Reclamation (The Ravening #3)(30)
Author: Erica Stevens

"Look around you Cade; it’s not exactly open arms and musicals going on right now. They distrust us both."

He glanced at the people we had come here with as they grouped closer together. They spoke in whispers as weapons were exchanged amongst them. "Bethany…"

"I’ve already assumed that there’s more you haven’t told me."

His eyes narrowed. "I’ve told you everything that pertains to my life, here. I’ve told you everything that matters to me. Those things up there don’t matter to me and they never have."

"I understand that."

He groaned as he ran a hand through his hair and nervously glanced back at the crowd gathered outside of the gates. "I don’t think you’ll be safe on either side of these gates but out here you could at least still have a chance to run."

"I’ve seen you take down two of those bloodsucking things with only a knife, I don’t think I’d be getting far even if I did run."

His eyes flickered away from me as he shook his head and his shoulders slumped in resignation. "Stay close to me Bethany; don’t let them separate us, no matter what."

"I won’t," I promised.

"No matter what happens, know that I love you. There are things you’re going to hear…"

I smiled as I squeezed his hand. I was certain there were things I wouldn’t like hearing, but I hadn’t shied away from the revelation of what he was, and I wasn’t about to start now. "I know. I love you too."

I went to turn away but he tugged me back. "You have to know this first. Jessica is the woman I was supposed to marry."

If a ghost had floated before me and yelled ‘boo!’ I wouldn’t have been more shocked than I was to hear those words. I hadn’t known what to expect once we got in there, but what he’d just said was the absolute last thing I had expected to hear. I opened my mouth to respond but no words came out. I closed my mouth and swallowed as I glanced back at the young woman standing by the gates with the blond haired man at her side.

"I thought you’d never met her," I finally managed to get out.

"I haven’t, but I’ve seen her picture."

"Oh, of course." Who hadn’t met their future spouse, the alien they were supposed to spend the rest of their life with, by a picture?

"Bethany…"

I held up a hand and shook my head. "They’re waiting for us."

I turned and hurried away before I became too disturbed by his revelation, before I thought too much about it and decided the last thing I wanted was to step foot in there with him and his ex-intended. Or was she still his intended amongst their race? I didn’t know and I wasn’t going to sit around and try and figure it out. Cade and his fiancée were the least of my problems right now.

My head tilted back as I took in the wooden gates before us. Yes, it was definitely blood that stained the wood that bleak color, my nose pricked at the scent of it, my stomach rumbled but I ignored it as I focused on Abby, Aiden, Jenna, Molly and Bret standing near Bishop and Lloyd by the gates.

"We’re coming with you," Aiden said before I could protest. Molly remained unmoving beside him, her hand entwined within his as she stared at Cade and I. "We all know it’s just as safe in there as it is out here and we’d rather be with you."

I knew exactly how he felt. Cade stepped back beside me as Jessica nodded for us to follow her. Lloyd stayed in the back, the rifle pressed against his chest as we moved through the gates and into the cleared area of the forest that had been created to house the encampment. I didn’t know much about acreage, but the cleared area seemed to be as large and in the same shape as a baseball field as it spread out around us. I wasn’t sure if the trees had been used to create the rickety shacks that sat around the outer edges of the fencing but they had at least been cleared to make room for the small houses. The forest floor had been tromped down enough that it was now hard packed dirt beneath our feet.

"Is this what it looked like when you took over?" Bishop inquired as more people and aliens appeared around us and Timothy slipped away to join a small woman. The crowd whispered amongst themselves as they gazed curiously at us. The mention of Cade’s name amongst them did little to ease the turmoil twisting through my stomach.

How did they all know who he was?

Torchlight flickered over them, highlighting their raggedy clothes and dirty features but none of them appeared frightened or any more bruised and disheveled than any of us were. A child with her brown hair in pigtails tentatively waved at us. Jenna waved back until someone grabbed hold of the little girl and pulled her away. Jenna’s hand hovered for a second before it fell back to her side.

"We’ve removed the execution building, the chains and body parts since we’ve arrived, but for the most part this is what it looked like," Rosemary answered.

They were leading us toward a building that was larger and sturdier than the other buildings surrounding us. I moved closer to Abby and Aiden as Cade stepped in front of us. Rosemary hurried forward and threw the door open, she disappeared inside and a second later light spilled from within the shelter. I exchanged a look with Aiden, but followed Cade up the three steps to the doorway.

The floor was nothing more than plywood with a single table set up in the middle of it. There were a few rolls of documents sitting in the corner of the room and a full size bed with an old gray comforter next to the rolls. I tore my eyes away from the bed as Rosemary hung a lantern above the table. She pulled the gloves from her dainty hands and dropped them on the bed.

Shadows played over the delicate planes of her face as she approached the table. I’d become accustomed to what the aliens looked like and their attitudes toward us, but there was something different about Rosemary that I just couldn’t place. She had crow black hair and eyes the color of obsidian but there was a warmth about her that wasn’t present in the others, not even in Cade.

Her gaze focused on me before shifting toward Cade. "Yes a very interesting turn of events," she murmured.

Cade took a step closer to me, his chest pressed against my shoulder as a shadow fell across the doorway. I turned as another man stepped through the door. He was tall with shaggy brown hair and blue eyes that crinkled at the corners when he smiled at Rosemary. I looked to Cade but his attention was focused on the man as he hurried across the room and took hold of Rosemary’s hand.

"Did you think you were the only one?" Rosemary’s question was little more than a whisper as she met Cade’s unflinching stare. "Did you think it was an accident, a stroke of fate, or perhaps a curse that had befallen only you?"

"I never thought it was a curse," Cade replied. "I suspected there may be others but to actually find them, to see them…" his voice trailed off as he studied Rosemary and the man before turning his attention toward Jessica. "I never expected this."