“My dog was killed by zombies too,” Daisy piped up for the first time since Kovu was put down, and her voice made my skin crawl.
Nathan’s arms tightened around my waist the same time mine tightened around Micah’s, and a strange sensation spread through my body at being pressed between them.
I found them both attractive, but the feeling wasn’t anything like arousal. It was more of a comforting feeling that made me feelsafe.
Which was insane to me since I’d only known them for a few hours. Had the lack of outside contact turned me into someone who sought physical affection from others?
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nathan said, but his words didn’t sound sincere.
It was a breath of fresh air to meet a couple of men who didn’t fall for Daisy’s innocent façade, and that only made me like them more.
“Daisy, you don’t actually know what happened to Tiny,” Jay reminded her, saying exactly what I had been thinking.
Daisy groaned. “Okay, I may not have actually seen it happen. But I assume that’s what happened since she was in my apartment when everything happened. She was a chihuahua, so she didn’t have many survival skills.”
“That’s fucked up,” Nathan whispered, his hot breath fanning over the shell of my ear.
I buried my face against Micah’s back to hold in a snort.
Daisy had always been selfish, but it was never that bad. She was my best friend for a reason. She used to come over every other day and have sleepovers with me—and they never stopped, even when I moved in with Jay. Though, now I understood that I wasn’t the reason she had stayed by my side so long.
Once I caught her and Jay together, her personality went to shit—or maybe that was how she always was, and I had finally seen just how bad it was.
A familiar pang of loneliness shot through my chest as I thought about how I’d isolated myself when we got to the ranch after I’d caught them together. I spent more time with Kovu over the last three years than with Spencer, and I didn’t even tell Spencer what happened until a week after we’d made it home.
But Kovu knew, and he was my biggest comfort during that time…and now he was gone.
“Can you explain more about how it works at the Oasis?” Dad asked. “Like how you’ve been surviving there.”
Nathan cleared his throat as he moved his head back to glance at my dad. “We’re like a village. A series of treehouses in close proximity, and we have working toilets and a sink in each treehouse. Thanks to Micah and my dad having some plumbing knowledge, they were able to work with the pipes and make a pit latrine. It works. Plus, we have the shower shed outside for showers, and we bathe in the river sometimes.”
“You have electricity, right?” Daisy’s voice had taken on a whiney, irritable tone.
Micah and Nathan both snorted.
“We have candles for light, but those are getting limited. We weren’t able to gather any in our supply run since the horde showed up,” Nathan explained.
“I’m sorry,what?”
“It’s the apocalypse,” Micah grunted the words out, irritation flaring in his voice.
“But we’ve had electricity all these years!”
“Not everyone’s as blessed as you all were,” Nathan snapped. “Majority of the human population were turned, so electricity has been mostly wiped out in the real world.”
“We were blessed,” Mom interjected. “But we are also blessed that you two warned us of the horde. Electricity or not, we are going to have a safe place to stay. Be grateful, Daisy.”
She let out a small gasp. “I’m sorry, Grace. You’re right.”
“It’s okay,” Jay murmured to her. “I know it’s a tough change, but it’s necessary.”
“Yeah. I know. I’m sorry.”
“She always like that?” Nathan whispered lowly in my ear, and a chill spread down my body.
Being between them had really started to get to me, but not in a bad way.
“She’s actually not, but she doesn’t handle stress well. Never has,” I whispered back.
