17. Tori

17

TORI

The entire house had been ransacked aside from the upstairs, and my mom and Spencer were hard at work, putting things up and stuffing some things into boxes.

It was obvious the horde hadn’t breached the house—the raiders did.

But even so, the thought of staying here again didn’t feel safe.

Everyone else surprisingly felt the same way—including my dad. Since Benjamin planned to build structures for the livestock, we decided to bring all the animals with us.

We had a couple of trailers that could be pulled by the horses, so we planned to gather as much as we could and head back. It would be a harder journey with the cows, bull, and us walking along with the horses, but we didn’t have much of a choice.

My main concern was the bitter cold with the animals, but as soon as we made it back to the Oasis, they would be warm again—and they were warm tonight.

Canned foods were stockpiled already, and we knew we’d have to use one of the trailers strictly for the chickens since we had so many of them. We would have to make a couple of trips to bring in some of the bigger supplies, but it would be worth it.

“Are you sure you’re okay?“ I fussed over Nathan at the kitchen table, ignoring how all the things were torn out of the cabinets and flung around. My hands moved around his body, pressing and prodding to make sure he wasn’t more injured than he’d looked.

Nathan gripped my wrist and tugged me into his lap. “I’m fine, killer. Thanks to you bashing the old guy over the head with your golf club, Calix had a perfect shot to take him down.”

My face heated, and I nodded. My body had acted on its own. All I knew was that I absolutely hated seeing Nathan being kicked while he was down—literally.

“I can’t believe you hit a person with it,” Spencer stated, shaking her head. “My sister is such a badass.”

“She is.” Micah strolled over and kissed my temple.

“Proud of you,” Calix murmured, standing behind Nathan’s chair.

“I’m not loving the whole three boyfriends thing.” Dad groaned, running a hand down his face.

“Dad.” I pouted my lips teasingly, but I honestly understood his discomfort. He hadn’t even liked Jay, but he had been right about that one.

“No one is good enough for you, honeybee.” He shrugged, sliding his gaze to Spencer. “Or for my peanut.”

She frowned before grumbling under her breath about how the population had dwindled.

“We are up for that challenge, sir.” Nathan winked at Dad.

“We’ll do everything we can to be good enough for her,” Calix added.

“She’s already the center of our lives,” Micah rasped.

“You better.” Dad crossed his arms, looking every bit uncomfortable with the situation.

“Alright, well it’s getting dark.” Mom clapped her hands, dispersing the awkwardness in the air. “How are we going to do this?”

“I boarded up all the broken windows.” Dad jerked his thumb to the kitchen window he had nailed a few boards over. “Enough of the solar panels are still working to run the heat tonight.”

“And the shower?” Daisy’s eyes lit up, but I winced as the memory of the well stacked with groaning decaying zombies flashed in my mind.

“Zombies piled up in the well somehow.” Dad made a disgusted face that must’ve mirrored my own. “Do not use the water.”

Calix cleared his throat. “Do you have water bottles?”

“We do.” Mom opened the fridge and handed one to him, and I had been surprised to see everything was untouched in there. Maybe the raiders didn’t think to check the fridge.

His eyes widened as he held it. “It’s still cold.”

“The electricity stayed on,” she explained with a soft smile as Calix stepped away and carefully took the mask off to take a drink.

“I’m staying with you guys tonight,” Spencer told my parents, rubbing her arms. “No way I’m staying alone in my room.”

“We’ll take our room,” Jay said, wrapping an arm around Daisy.

“The guys can stay in mine,” I murmured.

“We need to rotate watch tonight. Raiders or other zombies could be through,” Nathan said.

“Daisy and I will take first shift,” Jay offered, and Daisy frowned but didn’t say anything.

“I can take second,” I offered.

“Then it’s settled.” Micah scratched his beard and glanced around the room. “Everyone get rest while you can. We have an early morning ahead of us.”

After saying goodnight, Daisy and Jay stayed in the kitchen while the rest of us went to our rooms to get some much needed sleep.

I paused at the doorway as Calix, Micah, and Nathan strode into my room and broke apart before looking around at everything. Flicking on the light to the room, amusement tugged my lips into a smile as I watched them. I understood Micah and Nathan, but even Calix was being nosy.

A sense of calmness settled over me as they walked around my spacious bedroom. There was a large window that overlooked the pasture, but the blinds were pulled down so we couldn’t see the destruction of the land outside from the horde.

Nathan took a seat on my fluffy brown comforter, a perfect blanket to seek warmth in during the winter. I had to remember to bring it along. It would be so comfortable in Micah’s bed. There was a collection of nude colored throw pillows and a throw blanket on the bed to add to the calmness of the space.

Calix stood at the small wooden desk in the corner of my room, surrounded by shelves filled with a few books and trinkets of horses and photo albums.

Micah was staring at the photos in the frames on the wall I had put up, something else I needed to bring with me to the Oasis. There were photos of my parents, Spencer, and me. One photo of Kovu and me after a horse show where he won first place, and it made my chest swell with mourning as Micah touched the frame of it. I had another photo of just Spencer and me up.

“Having fun?” I teased them, and they all glanced at me sheepishly.

Micah ran a hand down his face before coming toward me and pulling me into a hug. “Sorry, darlin’. It’s interesting to see your space.”

“No need to apologize. You’re welcome to look around.” I wrapped my arms around his neck as he picked me up and walked me toward the bed. My feet hit the plush rug, and I smiled up at him.

Nathan patted the bed as he stretched out and kicked his shoes and pants off. “Come on. This bed is so comfy.”

I glanced at Calix as Micah got down to his boxers and got into bed. He had one of my photo albums and was thumbing through it. He was looking through the photos I had of Jay, Daisy, and me. Some of us together, some of just me and Jay, and some of just me and Daisy.

My heart dropped, and he glanced over with an unreadable expression. “Why’re you looking at those?”

“Why do you still have them if they caused you so much pain?” he asked in a whisper, setting it down with the album open to a few photos of Jay and me before everything sucked.

“It reminds me of the past.” I shrugged as he came and stood in front of me. “It doesn’t cause me pain to look at it. It just validates my feelings of why I was so hurt.”

“Your feelings are validated even without proof of the past, honey.” He reached up and unhooked his mask before going over and hanging it on a knob for jewelry on my nightstand. “I’m going to sleep next to you tonight, but I need to be on this side.”

My pulse raced, and I nodded wordlessly with my throat thick.

“Woah,” Nathan muttered, slipping into the middle. “Dibs on the other side of her!”

I quickly peeled off my clothes until I was just in my shirt and panties.

Micah chuckled before taking the side beside Nathan and pulling me down to kiss my lips. “Night, darlin’.”

“Night, Micah,” I murmured before a squeal tore out of me as Nathan grabbed me and hoisted me up over him and Micah before settling me between him and where Calix would sleep. “A little warning next time!”

“Shhhh. Good night, killer. Thanks for saving me again today.” Nathan nuzzled his nose into my neck as I faced Calix.

“Good night, Nathan.” I scooted my ass against his groin, making him groan as I made myself comfortable.

“Are you sure you’re okay, honey?” Calix crawled into bed before laying his head beside mine and staring into my eyes.

“I’m okay. Are you? I know sharing a bed isn’t something you want.”

“Shockingly, I’m okay. I want to sleep next to you, Tori.”

A smile spread on my lips before I let my eyes flutter close. “Night, Calix.”

“Good night,” he replied softly as I succumbed to sleep in my childhood bedroom with my three boyfriends.

“Tor, wake up,”Jay whispered through the room, and my eyelids fluttered open to see him standing over the bed with a flashlight with an indecipherable look. “It’s your watch.”

Nathan grabbed me tighter by the waist and stuck his face in my neck, and Calix moved the covers up around my chest as he stared at Jay through tired eyes.

“I got it,” Micah mumbled before getting up out of bed. “Go back to sleep.”

Jay’s gaze didn’t leave mine as he shrugged. “As long as someone has the watch. It’s been quiet so far, but it’s necessary considering what happened.”

“I’ll handle it.” He turned to Jay before gesturing for him to leave the room. “I’m letting her sleep a little longer.“

I wanted to get up and go with him, but I guessed my body was too exhausted because I fell back asleep snuggled between Calix and Nathan.

My eyes jerked open,and I peeled myself from between Nathan and Calix before crawling down the bed and planting my feet on the plush carpet.

Glancing back, they were both snoring, limbs stretched out as they slept. I smiled softly, my chest swelling at the sight of them in my room, in my bed, and I grabbed my fluffy nude robe before wrapping it around myself and leaving the room.

The cold floorboards were a stark contrast to the heated air that I was so grateful for as I made my way downstairs and into the kitchen where Micah stood with his back to me.

His arms were crossed, and his posture tensed with every passing second as he stared out of the window toward the barn.

“Micah, what’s wrong?” I came around to him and glanced out the window before my throat tightened, and my body froze.

Out by the barn were two large bears with their flesh torn and fur matted as they made feral noises so faint from inside that I could only hear them if I focused on it. Their large paws clawed at the barn, making good-sized scratches in the wood as they tried to get inside as if they knew there were uninfected animals there.

“Oh my God,” I gasped, pressing my hand to my throat. “How long have they been out there?”

“Only a couple of minutes. They just started going at the barn,” he rasped, turning around sharply as he went for his longbow and grabbed a few arrows to hand to me. “Let’s put them down.”

I held them close and nodded, letting him lead the way to the door. He opened the door, then backed the bow, nocking an arrow before nodding to me, and I opened the screen door with a metal screech.

He lifted the bow and walked forward to the end of the porch and shot, hitting the closest bear through the head.

It dropped, and the second bear stopped scratching at the barn before sniffing the air and turning its face toward us. I rushed over and handed him another arrow, and he pulled back the bow and shot, barely missing the head as it jerked forward. The arrow embedded itself into the barn behind it, and fear rushed through my veins as it took off toward us.

“Arrow, now!” Micah shouted, and I handed it to him with a shaky hand.

He grabbed it, pulled it back, and waited until it came closer before he shot the bear in the head.

The bear landed near the bottom of the steps of the porch, and a breath of air wooshed out of my lungs as I handed Micah the last arrow he’d given me.

He pried my fingers off the plastic coated arrow before taking it and grabbing my hand, leading us back inside.

The warmth bathed us as we stepped in, making me realize just how freezing it was outside.

He let go of my hand to shut and lock the door, then he placed his bow and his arrow next to the door before hauling me up and walking over to sit me on the kitchen counter.

“Do you think the horde made the bears?” I spread my legs for him to step between and plant his rough hands on either side of my face. “I’ve never seen any infected animal on this ranch before.”

“Yeah, darlin’. I think it was the horde. When hordes come through, especially of that size, they infect anything and everything they can in their path.” His thumbs rubbed my cheeks before he slid one hand down around my throat and the other down to untie my robe and pull it apart.

“What if that noise woke someone up,” I whimpered, his hand tightening around my throat before he tilted his head, hair falling in his eyes.

“I don’t hear anyone moving. Besides, I need to feel you.”

“You do?” My voice wobbled, but I did nothing else to stop him as he yanked my panties down my legs and let them hit the floor.

“Of course I do,” he rasped as his hand slipped up my shirt and squeezed my breast, thumb flicking over the nipple and shooting tingles through me. “We’re in the goddamned apocalypse, darlin’. And you’re the first speck of happiness I’ve found since before it started.”

“I feel the same,” I moaned, my pussy throbbing with an ache that needed to be filled.

“Shhh. We don’t want to wake anyone up.” He tightened his grip even harder on my throat, but he was still careful with where he was squeezing, and he slid me to the edge of the counter and moved his hand to free his hard cock from his pants.

Nudging his blunt head against my soaked slit, he quirked his lips into a smirk before he tugged me closer. “Can you be quiet? Or should we wait until later?”

A whimper tore from my throat. “I can be quiet.”

“Good girl.” He gave a soft chuckle before he surged forward, entering me fully in one thrust as his lips descended on mine.

My body jerked at the sudden invasion before relaxing, and I wrapped my hands around his wrists as he kissed me passionately.

His mouth and mine moved in sync as I kept my legs spread for him, loving the feel of him inside of me, of him thrusting his cock into me over and over again as his hand stayed tight around my throat.

He broke the kiss, rolling his hips harder into me with a low moan.

My eyes rolled back into my head as I held onto his wrist for dear life, biting my lip hard enough for pain to ripple through it.

“You’re being so good, darlin’, so quiet.” He quickened his pace, moving his hand from my throat up to where his fingers curled around the back of my neck and his thumb pushed down on my lip until it fell from between my teeth. “Don’t hurt yourself.” He plunged his thumb into my mouth.

I wrapped my lips around it and sucked as he fucked me harder and harder until he tensed, spilling into my heat as my orgasm crashed into me full force.

Sucking his thumb harder, I let out a throaty cry as pleasure rippled through me, clamping down on his throbbing cock as I came.

My heart pounded, and I could hear his too as he pulled his thumb out and we caught our breath.

He planted both of his hands on the counter, still inside of me, and leaned down to press a tender kiss to my lips before pulling away and grabbing a kitchen towel.

“Hope this is okay to use.” He wiped himself before moving between my thighs to clean us up.

“It’s fine. Just throw it in the bin so nobody uses it.” I flinched as he wiped me down, tingles still shooting through my veins from the sensitivity.

He tucked himself back into his pants before helping me put my panties back on and closed my robe, tying it shut. “Let’s go to bed, darlin’.”

My eyelids drooped shut as I nodded. “Let’s do that.”

He picked me up and brought me back to bed before going to wake my dad for his watch.

And I fell back asleep without any worry, even of the infected wildlife that could be lurking on the ranch.