To Love a Stray

CHapter 5

"Can we please stop so I can sit down for a while?" I ask Pete.

He turns his head to look at me and frowns, "Why didn’t you say something sooner? You look ready to drop!" He scolds as he looks around.

"I thought you’d stop sooner," I say and sit down on a patch of thick grass happy to get off my wobbly legs.

Pete looks at me where I am sitting then looks around through the trees with a frown, "Hey Edwin! Get your arse back here!" he demands before coming over to sit near me. "You’re okay?"

"Yeah just … easily tired," I struggle to find the words to explain.

"You’re sure?" Pete insists.

"Yeah all I need is to sit down for a while," I tell him as I settle my injured arm across my lap.

"Edwin! Get back here!" Pete yells before producing a bottle of water from one of the pockets in his cargo pants and holding it out to me, he hesitates a moment and removes the lid before holding it out towards me once again.

"Thanks," I say and immediately drink nearly a third of the water. I glance at the bottle then hold it out towards him.

"No, I brought that along for you." He tells me and looks around again. "Think you’ll be right to walk back?"

"If we take it a bit easier," I say even though I have no doubt I will be fine once I have half an hours rest.

"Hey, what are you two doing sitting down?" Edwin asks as he walks into sight.

"Rosy needs to rest for a bit," Pete tells him and Edwin sits down as well.

"Micah and Steven got a feral deer each about a mile from here, damn shame to miss out on a feed of fresh venison." Edwin sounds disappointed.

"There’s deer around here?" I ask in surprise.

"Yeah some farmer tried to start up a deer farm but … it didn’t work out and a lot of his stock ended up in the national park behind us," Edwin explains.

"Only a mile?" I ask.

"Yeah probably a bit less," Edwin tells me as he looks back in the direction he came from.

"And they’ll share with you if you were there?" I ask. The thought of a feed of freshly killed deer is very tempting.

"Yeah it strengthens the bond a clan has. Hell they’d even happily share with you if you were there," Pete tells me.

"No thanks, sounds like the perfect way to invite an attack." I mutter.

"Well hopefully one day you’ll trust us enough to know that’s wrong," Pete says as he gets to his feet and walks away. I bite back a groan of frustration and lay out flat on my back, immediately Edwin is in my personal space as he reaches out and lays his hand on my stomach. I flinch at his touch then go still as I glance his way, his eyes are glued on my stomach where his hand rests. I glance up as I hear Pete return, he is watching Edwin with interest and I realise he is waiting for him to move so he can touch my stomach.

"Don’t be a pig Edwin," I say pretending to be annoyed. Edwin takes a quick glance at my face and moves away, Pete is quick to sit down and reach for my stomach. He slides his hand beneath my jeans waist and I immediately try to push his hand away with my good arm.

"Come on Rosy hold still," Pete tells me as he catches my good wrist and pins my arm down beside me with one hand while the other one remains on my stomach.

"Stop it Pete!" I cry out as I try to roll away from him but with my arm pinned I would be forced to roll towards him, "Get your hand out of my pants!" I start crying and find myself immediately released. I scramble to my hand and knees and try to crawl away from him but suddenly find myself being lifted to my feet and placed behind Edwin as he glares at Pete.