Negan bartered. Negan begged. Negan demanded. Negan threatened. In the end, though, he gave in. I needed to be back in Alexandria with my son and my family. I needed to NOT be within touching distance of him so I could make a decision about where we would go from here.

He didn't like it. Of course he didn't, but I refused to have his people bumrush Alexandria and abduct my family just so he could have his cake and eat it too. With another kiss, one that left us both flushed and breathless, he finally caved. Using a walkie talkie that I hadn't noticed before, he called for Laura to come to him. I almost asked if he was insane, one of his women and me on the road would come to nothing BUT bloodshed, but he rolled his eyes at the look on my face.

"Laura is one of my fiercest people, Amara," he sighed and tugged me onto his lap as he sat back on our sofa. Burying his face in my neck, I could feel him inhale the scent of my skin. "I don't trust the men, not with you, and she won't hesitate to keep you fucking safe while you go back to-"

I nodded. "So she's not one of my replacements?" His smile curled against my skin, and my eyes fluttered shut as I felt his mouth open and his teeth graze my pulse.

"No, she's not, and neither are they, you know that." The heat of his breath against the dampness he was creating on my skin made goosebumps rise to the surface. "Say the word, Amara, and they're gone. All gone. I found you again, they're redundant."

Biting my lip at the very thought of having Negan all to myself, I had to shake it off. Lust. That's all this was, and I couldn't make such a fucking heavy decision on my wet panties alone. "I have to get back-"

The bite that he gave me at that was no joking matter, and I had a flash of a long ago conversation about him marking me. Jesus, he really was a fucking territorial shit, wasn't he? I moaned at the sting of his teeth, and the kissing and licking that followed, soothing the skin he'd terrorized. "Mine." He growled, and I knew I was right. He was making sure that every single person in Alexandria, and anyone (including his brides) that I came into contact with on my way out knew exactly who I was and who I belonged to.

"Marking me?" I whispered, and his hands clutched my waist tighter. "I haven't made up my-"

We were interrupted by a knock on the door, but I could almost feel how irritated he was by my uncertainty. He expected us to fall back into our former roles. He Negan, me Amara. A really fucked up version of Tarzan. I started to get off his lap, but his hold on me was as strong as ever, and I was held in place as he told the person who knocked to come in. I could see, behind the woman around my age who was dressed for runs and battle, his women long necked to see what was going on in his room. Eyes widened at the sight of me on his lap, at his hands wrapped around me, and at the glowing burn of the bite he'd given my neck. Shit.

"Boss?" The woman who must be Laura spoke, and he must have gestured for her to come further in and shut the door, but my eyes were on the women waiting for him. Not all of them looked upset by my spot on his lap. Not all of them looked jealous or irritated, in fact, they looked relieved. What the hell?

Negan told Laura that she was taking me back to Alexandria. And as I listened to him explaining how important I was to him, how he expected her to keep me as safe as she would if he was her travelling companion, he also gave her another order.

"Stay with Amara while she packs." What?! "Her son, Trey, is just as precious, understand?" I watched her nod and smile. "There might be two more coming back too, Eric and Steven. I want them all under guard, no one approaches, no one touches any of them, get me?" More nodding. "If you need to take someone with you, then take Arat. The others, they aren't-" I blanked out as he kept going. Wasn't he being pretty fucking cocky about my answer? What the fuck did he think? I would just drive back and start putting all our shit together and wave bye as we hit the road again? The fuck was wrong with him?

"Negan," I broke in, but he was still issuing orders. "NEGAN." He stopped talking and looked into my face. "I haven't said yes, I haven't said that we'd come stay with you."

And then, showing at least a tiny bit of the confident asshole that I'd fallen in love with without the horrors that I knew he was now capable of, his dimples came out and his smile grew. "Oh, princess, we both know you're coming back home. It's only a matter of when."

I slipped back into complete shock at his certainty. That he KNEW me so well, knew US better than I did, irritated me to no end. He was right, I realized, as Laura and I were driving back toward the community I'd made a new home. He was absolutely correct in how well he knew me. I fucking loved his dumb, arrogant ass, and if I was being honest with myself, I'd been having unconscious pro/con lists running in the back of my head since I first saw him walk toward me.

Hadn't I once said if we were separated that you could count me out, that I'd join a nunnery because no man would ever hold me in the thrall he did? That, for me at least, he was it? And we'd just been handed a second chance.

Now the biggest issue, aside from what I'd seen in his abode (yes, I'm talking about his women, come on, people), was how to explain it to Eric.