“Gotta check out the other car,” Greg told us, coming down the ladder as if he’d done it all his life. “That one’s trashed.”

  “Wait.”

  We all turned to see three of the train males standing nearby. Now covered in the clothes they’d been denied, their heads were up in pride.

  “The renter’s car has no damage.”

  “It does, however, have a remote set of controls.”

  “So those renting us can still drive the train.”

  Meaning most of their clients had been guards. I shuddered in sympathy, stepping forward. I had an idea of what their lives had been like, but knowing my father had been one of them gave me a deeper compassion.

  “Will you show us?”

  Giving them a choice, showing respect. It was something they’d been denied for so long that one of them actually began to cry.

  I slipped my arm around his thin shoulders, turning him toward the rental car. “What’s your name?”

  Angelica

  I watched Jason lead them, seeing how easily he’d fallen into being a rebel. It was who he was now, who he’d wanted to be all along. Was it enough?

  I shrugged, thinking again of the way he hadn’t let me help Rankin. Jason now had that painful, hard shell to protect him while we fought against the Network, but I wouldn’t let the blood consume him. I understood how it sucked you down until the rage was all you could feel, all that brought you out of your own private hell.

  Jason stopped suddenly, turning back to find me. I read everything he was thinking in that moment, how glad he was that I’d chosen him. It sent my heart into a rough rhythm and turned my eyes pink.

  He grinned, a flare of happiness that drove heat into my toes, and then turned back to the train males with his clever questions. Jason would make a perfect mate, and I was lucky to share his life. I’d known that all along.

  I slowly followed the trio, seeing Baker and Greg deep in discussion nearby. They would find a way for us to still use the train to get to the dome. We didn’t have Rankin to lead us into the complex, but maybe that was for the best. This way, we’d gained full tanks of gas, eliminated a full squad of guards, and disabled the train so that it would limp into the City in weeks instead of days.

  We would also be off the grid, just the way Pruetts liked it. We needed that time to work our magic on the mob lining the complex. Once we were done making friends among the denizens on their own turf, the Changeling Winds might shift into our favor, like they had here.

  I heard the happy chuckle of the man I now loved more than even my family, and stepped into the car. Candice and Baker were talking with Greg and Jason, and I moved to flank Daniel, guarding and showing him that I’d missed our friendship.

  He slung an arm around my shoulders and I leaned against his heat.

  “You’ve got a good one.”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “He loves you.”

  I didn’t respond. I knew that. I also knew the place Rankin had held in his heart was gone. We could accept each other without reservation now.

  “I made the right choice.”

  Daniel smiled, patting my shoulder as he withdrew his arm. “Yes, you did. And, I’ll bet your kids are immune because of it.”

  Those words should have meant everything to that part of me still mourning remission... But, I don’t want that anymore, I realized. How could I fight the network without my rage?

  I couldn’t, which meant I’d sacrificed nothing and gained everything. I was so grateful to Jason, so desperately worried about making him happy. There wasn’t anything on the planet I wouldn’t try to give him if he asked for it.

  I saw Daniel give Jason a grin of respect that I recognized as a bond that they now shared. Not all of the twelve experimental bachelors had the ability to calm animals, but the Pruett men did. I smiled.

  “There’s a feed coming in.”

  The Games logo flash onto the bloody screen as Greg’s words faded. The damage in here was indeed minimal, but whoever had been renting them when the snakes attacked, had paid the price.

  “..the final contestant to start next month’s episodes of the Bachelor Battles is… Samantha J. Pruett!”

  Silence…

  “What day is this?” Baker asked with a note in his voice that I identified as panic.

  “The 20th.”

  Damn. We hadn’t counted on them scheduling it so soon. We’d thought to have a few weeks, but we had to have her at the time trials in ten days.

  Sam’s tone was tight. “This is what we were hoping for, right? That they’d schedule me now if Rankin suggested it?”

  Baker didn’t answer and Sam’s frown faded. “I’m glad it worked. I didn’t want to go west. I hate the people. They’re always making me kill them.”

  Few of us were surprised to see a wide Games grin slide into over her face. It was a harsh, bloody mirror of mine and Candy’s.

  Sam waved toward the open doors. “Let’s go.”

  The split was quick and painless, all of us refusing to admit we might never see the others again. In our hearts, we knew the chances were too small to hope for.

  Baker was our leader. He had to be the one to go west, but I knew Sam wasn’t letting him do it alone. Her remaining Runners would escort him to the coast outpost, where he would try to convince them to join our cause. Jason and I would secure the males at the Safe Zone and then take over guarding Baker when the Runners brought him back. They would then head to NNC. Jason and I would miss most of the action at the complex, but that suited me just fine. I’d been given the duty, the honor, of protecting our rebel males. And I would.

  Network

  “The train is late.”

  Those in that top tower room exchanged worried frowns.

  “Any word?”

  The messenger read the screen reluctantly. “Only a static-filled call with screams, and something that we think may have been explosions.”

  “Damn it!”

  “Do we have crews on the way to check it out?” As usual, the Head of the table was cool and calm.

  “Two full teams, but it will take them a week or more to get there.”

  “Not if we send out the other rail car.”

  “What other?”

  “We only had the one... right?”

  The leader stared at the suggesting member for a long, hard moment before nodding.

  “Yes. Let’s make sure our guests for the meeting are not delayed. Christen the unbroken sister of the Network Rider and get her rolling. I want a report in two days.”

  As the door closed, the screens in the room went to dark, signaling the end of their weekly meeting. Ten seats emptied, but only eight pairs of feet left the room. The two remaining members were close - so much that their movements often mirrored each other.

  “Should I… make plans, in case they come here?”

  The leader gestured absently. “That would probably be best, but don’t give us up yet. We only need to hold out for another 30 days. After that, their chance to stop us vanishes.”

  “And the wall issue?”

  The leader snorted. “Pay them off, of course, and kindly remind our Canadian friends that the protestors were on the wrong side of the wall when they were shot.”

  “The hole is being closed now. I’ve sent another team of protection to the area.”

  “Good. Are we sure there were no survivors?”

  “As sure as we can be, but it won’t matter. A Canadian reporter in the Borderlands would survive about as long as a whistle-blower in a python’s nest.”

  Angelica

  There were no lies between us now, no fears of ghosts, only the future that lay ahead. I held Jason tightly as he gasped above me… groaned my name. I would make sure he was always this happy.

  Jason drew back, trembling, and I stopped him with my bare leg behind his. I didn’t speak, but he understood what I was giving him - hope of his happy family returned, belief that we would survive.

  He shuddered, body tight and hard, face covered in that hazy glow of lust. I could feel my own fire blaze back to life and I grunted. His pleasure did that to me and I was unbelievably grateful. Burn-up might still happen in time, but Burn-out with his fire surrounding us? Not a chance.

  “I don’t… we haven’t... damn!”

  He was in that place where normal thought was almost painful, and I watched him fight for control with pride at his strength.

  His body slid from mine and my gaze went to his jutting length. Drops of our pleasure glistened in the flickering light. So sexy…

  I peered up at him with red orbs. “You sure? I’m burning again…”

  Jason

  I stared, open-mouthed, body on fire.

  “Close your mouth, Jason, or I’ll have to do it for you.”

  Finally!

  I’d been waiting for her to say it again now that I didn’t have to hold back, and I rolled us, shoving forward. I ground my lips against hers, kissing her until she was growling in need.

  I drew back, smirking. “You mean like that?”

  Seconds later, we were too involved for amusement. Pleasure, sharp and perfectly fiery, heated the small den until we were sweating, groaning, straining in the darkness like only we existed.

  As I emptied my pain, my past, into Angelica’s willing body, I let go of Rankin for good. I had no doubt that the scars she’d left would occasionally show themselves, but that mysterious ache I’d had for her was one I would never feel again. Thanks to Angelica, I now knew love, the real kind that wasn’t all obsession. I had my chosen mate and there was quiet in the halls of my heart.

  “Happy Birthday, Baby.”

  I groaned in response, still locked in spasms of pleasure and joy. “Thank you, for noticing me.”

  Her hold tightened to a searing embrace that made me pulse harder.

  “There was never really another choice. You had me with the first clever lie and the smell of your burnt sugar skin.”

  Her lips pressed to my forehead. “I’ll never let you go now.”

  I grinned, rolling us so that we were on our sides, facing. “Are you making a permanent contract with me?”

  She smiled back, love shining, warming me from the inside.

  “”I’m just stating fact.”

  Angelica

  “Will you sing for us?”

  Chuckling, Jason rolled onto his back and settled us into the position we’d found last night as he sung me to sleep.

  We hadn’t realized the Hounds would still be so drawn until we stepped outside this morning to find a pack of no less than thirty all waiting to have their collars removed.

  I thought about how the dog on the train had nudged Jason’s hand when he’d stopped rubbing its bloody ears, and how the animal had looked back through the wreckage to make contact with him one more time before dropping from sight.

  Then to have it return with a small pack and actually walk with us! We’d cut off the collars, and even now, they were all around the crumbling brick shelter I’d chosen to take refuge in. Once a cannery of some sort, it had been opened after the war and the Network had destroyed it to keep a population from growing around it.

  We’d found too much evidence of the Network here, where the southern Borderlands were about to become the middle of the country. It told me that the Network had something else going on out here, and we would have to be very careful until the moment came to strike.

  Jason was already contributing to the cause, proving himself worthy of being a Pruett and a rebel. I wondered what other… abilities my experimental bachelor might have. Did he know he was one of the 12? All of Rankin’s pets were. I pushed the thought away. It didn’t matter. I would take his sons or daughters.

  We’d gotten a message from Mary and Bruce, Candy’s parents. They’d made contact with that wild Nevada nomad side of our rugged family and were now moving toward New Network City. Along the way, they would continue to gather the friends we’d made over the years.

  I started to drowse, eager to lie close to Jason in sleep.

  “Will you marry me?”

  They were words I’d never heard spoken, only read of. I turned toward him in shock.

  His mouth opened, maybe to convince me, and I shook my head. “Shhh…”

  Marriage, a sign of old-world loyalties even more than music or art, was forbidden by the Network. No one I’d ever known had gone that far against them.

  I couldn’t stop the scornful snort, or the harsh, Games grin that had Jason sealing our lips in happiness. Somewhere along the way, we would find someone with the authority and courage to unite us. So far as I knew, we would be the first couple to married in 500 years. It was a perfectly Pruett thing to do.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Sam

  Baker and I spotted the lone figure at the same time. I slid my hand to the gun that I was so good with, but it was the rebel leader who made the call.

  “Let her go. We’ve doled out enough death for one day.”

  Behind us, the sky was gray and foggy with the battle’s aftermath. Ahead, the clouds were light, and the sun was warm. There were no signs of shelter around, only hills and stone walls, but I wasn’t worried. We were Pruetts. We survived.

  I assumed the figure was a stray guard who’d been smart or lucky enough to escape the carnage, but as we got closer to the weaving woman, it became clear that wasn’t the case.

  She was dressed oddly, wearing a type of pants that we’d only seen in pictures. I thought maybe they were blue jeans, and my mind raced over the other small details. She carried a device on a strap around her neck, one that resembled a camera, and her brown jacket was made of a material I didn’t recognize. The light rain ran off of it, rather than sinking in.

  Her hands were covered in bright red cuts and scrapes, implying she’d fought for her life recently, and I looked to the rocky crags behind her. What lay over that horizon? The glazed horror in the woman’s eyes said we may not want to know.

  “Are you real?”

  I moved slightly forward, protecting Baker as my Runners came up to flank us. “As much as you.”

  “Are you okay?”

  Baker’s question was met with scorn… and fear.

  “Unless I mistook the shells and the screams, no, not really.”

  Her way of talking was odd, the accent foreign, and I studied harder. She wasn’t from here… So, where was she from? The west?

  The woman studied us, finally noticing the blood, the smoke in the distance behind our protection. “You must be the good guys.”

  Her skin was pale under that fresh burn, and I scratched the west from my list. Coast lands didn’t encourage the gentle shade of cream that was her skin under the light burn. It gave the weather-beaten skin of a desert, complete with the matching shades and textures. I should know.

  Baker’s tone was polite. “May I offer a drink and a parlay?”

  It was a different form of speech, one that I hadn’t heard from him, and it was impressive enough to make me turn and stare.

  The woman, however, nodded right away, seeming to come to life. Her nicked hands went restlessly to that strap around her neck, to the small square device it was holding.

  “Please do. I have a horrible secret and I really should tell someone before the Network kills me.”

  The End of Episode Two

  Notes

  This episode of the Bachelor Battles originally came from the rage I saw in the short glimpses of Candy's fearless little cousin, and I wrote 80 pages of it right after finishing the first one. I knew she had needs of her own, but the rebellion growing as I rewrote both books was a surprise. Though, to be fair, I wasn't happy with the Network from the beginning. Beyond their obvious cruelty, something wasn’t right about them...

  Anyway, the Bachelor Battles connects to my popular fantasy series, Life After War, which takes place right after the bombs have fallen. In the Bachelor Battles, the world is totally opposite than the light and hope Adrian seeks to create. In fact, you could say this is the opposite of that world, but the Pruetts are far from finished with it. In time, maybe that brutal family can conquer the Network and set those enslaved males free. We’ll hope all that power doesn’t go to their heads.

  Interested in a little more? My website (below) is a great place to look for free books, sneak peeks, and other fun stuff. Thank you for spending your time on me!

  To my Betas - Because I know I have you guys to help, I’ve been able to get all of the backlist titles done now. Thank you so much! I can’t wait to share all new material with you from here.

  http://www.law-angelawhite.com

  Have a wonderful year,

  Angela White

  Extras

  …Book Three

  …The Survivors

  …Alexa’s Travels

  …The Network’s History

  …Rules of this Game

  …Stage of the Change

  Episode Three

  The Network

  1

  The War Changed all of us in one way or another - and some of us in every way possible. Even now, in 2513AW, the Games are on every wall screen, in every home, across New America. We kill ourselves by the thousands each year - living for the chance, the tiniest hope, of an end to this pain.

  “Here’s a surprise, folks! We have another of those infamous bounty-hunting Pruetts with us for this episode…”

  Almost 500 years of complete Network rule, centuries of mindless death and blood where the council grew more powerful and their citizens died where they fell.

  “This is the third one in as many months! Has there ever been a Games family so merciless, so mate-hungry...”

  The Network was evil, as bad as any past dictator I’d ever read about, and they’d been this way from the very beginning. They’d spent centuries tormenting their subjects and keeping control with a merciless hand. Now, that would change and I was the spearhead of the movement.