Dawn of the Alpha Read Online Free PDF Page A

back,” Roxanne snapped. “Let’s find some food and get packed so we can keep moving.”

 
    XII.
    They camped that night in the shelter of a thick bank of trees lining a field. In a month or two the field would be thick with corn but for now it was all just green shoots that were almost useless to the travellers. Their only use, it seemed, was to lure in animals.
    The shot just after dinner startled everyone to their feet. Roxanne started bringing everyone in towards the center of camp while Damian, Ryan, and Sean went to look. They came back with Evan, a middle-aged man who had volunteered to take first watch, and a fresh deer.
    “We have no way to smoke the meat,” Damian said. “So we’ll have to cook it all. We probably won’t be able to leave now until midday, it’ll take all morning to prepare the meat for travelling.”
    “I think there’s a house nearby,” Anne said. “It was already getting dark when we got here but if there is I could take people in shifts to wash up and bring back supplies. Maybe we’ll luck out and find a cooler and another wagon.”
    “Sounds like a plan. I have to clean this deer tonight or it will start to stink. Now would be the perfect time for a cooler.”
    She followed him to the carcass and hunkered down nearby. “We’ll all be sick of deer meat in a day or two.”
    “Better than living off of peanut butter,” he replied. “Look, about last night, I’m sorry about the … episode.”
    “Were you ever pinned down by an enemy during active combat?” she asked.
    He shook his head. “No. I got lucky. I did get into a hand to hand situation once but …” He swallowed hard and let the memory go again.
    “I can guess,” she said.
    “What about you? I’ve never been with a woman who acted like that. You weren’t going to let anything stop you from getting what you wanted.”
    “Oh, that. Yeah, well, that was a long time coming I guess. I don’t really want to talk about it.”
    “If you’re going to keep picking at my memories expect me to return the favour. What dark and stormy past are you running from?”
    She shrugged. “I’m from the bible belt. My parents were strict, zealous, conservative, religious nuts. Not that EVERYONE down there was like that, just them and their little group of fellow ‘believers’. It’s the same everywhere, isn’t it? There’s always a group that has to believe so hard they end up hurting people.”
    “You’re more right than you know. So what? You grew up restricted and turned into a sex fiend? Usually that upbringing has the opposite effect on women.”
    “I know. I was repressed, broken, and basically useless in bed. Ask my first husband, though I’d rather you didn’t. He left me for a whore because I couldn’t satisfy him.”
    “How long ago was that?”
    “About a week before the world went to hell.”
    “Shit.”
    “Yeah. So it’s been a while since I’ve had sex and I wanted it to be good for me for once. I didn’t want to be used again.”
    “Actually I’m feeling a little used.”
    He’d made so few jokes since their meeting less than a week earlier that she almost missed this one. She caught herself before ripping into him and smiled. “You seemed to like it.”
    “I liked not choking you.”
    She grabbed a stone off the ground beside her and tossed it in his general direction.
    “Okay, okay. Honestly, you were like some kind of … of … you were amazing and you looked like the most beautiful, sexy woman on the planet, the way you just rode me and directed me.” He shook his head and focused harder on the deer.
    “So what does this mean? I mean, where do we go from here?”
    “We being me and you and not this circus we’re hauling around with us?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Do you want to try again?”
    “Not tonight!”
    She laughed. “Blood and guts don’t turn me on, don’t worry. I’m turning in.” As she walked past him she paused. “I’ll be thinking of you