“Flame…” she whispered. Maddie sucked in a quick breath, and said, “I need you to hold me now. I need to feel your arms around me so I feel safe. Because, right now, I do not feel safe.”

Groaning low, I pulled on Maddie’s arm and crushed her to my chest. The minute she was in my arms, I prepared for discomfort, but none fucking came. The flames stayed away, and Maddie’s arms slipped around my waist, then under my cut, until her bare hands touched my skin.

I hissed at the still unfamiliar feeling, but I… I liked it… I didn’t want to throw her off…

“Flame…” Maddie whispered. I held her closer. “I thought I would never see you again.” Maddie pulled back, and with shining eyes, she said, “All I thought about when they took us, was you.” Maddie took hold of my wrist and lifted it up. She took my hand in hers and then lifted it to her mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand.

My eyes closed and my cock jerked in my leathers at the touch. “Open your eyes,” Maddie ordered, and I did. She had stepped closer and she was looking up at me. “Kiss me,” she whispered, as another tear ran down her cheek. “Kiss me, to prove to me you are here.”

Sliding up my hands on her arms, I pressed my hands to her cheeks and brought my lips down to hers.

Maddie moaned low in her throat as our mouths joined and held the edges of my cut, bringing me close. That noise out of her mouth cut straight to my heart, causing it to beat like a fucking drum.

Maddie broke away, and her eyes blinked, once, twice, three times. “Maddie,” I murmured, and a small smile hooked on her lips.

A cough sounded beside us, and I snapped my head up, crushing Maddie to my side. My eyes searched around to find that all the brothers had surrounded us, watching me with mouths hanging open, obviously in shock. Maddie ducked her head into my chest and I could feel the heat from her cheeks on the bare skin of my chest.

I bared my teeth, ready to tell them all to fuck off, when Styx and Ky walked forward with Mae and Lilah.

Mae had turned to Styx. “No! Please! Do not go after him. He did not plan this. And he let us go. I spoke to him. He seemed confused and lost… but he let us go.”

“Why the fuck did he just fucking let you go?” Ky exclaimed.

Mae, who was under Styx’s arm, shrugged. “It was his twin brother who organized for Sarai to pretend to have escaped. Everything she said was a lie, designed to work out a way to get us alone and away from the compound. Church was the perfect excuse. I think… it appeared as though Cain did not know of any of it. He was angry with his brother. He was livid with Sarai for bringing us here.”

“And Sarai killed Pastor James. She just shot her in the head, with no remorse,” Lilah added, her voice quiet and shaking with shock.

Ky held her to his chest. “So we’ve now got fucking child soldiers to contend with? Fucking perfect!”

Styx’s hands worked at Mae and I watched him ask, “I just don’t get why the fuck Rider let you go? He’s wanted you for months. Isn’t that why we’re getting fucking attacked at drop offs and shit? What’s his fucking deal?”

Lilah’s attention snapped to Mae. Mae stood back from Styx and pushed the hair from her face. Styx focused on his bitch. “Because I told him something that changed the prophecy of my becoming his wife. In fact, it has completely destroyed it.”

“And what the fuck was that?” Ky asked, frowning.

Mae took a deep breath, and reaching down for Styx’s hand, she pressed it flat to her stomach. “That I am with child.”

My eyes darted to Styx and his face had blanked. His eyes lowered to meet his hand over Mae’s stomach. He swallowed.

“Fuck, Styx,” Ky whispered. Styx then looked back at Mae’s face. His mouth spread into the biggest smile I’d ever seen, and he wrapped his arm around Mae’s neck and crushed her to his front. I could hear him whispering something into her ear and Mae began to sob.

I squeezed Maddie tighter, feeling every ounce of their emotion in my chest. Then my eyes closed as Maddie’s hand began stroking along my stomach, and I froze when her warm lips pressed a single kiss to my chest.

All the brothers embraced Styx, but I wouldn’t, and even if I could touch the Prez, I wasn’t fucking letting go of Maddie for shit. I wanted to get her home to our cabin, and I wanted to kiss her some more… I wanted to…. I wanted to…

“So we gotta just wait for them to attack again?” Ky asked Mae. She shook her head.

“I do not think Rider will return for us. I know him and I could see it in his eyes. I do not think that his life at New Zion is all it is supposed to be.” Mae took a deep breath, and looking up at Styx, who was still holding his hand against her stomach, his face fucking blank, said, “I think it could finally be over for us and The Order. I feel that Rider will not come for us again. I feel he may have seen the error of his ways.”

“The cunt still deserves to die,” Ky said darkly. I nodded my agreement, my back teeth grinding together just imagining stabbing that fucker in his face.

But Styx didn’t answer, instead he wrapped his arm around his bitch and hurried the fuck back to his bike.

Ky turned to the brothers. “Think that’s our cue to get the fuck on. Prez wants his knocked up bitch back home and in his fucking bed!”

I wasted no time. Lifting Maddie in my arms, I cut across the tall grass to my bike and placed her down beside it. Smiler and Bull were dragging the bodies away in the distance, and I was fucking glad Maddie didn’t see what I’d done.