Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 97: A Little Stone Farmhouse by the Sea

The general nodded to Han, who nodded in return that he was good to continue with the combat matches.

Winter returned to her front row seat between Ruby and Arrie.

"Here she is, the little nutcracker," Niko said, as she sat down.

"Don’t worry Winty," Arrie commiserated with her as everyone snickered. "He’s absolutely fine. It was just an accident. You’re just such a badass fighter; he wasn’t ready for you."

Winter shook her head sadly.

"No, I kicked him after he said stop."

Arrie noticed Winter’s bottom lip was quivering. She wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a comforting squeeze.

Loveday sat behind Arrie and Winter, and Baer gave her a wink just before his match started, studiously ignoring Arrie as usual.

Han counted them in, and the fight began with Baer giving Wolf’s knee a vicious kick. Wolf grunted with pain and retaliated by gripping Baer around the neck with his huge hands.

Baer struggled wildly, not wanting to look weak in front of the women. He palmed Wolf in the guts, winding him. Wolf bent down and grabbed Baer below the knees, flipping him hard onto his back.

Baer was a big man, so the fall was loud, and he was absolutely enraged to be humiliated with Loveday and Araminta watching.

He scrambled back to his feet and gripped Wolf by the cheeks, headbutting the man in the face. Wolf collapsed and grabbed his face, blood streaming from his nose.

Winter and Arrie screamed.

"Ruby!" Delphi shouted.

Ruby sprinted over to Wolf and helped him carefully to his feet, placing pressure on his nostrils while she walked him to their newly established medical room.

Wolf glared bloodily back at Baer, who looked unapologetic as he swaggered back to his spot on the bleachers.

"Don’t bother sitting down Private Becker," General Meyer said coldly. "I’m not sure what part of ’don’t deliberately try to hurt your opponent’ you missed, but in any event, the stables need cleaning. I’ll be down to inspect them at seventeen hundred and they’d better be gleaming."

Baer turned and left the room. You didn’t mess with the General unless you wanted things to get a whole lot worse for you, and honestly, he had probably overdone it with Wolf...

Dinner that evening was on one of the silo rooftops where there was a huge potting table with an L-shaped banquette on two sides.

It was beautiful weather, so quartermaster Winter had outdone herself with an open-air dining arrangement.

She hadn’t accounted for the difficulty the banquette seating would cause, as everyone had to shuffle into the centre seats, and there was lots of jockeying for position.

Niko quickly gripped Indy by the hand and dragged her in to the centre, to sit next to him. Baer saw the game and pulled Loveday in from the other side of the L, so that he and Niko sat next to each other on either side of the corner, their girls by their sides.

Han and Arrie scuffled a little to sit next to Winter. After a bit of pushing and sliding past one another in the tight space, they eventually settled on either side of her. Winter was secretly very pleased that Han still wanted to sit next to her after this afternoon’s debacle, and she smiled shyly at him.

"I need to sit next to Ruby," Wolf announced, spotting that Ruby was sitting next to Arrie. Everyone groaned at him. "What? I am a patient. My nose might start bleeding again."

Everyone stood to allow him to sidle past and insert himself between Arrie and Ruby. It was a very tight fit for such a large man and he apologised as his butt rubbed along each person he had to squeeze past.

Magnus was sitting between Indy and Ruby. Niko looked along the bench and saw this, glaring at him.

"What?" Magnus mouthed, raising his palms in question.

Niko narrowed his eyes further at the man and made a sawing motion across his neck.

Magnus rolled his eyes. What the hell. He couldn’t even sit next to Indy now? Or was it because he was sitting in between the twin sisters? The man better not think he had dibs on both of them. Magnus would fight him tooth and nail if he thought he owned Ruby as well.

Alton and Delphi sat together at a small table nearby, giving the team a chance to blow off steam without their commanding officers.

"Look at them all jockeying to sit next to the girls they like," said Delphi. "It’s like an episode of a soap opera. It wouldn’t surprise me if a fight broke out next."

"Give them a few more drinks under their belts and it will," said Alton comfortably, taking a swig of muscat himself. "Boys will be boys. I only step in if it gets too rough."

"Well it was pretty rough today when that thug head-butted Wolf."

"Baer’s a good man really. Very loyal. He was over-excited because his woman was watching."

Alton could readily understand Baer’s overreaction to being flipped like that.

Delphi shook her head, "I don’t have a good feeling about him. I’m not sure Loveday’s ’his woman’ either. Has he asked her that?"

"Let them sort out their own affairs Delphi. We don’t need to involve ourselves, and sometimes it’s better to turn a blind eye to that stuff. You’ll go crazy if you become their agony aunt."

"I’ll turn a blind eye up until the point any one of my girls gets hurt. If that happens, I’ll be a lioness."

"I don’t doubt it," he laughed. "As a leader, remember you need to let your soldiers make their own mistakes, that’s how they learn. Don’t try and fix everything for them. It’s a bit like being a parent. Speaking of which, how many children do you want," he leaned back in his chair, looking softly at her.

Her eyes widened. "Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself Alton? We’re just courting at this stage. Then there’s a rebellion to survive and win."

"I’m just trying to get you know you better. It’s a perfectly reasonably question."

He eyed her appreciatively in her black dinner dress. It had little straps and was very tight across the bodice.

"I’m not sure it’s a fantasy I’ve ever allowed myself to contemplate. I’ve spent most of my life trying to avoid marriage and babies with the Emperor..."

He watched her as she turned her face to look at the starry sky.

"If I was an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life on the Island," she spoke wistfully, "I’d like to live on Bruny Island in a little stone farmhouse by the sea. I’d have a boy and a girl, or two boys and two girls, and we’d keep chickens and grow our own vegetables. I’d have a cherry orchard and make cherry cider and cherry pies. Bogden would have to live with us," she looked fondly down at the puppy who was her shadow already.

She broke her reverie and looked over at Alton sheepishly.

He rested his head on his hand and was staring at her with a look that almost broke her heart.