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“We’re cooking in this,” I said, eyeing the inside. It would need a good scrubbing, but we could feed ourselves and any other women who came to us with it.
“Perfect.” Freya grunted as she pushed it.
We were panting and sweaty by the time we made it back to the Arbor. Ash looked up from the stag, which had been rendered into neatly apportioned pieces. “Why did you not ask us?” he asked, shaking his head.
“Because…” I glanced at the other women. “We wanted to do something for ourselves. But if there’s an empty room we could use as a kitchen, I’d take your help.”
The Beasts surrounding us immediately scattered. One returned minutes later, and they hefted the cauldron. We followed them to a knothole that was exactly at ground level, with several more small holes in the walls to let air in.
“This will work.” Freya looked the room over approvingly. “We can begin by building a hearth over there.” She pointed to a corner near the knothole entrance. “We’ll need chairs for when Gran gets here.”
“Tuva might like a table,” Aldis put in quietly, talking about Freya’s sister.
They weren’t looking at me when I glanced at them. I’d thought they just accepted living here because it was better than Vostok.
I hadn’t realized they fully intended to bring their friends and family members here to make it a home. The thought made me happy. Although I loved the Beasts, I also wanted human company, women who would understand my species and what we’d gone through to get here.
I hoped we’d be able to bring them here soon.
Once we’d established the kitchen as much as we could, we scattered to put our treasures away. I’d gathered a pair of deerskin pants, a long shirt, and a new blanket.
I was just settling the blanket on the floor when Torr appeared, grumbling in his throat. His eyes widened when he saw me. The Beast held a massive armful of pillows.
“Don’t worry,” I told him. “I found another blanket.”
Torr just shook his head. “We must build a better nest.”
“Why?”
He cocked his head. “Because it’s your time of the cycle. I smell it on you.” He stepped closer, nuzzling my hair. “It’s time to breed you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I stared at him,my eyes going wide. “What? Breed me… now?”
I wasn’t ready for pups. Or children. There was too much to do, and I’d only just now begun to taste freedom…
But Torr’s eyes were practically glowing as he raised his nose and sniffed the air. “I smell it on you. The cycle has come. You’re ready for breeding.”
I thought back to what Gran had secretly told us one day when we’d first gotten our moon-blood. That there was a brief time in that cycle when we could conceive… and that was when we should do everything in our power to keep the man we were wedded to away from us.
Freya and I had tucked that knowledge away, keeping it a secret. Secrets were the only weapon we had against those men.
But in the last few days, I’d had an insatiable desire to have the Beasts inside me, so maybe there was something my body knew that my brain didn’t.
“Torr… I don’t want pups yet.”
He growled, climbing down into the nest and tearing up blankets, arranging the pillows underneath them.
Draven climbed in, another load of blankets in his arms. The two Beasts rearranged the nest again, but as Torr snarled when he tested the pillows, Draven came to me.
He scooped me into his arms, his face against my neck. “You smell delicious, Salem.”
He was already hard, his cock pushing against my belly. I felt a familiar flare of heat.
Fine… there were ways to prevent pups. Teas I could drink afterwards to ensure I wouldn’t have them yet.
Until then, I’d let my body decide for me.
