Chapter 18

The following morning, Abigail woke up to a surprise as beams of light shone through the windows of the library. The surprise being Taker spooned up against her completely naked. He had tried to keep up the illusion, but once he'd fallen asleep, it had disappeared and now it was just him against her with his nose buried in her hair. She smiled, enjoying being pressed against him like this and felt his arm tighten around her when she shifted slightly. Abigail turned in his arm to face him, caressing his face tenderly with her fingers and etching him in her memory. What would happen once they returned to Wonderful? She didn't want to think about that right now and soaked in as much of this as she could, softly kissing him.

Her kisses didn't wake him up, not right away. He hadn't slept this heavily in years. There was a warm, pliable body curled into his and one massive, bare thigh moved, insinuating itself between her legs as he arched into her. Taker began responding to her kisses, growling softly as he moved to roll her onto her back, his hazy eyes opening to meet hers. She had a hell of a way waking a man up and Taker kissed her soundly, feeling her hands caressing the sides of his face, then frowned, pulling away. She was tracing the faint burn scars. Burn scars. However, from the way Abigail was studying him, he realized they didn't bother her. Hell, they probably weren't all that bad. It had been well over a decade, longer than that since the fire… most of the scars on his body were faded as well or covered with tattoos.

The scars didn't bother her at all. They were part of him and Abigail knew this was his true form, not another disguise. Taker was a beautiful man, inside and out, and besides that, Abigail had some scars of her own. One across her lower back was from the foster home, the only punishment she'd ever received…and it hadn't been pleasant. Bray had been the one to doctor her up…and it was also the night they had decided to escape, which was after she healed. He didn't want her traveling wounded. Everyone had scars, both visible and inside, of some kind they tried hiding from the world. Amy had caught a glimpse of it during one of their training sessions, but apparently, Taker hadn't noticed. It was barely visible after all these years, much like the ones on his face. She returned the kiss with equal vigor, fire, passion and opened her mouth for him to taste her, moaning softly. Her fingers buried in his hair as the kiss grew more heated, neither able to pull away or break it first and honestly, Abigail didn't want to.

There was no way Taker could break this kiss. The only way it was happening was when he HAD to breathe, and he could hold his breath for quite a while. Reaching down, he pulled her leg up to rest against his hip, palming her smooth skin as he slowly moved against her, letting his erection glide up and down her panty covered slit. He could feel heat, and the way her hips were starting to rock, he gathered she was enjoying the new sensations.

She more than enjoyed, she craved and knew all she had to do was remove her panties to make this official. What better place or way to lose her virginity than to this man, in a library, with just the two of them? Now may have been the only time for them to do this before all hell came raining down on them in the form of the DOV. It was obvious he wanted her, and she wanted him, badly, the fire inside of her begging to be quenched.

"Take me…" She mumbled against his lips, her voice quaking from the intensity of their making out. "Here and now, Taker, please…" It was said against his lips with conviction, not an ounce of worry or hesitation in her tone, just pure lust and need.

Admittedly, there were warning bells going off in his head. She had just dropped the mother of all bombshells on him. Abigail had been Bray Wyatt's childhood friend, and for all intents and purposes, was the intended Queen of whatever the hell the psychopath was trying to create. And she was lying beneath him, of all people, after spilling what amounted to state secrets. If ever there was a perfect time to ambush Wonderful, now would be it and he groaned, brushing his lips against hers. Did Taker trust her enough to risk the lives of all those people?

It was him hesitating now, she could feel it and tried not to feel rejected because, honestly, they had to get back to Wonderful. She had to face the music with everyone, tell the truth and they had to start coming up with a plan to take down the DOV for good. Abigail pulled back to stare into his eyes, knowing he didn't fully trust her the way she did him. Again, for good reason. She had lied to him about who she truly was. It wasn't rejection because Taker did want her, but they really had to get back to Wonderful, just in case Bray decided to strike. She'd asked him for a couple of months, but Abigail also knew how impatient he could be. Hell, Bray was unpredictable these days, she didn't know him from a hole in the ground anymore.

"Ohhhhh you vixen," Taker growled, catching her bottom lip between his teeth and nipped gently before reluctantly pushing himself away from her. "We have to get back." He could practically feel the rejection radiating from Abigail and bent down to help her climb to her feet, wrapping an arm around her waist to draw her against him. "We WILL finish this, Abbie." He vowed, but… he had to get back. If something happened to Wonderful in his absence, because he was busy getting his rocks off, he couldn't live with himself.

Gliding the pad of her thumb across his lips, Abigail kissed him one last time and nodded, letting him know she understood. "We'd better." She murmured against his lips, seeing all the promises swirling through his eyes and pulled away to slip back into her jeans, giving them some space.

Her lips were swollen, and her braid had hair pulled out in all different directions. Abigail pulled the hairband out and unraveled her hair before pulling out a brush from her bag, glad she'd thought to bring it with. Once the knots were out, she redid the braid just as Taker finished getting ready. Together, they headed out with their knapsacks in hand and jumped on the bike, with her in front, speeding back to Wonderful.

She had brought a hairbrush… for what was meant to originally be a few hours at max outing… women. Taker had learned a long time ago not to question some of the insane things they did. He liked his balls where they were. Taking the direct route today, once they were clear of the trees that had shielded them, he was in 'Chet' form, just in case. Today was a lot different from last night and he had gotten more knowledge then he had bargained for. He just prayed there was time to put it to use.

When they rolled in just a little less than 2 hours later, Abigail breathed a sigh of relief that Wonderful was just as they'd left it. The guys waved to 'Chet' as he rolled inside through the gates and Abigail could feel Taker relax against her physically. He'd been worried the entire ride back and there was nothing she could do to ease his mind. He parked the bike and dismounted, helping her off next by the hand.

"Well, well, took ya long enough to get back here, boss."

"Did ya guys get caught up in that hellacious storm?"

Abigail let Taker do the talking, explaining to his men what happened and why he hadn't come back until this morning, wondering when he wanted to let the cat out of the bag about her true identity. He would not be letting any 'cats' out of any bag just yet. It seemed like everyone in Wonderful had congregated to welcome them back and that was several hundred people.

"I want the council in my tower tonight." He informed Steve in a whisper, feeling Steve's bald head nodding before giving his attention back over to the people.

"Jesus, we thought you guys might've got washed away or something by the river," Stephanie said when she was able to get close enough to Abigail. "We had some minor flooding, but it's already sinking. Ground was thirsty." The town's water supply had been refilled. Jeff and Matt would make sure the purifier was up and running and they'd be set. Rain and the storms had been a blessing.

"No, we just bunkered down and waited the storm out. It was pretty bad, but luckily the building we were in didn't come crashing down." Abigail was thankful everybody was fine and Wonderful hadn't suffered while they were gone. "Do you need help getting breakfast around?"

"Aren't you tired from your trip?" Stephanie noticed something was different about Abigail, unable to put her finger on it. "We already had breakfast, actually, but there's plenty left over for you and the boss."

Abigail was too nervous to eat and shook her head, cracking the barest hint of a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "No, I'm fine. He's probably starving though. I'm gonna go workout for a bit unless you need me to do something in the common house." Working out would get her mind off what she'd told Taker, at least for a little while.

"Just be back by noon, so we can start lunch…" Stephanie watched her walk away and frowned, rubbing her protruding belly while Taker finished talking to Steve. "Hey boss, come get something to eat." That was her code for she wanted to talk to him privately.

Eventually, Stephanie was going to have to start using a different code. That was just an open invitation for people to follow him and he shot her an exasperated look. "Darlin', you really-" He groaned when she gave him a look, eyeing her stomach and then threw his hands up into the air. "Women…"

"Sorry folks, boss wants to eat solo." Stephanie began shooing people out of the common house and closed the doors once it was just them. "Get your own damn breakfast, Taker. I just put the last of it away."

"Rude much, my pregnant beauty?" He laughed, ducking a cup that came flying his way and headed for the kitchen to raid what was left, Stephanie right behind him. "What do you want, Steph?"

"Oh, you know what I want, so why do you even bother asking? Something happened between you and Abbie and I wanna know what it is." Stephanie never beat around the bush and her bluntness had gotten worse the further she progressed into her pregnancy. "She's not hungry, she looks nervous as hell and she went to work out as a distraction. I'm not stupid, I can read people well, including you, even with your disguises. I also know she's hiding something, Steve does too, so did she finally come clean about what's really going on?" While he fixed his plate, his eyes had lowered, and Stephanie could see the hesitation written all over his face. "Boss, what happened? Is it really that bad? Is…Wonderful in trouble?"

"Not as long as I'm here, it's not." He said after a moment, looking up at her, his green eyes thoughtful. "Darlin', you'll just have to wait until tonight along with the others. I'm not doing this multiple times and I'm tired." Which was weird because he had actually slept pretty well, but… marble floor. When she gave him a look, he raised a hand. "Stephanie, I said I'd talk to you about it tonight with everyone there." Everyone being the people who gave him counsel, advice, and helped in the planning. "And don't you go badgering Abbie either," His eyes narrowed at her. "You hold your horses, or I'll have your activities restricted throughout your pregnancy." Because Stephanie was naturally a bossy, pushy woman, pregnancy seemed to be making it worse. "I'm not kidding, darlin'. You'll wait."

Sighing, Stephanie could only nod and decided to tell him what happened while he was gone. "We got a newcomer while you were gone…" She informed him quietly, setting a mug of coffee in front of him and finally sat down, swallowing hard. "She's a refuge from the DOV, Taker…and they hurt her…badly." Tears swelled in her eyes at the memory of the poor girl that collapsed outside of the gates of Wonderful the previous night. With a dirty, tear-streaked face, Steve had been the one to bring her inside and she refused to speak to anyone. "She's sleeping right now in the medical wing, but when she wakes up, I'll introduce you to her. Her name is Susan."

"And why," He asked sternly. "Was this not the first thing you said to me?" Nosy women. Priorities were all wrong. "Where is she now?"

"Asleep, in the medical wing off the back tower."

"And who is the unfortunate soul who is tending to her?" They had no actual doctors, just different people with varying degrees of medical experience, which meant a lot of trial and error.

"Melina is right now. She had some… other damage. Jeff got the x-ray machine to work, he thinks she was given a forced um… hysterectomy."

That made no sense, at all. Women who couldn't breed were shot, not… rendered sterile. Not unless it wasn't the woman being punished. Melina had heard the Undertaker returned from his journey and wasn't surprised to see him come to the medical wing. She had sterile gloves on and an apron, one of the few in Wonderful to have a stomach for this kind of horrific scene.

"She'll survive, but it's going to take time, Undertaker. There was no…damage done to her insides with the hysterectomy, as I'm sure Stephanie has already told you. She's…a little over one-year-old, which I don't believe, but that's what she claims." It didn't make sense to her at all, but then again, this was a refuge from the DOV. "Her name is Susan."

She stepped aside when he came forward to look down at the girl, who looked to be around 18-19 years of age, but in all reality, she was only a little over one. Melina watched as the Undertaker bent down over the cot, bracing his hands on either side of the unconscious girl's head. It was… weird, disconcerting, to realize he was running his nose against her face, inhaling. He was sniffing her and moved lower, finally pulling away.

"She reeks of magic." He said finally, his nose wrinkling. "We've known for a while the DOV has SOMETHING to breed these soldiers as fast as they do…"

"Magic…so are you saying her hysterectomy was done…magically?"

How was that even possible? Granted, there had been rumors of Bray Wyatt and the DOV having a sorcerer of some kind. To her knowledge, however, that had been false. Perhaps not…and if that was the case, Undertaker wasn't the only one who had magic on his side in Vesperia. That was a very troubling, frightening thought.

"I-I don't even know what to say…" Truthfully, Melina was a little unnerved by magic and looked at Susan, wondering if she was also magical. "That would explain why there's no stitches or anything inside of her, according to the x-ray." She handed the shots over to Taker for him to look at.

"I didn't say that." He growled, shooting her a dark look, about through with women today. They either weren't sharing pertinent information first, due to being nosy, or they were assuming. "Go get Abigail, bring her to me." He ordered, taking the images from her and waved a hand dismissively. This woman reeked of magic in a different way, not this… magical hysterectomy. And the fact that someone could do that defied all magic laws and theories. No, her blood was infected with magic, it was part of her DNA. He closed his eyes. These children went from infant to toddler to full adult within the course of a year. His eyes opened. And Abbie had come for Mythril on Bray Wyatt's orders.

"Potions…" Something he didn't bother with because he'd never been properly trained.

What the hell did Abigail have to do with this? Melina didn't question it and went to do as the boss demanded.