Page 174 of Retribution

“Oh. Well, what did you say to get her to go away?” Isolde asks. “Did she want money?”

“She didn’t want Leila because she cared about her,” Alesso says. “She wanted her as currency to fund her drug addiction.”

Isolde freezes, going so still I don’t think she’s even breathing.

“Hey,” I say sharply, startling Leila without meaning to. Isolde takes a deep breath as the baby complains, shaking her head.

“God, people are so fucking evil,” she whispers. “She’s ababy.”

“I know,” Lucas says his hands fisted at his sides now. “She won’t ever be an issue again.”

“To say the least, after this, we won’t ever think about her again,” Oli says, rubbing his cheek against her.

I think they all want to scent mark her in some way, so they’re touching Isolde as much as possible.

“She’ll never be a problem,” I confirm.

Isolde meets my gaze, seeing the trust in my words. I push the image of Stefanie’s grave into my mind and she gives me the largest smile possible.

“Does anyone think that our hosts would be annoyed if we rummaged through their fridge? I’m fucking starving,” she announces.

“I don’t think they’d mind at all,” Alesso says, sitting up. “I’ll try to be quiet. I wanted to ask you if you were hungry, but your face plop into the bed told me you probably weren’t.”

“No, I was more interested in sleep,” she admits. “I don’t think I can go to bed right now though.”

Lucas gets up to root through our bags, coming back with panties and leggings for her.

“When did you have time to pack?” Isolde asks, surprised.

“Rita packed for Leila, and I put together a bag for you while I packed for myself,” Alesso says, shrugging. “I knew you couldn’t walk around naked after we found you. It just made sense.”

Oliver, Lucas, and I wince because we were preoccupied with other things, and it didn’t cross our minds.

“We’re a pack, we pick up the slack when necessary,” Alesso says unrepentantly. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Thank you for packing me clothes,” she says, her eyes misting. “Ugh, I don’t know why I’m crying. Every nice thing you all do is going to leave me feeling some kind of way for awhile.”

“I’m not afraid of a tear or two,” I reassure her, shoving Oli so he’ll get off her. He groans as he climbs off the bed, and I help Isolde up so she can step into her panties as Lucas waits for her on his knees at the edge of the bed.

Isolde smiles down at him as he helps her, since her arms are full with a sleepy Leila. Now that Isolde is calmer, the baby is ready to check back out.

Once Lucas has her leggings half way up her legs, I help her stand so he can pull them the rest of the way up.

“You guys give a really great snapshot of what life would be like if I was pregnant,” she mutters under her breath.

The four of us freeze, not knowing what to say, Lucas regains his senses first, standing to kiss her lips.

“Oh we’d be much worse, darlin’,” he croons. “We’re all obsessed with you now. As soon as you’re all healed up, I’m going to keep you stuffed full of cum at all times. What do you think about that?”

Inhaling deeply as she perfumes the air with a whimper, I grin. Goddamn, Lucas is something else.

“I think Mr. Bossy Pants CEO may be on to something,” she breathes.

Chuckling, he walks her to the door and opens it while we follow them to the kitchen. I’m not at all expecting it to be full of people.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Callum asks, making pancakes.

Glancing at the time, I see that it’s five in the morning. Fuck me.