Bronto's Revenge (Barbarian Lust, #2)(7)

“I can’t. Jade won’t let me. I have to help clean up the meal mess.”

Vulcan glanced at Jade, where she remained standing by the pot of grains. “She’ll have sufficient help. Go rest.”

Ivy jumped up and practically ran toward the huts. When she reached Bronto’s she halted and turned around to see if anyone was watching. No one appeared to be but off to the side the forest trees rustled and something moved.

“Chieftain,” a guard in the forest shouted.

She held her breath and turned slowly. Two tribesmen, Trice and Zypher, were slowly following…her father. And he carried his club.

She slapped a hand over her mouth as Vulcan and Wisteria came running. Wisteria gasped.

“Stay back,” Vulcan shouted, holding up his hand. She halted mid-step and nearly stumbled forward.

“We recognized him as a member of the Peaceful Clan, sir,” Zypher conveyed. “It’s the only reason we let him through.”

Ivy inched toward Vulcan, who was moving exceptionally slowly to her father. Her dad knew better than to barge into Barbarian territory. It gave Vulcan or any of the other tribesmen the right to kill him if they chose to. She gulped, for Vulcan harbored enough anger toward him to do just that. “Father, what are you doing here?” Ivy asked, her voice quavering.

“Father, what are you doing here?” he repeated, swinging his club up and down at his side.

“Oh no,” Ivy shrieked, grabbing her throat.

“Oh no,” he mocked.

Her heart raced. She looked at Vulcan then at Trice and Zypher. They remained a slight distance behind her dad to where he couldn’t reach them if he attacked with the weapon.

As she approached she could see scales on the side of his legs and neck. Her stomach clenched. She grew nauseated and swooned. The urge to vomit burned her throat but nothing came up when she gagged.

The instant he changed direction and headed straight for Wisteria, Ivy fought the sick feeling and shouted, “Father, stop! Stay away from her.” Even in a mutant state he wanted to beat Wisteria to death with his club as he’d nearly done to their brother Boar.

“Father, stop. Stay away from her.” Again he mimicked her word for word but his eyes never rose from the ground.

“What’s going on?” Bronto yelled at her back.

She whipped around to see him standing inside his doorway, holding the flap open. “It’s my father.”

Bronto was beside her in seconds but she raced to her sister. “Wisty, oh gosh, Wisty, father is a mutant.”

Wisteria nodded. With as awful as he’d treated her, she had tears in her eyes. “I-I know,” she stammered.

“Ladies, get inside my hut,” Vulcan commanded.

Ivy dreaded those words, for the last time they’d been ordered away was when he destroyed the mutant of their brother Boar.

Wisteria froze and Ivy’s heart lurched. “Come on, Wisty,” she said, turning her sister and leading her to the hut. “We must do as he says.”

Nodding, Wisteria fell into step beside her. “Wisty, that is not our real father. For him to appear in this state, the aliens have already killed him.”

“I know.”

Ivy pulled back the flap and tucked Wisteria inside near the fire.

“How could they get to him?” Wisteria asked. “He was such a strong man.”

“The aliens can get anyone, not only the weak. Boar was a strong man as well.”

“What about Momma?” Wisteria grabbed Ivy’s hand and squeezed. “What if they turned Momma into a mutant too?”

Ivy brushed hair from her sister’s lashes and tucked it behind her ear. “We cannot think about that right now. With Daddy now gone, we can return to the clan to see if she’s okay.”

“I still loved him, Ivy. For the man he used to be.”

Ivy palmed Wisteria’s face. “I know. Me too but that was a long time ago. That man died alongside Lily. You mustn’t dwell on it.”

Ivy embraced Wisteria and sat rocking her in her arms while trying to recall the memorable times spent with their father. Unfortunately there weren’t any recent instances that made her smile. He became difficult to live with upon Lily’s death and turned into a vicious, hateful man. He failed to realize they’d loved her too and hurt as desperately as he had.

If Ivy reached further into her past she’d find the happy times but she wasn’t ready to visit those yet. Once she did, it would be very, very sad.

“Are you ladies all right?”

Ivy looked up to see Bronto standing in the doorway, and the compassion in his expression brought tears to her eyes. “Yes.”

“Things are calm out here,” he said softly, which meant her mutant father was destroyed and fed to the fire.

She nodded in understanding. “Thank you. We’ll be out in a little while. You’re welcome to stay with us if you’d like.”

“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “You ladies need your privacy. We’ll be on the back side of the huts chopping trees if you need anything.”

After he left she and Wisteria talked. About their past. Their future. Their current arrangement. They laughed and they cried. About happy times. And sad. Ivy even reminisced about the fun days she’d chosen to ignore.

Then they sat in silence, embraced in each other’s arms. They listened to the men chop down the trees. Heard the trunks hit the ground. They even listened to the silence when the men stole time to bathe after working so hard all day.