“That’s not an answer, Mom.” I moved through my men and let my mother pull me into a hug. Her stiff shoulders relaxed as she clung to me tightly and I knew without asking that she had been terrified for me. We’d lost one. And I knew all too well how easily it was to lose another. I’d almost lost two just over a week ago.
Something that I was going to have to tell her.
“Bring her in, Evie,” one of my fathers said.
“Everyone is here?” I asked, internally groaning.
“Yep. All of your parents are going to hear how irresponsible you are not to call us.Afteryou introduce us to your men.”
I followed my mother in, glancing at said men to find them all trying to contain their smiles. They won’t be smiling in a minute. I was sure of that.
I have nine parents. The mother that gave birth to me was Evelyn. But I also had Sidnee and Rolly. And then there were my six fathers: Nikolas, Forster, Marlen, Alan, Seth, and Benson. Although it’s not hard to know who birthed my siblings and I since, you know, we grew there for nine months, there was never a paternity test for father. Based on my looks alone, I could go with either Benson or Nikolas, but then again, I’ve seen all our family’s extended family and it’s really no use trying to guess.
Not like it matters anyway. We’re just a big family.
“First, I’d like to say that I have a very good reason for not answering,” I said. “Primarily because my phone is off. We went away for a week vacation.”
“That’s fine,” Dad said. “Completely understandable.”
“But why haven’t you turned your phone back on?” Pop asked.
“Well,” I said, looking at my husbands. There was no getting around it so instead of trying, I just told them the truth. “Because we were attacked on the mountain and two of my guys almost died. Actually, one did, but they have some Nephilim on speed dial and it could have been worse, I guess, but when we got home we just kind of holed up together while the trauma settled.”
Most of it I said in a rush, tears burning my eyes. Saying it out loud was like experiencing it all over again. I turned my face and when the sob in my chest built too thickly, I covered my face with my hands.
Arms circled me. At least two sets. Several deep breaths later, I managed to get myself under control and contain the tears.
No one spoke while I caught my breath so when I looked up to see my parents with wide, horrified eyes, my moms with shiny gazes, I knew they weren’t mad at me anymore.
No. But they pulled me into their arms and hugged me so tightly that the tears I’d managed to keep contained came spilling out and I sobbed for the first time since we left the mountain.
Bronte
The sudden arrivalof Hadley’s parents made us all call our families to let them know what happened. Not only that we were okay but also that it was time for them to be careful. Given the world we lived in, we were careful anyway. But if storms were now a target, we needed to spread the word.
We let Hadley lead the discussion about what happened on the mountain, not sure how involved she wanted her parents to be. But it seemed that she had no problem telling them everything. Once that was evident, Kohara and Saar primarily spoke, sharing what information we had.
I didn’t tell my parents a lot. Just that we’d had an incident and that they needed to be careful. We had reason to believe that Silence was now targeting storms. I didn’t want them overly worried and to try to interfere or do something reckless. I just wanted them cautious.
Two days after Hadley’s parents arrived, they were still here. Taking up a lot of the basement. Considering that’s the only floor that had spare rooms, I wasn’t surprised. They also took over the main kitchen, preparing feasts for each meal and overall taking care of us.
While Hadley seemed a little put out that her family had moved themselves in, she was also glad they were there. Her siblings stopped by too. One or two at a time throughout the last couple days.
I hadn’t been back to work since we returned from the mountain. Kohara and Aratiri checked in their offices over the last few days, but otherwise, we remained together as a family. Although we all tried to keep a positive exterior and carry on with our lives as we normally would, I think there was just a cloud of doom hanging over our heads.
Dread pooled in my chest. Fear was always just under my skin. It made everything feel so charged. As if we were waiting for the next ball to drop.
Every day, every time one of our phones rang, we waited for someone to report another attack. Silence has struck somewhere else. Silence has killed someone. Silence is hunting this species or that.
There wasn’t any news. Not on the harem of humans or the monster that Silence had dropped on The Harem Project’s door, barely recognizable as a living thing.
That day, I had known when we were brought to the ninth-floor that it was going to be bad. It was the medical wing for the severely injured. The only thing I could hear as we walked was my own internal begging that it was no one I knew. Sure, selfish, but I was too raw right now to deal with another personal blow.
In that moment, relief made me feel like shit at not recognizing the person was quickly followed by ugly guilt that I even thought that. And then nausea at what I saw. I barely heard the words that followed as I shivered, Tara’s arms wrapped around me as if he were holding all the shaking particles in my body together.
He probably was.
But it seemed the blows kept coming. A harem of humans! I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. What did they want with humans?
