Chapter One: A Wife for a Wife
Anja and Bane sailed under a lucky star for a number of years, staying in a remote part of Alaska, trusting a tight network of contacts that Bane had trusted throughout the years.
The big bear made of stars watched over their small township from the sky.
Under the cold-style roof of a simple home with taupe-colored walls throughout most of the house, a little boy with dark hair ran across hardwood floors stained a deep mahogany.
His little bare feet slapped on the wood planks that were warmed from underneath.
Behind him, a plump little girl with cherubic cheeks gave chase. Her bouncing dark blonde hair was loose and fell wild around her shoulders.
The little boy's cries of joy turned to shrieks of pain when he fell and bumped his head on the hard, warm floor.
The little girl paused and looked down at her crying, younger by two years brother.
"Why are you crying son?" came Bane's voice, less mechanical since he'd had many revisions on his breathing apparatus and aerosolized respiratory support.
The result of multiple surgeries within skilled hands had given him a less invasive mask, the new serum delivery system left his scarred lips bare, exposed to the air.
He'd never be able to spend enough time memorizing Anja's taste, from her breath to the more intimate.
"I fell papa," the little boy howled.
"Why did you fall?"
"She was chasing me?" the little boy accused, sniffing hard as he pointed accusingly to his sister.
"Were you giving chase?" Bane asked the little girl.
"Only because he took my crayons papa and wouldn't give them back."
"Did you steal son?"
"Yes," the little boy cried, dropping to the floor in a sobbing puddle.
Bane smiled as he squatted down and gathered up his son, rising to his full height as he spoke to the sniffling child. "You've suffered enough, let's go find your mother."
Annalisa followed her father and brother to the end of the hallway and into the brightly lit kitchen, the pungent aroma of onions and garlic simmering in a Dutch oven filled the air.
Bane felt a jolt in his core every time he laid eyes on Anja.
He and the children found Anja frosting a lemon cake, meant for after dinner.
The kids at once began squealing for an early slice, Sebastian's tears a thing of the past.
Bane's breath caught in his chest as Anja lifted her index finger to her lips, hypnotized at the tip of her pink tongue dart out to lick the frosting perched on the tip.
"The children may enjoy their cake in the other room while you and I talk upstairs," he said, his words slithered and swirled around her, making her warm.
Anja and Bane held eyes as she sloppily put two pieces of half-frosted cake on two plates for the kids, barely hearing their gleeful cries of gratitude before Bane followed her upstairs, both of them not speaking or touching until he locked their bedroom door behind them.
Bane closed his hands in and out of loose fists, anxious to relieve Anja of her clothes.
"I'll start the bath," Anja murmured before Bane caught her up in his embrace, crushing her to the front of his body.
"Please be careful," Anja whispered, discomfort staining her tones.
"Are you unwell?" Bane asked, rising concern competing with his surging lust.
The corners of Anja's lips pulled up into a slow smile, "I was going to tell you later," she started to say before squirming about of his arms and disappearing into the bathroom, returning a minute later holding out a positive pregnancy test towards him, her hand shaking.
Bane sagged to his knees; the carpet fibers were crushed under his weight.
Anja's second pregnancy had been traumatic, coupled with an extreme loss of blood.
The doctor had warned of any further pregnancies being high-risk and not necessarily advised.
After the second birth and recovery, Anja had begun taking oral contraceptives. She'd had an ear infection and was prescribed a low-grade antibiotic.
Upon the positive pregnancy test, her doctor theorized that the antibiotic could've interfered with the efficacy of her birth control and resulted in the unexpected pregnancy.
"Your safety," Bane began before Anja pressed her fingertips to his scarred lips, stopping his words.
"Dr. Sinclair and I have already spoken, he assured me that he'll be monitoring the pregnancy closely and you," she said before she dropped her head and pressed her lips to his. "You'll be here for me," she whispered when she lifted her lips.
Bane reached up and cupped her face, keeping her from retreating and only deepened the kiss before his hands slid over the rounded cap of her shoulders and down the length of her arms, bringing her light sweater with it.
"I'll always be there for you," he grunted as his body began to tingle with the excitement of new life growing in her belly as he rose to his feet, scooping up Anja before carrying her to the bed.
He settled her on top of the neatly made covers, forcing himself to patiently undress her, removing every stitch of her clothing before pressing his lips to her bare belly.
Anja found her words stuck as he danced his fingertips up the inside of her thigh, teasing through her silken folds, causing her naked intimacy to grow slick with wetness.
She'd learned to forget fear when she was with him, learned trust.
Bane wanted to spend more time touching, tasting, and exploring Anja but his lust had returned with a vengeance, his cock painfully hard as he fumbled himself free of his pants.
"Spread your legs," he growled.
Anja had no hesitation in opening up her body to Bane's gaze and touch.
He found himself wanting to see more of her, growling he wrapped her up in his arms and turned her around until she was straddling his lap. The movement made them face the elegant cheval mirror in the corner of the room.
A deep groan slipped from between Bane's scarred lips as his eyes drank in the sight of Anja's naked body, her thighs spread wide in order to be on his lap. A shudder wracked his large frame as he felt the glorious ways her body was already beginning to change with the new life growing within her.
He slipped a hand between them to free his hard rigidity, stroking the thickness until the skin was stretched taut on his cock, pulsing vascularity.
Bane's eyes moved over Anja's face and body as he pulled her down the length of his thickness, incrementally slow, her intimate walls stretching to accommodate.
She tipped her head back, her back arching as she slid up and down his hardness, his hands gripping her hips just shy of being painful.
Their pleasure peaked close to each other, as their bodies returned to earth and they learned how to breathe again, Anja reached out and gripped one of Bane's wrists, sliding his hand to rest on her belly.
She gave him a small smile as his warm hand cradled their growing child.
Over the next few months, Anja's belly began to swell, and she glowed as though lit from within by a thousand suns.
On a day like any other, after Anja had filled the children's bellies with hot cereal and berries, she was outside watching them play hide and seek.
She yawned deeply and stretched her arms high overhead as Annalisa tore off towards a pile of rocks that jutted naturally from the earth.
She pressed her hands into her aching lower back, this pregnancy was taking a greater toll than the others.
Bane was inside the house when his entire world was thrown into chaos.
His blood ran cold when he first heard Anja's shrieks of terror, his heartbeat pounded in his ears as he tore down the stairs, not knowing what he was going to find when he burst through the front door.
Bane's vision narrowed when his feet hit the hard ground, his eyes finally focused on Anja being held aloft by her hair, a gun muzzle pressed against the soft skin under her chin.
The man holding his beloved was a man that Bane had never expected to see again, had thought the sins of the past would stay with the dead.
Bane rose to his full height, squared his shoulders, and held his hands out to his sides, sweeping his gaze over the handful of armed men, his children held securely by men with grotesque scars and patchy facial hair.
"Hello Bane, it's been a long time, I was beginning to think I'd never find you," the man murmured who held Anja close to his body, the barrel of the gun was closer.
"Jericho," Bane stated, his tone neutral, his expression revealed nothing.
Jericho smiled, his lips pulled wide revealing missing teeth and a heavily recessed gumline.
"Is all of this yours?" Jericho asked, taking his gun away from Anja long enough to gesture with the end of the gun.
Bane nodded.
"And those?" he asked as he nodded towards the crying Sebastian and Annalisa.
Bane nodded as he closed his hands into tight fists.
"This though, this must be the prized possession," Jericho stated as he yanked up with brute force on Anja's hair, forcing her to stand on her tiptoes.
"Please," she cried out, "please don't, I'm pregnant."
Jericho nearly dropped Anja with shock before his smile widened until the necrosis of his insides could be seen with the naked eye.
"The wait was worth it," he said as he swung his gaze from Anja to Bane, "you took from me those years ago at that vile woman's direction," Jericho hissed.
Before Bane could offer any kind of rebuttal, an explanation, Jericho overrode him. "You killed her but now I shall make things right," he spit as he began to drag Anja backwards towards a waiting, bulky utility vehicle. " A wife for a wife," he said before he pulled Anja into the vehicle, having to practically break her wrists in order to get her into the backseat.
The armed men all had their weapons with the safeties off as they blasted gunfire into Bane's two vehicles in the driveway and in his direction, spraying bullets in a line in front of his feet.
Bane was forced to watch Anja taken away right in front of him, his children held under threat of a bullet to the brain until the other armed men followed the lead vehicle in tearing off of Bane's property.
His attention to the vehicle carrying Anja departing was suddenly bifurcated by his two young children running towards him, arms outstretched and tears running freely down their cheeks.
Their mother was gone, they'd had guns pointed against the soft spots of their craniums and now their father looked sad.
"Papa, papa, who took mommy?"
"Papa, papa."
His children's voices rained against his eardrums as he squatted down and pulled them close, staring into their faces, so much fear and confusion. "Papa, are you going to bring mommy back?" Sebastian asked, his voice hoarse from the crying.
"Yes son," Bane said after a long pause, cupping the face of each of his children before continuing. "I'm bringing her home, we won't be apart long," he added, feeling doubt in the strength of his words.