AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded my head enthusiastically. “It’s my favorite place here. I love being surrounded by all the plants and flowers. I just love nature. It makes me happy.”
He looked thoughtful. “Do you not like your room inside the house? It makes sense that you’d like it out here though. You spent your whole life outside in the woods and I didn’t even think what an adjustment being inside all the time must be like for you. We probably should have thought about that. I’m sorry, Autumn, we’ll try to do better in the future.”
I frowned at him, not liking the way he was speaking at all. “What are you talking about? I love it here. Anyway, do you know where this lovely furniture keeps coming from? It just keeps appearing in here. First it was the chair, then the table, and now the loveseat. It’s all so beautiful, like the furniture in my bedroom.”
He grinned at me and my breath caught at the sight. The man was incredibly handsome. They all were and when they looked at me like that it made my insides flutter.
“Raven made them. He has a shop that he’ll show you if you ask him about it, but he’s really humble about the whole thing and never brags about it ever. So we have to do it for him. He actually made most of the furniture in the house. He sells them for a small fortune.”
My mouth dropped open and I stared at him in complete surprise.
That was incredible.
“My bed?” I whispered.
He nodded and continued to grin at me like a proud parent. “All of the furniture in your room, he made it. That room was empty until you showed up. He picked the pieces out of his shop specifically for you. He’ll probably make some things just for you and add to it the longer you’re here and he gets to know you and what you like. He’s really very thoughtful like that. Raven’s a great leader and just an awesome person in general. If you haven’t realized that you’ll see it for yourself soon enough.”
Wow.
I trailed my fingers lightly over the armrest of the loveseat I was sitting on. I couldn’t believe Raven had made all of this incredible furniture. He was really quite talented.
It must be nice to have such a talent and a purpose in life outside of just existing. Not only was he talented but he was a leader. And I didn’t need everyone to keep telling me that he was, it was obvious in everything he did and how he looked out for his people.
How he took me in without hesitation and how he now looked out for me.
I knew they wanted me to stay with them. I just still wasn’t entirely sure as to why.
They didn’t even know me and all I’d done since they met me was bring them a whole mess of everything.
And Liam had gotten hurt because of it. Hurt because of me.
I deflated and slumped back against the pillows.
He picked up my hand and laced our fingers together. “Aww, hey, don’t look like that, beautiful. What’s wrong? Was it something I said?”
I stared at our clasped hands and avoided his eyes. Holding hands was such a simple thing and yet, to me, it was not. They were all so casual when it came to touching me. Like it was normal and they weren’t afraid of me.
I didn’t get it and it was something I very much wasn’t used to.
And I craved more of it. I was starved for human contact, as I had been denied it my entire life. But I was also afraid to initiate it because I didn’t want to seem clingy or ever get rejected by any of them.
And I didn’t want to scare them off.
I cleared my throat before speaking. “I don’t want to make the decision about what happens to my people. I’m conflicted. I know what Rain wants but at the same time I don’t think it’s something I can give to him. What they did was evil and so very wrong it makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it, but, at the same time, I almost feel sorry for them. I know I shouldn’t, and no-one else is going to understand it, but it’s how I feel. They grew up just the same way I did, and there was nothing easy about that way of life. I know it doesn’t excuse what they’ve done, nothing will ever make that right or okay or change the fact that they turned out to be murdering monsters. Absolutely nothing. But…”
I trailed off at a complete loss for words. I did not want to defend them, I couldn’t. But I didn’t want to be the one to sentence them to death either. I thought they needed help, some kind of mental rehabilitation or something.
“They never really got a real chance at life, a chance to be normal. None of us did.”
It made me incredibly sad to think about. It was all so wasteful and pointless.
Shouldn’t life be worth more than just constant suffering and punishment? How were we ever supposed to have learned right from wrong by living that way? It was so fucked up.
I’d like to think life was worth more than that but maybe that was the hopeless side to me. Or, perhaps, the stupid in me coming out.
He squeezed my fingers and I looked up at him to find him staring at me intently. “Don’t ever lose that about yourself because it is a rare and beautiful thing and not many have it in themselves anymore. And don’t worry about what Rain or anyone else thinks or has to say. I’ll talk to Raven about it and we’ll all have your back on this decision. That’s how covens are supposed to work. We can leave the decision in Raven’s hands, if you want, and he’ll likely put it up for a vote amongst the coven members. And I know you haven’t made the official choice to stay with us yet but that doesn’t really matter to us because we’re always going to look after you whether you choose to stay or go. That’s not about being a coven, that’s about family.”
My heart filled with hope and I really wanted to tell him that I had no desire to ever leave them. But I didn’t dare say the words out loud for fear of having my dreams crushed.
