“You protected the family well, Sister. Your form when you attacked my cousin was wless. However we need to work on your timing of the strike,” he said kissing my neck. “You missed him by far toorge a margin.”


    I looked at him feeling stunned. “The General said not to attack his Warriors.”


    Damien grinned and shrugged. He couldn’t care less what anyone else wanted. It was honorable I had tried to protect the family.


    “The other Warriors wanted me dead,” I hissed at him.


    “They could have tried,” he said in a conversational tone. “We would have stopped them. It would have been our decision, whether they liked it or not.”


    “You and your Brothers,” I argued as he took my hand and walked out, “against the wholepound?”


    We walked to the wall and Damien opened it and stepped out. I followed him trying desperately to look like a demure ve and not an indignant one.


    “My Brother,” Damien said as he walked into the forest, “could have easily removed his bonds. We are always prepared.”


    Shaking my head I followed him to his favorite spot. Once we were there, Damien stopped and considered me for a moment.


    “Your strike was well executed, only poorly timed. We thought it best to stop you before you got hurt. That was not a shopkeeper you attacked, but a trained Warrior. At some point the man would have gotten over his surprise and that would have been a problem. Evan had to be in control of you so the other men would not dare to touch you.”


    The rest of the lunch went like that. Damien wasn’t fazed by hisck of sleep or his pain. He entertained himself talking about me taking a swipe at his cousin.


    “The General,” I exined patiently, “said he would kill a ve that raised a hand to his Warrior. You didn’t tell me they would try to kill me for that.”


    Damien sighed theatrically the way Hannah had done, “No one in thispound would dare the wrath of my family. The decision of your punishment was ultimately left to us,” he exined patiently. “As you will note, you are not dead. The General knows not to anger me.”


    We sat and stared at one another for a moment. I wasn’t going to argue about this so I hugged him tight and kissed his jaw. The General didn’t kill me because it would anger the women. Damien didn’t need to know that.


    As he fed me Damien talked. I had made their punishment so much more interesting.


    Everything about that experience had been fun.


    When Bane had pulled down from the punishment bar, the other Warriors had been shocked. Everyone knew they were strong. The other men had forgotten how strong.


    Finally he got back to my “death wish” as he called it. Exining that was not an actual desire and just a frustrated statement was difficult. Damien would never say something like that unless he meant it. He struggled to understand how I could have said it.


    I tried to exin how painful the birth had been. He didn’t think it was that bad.


    “Sometimes,” I pleaded, “the babies don’te out the lower tunnel. Sometimes women have to be cut here,” I gestured to my stomach, “to make a ce for the baby toe out.”


    Damien looked at me with stern eyes. He informed me that no one would be cutting on me. I didn’t need to worry about that.


    He didn’t understand that I might need it. Eventually I gave up trying to make him understand. I’d talk to Christof, he was sometimes more approachable about things.


    So, I was free for the afternoon. No more tethered to the pole or chained to the wall. I took my freedom as an opportunity and went for a swim.


    I loved the water and the fish. That was one thing I’d hated in the mountains, no swimming. Sure we’d gone to theke that one time, but it wasn’t the same. I adored the warm, briny water at the Keepers’.


    Eventually I got out of the ocean andy in the sun on the shore. Rose came and sat quietly next to me.


    “I’m going to look like a floppy cow after that many births,” I said watching her tiny figure next to me.


    I was jealous. Even starved, I’d never had the delicate look she carried so well.


    “The cream will fix your skin,” she said looking out across the water. “They have other things, more powerful things, to heal you if you are damaged badly.”


    She was right. My stomach had popped almost magically back into shape after several applications of the cream. I poked at the soft, rounded contour and missed the tight, t stomach I’d had when Nu-reeh kept me.


    Rose seemed quieter than usual, more subdued. I asked her about it, but she just said the day before had been stressful. I had to agree, it had been a lot to take in.


    My men came and I was very happy to see them. Since the transport driver was present, I didn’t want to make a scene. Despite attempting to be reserved, I still kissed and inspected everyone.


    I didn’t get a good look at their injuries until we went to the bathhouse. The men were bruised and battered, but they seemed to be healing. I cleaned Damien quickly and gently. He almost fell asleep sitting in the warm water.


    “Come on,” Christof said shaking his shoulder, “let’s get upstairs.”


    We met the men delivering food at our door. They had just ced the tray on the table and wished Damien’s family a good meal.


    We all dressed in our linen outfits for the evening. The sixth chair was pulled up for me and we sat and had a quiet dinner. The men ate voraciously, which was strange for them. When I asked Christof told me they had not eaten well today. Except for Damien the other four had worked through lunch, it was part of the punishment.


    In between bites Bane exined the General was looking for new ways to punish them. They seemed quite immune to his whip. He had thought letting the other Warriors have a go at them would be a good idea. It had been, until I came along.


    Kein took a break from eating to tell me that I had really interrupted the proceedings. The young Warriors in thepound had not realized how strong the family was. After seeing how easily Bane could escape the punishment bar, it made them wary. Being on the bad side of men like Damien’s family was foolish.


    “They stopped really hitting us after you left,” Evan told me. “They were afraid of angering us.”


    I didn’t have to be part of the internal dialogue to know the topic. The other men were wimps and it was good to be the best. They were all certain of it.


    My men were obviously tired. I pushed and cajoled them toward the bed, but they said they had to stay up. Guests wereing.


    My curiosity was peaked. Evan found it a game and refused to tell me who was visiting at thiste hour. Instead the men made me guess. My ideas went from impossible to improbable. I had no idea who wasing over.Content ? N?velDrama.Org 2024.


    The Healers showed up and greeted Damien politely much to my surprise. They asked that my linen cover be removed so they could check me. The family relented and I was sat on one of the floating tables the Healers brought into the room.