happen again. What were you all thinking? You’re all getting to that age!”

“The age we want to have fun?” Raegan snaps back, challenging Mom with a glare. “Oh no, heaven forbid we enjoy our stupid lives for once!”

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