POV: Destiny
Eggs and bacon and eggs and ham. I was just about done with regular breakfast, but one of my darlings wasn't feeling well, so I made him something different. The key to making so much was having enough preparation ahead of time.
I placed a lovely flower in each small vase, fresh and beautiful, along with a note for each darling. I never wanted to serve a dinner without some kind of sweet note to give them. After finishing the last night, I watched the biological father that placed me in this place walk through my kitchen door.
"Destiny." He came closer. "I talked to them, and I talked to your brother."
Good. "I have to deliver the breakfast now. Good to hear you talked." She grabbed the first tray, but he didn't move. "Is there something else you wanted?"
Devin grabbed the tray's sides. I didn't let go of it and neither did he. "Why are you doing this? You should be free to do as you wish in this house. They are fighting over you. Why are you making breakfast for everyone?"
I didn't want to get into this with him. I may have used a piece of him for the children, but I didn't actually know him at all. "To be a nice potential wife."
"Potential wife nothing." That seemed to have irked him. He yanked the tray away this time and sat it near the ground. "You aren't going to be any of their wives, you had my children. Not only that, but even now, you are carrying my child."
No doubt he wasn't happy about that, but even Zoan agreed I should have done it.
"I'm not mad about you choosing to do that because I know why you did that," he went on. "Your safety should always be your own concern, and Zoan was protecting his sister too. If I had to make the choice between you being food for all of these men, or holding my own child. I'd agree to it too."
Wonderful. Why was he taking away my tray then?
"I am mad about you trying to marry someone else here, when those are my kids. They are coming with us when we leave." He sounded demanding. "Why are you letting them walk over you?"
Oh, he was moving back to that again. He would find out one day I guess. "They can't hurt me. It's not allowed. It's in the contracts that I signed when I got pulled into here." I looked at the tray lying on the floor, hoping no one comes in and slips into it. "The contract doesn't protect the children." Yes, she notably saw his ears actually move. Interesting, he wasn't even a wolf but he could move his human ears slightly.
"It doesn't protect the children at all?" he asked.
"If you look at Wolfie's forehead, you'll see his overlong bangs. It almost gets in his eyes," I told him. I looked back at the tray. "That's because he has a scar from when he was very little. A means to show me that I am not completely in charge of what happens in here. That mark changed my world. I quickly started to divide and conquer the people here to see who was someone I could marry and trust with my children. My children were no longer just mine, I referred to them individually as the fathers. The nicest ones spent the most time with him."
He just looked at me, not saying anything. He was a very hard person to read. "The girl."
"I tried to have the same deal for her," I said to him. "The others that I don't have any intentions to marry at all, made their feelings more known. If my dears and darlings fathered my boy, then they deserved to watch over my girl. Not everyone here is someone I trust. I couldn't help myself, I rejected that notion. It left them so unhappy, that a fight started to break out between my darlings and the others. The others had won. The girl was grabbed."
Devin growled dangerously.
"If it happened once, it will happen again. I was given my list of things to do to be a good wife. My dears and darlings weren't allowed to see the girl, if they wanted to see the boy. I was allowed a choice for the girl. Either they would get her or . . ." I wiped my eyes. Reliving everything all over again. "She wouldn't be ours. She'd stay out. Fortunately, Juniper stepped in."
I tried to bend down to get the tray, but he just stopped my way. I continued. "He took her outside, moved to right next to the outside door, pulled the glass out and made sure that day or night he could defend her if anyone bothered her." That tray must be getting so cold. Someone was bound to walk through that door soon.
I watched as Devin took my hands, and wrapped them in his. Did he understand?
"200 men. Two children. Odds they would be hurt were much higher if you weren't being the best future wife you could be." He looked toward the vases on the darlings trays. "The darlings and dears are watching for the boy's safety, while Juniper is guarding the little girl."
Devin seemed to ease up. He let go of my hands and picked up the tray. "After midnight, things change. There will be three more women in this house, along with four guards. None of the kids will be left with anyone except a guard or a woman."
He wanted to challenge them. This was the last day I was going to be able to make the food and clean, wasn't it? Everything changed tomorrow. I wanted to say that was good, but, how was I to know that? Every day this man entered my life, he ruined it.
We met on the train. He owned me without a thought to see what that meant. We met when I was going into a den. He went and brought a ton of people, got involved and then got bamboozled. He didn't have a good record with me.
Unless someone was stopping me, I wouldn't stop being a potential sweet wife. I wouldn't let my children be left in the hands of just these people's skills that I didn't even know. I just gave him a fake smile, like I did everyone else.
I met this man twice. He ruined my life twice. The fact I had his children should have made him repulsed, and instead he was even more ready to protect me. This insane wolf.
He might be a guard, but he would not be a darling or dear.
He was just another bastard.