Total pages in book: 205
Estimated words: 204377 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1022(@200wpm)___ 818(@250wpm)___ 681(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 204377 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1022(@200wpm)___ 818(@250wpm)___ 681(@300wpm)
On and on, I twitch and gasp through my complete and utter undoing. My cock pulses inside her, emptying, still throbbing, always wanting more.
I don’t need to fuck her into a coma tonight.
We have forever.
Reluctantly, I ease out and use my discarded briefs to clean us. Then I wrap her up on my lap and tuck her against my chest.
She settles easily with me. Trusts me enough to let her guard down and fall asleep. I appreciate that more than she’ll ever know.
As she drifts, my thoughts circle back to our conversation with Kody and Wolf.
We imprison him. Collect the pemmican and more coal. Ration the remaining food. And hope for a short winter.
They all agreed to the plan, but the nods I got from Frankie and Kody were shrouded in uncertainty, lacking any real conviction.
Why does it feel like I’m overlooking something? What threat remains that we haven’t already considered?
Is it Denver? It’ll take me a minute to build the cage. During that time, will he go off the deep end and hack us all into pieces?
No way. That’s not his style.
But there’s something…
Something dark and oily hanging in the air.
Something whispering its inevitable doom in my mind.
I silence it with a deep breath.
My instincts have failed me before, seldom as it may be. Perhaps it’s nothing.
Or it may be the very thing that kills us.
65
Frankie
—
The wind outside rattles the bedroom windowpanes. Weeks have passed since our failed hunting expedition. Two weeks? Three?
I stopped counting.
Counting anything is a futile attempt to impose order on a place that defies rules.
Leo thinks in terms of forever, but I’m not ready to share that sentiment.
Forever is an unsettling feeling while living in perpetual darkness. The sun has become a distant memory, and it strikes me that I might never see another sunrise.
This never-ending night has not only stolen the warmth and the light but also the certainty of our next meal.
I turn away from the window and focus on the man between my legs.
Leo, the most productive among us, finally succumbed to a rare and much-needed nap in the cradle of my body. With his head on my abdomen and his arms hugging my thigh, he softly snores while I braid his hair.
Building a cage door took longer than expected. Lack of materials and keeping it hidden from Denver caused delays along the way, but he’s almost finished. Only the hinges are left.
By tomorrow, Denver will be behind bars.
It’s something.
Our world has shrunk to the confines of this bedroom and the few tasks that sustain us. Each trip downstairs for food and water inevitably leads to a face-off with the man who holds us captive. Denver is growing restless. His once cavalier demeanor has transformed into passive-aggressive desperation.
He wants time with us. Just companionship, he says. I have a fireplace in my bedroom, a warm place we can all share.
Fuck.
That.
But Kody offered him a deal. If Denver ventures out into the dark, icy tundra and finds something to eat, we’ll start sleeping in the sitting room.
So Denver set out traps.
They’ve yielded nothing.
I worry he’ll resort to kin punishment to get what he wants, but the guys assure me they’ll kill him if it comes to that.
Killing Denver was never an option before. We needed him alive when he was making supply runs and providing the necessities to survive. The instant he stopped doing that, he changed the stakes and jeopardized his usefulness.
Everything has changed.
The dwindling food supplies have taken a toll not just on our bodies but on our spirits. Add to that the lack of natural light, the boredom, the hopelessness—all of it has a way of seeping into the soul.
The cabin feels more like a prison now than ever before, its walls closing in like an unending corridor stretched out before us.
How will this end?
Who will be left standing?
We move around each other like shadows, each lost in our own silent battle with the diminishing shapes of our bodies.
Yesterday, I cut their hair, hoping it would make them feel less rawboned and more comfortable with their changing appearances. Wolf wanted a heavily layered, messy style like those skater cuts popular with lead singers of rock bands. I did my best.
Kody told me to do whatever. I snipped away his thick black curls and gave him a short, sexy, finger-combed look that highlights his strong cheekbones.
I removed a lot of hair from Leo. His tangles had knotted into dreadlocks, so I shaved his beard down, gave him a deep wash, and chopped his chestnut waves to his shoulders, leaving enough length to braid and tie into a top knot. I love his dreamy Viking style.
They all clean up nicely. Their neatly-shaved jawlines and freshly combed hair make their eyes look brighter, more human.
But it doesn’t change the one thing that eats at us day and night.