All I know is I’m done being the cast-off. The embarrassment. The rude, uneducated lowlife who’s going to fly off the handle. A risk to be managed. I’m tired of being feared and looked down on and knowing that, sooner or later, she’s going to start looking at me like that too.
She’s got enough Prince Charmings here.
Eden will get her fairy-tale ending—and I’ll go play the villain somewhere else.
Chapter 27
Eden
SURVIVAL TIP #1
Kill or be killed.
W e found their camp last night.
Or Beau did, anyway. He’d scouted ahead and came back forty minutes later saying they’d set up for the night. He and Dom then had a “strategy meeting”—I wasn’t invited—and decided to rest for a few hours. Dom told me that they planned on surprising them in the early hours of the morning when they would be less on guard.
Dom told me because Beau still hasn’t looked me in the eye once since the nearly-shooting-me incident yesterday, let alone spoken to me.
Now, the dark sky tells me it’s hours before dawn, and Beau is bent over a small pan, preparing a quick breakfast over a low fire—the growth is too thick to worry about it being seen. One look at his stiff shoulders warns me against offering to help.
Rolling up my compact sleeping bag, I sigh. Dom’s eyes settle on me again. He’s been watching me almost as often as the trees, expression unreadable, and it’s starting to make me nervous.
Glancing at him, I raise a tentative brow.
He looks over my pack, my boots, the canteen at my hip. “What else did you bring?”
I blink. “Um, well, I have a change of clothes, my compass, a small knife, a first-aid kit, matches, a lighter, water purifiers, rope, a flashlight, solar blanket, and rations.” I think. I decide against mentioning exactly how much cheese I took from the fridge. We really need more goats “Oh, and I have a small pot. And a book. That’s it, I think.”
“You managed to steal all of that without the others noticing?” Dom’s voice is dry as dust.
I tuck my hair over my ear. “I was just . . . borrowing them.”
“Uh-huh.” He looks back out at the woods. “You know how to use this stuff.”
It’s not quite a question, and I stifle a sigh at the undertone of surprise. “Yes.”
Dom nods. His thick black hair catches the dappled light through the trees. “You’re different out here. Different to how I thought you’d be.”
I glare, taking a seat beside him. “Useless, you mean.”
The corner of his mouth kicks up, just a fraction. “Yep.”
When I huff, he looks over at me again. “Don’t give me that look. You put the help in helpless the last time I saw you out here.”
“When you last saw me out here, I’d been running for days under threat of my life.”
After a moment, Dom nods. In companionable silence, we watch Beau make breakfast.
I wrap my arms around my legs, and ask quietly, “Is he going to stay mad at me?”
Dom snorts, surprising me. He glances back at his friend, then down at me with a wry smile. “Beau’s got no idea how to be mad—he was brought up too nice. He’ll sulk until he gets over it.”
“Sounds healthy.” My heart sinks.
A warm, muscular arm shrugs beside me. “Or you could confront him about it. That works about half the time.”
I grimace. “And the other half?”
“Makes it worse.”
His golden eyes kindle with humor. I haven’t seen that look in them before, like warm honey, and I have to look away as my cheeks flood with heat.
“Why aren’t you more mad at me anyway?” I ask, flustered.
“I’m furious with you.” Even without looking at him, his irritation is palpable. “There’s just not much we can do about it now. I’ll hand you over to Jasper for punishment when we get back. Then we can call it even.”
My heart rate picks up. “Jasper said he wouldn’t punish me without my consent.”
Or at all.
I can’t quite seem to put that into words though. Or why Jasper not punishing me sounds like the worse end of the deal.
“He won’t,” Dom agrees, then asks seriously, “But do you really think you don’t deserve it?”
“I—”
“You put me and Beau—not to mention yourself—at risk with this stunt. And note or no note, I’m only about fifty percent sure the others will stay put. You lied to us.”
“You lied to me first,” I mutter. Dom glowers, and I raise my hands. “I know I made a mistake, but punishment is for children. I understand that I should have stayed at home, but if I’d had all the information—”
Dom is shaking his head. “That’s the thing, Eden, you don’t understand. Whether or not you had all the information isn’t relevant, not when you’re putting others at risk. You can afford to do that when you live by yourself, but not in a group. Not with us. I need to know that if I tell you to do something, you’ll do it. I don’t give out orders for the hell of it, and I also can’t always spend the time to explain everything—at some point you’re going to have to trust me. Trust that I know what I’m doing to keep all of us alive, and just do what I say.”
I swallow. “I do trust that, Dom. That you’ll keep us safe.”
And I did. I haven’t doubted that since he planted me beside him on that cliff face and laid waste to every one of the nightmares who chased me.
“If you did, you wouldn’t have come out here.” His voice is grim. “You think that if any one of the others had disobeyed orders like you did, that they wouldn’t get punished?”
“You’d bend them over Jasper’s lap too?” I ask tartly.
Dom’s face hardens. “They would be so lucky. Trust me when I tell you that you’re much better being punished as a submissive and a civilian than as one of my men.” He sighs and rubs a hand over his jaw. “It’s harsh because it needs to be.
Your decisions can have serious consequences, Eden, and I need to know that you’ll remember that lesson. Whatever you say, there’s a difference between thinking you understand something and really feeling it in your skin.”
Biting my lip, I think that through. Despite my serious lack of interest in “getting punished” there may be some teensy tiny point to what he’s saying. Beau nearly shot me, after all. That would have haunted him for the rest of his life.
“It also works to clear the slate, work out resentment in a healthy way. Once your punishment is over, it’s over. Lesson learned, no hard feelings.”
I give up and stare at him then. “Just like that?”
His lips tilt up again. “Just like that.”
This punishment sounds different to Jasper’s . . . vocation. In a way, it’s almost refreshing. No grudges. No guilt trips.
“Would you really call that a ‘healthy way’ though?” I ask, though I’m mostly teasing.
Dom rolls his eyes, then points his chin back at Beau. “You prefer that route? It’s gentler, sure, but it might be Christmas before he forgives you.”
Groaning, I bury my face in my hands. “You’re not helping.” I peek back up at him. “There has to be something else. He can’t have been in relationships before and not be able to have a mature conversation when he’s upset.”