Page 84

He was the most laid-back of my guardians and probably wasn’t thinking about any of those things. But I reassured him anyway, with my hands tangled in his braids, my tongue rubbing lovingly against his, and my smile curving against his mouth.

Behind me, Shea updated Jesse on Darwin’s injuries. At the edges of my concentration, beyond the sweeping bliss of Roark’s tongue, I listened to her concerns about blood loss and malnutrition. She didn’t have fresh blood to administer a transfusion, but her supply of antibiotics would fight the infection.

I nuzzled Roark’s lips, relieved, almost happy. I’d feel better once we arrived in the mountains with Shea and Darwin safely in tow.

“No broken bones?” Jesse’s timbre rose over the sound of Darwin’s heavy panting. “Damaged organs?”

Shea hummed a sigh. “No. A fight with a lion, and he damned near walked away. Pretty amazing, if you ask me.”

I sucked on Roark’s tongue, kissed each corner of his mouth, and leaned back, taking in the sight of his swollen lips. “Better?”

“Me plums could use some love.” He pointed a look at the crotch of his workout shorts. “Your sinful mouth can have a go a’ the whole lot.”

Insatiable as ever. I adored how unapologetic he was about his sexuality, such a paradox with his vow, even when he was teasing. Which he was doing now. He wasn’t even hard.

The conversation behind me quieted, so I sat back and spoke loud enough for Shea to hear. “Without Tallis and Georges…” I breathed deeply and continued. “What do you think about taking Shea to the mountains before we continue west?”

Roark’s brows pulled down, and his eyes flicked to Jesse. Calloused fingers absently caressed the skin above my waistband, and a moment of silence passed between the two men.

Then Roark slid those jade eyes back to me. “I’m up for that. It’s the safest place for her.”

I looked over my shoulder and met Shea’s eyes.

She glanced at Roark, then Jesse, and stared down at her hands. “You need a doctor with you. I can feed and take care of myself now. And treat your injuries if needed. I won’t be a burden…”

“Hey,” Jesse said softly, his fingers scratching behind Darwin’s good ear as he waited for her to look at him. “We need you alive more than we need a doctor.”

She was a smart woman. I didn’t need to read her expression to know she was mulling over her lack of weapons training and inexperience with aphids, and more than that, her role in the future of mankind.

She stood, hands on her hips. Her curves looked remarkably fuller this morning, her ribs less pronounced beneath her thin shirt.

Black hair framed her round face in frizzy curls. Her lips pursed, dark and sensual, as she looked at us with intelligent brown eyes. “Okay. I’ll go wherever you send me. When do we leave?”

Beautiful. Fierce. Amazing woman. If I were a guy, I’d hit that hard and often. Which was a huge fucking reason why we needed to hide her away. Naalnish and Badger would help her find men who deserved her. Hell, she wouldn’t have to look further than my handsome Lakota friends.

Jesse gently scooped up Darwin and turned toward the door. “We leave within the hour, and until we reach the mountains, we stay within eyeshot of each other. No exceptions.”

As instructed, the four of us ate canned chicken, fed Darwin, shit in the woods, and packed the truck side by side. We worked efficiently, and thankfully, there wasn’t a flicker of aphids.

Without Georges to work his magic on the motor, I waited beside the bumper with sweaty palms as Roark put the key in the ignition.

After a few rattling groans of gears, the engine purred blissfully to life.

One less problem to worry about.

Shea climbed in the rear of the truck with Darwin, her eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. If she was remorseful about leaving her home, she didn’t show it. The three of us had hovered over her as she packed practical clothes, enough for her and me, and abandoned her makeup, hair products, and other girly things without a backward look.

But there was one thing I couldn’t leave without doing.

With a heavy heart and a can of spray paint I’d found in the shed, I scrawled a message across the door of the animal clinic.

Michio

We stayed 7 days

Returned to Lakota

Evie

I even drew a heart beneath my name.

Because love made people soft and squishy, crazy and weak.

Which scared the ever-loving shit out of me.

I tossed the can of paint and pushed my boots forward, toward the two men waiting in the truck, their eyes on the landscape, watching, always protecting.

Because love made people vigilant and selfless, crazy and strong.

Like my guardians, I fought and killed viciously and without hesitancy to defend those I loved. But when Darwin lay on that counter, bleeding and whining with pain, I went from tough to weak in a blink of an eye. I did the only thing I could. I put his life in more capable hands and hid on the porch with my grief.