“For what?”
“For when we did the ceremony.”
“We still can.”
“I know, but…Ah, well. It doesn’t matter.”
“No. It doesn’t. Tell me what in the hell possessed you to go off with Gage.” McBride held his anger in check only because he was so happy to have his mate home.
“You didn’t trust me?”
“I trusted you completely. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t scared half out of my mind.”
“Sorry about that.” Caleb kissed him quick and then turned, heading toward the big house. He set a leisurely pace so they could stay close as they walked. “I had to go with him because he made me a deal I couldn’t refuse.”
“And what was that? Unlimited thralls?”
“Naw. What would I want with a bunch of skinny little boys when I’ve got a man like you?”
“Good point.” McBride laughed. “Now, out with it.”
“He offered me a chance to have children.”
The news hit McBride so hard he stopped moving. And now he knew exactly why Caleb had gone off with Gage. He hadn’t done it for himself, but because he wanted to give McBride something he desperately wanted. Caleb had left for the greatest gift of all.
“Children?” McBride’s face went from handsome to practically angelic. He wanted kids so badly it was like handing him the keys to heaven.
“Children.” Caleb realized they’d stopped walking, but he didn’t mind. His mate needed a moment to absorb the fact that his dreams weren’t that far from reality. “Gage and the others realized they’d found a breeder, but they had no idea how to make it work.”
“Was it…”
“It wasn’t being used.” Caleb had feared that, too. He didn’t want to open it up and find a bunch of dead babies in various stages of development. What the machine did was take the genetic material fed into it, combine it, and then place the resulting child into a manufactured womb. Since the womb was bottle shaped, it was said men were decanted rather than born. “It had never been used. Apparently, the Genetics Board was planning on getting it running, but the blood madness happened before they could. The slammers had all the manuals, but none of them were smart enough to figure it out.”
“But you are.”
“Yeah.” Caleb had been flattered they thought so highly of him until he found out that what they really wanted was for him to bring his pet gentryman down to figure it out. He left that part out but then decided that he gained nothing by not being truthful. To make this work he needed McBride and Quintus. “They wanted me to make you and Quintus come down and get it running.”
“How badly did it just hurt your ego to confess that?”
“Pretty damn bad, but I’ll get over it.” Caleb lifted McBride’s hand and kissed the back. “Mainly what I was doing was getting it prepped and making sure it would be safe to bring you two down there.”
“I love how protective of me you are.”
“You’re my mate.” Caleb squeezed his hand. “I had my misgivings about Gage and his slammers at first, but they’re really hurting.”
“For what?”
“Leadership.” There was more, but Caleb thought he’d start with the smaller issues first.
“Seriously?”
“When they had their first taste of freedom, they went crazy. They killed all the gentrymen they found, but now they’re realizing they need them. There’s a hardwired submissive streak in slammers. We can’t help it.”
“You seem to have overcome yours.”
“But I don’t think it’s that common.” Caleb turned and considered McBride. “And don’t think for a second that I don’t have that same need to surrender. One touch from you and I’m a whimpering puddle who can’t bare my neck fast enough.”
“I don’t think that’s because I’m a gentryman.”
“Me, either.”
McBride’s welcoming grin sent a shiver down Caleb’s spine. That look was the one that told him no matter what he did, McBride would still love him. It was an unconditional acceptance of all that Caleb was or would ever be. Caleb knew that when he’d walked away, McBride had been devastated, but he’d stood tall and kept his faith in him.
“I guess I have some slammer in me, too, then, since it’s that same way with me for you.”
“One touch turns you to mush?”
“Pretty much. I never thought I’d get down on my knees to please another man, but I did for you. Front and back.” McBride chuckled. “But I don’t understand what any of that has to do with the slammers and making children.”
“It has everything to do with it.” Caleb wanted to spew it all out in one big chunk, but that would only irritate and possibly overwhelm McBride. “They need structure. I need it, and so do you.”
As they walked back to the big house, Caleb explained that the slammers understood they were victims of their circumstance. They needed the structure gentrymen provided, but they were leery of the control gentrymen might have. It was a delicate dance between the classes. As much as they craved the idea of McBride being in charge of them, they were terrified of becoming his slaves. Having Caleb there to lead gave them structure, but it wasn’t as intimidating since he was one of them.
“But they secretly like the idea that I might get my orders from you.”
McBride nodded, clearly understanding the mental process of Gage and the other slammers.
“But I still don’t see what that has to do with kids.”
“They want to blend the genetic strains.” Caleb wasn’t so sure about this part because he knew that McBride would have an attachment to any children derived from his genetic structure. “The slammers want to have kids just like you do, but they don’t want to have kids who are forcibly limited by genetics.”
“They want to breed with gentrymen.” McBride’s voice was quiet and speculative.
“Yeah.” Caleb tried to downplay the truth, but he knew there was no way to do that with his mate. “I told them I wouldn’t share you.”
“You won’t?”
“No.” Caleb tightened his hand on McBride’s. “Do you want me to let them use you like some kind of breeding bull?”
“No. I don’t want that.” McBride lifted his chin, tilting his head as if he were seriously considering the notion. “I wouldn’t want to be the father of the new world, but there is something alluring about having a whole group of men want to breed with me.”
“Are you fucking with me?”
“Not yet.” McBride yanked on Caleb’s arm, pulling him close. “But I’d be more than happy to lie you down in the field and fuck you raw.”
Caleb grinned and urged McBride to the side of the road. It was unlikely anyone would be coming, but he couldn’t help an instinctual urge to protect himself and his mate.
“Are we really going to do this here?” McBride looked around.
“What we are going to do is take the damn edge off.” Caleb wrenched his pants open, then McBride’s. He grabbed his cock and started stroking. McBride latched on to him and very quickly they were sharing a body-shaking orgasm. They clung together, breathing hard, and then they separated, zipping up right as Caleb’s brothers and mates came into view.
“Looks like everyone missed you.” McBride grinned as he started walking toward them.
“Did they?” Caleb doubted that. “I’m thinking they didn’t trust me for one second.”
“They trusted you.”
“So they didn’t squawk about coming to get me?”
“How is that not trusting you? Did it ever occur to you that they were worried for your safety? It wasn’t an issue of trust but one of being afraid for you.”
Caleb hadn’t thought of it that way. It was difficult for him to see himself as a part of the farm and not a lone man on the outside looking in. But as his brothers surrounded him with quick hugs and well-meaning back slaps, he started to realize they had never seen him as an outsider at all. They genuinely missed him because he was an integral part of things.
With everyone talking at once, he told them what had happened, but it was delivered in snippets of conversation. Caleb was repeatedly sidetracked by random questions, but he didn’t mind. He enjoyed being the center of attention, and from the way McBride was grinning at him, he didn’t mind stepping back. The more Caleb thought about McBride’s innate understanding of him, the more he loved him. When he looked into his mate’s eyes, he knew without a doubt that his love was fully returned.
“What the hell is he ringing that damn bell for?” McBride rose from the dining room table. He was intent on going into the kitchen and finding out what was going on through the butler, but Caleb stopped him.
“I think that’s my special gift.”
“Your what?” McBride wasn’t so sure he could handle anymore surprises, good or bad. He’d just barely gotten his feet back on the ground after finding out they could and would have kids. The world was still in chaos with a million and one things undecided, but McBride didn’t care about that. He intuitively knew that he and Caleb could handle anything that life threw at them. They would be able to build a safe place for their children to grow up. With the help of the other men of the farm, they were well on their way to carving out not just an existence, but a life. They were willing to work hard to reap the rewards.
“You’ll see.” Caleb was yanking on his boots and then out the door before the butler could even tell McBride what the valet was seeing.
“It’s a lone man coming up the long drive.”
McBride nodded. He pulled on his boots and slipped a gun in his waistband, just in case, but he didn’t feel he would need it. Still, it seemed to him he would be wise to be prepared. As he exited the big house and walked over to where Caleb was standing on the end of the porch, he drew a deep breath of cool evening air. Today was the longest day of the year, which meant autumn wasn’t too terribly far away.
“Care to explain?”
“I like to have some secrets.” Caleb grinned as he quickly touched McBride’s earlobe.
“Who is he?” Through the fabric of his pants, McBride stroked over the spot on Caleb’s buttock where he had placed a blood-drinking scar that only the two of them knew about. It was McBride’s companion to Caleb’s scar on his ear. He’d put it there one moonlit night when he’d very willingly acted out Caleb’s desire to be bound in the stocks.
“You’ll find out.”
“Don’t tell me you demanded another thrall to appease your lust?”
“I didn’t demand the first one.”
“Yet kept him anyway.”
“Well, I could hardly send him back. Not only would that be rude, but think of what would have happened to Timon.” Caleb gave McBride an assessing look. “And you wouldn’t have had anyone to practice your fathering skills on.”
McBride had to admit that he did like spoiling the delicate thrall. Timon was shy, sweet, and seemed to be growing more confident each day that he was given a safe place to call home. McBride knew he’d eventually have to pair him to a mate, but he thought he could put that off for a while. After what he’d had to go through to get his slammers companions, he thought he deserved a bit of a rest.
When the man got close, Caleb called out, “Danny?”
“Yeah.”
Caleb stepped off the porch, prompting McBride to follow. Into the light cast by the open house windows stepped a broad-shouldered slammer with dark hair, wide eyes, and strong features that seemed a little fearful.
“Gage said I was supposed to report to you.” Danny carried a small bag, but given how flat it was, it didn’t carry a whole lot of anything.
Caleb performed introductions, and after greeting him, Danny’s attention dropped to the gun tucked into McBride’s waistband.
“It’s precautionary.”
“Yeah.” Danny looked around, but there wasn’t much to see since they didn’t have any outside lights on and the moon wasn’t up. “What am I supposed to…do…for you?” Danny’s voice stumbled when he saw the stocks in the center of the cul-de-sac.
“Did you ever think you’d be rewarded for being a nice guy?” Caleb asked.
“What?” Danny looked as confused as McBride felt.
“Come on in.” Caleb turned and led the way into the house, with Danny following him and McBride bringing up the rear.
He wanted to pelt his mate with a dozen questions, but Caleb seemed to be enjoying his momentary return to the spotlight. Whatever surprise he had planned was clearly a good one, given the smile on his handsome face. So McBride decided to bide his time and let the situation unfold on its own.
“Timon?”
His blond head came up. There was a flash of shock across his features, and then he smiled as he stood. “Danny?” It was clear from the way he was shifting from foot to foot he wanted to run toward the slammer, but he stayed right where he was.
Danny, however, was not so restrained. He ran toward Timon and pulled him into a hug so tight Timon gasped for air when he finally let him go.
“You softy, you.” McBride flashed his mate a proud grin.
“You did all that work finding my brothers mates, so I thought I’d handle this one.”
“That’s why you asked him who was the nicest.” McBride had wondered about Caleb’s odd question to Timon before he’d gone out to meet Gage. With so much else going on, McBride had forgotten to ask, but now it all made sense. “I thought you might have been trying to find an ally in their midst.”