THE ALPHAS Box Set Read Online Free PDF Page A

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 tonight,” she said, running her fingers over his shoulder.
    As she walked away he called, “That’s cruel!”
    Her laughter trailed back to him and made him smile.

 
    XIII.
    They packed up after the midday meal, deer steaks, and started south across the fields. It was slower going with the full wagons over the rough terrain but a few miles down they found the gravel grid roads. Anne had been right about the house and she took everyone in rotation to use the shower and toss all the spare clothes through the wash. They all felt a lot closer to normal, to human, now and with fresh meat and water the complaining stopped again.
    It was only a matter of time, Roxanne knew, before the complaining would not be so easily silenced. They had to find safety, and they had to find it before the group splintered under the stress. She heard Damian shouting orders up at the front of the group as they all clambered up onto the gravel road and she smiled.
    ‘Let him be in charge,’ she thought. ‘Let him bark orders and silence the arguments. He’s good at it, they respect him. He’ll keep us safe and I’ll keep him safe from