Fallen Son (The Fallen Men 3.5)

“We’re here!” Harleigh Rose crowed as we turned left onto the long drive that led up to the cabin.

There was a collective gasp from the girls as we saw the reconstructed cabin for the first time since Zeus had started to work on it again. He’d begun construction almost as soon as it had burned down two years ago, but he refused to hire contractors or even let any of his Fallen brethren help with the project. He’d built the first cabin, and he alone would rebuild the second one.

It was no wonder that it had taken him so long when it was easily twice the size of the original. Made of massive cedar logs my biker lumberjack had cut down himself, it was two stories with a steeply peaked roof and beautiful gables. It looked like something straight out of Cressida’s Pinterest account.

“She’s crying again,” Lila noted as Zeus parked at the top of the hill beside the pale yellow, snow-covered home.

“Hell, if I cried, I would too. It’s sick, Dad,” H.R. praised as she opened the door and slid into the knee-deep snow. “Seriously, it could be in some kinda home magazine.”

“You like it?” Z asked me quietly as the rest of them got out of the SUV.

I ripped my eyes off the house and turned them, shining with tears, to my man. “You’d have to be dumb and blind not to love it. It’s almost as beautiful as our house in Entrance. Only reason it doesn’t beat that is because we don’t have any memories here yet.”

His lips twitched. “Well then, get your sweet ass outta this car and let’s get on with makin’ some memories.”

I laughed and opened the door to jump down into the snow, but he called my name, and I paused to look over my shoulder at him.

His eyes were liquid silver with banked heat. “Don’t think one’a those memories isn’t goin’ to be me spreadin’ you out on the dinin’ room table and feastin’ on you for hours. I’m sure we can convince the lot of ’em to take a long, long fuckin’ walk at some point.”

“I’m counting on it,” I told him with a saucy grin before I hopped out of the car and moved over to Cress where she stood beside King’s bike to wrap my arm around her waist.

“Hey,” I said softly. Leaning my head against her shoulder, I loved the way she smelled of books and apples.

“Hey, honey,” she murmured back, tipping her head against me. “How’s my girl?”

I bit my lip but didn’t stiffen the way I wanted to. Cressida was one of the most perceptive people I knew, and though the question was asked mildly, I wondered if she’d guessed about my pregnancy.

The desire to tell her was powerful. Cressida had been my teacher and my confidante before I’d even reconnected with Zeus and met the rest of his family. There was a soft, eternal bond between us, a gentleness that swaddled me like velvet. I felt safe and harboured by her love, and I knew she would be nothing but supportive and thrilled at the news, especially because she’s been secretly longing for a while now to get married and have babies herself.

But I didn’t tell her.

The kernel of fear still kept my lips sealed shut.

“I’m good,” I said, but it wasn’t a promise.

And based on the way she paused, then pressed a kiss to my hair, we both knew it.

The men finally unloaded our things, and we made our way as a unit up the slight slope to the front of the house.

I noticed a second after Zeus did that there was a light on in one of the windows left of the door. He cursed savagely, dropped the bags in the snow, and pulled his gun from his boot.

“Nova, with me,” Z ordered immediately in a low, quiet tone. “King, get the back.”

King handed his helmet off to Cress and took his wicked-looking knife out of the sheath on his belt while Nova reached into his waistband for a compact gun he easily adjusted in his hands.

I stood back, curling my arm tighter around Cress and then linking hands with H.R. when she made her way over to us. Lila stood on H.R.’s other side, wrapped around her like a vine.

“No matter how many times I’ve seen them head into danger, I’m always a little afraid,” Cressida admitted as they made their way closer to the house.

“Only a little?” I asked. “I’m scared to fucking death half the time.”

We all laughed nervously as Zeus silently unlocked the front door and swept inside with Nova at his back. There was a loud crack within, like something falling, and then silence.

As one, the girls moved toward the house.

“Dad?” Harleigh Rose called. “If this is some kind of prank, I swear to God, we’re going to make this trip a living hell for you!”