It’s not just that women are no longer giving birth to men. It’s the fact that men are entirely uncaring of their lives in service to ours. They might have lasted longer if they weren’t so insistent on keeping us women safe and sound inside… Maybe we could have helped them. And yet Ellia knew that it was partly her own fault for not wanting to help with the fighting in the first place. Gunfire used to rattle her to her very core, and even the tiniest amount of blood used to make her squeamish.

Ellia rolled onto her side and wrapped an arm around her pillow.

Perhaps… Perhaps I should give him the chance to help us around the fort. After all, if the men hadn’t at least let me help with that, I would have gone mad. Ellia thought to herself as she gazed at the empty spot next to her in her bed.

Deep down, she didn’t want to share Nikodemus with anyone else. Of course she wanted him to come to bed with her and her only. It seemed to be an innate need within her. Even though she had only known him for a few hours, she found the idea of him sleeping with three other women utterly upsetting. She had shown him the most private parts of her body, and she had shared with him the most private parts of her psyche, after all. It made her think she was in some sort of deep, irrevocable relationship with him, when she knew was not and could not truly be in one.

Even as she lay there alone in bed, she felt like stomping her way to Elizabeth’s room and throwing the door open in a jealous rage to prevent her from taking things further with Nikodemus.

But she knew that that would not be fair for either the human race or her tribe.

The one it was least fair to was Nikodemus, himself, however. And he was the one who her heart went out to the most.