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The sinews tightening and straining in Jesse’s powerful legs, the sweat clinging to Roark’s boxer’s shoulders, the sensual flow of Michio’s effortless gait, all of their movements recalled every touch of their fingers, the heat of their skin, and the press of their thighs against mine. Just looking at them made me insane with need.

It was during one of these daily jogs, at the end of our sixth week of residency in the dam, when Link stopped the four of us at the bend in a tunnel.

He leaned against the natural rock wall, arms crossed over his barrel chest. “My boys are back from Arkendale.”

My lungs heaved, more from my anticipation than from the three miles I’d just run.

Glistening in sweat, Jesse matched Link’s posture on the opposite wall, while Michio stepped beside me, not winded in the least, and pressed two fingers over my neck to check my pulse.

Roark bent at the waist, hands braced on knees, and panted noisily. “Spit it out, fuckhole.”

Laughing, Link ran his fingers through Darwin’s fur as my dog circled around his legs. “The peninsula is overrun with women, as is the state of Virginia, and from what I understand, the entire Northeast coast.”

I covered my mouth with my hands, my eyes pricking, and my heart leaping. All those women had been infected, trapped in their bodies with harrowing pain, and now they were free. To fall in love. To have children. To find happiness.

“Pregnancies?” Michio gripped my arm, lowering it to hold my hand.

“Over half are pregnant.” Link passed me an amused look. “It’s no secret the women are horny as hell.”

“Aiman mentioned the same thing.” Michio rubbed his thumb over my hand. “His doctors studied the cured women and reported hormone and testosterone levels had been altered.”

Altered by my blood. I supposed passing on my sex drive was a benefit to repopulation.

Link glanced at Jesse. “I know what you’re thinking. Security could be better. But this is no longer just a single town. These communities span multiple states with Arkendale at its center. There’s been some growing pains, but I’m confident in the leadership I left behind to guide them.”

Jesse nodded, his thoughts probably taking the same path as mine. We couldn’t run a town or a state or a country. We were just meant to heal them and trust in their abilities to govern and take care of themselves.

Link met my eyes. “Arkendale hasn’t seen an aphid in six weeks. And my boys didn’t see any on their journey there or back.”

“That’s on the other side of the country.” My pulse spiked. “They’re all dead? Jesus, what about the nymphs? Did they see—?”

“There are nymphs.” Link softened his voice. “A lot of them are still headed toward the east coast.”

I blew out a heavy sigh of relief and squeezed Michio’s hand.

“One last thing…” Link grinned widely, his black eyes glinting beneath the overhead light. “There’s a pretty reliable rumor that some of the women boarded an oceanic cruise ship, and they’re crossing the Atlantic right now to cure nymphs on other continents.”

He left that news floating around us as he strolled away, his off-tune whistle following the tap of his footsteps.

“Ye did it.” Roark’s whisper sifted through me right before he swept me in his arms and twirled me around.

“We did it.” I laughed as my eyes filled with tears.

We’d set out to cure the world, and it was happening. Just imagining the widespread repopulation felt like an explosion in my chest, shaking through my body, and gripping my soul. My guardians felt it, too, their eyes shining as they exchanged smiles.

Roark set me down. “Race ye back to the room?”

“What do I get if I win?”

He scratched pensively at his jaw. “Me.”

Michio leaned around me. “And if I win?”

There was no if, considering his rate of speed was, oh, a few hundred miles per hour.

Roark grinned and pointed at Jesse. “Ye win him.”

Leaning against the opposite wall, Jesse held his head down, his eyes peering up, watching us with a bored expression. But I didn’t miss the twitch in his shoulders from his suppressed laughter.

We raced back, with Darwin on our heels, and when we reached the room, we all seemed to forget who’d won in our race to strip off our clothes and slake the hunger that had built on the sprint back.

We did a lot of that in the weeks that followed, sprinting and flirting, fucking and laughing, and the few hours we weren’t together each day, we more than made up for at night.

Jesse spent the daylight hours with Link’s army of fifty soldiers, improving the security and training them on weaponry. Any new recruits were sent to a work site Link had set up in Las Vegas. The women and nymphs who stumbled upon our doorstep were sent there as well. We kept our commune small and intimate, limited by supplies, food storage, and sleeping space. We were working on creating a community, but we weren’t ready to support a village.