The Woman on the Lake Ch. 13

Readers: thank you all for being so patient with me and this story. We are a few chapters away from the end, and I hope I can reward you all for sticking with it. I promise there is going to be a lot of sex in the final chapters, and I'll try not to write too many long opuses on the joy that is having a guy go down on you. Either way, I am very flattered that you guys would choose to read my weird smut. As always I apologise for any typos, I really tried to edit it properly but... you guys know I can NEVER get a friend to look at this stuff right?

Also: I'm not afraid of comments anymore. In fact, I love them now. So leave one!

Chapter Thirteen

"How many?"

Leda asked the question as soon as Brandon had dismounted. He looked tired, and worried.

"As few as eight, as many as twelve. Ned was able to track them up to the eastern clearing."

"The eastern clearing?"

Brandon took her by the arm, and pulled her into his body, kissing her deeply. As she felt his hands pressing against the back of her neck, his lips parting hers confidently, Leda wondered at how quickly he had begun to take for granted that she would share her body with him. But then, as he slipped his tongue inside her, she knew she would never not want him to possess her. She needed this. She needed him.

He broke off the kiss, touching her hair softly as she looked up at him.

"I think they'll travel at night, likely be here before dawn."

Leda nodded silently and took his hand from her hair.

"Rob, the Highlander, is inside," she said, holding his hand in hers carefully. "He's preparing some food for all of us."

She could feel his hand tense, then soften.

"Good," Brandon said, rather loudly. "You must be hungry."

They went to the cottage together, Brandon gripping her hand as they walked into the room where Leda had lived privately for years.

Rob towered over her stove, comfortably using her knife and pot, oblivious to her bed, which lay a few footsteps away.

The bed was rumpled. Had he been sleeping in it? Laying in her blankets? Wrapped in her scent?

Leda cleared her throat.

"Brandon's here," she said.

Seeing them eye each other sent a prickle of fear up her spine. Brandon stiffened, his muscles preparing to strike before his mind. And Rob just stood there, his massive body speaking for itself.

Leda forced herself to smile.

"Let's not kill each other before supper," she said, freeing her hand from Brandon's grip, and retreating to a cupboard.

She took out a few soldier's tins, then a bottle of brown liquid. The smell made her eyes water, but she poured a little for all of them anyway, laying it out on the table, hoping to force the men together.

It worked. Rob and Brandon retreated from their corners, coming together around the table with Leda.

"Is that what I think it is?" Rob asked, sniffing the offering.

"If you think its spirits, yes," Leda handed them each a cup. "I don't know what it's made of, but it works. And as it might be our last night in the world, I think that's reason enough to drink up."

She forced a smile as she lifted her glass to both the men. They watched her anxiously as she took a confident gulp.

It was terrible. Leda winced as it burned her throat, her eyes cried out; But she was determined, so she swallowed. Rob and Brandon followed suit quickly.

"Where did you get this?" Brandon asked.

"From one of your Rangers."

Brandon's eyes met hers with the familiar sharpness, and Leda almost smiled, remembering how she used to fear these glares.

"You're not supposed to trade with my men one on one," he said gruffly.

"I know, that's why he and I agreed not to tell you," Leda said, taking another small sip. "Drink up, there is more where that came from."

Rob did as he was told, but Brandon met her gaze angrily, as though he had half a mind to punish her for saying this. But seeing the blackness of his eyes, Leda knew that any reprimand would come when they were alone together.

Rob cleared his throat and put supper on the table.

It was good food. Whole, fluffy white potatoes drizzled in old chicken fat, with a bit of green roughage on the side. When Leda complimented him on it, Rob only regretted that he hadn't been able to plan for meat.

"If we make it though this raid," Leda said, cleaning her plate. "I'll slaughter a chicken to celebrate."

"I wouldn't plan any celebrations yet," Brandon turned to Rob with a clenched jaw. "Besides cook, what can you do, Highlander?"

Rob met him with a forced smile.

"You have a bad memory," he said.

"Stop," Leda interrupted. "Rob is going to stay and fight, that's valuable to us, and we don't need to talk about it."

"But I need to know how valuable, exactly." Brandon looked at Rob with menacing eyes. "We're outnumbered, so a strategy is more important than brute force."

"I know how to fight outnumbered," Rob spoke in a low voice. "How many Outlanders did I kill on my way out of your mines?"

Leda dropped her fork loudly onto her plate before Brandon could answer. She collected the plates and brought them to her wash basin.

"Let's say there are ten men, how do we keep them out of the cottage?" She poured more liquor for the men, skipping her own glass.

"Ten of them, two of us," Rob said gruffly. "We may as well hide again."

"My cottage has to survive - -"

"There are three of us," Brandon interrupted. "Ned said he'd fight."

Leda scoffed. "Ned thinks I'm a disease."

"Don't be petty, he's offered to help," Brandon looked at her with a wane smile. "He's too old for a new Head Ranger."

Leda, feeling slightly ashamed, knew this wasn't the only reason. Ned might hate her, but he loved Brandon. She's have to be kinder to the old man in the future. Or forgive him at least, for being a perfectly normal man in the Outlands.

"Ned's a good rider, he'd be best used cutting down Rangers before they get here," Leda said.

Rob refilled his glass. "Cut them all down I say. If they're Outland Rangers they'll be useless as soon as they're off they're horses.

Brandon looked at Leda then with a pained expression. He opened his mouth to speak, but shut it before a word escaped.

"What?"

Brandon took a long sip of spirits.

"It's not just rangers," he said slowly. "Just one of them's a ranger, Alec's friend. He's torn up about what happened to him, but he couldn't convince any of his fellow Rangers to come with him."

"They're more loyal than you thought."

"They like to eat as much as I do."

Brandon reached across the table and took her Leda's hand. "The other men, they're soldiers."

She froze.

"I don't know how they heard about you, or why they want to do this but—"

Brandon's voice became tinny as her heart pounded and her mind raced. Of course word spreads, of course her name got out, of course they'd find the one man who wanted to hurt her. Of course this was happening. Of course, of course.

"It's Gerald," she said. Her voice sounded so far away.

Brandon squeezed her hand in his. Rob didn't need to know who Gerald was to sense that something was wrong. He looked at Leda and softly, put his hand on the small of her back.

"Yes, it is."

"How did he find out about me?"

"It's not really clear, it might have been at the fort. Rangers and soldiers get together then, and they do talk."

"But you told me that no ranger was allowed to speak of my cottage to a solider," she kept her voice steady, even though her heart felt panicked.

"It was Alec," he whispered.

"You said you'd kill them if they told."

"And I did," he tried to reach over the table and touch her hair, but she pulled away. "Just not enough of them."

Gerald. It was Gerald. Gerald was coming to take it from her. Gerald would take away her home, her animals, her relationships, her independence. He was going to hurt her again. Rape her again. Her wouldn't even do her the kindness of killing her. He just wanted to know that she was his to control.

Rob whispered her name softly. She could tell from the way his lips moved. But she couldn't hear him. All she could hear was the blood in her ears.

No.

She caught her breath and shook herself.

He is not going to control me.

She stood up abruptly.

"If they're soldiers, they don't know the woods. We have an advantage there," she looked at her hands. They were shaking.

But her voice wasn't.

"Brandon, you and Ned can patrol the woods around the house. Rob and I will stay here, try to block the entrances, fight up close if we have to."

"Don't you have a hole somewhere to hide in, girl?"

Rob wasn't prepared for the look of pure contempt that Leda tossed his way. He shrunk, visibly.

"I just mean, wouldn't it be safer for you, safer for your future and this farm, to be out of harm's way?"

"This is my land."

"Alright," Brandon said carefully. "But every good plan has a contingency. If the worst happens, I need to know there is a place you can go."

"There is," she said. "When's Ned coming?"

"He's tracking the men, he'll give us a signal when they're near, then cut some down from behind."

"Good," as Leda swallowed more spirits, she began to feel her head grow lighter, her body warmer. "So it's just the three of us until then."

Rob and Brandon looked at each, and Leda felt like a fool. She should have never reminded them about their conflict with each other. But then...

If she was going to die tomorrow, she was glad she'd enjoyed both the Head Ranger and his fugitive.

And then she smiled, laughed almost, into her cup as she drained it.

Brandon watched her mirth and took the cup away from her lips.

"Let her drink it," Rob said gruffly. "It'll help her sleep."

"Don't tell me what to do," Leda turned to each of them. "I'll drink or not drink as much or as often as I want."

The men watched as she held the drink to her lips. Choosing whether or not to keep drinking now seemed like a choice between two men's opinions.

Leda rolled her eyes, took a tiny sip, then put the cup down on the table, and started to grumble under her breath. "This used to be my private room, where no one was allowed in."

She sat down heavily on her chair, looking from Rob to Brandon then back again. Just the three of them, all night. And neither of them had much to say.

And Gerald was coming.

But she wasn't going to allow herself to think about that.

"Do you two have a contingency plan?" she offered.

The two men looked at each other quickly. Leda suspected that Brandon did have a plan, but wouldn't reveal it until he knew it was needed. He always wanted to be supremely confident, until he wasn't. But it was Rob who touched the small of her Leda's back possessively, his large hand gripping the curve of her waist. She tried to hide her body's reaction and he spoke gruffly.

"I'll be hard pressed to leave you, girl. So no, I can't say that I do."

Brandon's eyes penetrated his face like a blade. "Yes, if you're in danger, you might need her to hide you again."

"Maybe. But if any man finds her, I'll be there to rip his head off with my bare hands."

The image made Leda shudder, and of course, Brandon noticed.

"Don't talk like that around her, she doesn't like violence."

"And you know what she likes?"

She took her cup and added more liquor.

"I've protected Leda for five years."

"Is that what you call it?" Rob was getting louder now. "Living off her land, eating her food, and then fucking off to the bush until you're ready to return with a new group of rapists —"

Brandon stood up, but Leda put up her hand and raised her voice.

"Well, I don't feel very safe having two men fighting in my kitchen. So just stop."

They did stop, surprisingly. Rob sat still and Brandon took an aimless walk around the kitchen, as thought standing up and never been about Rob at all.

Leda she took a breath, then a sip of liquor.

"Thank you," she said softly. "I just want to get through tonight."

"Then what?"

If the words hadn't so clearly come from the man next to her, Leda would have assumed this question could only come from Brandon. Brandon was always obsessed with what was next. Rob lived by his senses. But it was Rob who asked. And Leda didn't know what to say.

"He's right Leda, if we're going to be here, together, we might as well ask you about what's next," Brandon said, coming to the table once more. "You know what I want."

"Yes."

"And I assume you know what the Highlander wants?"

"She does," Rob said gruffly.

"And what's that?" Brandon challenged.

"I want to take her to wife," the words came out so casually. Leda began to cough on her spirits.

"What does that even mean to you?"

"You know what it means," Leda said, wiping her mouth,

"I don't. I haven't heard about Highlanders taking "wives", only rutting hoards of their cousins like animals whenever the mood takes them."

Rob laughed then. "And I was told Outlanders only fucked when their general allowed them into a numbered cell, where a poor, sad scrap of woman would lift her skirts and endure it."

Leda laughed at that. Clearly, the spirits were working. Or at least, they were working on her. Brandon looked at her with ice in his eyes, but she still laughed.

"Well, he's not entirely wrong!" Leda said. "With the exception of the cells, he's mostly right."

Brandon came to the table and looked into her eyes, holding her gaze with his. "Were you enduring it with me?"

The smile fell from Leda's face. She could feel the heat rising in her body as he challenged her with his eyes. He knew there was only one possible answer to that, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of hearing it from her lips.

She broke from her revery when Rob shuffled next to her.

"I wouldn't be too proud of yourself, Wolf. I had her cumming on my mouth just a few hours ago."

Leda bit her lips and felt her face burn. She couldn't smile, or frown, or look anywhere. There were no words. Silence roared through the room.

At least she was drunk.

"Well, I that brings me back to the question," Brandon said finally. "Leda, what do you want?"

She looked up at him, hoping the answer would be in his face somewhere. He was so gorgeous. He made her heart pound. He made her melt with longing. His body was the most thrilling thing she'd ever encountered. Every word out of his mouth was a seduction. She wanted him, and he understood her. But then she felt Rob move his body next to her. He was huge, a monstrous man, and yet, he made her calm. His body felt like home. She wanted him, and he grounded her.

"I want to have everything," she said, trying not to slur. "I had nothing for so long."

"You didn't have nothing -"

"Before I found this cottage, I had nothing, and I was nothing." Leda looked at his with a fire in her eyes. "I was a womb, I had no purpose beyond opening my legs for Gerald."

It was louder than she'd ever spoken to him; Angrier too. And for a moment, she wondered if he would leave. Or retaliate. Or simply... stop loving her. But he didn't. He sat on his chair, cowed, looking at her with a distinctly sad expression. Rob looked at her too, and she could see him piecing together what her life must have been like as a woman in the Outerlands. And as much as she wanted Brandon to stop talking at her, it was terrible so see them silent like that. So she kept going.

"And now that I've done some things, I want to keep doing them," she tried to make her voice softer. "I want to be a farmer, and a trader, and a lover too, now that I know there is pleasure in it, and I can be something more than being a hole for a man to spend himself into."

They were both still looking at her. The only sound she could hear was a clink from Rob's cup at it made it's way back to the table, and it was almost funny to hear something so mundane when her emotions were racing. So she giggled.

She was really, truly drunk now.

"And I will miss you both - honestly," she looked at Rob's hand on the table, then up at the auburn curls twisting down Brandon's head. She wanted to touch them. The thought made her smile again. "If you knew what you both felt like, you'd know why I've been such a terrible wanton with each of you. I liked being the woman I was with each of you."

Her smile faded.

"But you each want me to be a womb, and I won't do that. I am not the tool you use to build a legacy," she pointed at Brandon, then turned her hand to Rob. "Or a home."

She looked at her hands for a moment, but neither of them said anything. Aimlessly she lifted her cup, only to discover it was empty. She put it down and listened to the hollow sound it made as it hit the table.

The men still weren't talking, but she could feel them looking at her. It was work not to meet either of their eyes. She knew that Brandon was trying to reach her, trying to turn her feelings towards him. And she knew that Rob wouldn't impose himself or his feelings on her, but would be hurt if Leda didn't acknowledge that he had them. So Leda stared at the table.

And then Brandon stopped trying to make her look at him, and really looked at her.

She was finally speaking from her heart, and her heart knew what it wanted, and for the first time, Brandon knew that he couldn't give it to her.

He looked at Rob. He had taken Leda's hand, holding it gently in his calloused paw. She didn't look at him, but she could see the way his touch affected her. She was calmer, softer. She wasn't like that with him. She was only strong and capable and stubborn and yes, pliant and sweet when he fucked her, but as soon as her clothes were on... she was that woman again. That hardened survivor he found on the lake. But she could be someone else. Someone happier, sitting, fully dressed at her own table. She could do it with him.

Brandon cleared this throat.

"I'll give you what you want, Leda." He couldn't understand why he said it, but it was the only thing to say. "You don't need to have a child of mine, or even let me touch you. I'll protect your trade, I'll protect your farm, I'll even protect this brute if he makes you happy."

She didn't understand.

"What?"

"No," Rob said it gruffly. "Don't."

"I'll do what I want Highlander," Brandon said. "And if she wants you, you'll do what she wants."

"Brandon," Leda said, but she couldn't finish, her eyes were full of tears.

"I'm not a fool, I can see he loves you, and from what I hear, Highland men are very involved in the lives of their women and their babes. Very... tactile."

He turned to Rob.

"But if she doesn't want you, I'll drag you out of here myself, drop you in the forest somewhere, I'll even take you as far as I can towards the Highland border. Whatever she wants," he turned to Leda. "I don't want you to ever think that rejecting me will cost you your safety."

Leda opened her mouth but she still couldn't form the words.

"She's not going to reject you," Rob said softly. "You are the one she loves."

"In the Outlands, we don't love. We survive long enough to breed."

"But do you love her?"

"Yes, against everything I've been told, I do. Do you?"

Brandon nodded towards Rob's hand, which still caressed Leda's fingertips. Rob turned to her.

"I do."

Leda looked into his eyes, which, hidden under his thick brows, looked entirely black to her. But they were soft. Kind.

"You know I do, don't you, girl?"

"I didn't know," she said softly.

"Well I told you I want you for a wife."

"I thought that was because you're stuck here and will probably die if you try to go home to the Highlands?"

"No," he surpassed a smile. "I just like your cunt."

Leda laughed aloud, her sudden joy ringing out like a bell, cutting the tension in the room until she managed so silence herself, and looked at both men with glassy eyes.