Page 183 of My Undead Love Life

Oxi looked down. Luck blinked rapidly. Mad glanced toward me.

Dad stepped forward next, assessing them in the way only fathers could. “You hurt her?” he asked.

All three answered at once.

“No.”

“Never.”

“Absolutely not.”

Keith folded his arms. “I already asked.”

Dad looked at him. “And?”

“They’re good men.”

Mad raised a brow. “You’ve known us for a short amount of time.”

Keith shrugged. “I told you. I can read people.”

Dad’s mouth twitched. “Then, you’re welcome here,” he said firmly. “Anyone who kept my peanut alive has a place in our home.”

“And they’re staying,” I added. “With us. At the Oasis.”

A man pushed through the gathered crowd. It was Benjamin. His hair had grown longer since I last saw him, and there were new lines around his eyes, but he was alive. He looked me over first, relief briefly cracking through his usual authority. Then, his gaze moved to the men behind me and the weapons they carried. “Good,” he said without hesitation. “We’ve got room.” His eyes sharpened again. “We’ll need a debrief. What happened in the city, what followed you, and if anyone saw your route.”

Mad’s attention shifted fully to him. “There’s a cult operating there. They worship infected animals. We were tracked most of the way out by an infected snow leopard, and it was coordinating with a wolf.”

The gathered people went quiet.

Benjamin’s expression darkened. “How close?”

“Dead outside the farmhouse,” Keith answered. “Both of them.”

“There may be more,” Mad added. “And the infected are learning, and there was a group of seven others that tried to kill us and take Spencer between the farmhouse and here. We killed them all.”

Benjamin nodded once. “We’ll double watches and extend the perimeter patrols. Full debrief after you’re fed and warm.” Then his gaze settled on me. “Are you sure you’re okay, Spencer?”

“Yes,” I said, nodding. “I am now.” My gaze moved toward the treehouses. “Where’s Akiko?”

“Sleeping,” Tori said. “She just returned from a hunt a few hours ago.”

“She’s going to lose her mind when she sees you,” Nathan said.

“Good. I’ve missed her, too.”

Keith slipped his arms around me from behind. He rested his chin against the top of my head and looked toward Mad, Luck, and Oxi. “Why don’t we show them around their new home?”

I turned in Keith’s arms and looked at the three men standing near the fire. Mad’s golden eyes moved up the nearest treehouse, tracing the supports and ropes with immediate structural concern. Luck stared openly at everything, mouth parted in wonder. Something vulnerable passed over Oxi’s face.

I held my hand toward them. “Are you ready to check out your new home?”

Mad looked at me. The excitement in his eyes was restrained beneath habit and exhaustion, but it was there. “More than you know.”

Oxi’s gaze shifted toward the treehouse Keith and I had shared. “I’ve never actually felt like I had a real home before,” he murmured. “I’m curious how it’ll feel.”

“Amazing,” Luck answered. He bumped his shoulder against Oxi’s before grinning at me. “Anywhere with Spencer is home.”