“Then I want to open. I want things to be as normal as possible as fast as possible, okay?”

  They set me down in the bed and Gunnar took off my shoes. “Sure. Ransom can have a fight with someone and everything.”

  “Why am I the one who’s having the fight?” He shoved Gunnar. “It could just as easily be you.”

  “No,” Gunnar said as he sat down on the bed. “I’m a pacifist.”

  “Sure. Those were some real peaceful things you did when we lost her. You are a man of no violence.”

  Gunnar yawned then shot me a wink. “Maybe just for Raven.”

  19

  SURPRISES, ALL AROUND

  I knew Gunnar had already awakened and left the room as I got out of the shower. How did I know? The area outside of the bathroom felt empty. That might be nuts, and I might be wrong, but I would be surprised if that was the case. My men brought presence to a room, intense ones. Everyone else woke up except Gunnar when I slid into the shower, so I tried to be quiet. I knew it to be impossible, unless I had one of those little devices to hide voices…I immediately realized they’d hate that idea. I could practically hear them—they’d rather be awake and hear my heartbeat than asleep and not hear it. Some of them might even hear it while they slept, for all I knew.

  Drying my hair took a long minute, so I stepped out with the towel around me. I needn’t have bothered, since I was right—the room was empty. Besides, they all saw me naked. A lot. Still, wrapping the present for them seemed the least I could do, since they all so loved to unwrap it.

  A motion out the window caught my eye, so I headed there to watch a bright blue bird swoop toward the mountains, climbing toward the sky. I smiled, as I hadn’t spent much time looking out windows since my first day there. When I heard the knock at the door, I turned and said, “Come in.”

  Ransom leaned in the doorway, staring at me with a hot, possessive gaze. “Damn, that’s beautiful. The sunrise. You. That towel.”

  I blushed, smiling a little because he did notice the wrapping paper. “Good morning. Did you sleep okay?”

  They’d surrounded me on their big mattress, with Crew and Ransom the closest. Mace and Gunnar had slept on either side of Crew and Ransom, so I had no idea if they’d slept well. I knew I had , with all of them touching me.

  “Did I sleep okay?” He grinned. “Yes. None of us slept the whole time you were gone, so I’d say we all needed to just pass out. There was no way any of us were going to rest without our Raven home. My sweet butterfly.”

  “Ah…look how poetic he sounds.” Mace snuck past him, ducking into the room with Crew close on his heels. A second later, Gunnar joined them.

  Ransom elbowed him. “You just wish you could say sweet things to her.”

  I looked down at my towel. I wasn’t particularly dressed to see everyone yet. “What do we do now?”

  “We go see your doctor friend. She is unfreezing her own brother, so he’ll be up soon. Once she’s finished with him, she’ll let us know when we should expect others to be thawed out and fixed.” Gunnar rocked back on his feet. “And we open up the bar, if that’s still what you want.”

  Yes, I thought, smiling. I wanted to live with these guys on this planet that I loved. I’d heal there. I’d find myself there, I was sure of it.

  Lydia’s new place sat on the edge of town. When I arrived, one of the Super Soldiers painted the symbol for doctor next to the door. I didn’t know him, but he smiled at us when we approached.

  “Raven, this is Bomber. He’s part of Wolf’s crew.”

  I remembered Wolf, somehow connected to Druid.

  “Glad you’re back. It felt good to get rid of Clarke, like we finally did something worthwhile. Hasn’t felt that way in a bit. Anyway, these guys were a nightmare without you. Don’t leave them again.”

  I liked him. He was funny, and he made Gunnar groan, which made me smile. “Nice to meet you, Bomber.”

  “You, too.”

  We went inside, where Lydia checked the readings on a machine. She turned when we entered. “Raven, thank you for having guys who love you so much that they did this.”

  I opened and closed my mouth. “I think I’m as lucky as any person could ever be. And I’m also so glad you’re here, too. How many came with us?”

  “Ten.” She smiled. “Others may follow. It’s nice to be here. The air feels better. The sun… It feels like freedom, but I need to check with you fellows. I hear you’re basically in charge.”

  All of them looked at Crew and he winced. “Listen, there were a few of us who are here who were in charge. Once we got here, somehow that became me. I’m not looking to do it, it just keeps happening, but I suppose, yes, I’m in charge.”

  “Then I have to tell you.” She steeled her back. What was she about to say? “My father was Dr. Bourd.”

  The guys tensed around me. They might not have moved so others could tell, but I could. They didn’t like that name. “He was the doctor who experimented on a lot of us,” Mace explained in a low voice. Outside, it sounded like something fell over. I hoped it wasn’t Bomber.

  Lydia nodded. “He was a very bad man. I wasn’t alive when he did what he did—by then he was just practicing medicine—but I’ve spent my life horrified by the tales. My brother was a baby when our father died. I don’t know if he even knows what our father did. If you don’t want me here, I understand, but I am determined to help people. I’m not a doctor, not technically. I need a certificate for that, and maybe I can get one now, but I know all the things he knew. I’ve studied and studied. I can help. Or I can go. Regardless of your decision, please let my brother wake up first.”

  Crew stepped toward her. “No one here will hold your father against you. You kept Raven’s brother alive. Amias is alive. I don’t know how many others you saved with your quick thinking and ingenuity. You’re clearly a good person, but your father is a memory I’m happy to forget.” He put out his hand. “That was hard and probably a little scary, since your experience with people like us was basically Clarke and those asshats. Welcome home, Lydia, for as long as you want to stay.”

  She teared up but then sucked it back with firmed lips. “Thank you. My brother needs a place to grow up. They stalled him at fifteen.” That was something Clarke liked to do, I realized. Cambree’s brother had been fifteen, too. “I think here is where we need to be right now.” She cleared her throat. “Speaking of Amias and Stone, we need to wake them, but first they have to go from cryo to the med machines. Afterward, I just don’t know how long it will be until I get them in there. I’ll do it today. No matter what, I promise to have you here when they’re waking up.”

  That was the best I could ask for.

  On our way out, I took Gunnar’s hand. “Do you think the others here will agree with what Crew said? About Lydia’s father?”

  “They’d better, or we’ll remind them why he’s in charge.”

  I hoped that was good enough.

  I was washing a glass, humming to myself, when Crew called me into the bar area. I set down the glass and headed out to see what they wanted. Abruptly, I stopped moving. All four of them were on their knees.

  “Are you guys okay?” Were they hurt? “Do you need help? I can get Lydia…”

  Crew put out his hand. “No. We’re fine. This is just what we read that men do. They get on their knees when they propose.”

  My mind stuttered. “What?”

  He cleared his throat. “We are here, on our knees, asking if you would be our wife.”

  I stared at them. “Really?”

  “Yes.” Ransom caught my attention. “We remembered what you said before you were taken, and about how your life would have been if Clarke didn’t come to your planet. It never occurred to us that marriage was possible, but we love you. We need to be with you forever, and we hope that you feel that way, too. Would you please be our wife? Would you please be our forever?”

  Mace groaned. “Always comes out with the better words. We all feel that way. Raven, will you?”

  Gunnar nodded. “I don’t think we’ve really told you what it was like when you were taken. We’ve hinted at it. And we don’t want to burden you with it, but you should know it was like all of the light went out of the world. We saw that stupid note you obviously didn’t write, and we could breathe again. You weren’t dead, and you didn’t leave on your own. Someone took you, and we’re in the business of getting things back that go missing. We knew we could save you and bring you home. That is what you are, Raven. You make this place home by being in it.”

  I didn’t try to stop the tears that flooded my eyes and dripped down my face. They were coming whether I tried to stop them or not. “Yes. Yes. I’ll marry you.”

  They had made me a ring with four stones in it, which Crew slid on my finger, and then they were all kissing me. I could hardly breathe, but I loved the affection. There was nothing better than them in the whole universe.

  “We could get married right now.” Ransom jumped around. “I mean…we could. Unless you want a dress and a whole party. We want what you want.”

  Life was short, and I never knew what would come next. Did I want to wait for Amias and Stone? Sure. But I didn’t know when they would be awake, and I wanted our marriage solidified as soon as possible. I wanted it to be official.

  “Let’s go get married.” I stopped. “Who’s going to do the ceremony?”

  Crew grinned. “I thought maybe Gator could.”

  “Why Gator?” The choice seemed sort of random to me.

  “Because he’ll be really good at it, even though he has no idea he will.”

  It sounded like as good of an idea as any.

  Three weeks later….

  “Is she…a prostitute?” a young man whispered to another one in our bar, and I glanced over to smile at Ransom. He still couldn’t stand it when people noticed the mark on my forehead. With eleven other women sporting the same look as me, I was hardly alone in people having those assumptions about me. But Ransom hated it, and I was sure the others didn’t care for it, either.

  “No,” the other guy answered. “Not on this planet.”

  With the lightning gone, more people came and went from the planet, doing various business or visiting friends and family. The influx of guests was great for the bar, but it meant strangers and their assumptions became part of our lives a lot. I walked over to kiss Ransom. “Go easy. I’ve got something to do.”

  “You okay?” He kissed me back.

  I was better than okay. I was happy. “Yes.”

  With that, I left him and exited the bar. I’d probably have one of them tailing me by the time I got to Lydia’s, so they’d know where I went. Sure enough, by the time I rounded the corner, I heard Crew’s familiar whistle on the path behind me. I supposed I should consider their protectiveness invasive, except I’d just gotten kidnapped a few weeks ago. They were going to be a little overprotective for a while, and I didn’t mind it. If they were still worrying this much about me in three years, we’d discuss it.

  I stepped inside of Lydia’s and looked for the privacy device. Lydia offered the use of the device to give her patients privacy in her office, and after some modifications by Wolf to increase the ease of use, she kept it out for anyone who might need it.

  Wolf built things all the time lately, I thought, glancing at some new shelves on the doctor’s wall. Her brother sat on a couch and smiled when I entered. He was a nice kid, but I knew she’d love to do something about the sadness in his eyes.

  He sat reading a book that would probably be too hard for me even in a year, but I was determined. Someday, I’d get there.

  “Hey,” Lydia said, then patted the table in her med room and closed the door behind us. “What’s up?”

  I pointed at my forehead. “Get them off me.”

  Her smile fell, replaced by her professional expression. “Absolutely, if that’s what you want. We put them on you, so I can take them off easy-peasy. Five minutes in the med machine, and they’re gone.” She opened the lid. “Hop in.”

  Five other machines buzzed in the room, two of which held people I loved. I’d be joining them for just a second, so I lay down in the machine. She hit a button to start the scan then shut off the machine. “Hold on. No med machine for you today.”

  “Why not?” I stared at her, confused.

  “You’re pregnant.”

  We stared at each other as my brain tried to process her words. Finally, I found my voice. “Not possible.”

  “Except it is.”

  She clearly didn’t get it, so I explained. “Lydia, I was sterilized.”

  “I know. I watched them do it to you. You had the asshole who was there while I was still learning. Before he locked up Jack, and I had to do what they wanted, I used to say no.”

  I pointed at the area. “So how is that possible?”

  “No one operated on you?” She shook her head. “Of course not. Did you get in a med machine that fixed it?”

  I shook my head. “I got in one with burned hands, but that shouldn’t have fixed my sterilization.”

  She walked over to one of the med machines, tapping it with her fingers to open a panel. “This is the one that guy Net owned. Your Mace gave it to me, so I had another med machine, but it’s an odd machine. He had all kinds of settings.” Lydia read something out of the panel then turned to me. “He was obviously very focused on fertility. Yes, any females who got in this machine would have their sterilization reversed, which is why you, Raven, are pregnant.”

  I sat down, my face hot and my mind spinning. Okay. This was happening. I never thought I could be a mother. It hadn’t been on my radar. It was good news, just so wholly unexpected. “How far along am I?”

  “Just two weeks. Even these guys can’t hear it yet, only the machine could pick up on it.”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  “Do you not want a baby?” She knelt down in front of me, her eyes kind.

  “I do. I’m just…”

  She waited a second before she suggested, “You’re just dealing with an understandable amount of shock?”

  “Yes. I guess. So, right, my tattoos will wait.” They almost seemed a silly concern, in light of the new developments.

  “No,” she jumped off. “I can still take them off. It’ll just take longer. I have a device. Stay right there.” She looked over her shoulder, squinting at me. “It might burn a little.”

  Great. But I nodded and she headed to get the device.

  Pregnant? What kind of mother would I possibly be?

  All four of my guys waited in the living room for me. They stared at the door. Jack looked at all of them and then at me. “They let me show them my comic.”

  “That’s really nice of them.” It was. Seriously, so I teared up. I might be a crap mother, but they would kill at the dad thing.

  Ransom pointed at me. “You said you were all right. You…got your tattoos off.”

  I rubbed the spots. She’d underplayed how sore I would be from the procedure, but it was worth it. “Yes.”

  “Jack,” Lydia called him. “Come on, let’s go eat dinner so you can get to bed.”

  “Okay.” He jumped up. “See you guys later.” They left together, going to the rooms they were staying in at one of the houses nearby. The locals were so happy to have a doctor they’d offered her a choice of homes to live in, but she’d told me what she really wanted, once it could be done, was to live upstairs from the med office. Wolf was working on that. He did like to build her things.

  “So. ” I sat down on the couch next to Crew. “ That took a lot longer than we thought it would, because I’m pregnant.”

  There, I just said it. They all started talking, but the bottom line was they were thrilled. I blinked. They were happy about it. Confused, but elated. I grinned, some of my anxiety fleeing in the wake of their joy. If they could think it was a good thing, then maybe it would be. Maybe it could be.

  They were, after all, the bringers of dreams. Even ones I hadn’t known I had.

  One week later…

  “They’ll both be able to hear you soon. Amias first, obviously.” Lydia wore her white coat and spoke in her doctor voice as we stared at my brother and Amias. They both lay out cold, on tables in her med bay. “I waited to wake Amias later, so he’d wake up at the same time as Stone. I thought that might help them both adjust.”

  It was good thinking. I took Mace and Crew’s hands as they stood next to me. I knew the moment had equal weight to them, as Amias was their brother like Stone was mine.

  His eyes started to open, and he groaned. Crew dropped my hand to place a hand on Amias’ shoulder. “Easy, brother. You’ve had a time.”

  “Crew?” His voice sounded rougher than usual. “How?”

  “Long story. Just know that you’re here. You’re okay. And your husband is, too. It’s all a bunch of really good news. You had to get better and now you are.”

  Amias sat up, despite the pressure keeping him down. He stared at Crew. “What about Raven? I sent a girl to you. She’s very important to me. Did she get here? We have to find her, if she didn’t…”

  “I’m here.” Any second, he’d hear our heartbeats, but he was too out of it right then. “I found your family and then eventually we all found you. They’re my husbands now.”

  Amias’ mouth fell open. “I hoped they’d take you in, but I didn’t foresee marriage.”

  “Well.” Ransom grinned. “You send us a gift in Raven, and we’re not giving her up.”

  “I just have one question.” Mace didn’t sound joyful. “I get why you stayed after you met Stone, but why did you go there in the first place. Why would you ever have joined sides with that asshole Clarke?”

  Amias swung his legs over the side of the machine and held his head like it hurt. “I got readings that there were a ton of med machines down there. I thought maybe I could steal one. Crew told me to find med machines. I figured, after the way I left, I couldn’t come back empty handed. When I got down there, I saw what Clarke was doing and I wanted to get a full understanding of it so I pretended I wanted a job. He was happy to give me one. Then things changed because I met Stone. I couldn’t leave him, or Raven, not ever.”