The Wolf You Feed

Chapter 14

They rode hard, but it wasn't too long before Rowan slowed the horse to a stop. Daryl swung his leg over and slid down. Then he turned around and caught Rowan by the waist to help her down. She melted into his arms, holding him like she didn't ever want to let go. Lifting up on her tiptoes, she cocked her head to the side to peer over his shoulder. Then she let out a strange series of whistles. Two short whistles and then one long one. Daryl had not heard the call before. It wasn't one of his hunting whistles, not that Rowan knew many of them anyway.

At the sound of her whistle, Tank and Morgan came bounding out from behind a large bush. Morgan ran around them in a circle, barking with excitement like he wasn't sure who he wanted to greet first. He must have settled on Carl, because the boy was soon being dog molested in every way possible. Daryl expected Tank to go for Rowan first. Then maybe Daryl would get whatever licks were left over. That was the dog's standard greeting order. But to his surprise the dog came to him first. He shoved his large mass right in between Daryl and Rowan, making her fall back against the side of her horse. Daryl laughed and patted his chest. The big dog jumped up, bracing his forepaws on Daryl's shoulders and covering his face in copious amounts of dog slobber.

"Is that a new whistle?," Daryl asked Rowan as he tried to shove Tank off. Making the dog stop with his affections was turning out to be just as difficult as earning them had been.

"I had to teach them to hide," Rowan said. Finally she grabbed Tank by the collar and hauled him away from Daryl. "Those women eat dog meat," she explained, "we saw them catch a wild dog in a cage kill it." Daryl shook his head and took a better look around the small campsite he was in. They had ridden in almost a large circle. Leaving them on a hill up above the camp he had been held in. Several yards away, he recognized a weeping willow tree that he had noticed when he had been let out to work. The tree would be an ideal spot to hide and spy. He guessed it was where Enid and Rowan had been hiding to watch and wait for a chance to break him and Carl out. He wished he would have known they were there when he was staring up at it. It would have made his time in captivity much easier to bear.

The sound of a zipper caught his attention. Carl and Enid were trying to get the one small tent in the camp unzipped without taking their mouths off each other. It was obvious they were planning to climb inside the tent and have sex.

"Hey!," Daryl hollered at them. He earned himself a questioning glance from Carl and a very dirty look from Enid accompanied by her middle finger thrust into the air. Daryl snorted laughter through his nose. He supposed he would let her get away with it this time. But only because she saved his ass.

"They are goin' be coming fer us," Daryl reminded the young couple, "we need to be ready when they show up."

"We have horses. They don't," Enid informed him. Then she shoved Carl into the tent in front of her and zipped it up behind them.

Rowan came drifting over and wrapped her arms around his neck. She nuzzled him with her nose before she kissed a hot little trail down the line of his jaw. There was still streaks of mud on her cheeks, leading back into her hairline and some of it was flaking off into his beard.

Enid did have a point, besides the one on the top of her head, Daryl thought. It would be at least a half hour before those women found them. And that's if they found them at all. Daryl had seen the shocked looks on their faces when Rowan and Enid rode in on the horses. Those women clearly had no idea that Rowan and Enid were sneaking around their camp and spying on them for the entire last week. He doubted any of them were expert trackers. Or good at anything besides being crazy and mean.

"There's a little creek down behind here," Rowan mentioned. She took the little smile on Daryl's face as his agreement and started walking backwards, pulling him in the direction of the water. Since she wasn't paying attention to where she was going, she caught her foot on a rock and stumbled to the side. She would have fallen if Daryl hadn't caught her. One of his arms went under her knees and the other wrapped around her back, lifting her off the ground. She slung and arm around his neck and rested her head against his shoulder, using the other hand to point him in the direction of the creek.

The water was cold, but the day was warm. They rid themselves of their clothes and splashed into the clear water. Daryl had never been keen on bathing in general, it was more like something he did because he had to. But he found he was eager to wash the stink of that place off his body. Rowan tied her hair up on top of her head with one of her bracelets and started scooping up handfuls of the cold water to scrub the markings off her face. Some of the mud was dried on and since she didn't have a mirror, she was having a hard time getting it all off.

Daryl walked to the egde of the creek and grabbed up the torn remenants of his shirt. It was ruined anyway. He dipped the corner of it in the water and pulled Rowan into his arms. She closed her eyes and let him wipe away the little dried patches of mud that she had missed. Once it was all gone, he dropped the shirt into the water and let the current carry it away. Her eyes fluttered open. She was staring up at him, little droplets of water caught in her dark lashes. They were catching the light of the afternoon sun as it filtered down through the trees.

He covered her mouth with his. The kiss was soft at first, both of them smiling into it. But then Rowan felt his arms tighten around her. The kiss got deeper and then his tounge was sliding against hers. Tasting her. Devouring her like he was starving and she was the food. This was not how Daryl normally kissed her. This was something different. He was usually much more gentle with her, particularly since she had told him she was pregnant. Reserved. That was the word she was looking for. He kept his emotions in check. She always knew the raw need for her was there, rippling under the surface. But this was the first time he had expressed it physically.

Rowan closed her eyes and kissed him back. She let the tide of his kisses wash over her. He was already digging his fingers into her soft flesh and she only wanted him to hold her tighter. His hands moved down, gripping her ass and grinding his hips into hers. And then his hands moved lower, clasping her thighs and lifting her so her legs were wrapped around his waist. He walked, his feet sloshing through the soft sand of the creek bottom. Sand and clay sliding between his toes.

Daryl headed for the grassy spot he had seen on one side of the creek. He knelt down and shuffled forward on his knees, grass staining his skin. Rowan was wrapped around him, kissing the skin on his neck. She sucked his earlobe into her mouth and nipped at it with her teeth. The little voice inside his head that usually reminded him to be careful and gentle with her was being drowned out by the steady whoosh sound of his blood pumping in his ears. They hit the grass with him on top of her. Somewhere in his mind, Daryl registered the pain of his funny bone hitting a rock, but he ignored the sensation completely.

Her hot center was pressing into his stomach and her hips already starting to rock back in anticipation. He pulled back, one hand sliding between them to guide his hard length inside her. Pushing into her felt like heaven. Daryl knew he ought to slow down, or this was going to be over more quickly than he wanted it to be. But he felt powerless to stop himself from rolling his hips into hers over and over again.

Rowan kept her eyes shut, thinking of nothing except the spot deep inside her that was being rubbed each time Daryl thrust into her. She could usually feel her orgasms coming on, but this one hit her by surprise. He was still moving fast and hard and she almost felt paralyzed by her orgasm. Like all she could do was hang on and let her pleasure course through her. He spilled inside her with a loud moan, almost like it felt so good that it hurt a little.

Daryl flopped down on top of her, then rolled off to the side to keep from smashing her and making it so she couldn't breathe. Rowan turned, curling into his side and lying one of her palms flat in the center of his chest. She liked to feel his heartbeat. So fast at first and then it would gradually slow down as his body relaxed. His hand slid across his body, where it came to rest on the curve of her hip. Then he moved it down to feel the small hard bump below her belly button with the rough tips of his fingers.

"Didn't hurt ya did I," he asked.

"Mmmm," Rowan hummed. He took that to mean she had not been injured during their lovemaking. Really Rowan was thinking he ought to get kidnapped more often, but she had quickly decided announcing that might not be in the best of taste. Later when they were home safe, they could joke about what happened.

"Can I ask you something?," Rowan murmured.

"Ya jus' did," Daryl said, pushing on her hips so he could get a better feel on the tiny baby lump between them. Rowan giggled, reaching down to adjust his hand so he wasn't tickling her.

"Why didn't you have sex with Amanda?," she asked. That woman was crazy, but she wasn't unattractive. And she said she would let Daryl go if he had sex with her. Rowan had heard her from where she was hiding. That bitch had a voice that carried. She seemed to be the only one that enjoyed the sound of it. And it was obvious, to Rowan at least, that Amanda would become very angry if she was refused. Rowan was glad Daryl said no, but she wasn't sure she would have been so brave if she had been in his position.

"Dunno," Daryl said, "cause I didn't want to I guess." There were a lot of reasons he had refused. The number one reason being that he didn't ever want to sleep with anyone besides Rowan. Also he didn't like the feeling of being forced against his will. And he was pretty sure the whole thing had been some kind of weird trick. Even if he had done what that woman asked, he knew there was no way she was just going to let him and Carl walk out of there.

Rowan leaned up and craned her neck so she could press her lips to his. Love you. Love you too.

"We should probably get up and get dressed," Rowan said. She was feeling all noodle bodied and really had no interest in getting up and going anywhere. But getting caught naked and unarmed by those crazy people didn't sound like a fun after sex activity either. Daryl must have felt the same, because he answered her with a disgrunted groan before forcing his body into a sitting position.

It was a good thing Daryl sat up when he did, because there was a walker heading their way. It had gotten caught up in a bush nearby, but not caught enough to hold it back forever. Daryl grabbed a larger rock from the side of the small creek and walked over to bash the monster's head in. When he turned back, Rowan was across the stream pulling her clothes back on.

"I can go get you some clean clothes from camp," she offered. Daryl shrugged his shoulders and followed after her instead of waiting by the creek. He was unwilling to let her out of his sight, even if it meant walking back to camp naked. He carried his boots, vest and very dirt crusted ripped jeans under one arm.

Enid was stocking up a small fire, getting ready to make Carl something to eat. She wrinkled her nose up at Daryl, but made no comment on his state of undress. She just gave him a nod and put another can of soup near the fire.