Page 49 of After the Burn

“How did you get Harper without having a family group?” Beck shrugged on his jacket.

Finley lost his smile. “That’s a long story that we don’t have time for right now.”

Harper looked up at him with tears in her eyes, and they both stared at each other for a moment.

Curious.

Right after that, they headed out.

“What do you think?” I asked Beck.

“About them?” I nodded, and he shrugged. “I think we’re going to have to take a chance and trust them. We need help if we want to claim Taryn.”

“True.” I narrowed my eyes in thought. “I’ve noticed Gideon seems to have a soft spot for Mace. I’ll gather as much information as I can, and you need to be ready to fight.”

He smirked. “I’m always ready to fight. And if it’s for my Fox, expect me to be particularly vicious.”

“Our Fox.” I frowned, still not crazy about the idea. “She’s going to have to belong to both of us if we have any chance of claiming her.”

“I fucking hate that idea.” Beck sighed, unsurprised by my suggestion. “As soon as I noticed the number of women turning or dying, I suspected this was how things would go.”

I had anticipated something like this, too. How Taryn would feel about it was anyone’s guess. She still hadn’t let go of her resentment towards me for not playing a bigger role in her life prior to the apocalypse.

Not that she had a choice. Taryn and I were inevitable.

“We might have different opinions on various issues, but I believe we both agree on prioritizing Taryn’s safety.” I looked him in the eye. “I’ll do what needs to be done to protect her.”

“Even if it means sharing her?” Beck rubbed a hand down his face.

“Even then.”

The agreement was made. Now to convince a certain hard-headed female.

CHAPTER EIGHT

TARYN

The motel was quieter than it should’ve been.

That bothered me immensely because it highlighted how few females had survived.

I hadn’t realized how big the problem was because after we were forced to leave my home, we kept our distance from others.

These days, trust wasn’t given easily.

It took until midday for the powers that be to let Lila and me leave the holding cell. I wasn’t fond of enclosed spaces, but I’d never let it show.

I took a deep breath and cleared the ordeal from my mind.

The old two-story building sat near an abandoned law office, not too far from the boarding house that Beck and Adrian were in.

Harper had pointed it out on the way here. I hadn’t acknowledged her comment because I wasn’t sure why she thought it mattered to me.

The building had reinforced windows, floodlights bolted along the roofline, and guards stationed outside the entrances.

I didn’t know if it was to keep the men out or us in.

Unclaimed housing.