Free Isaiah by Bailey Bradford

“Well, that’s tough shit for them, Bae. It’s wrong to make people reproduce like…like animals in a conservation programme or something! That is all kinds of fucked up.”
    “Maybe I can donate sperm…”
    “No!” Isaiah barked, startling Bae so badly he almost fell out of his chair. Isaiah let go of his hand to lift him to his feet instead. “Bae, can’t you see how wrong that is, too? What about the woman, whoever gets to get knocked up? Do you know her? Does she want the child? Does she want any of it?”
    Bae cringed under the questions, the same ones he’d asked himself before. It’d be easier if his family, his lepe, were all evil bastards, but they weren’t. They loved their children and each other, they defended one another and supported them, and all they asked was this one thing which, yes, he too thought was wrong.
    “We’re raised up to accept it,” he muttered, his stomach gurgling and threatening to send the coffee back up. “Most of them don’t seem to mind it. Most don’t ever leave the lepe.
    It’s all they know.”
    “Like a cult,” Isaiah said. “Was that who was after you last night? Someone from your lepe?”
    Bae snapped his head up. “No. I didn’t recognise them and I do know everyone in my lepe. It isn’t very big, just thirty-two strong.” Bae battled back his defensiveness. It wasn’t his lepe that was his priority. “They were South Korean, though, which is odd. I thought they were just shit drivers, but thinking about it…” It was fucking creepy.
    “What are the chances?” Isaiah spoke the words for Bae. “I thought, like you did, they just needed to sit through a couple weeks of driver’s ed. Now, I can’t help but worry.”
    “You and me both.” Bae replayed the incident in his head then cursed. “Damn it! There was a black SUV on the highway yesterday when I was driving to Ziti’s. It was right on my bumper and I got aggravated and managed to change lanes and exit quickly. I thought they were just bullies, someone in a bigger vehicle trying to intimidate me in my little Leaf, but now I wish I’d paid more attention to the make of the vehicle and the driver, checked for passengers and such.”
    www.total-e-bound.com

    ISAIAH
    Bailey Bradford
    48

    Isaiah hugged Bae and nuzzled his neck, setting off delicious shivers as he flushed hot and cold. “Why would you have? Those kinds of assholes are all over the place. You wouldn’t believe how few people look for motorcycles.”
    “Maybe you shouldn’t ride one anymore?” Bae suggested, clinging in more than just the physical sense. He didn’t want Isaiah hurt or worse. “I mean, I don’t doubt your driving ability, but like you said, people are looking for cars.”
    “Mmm.”
    Well, that was certainly non-committal.
    Isaiah snorted, his breath a hot puff against Bae’s skin. “Well, yeah, I mean you’re asking me to give up my bike! That’s…a lot to ask.”
    Apparently their mind link was functioning at full speed. “Not give it up entirely, just, I don’t know. Not ride it in town?”
    “I’ll think about it.” Isaiah straightened and stepped back, scowling slightly. “And we got off track, honey. We need to figure out what to do about the—well, whatever that was last night, and your family.” Isaiah’s scowl deepened. “Although I think they are just going to have to deal with it. They can’t have any of you, unless you feel a pressing need for children?”
    The way Isaiah’s voice hitched up there at the end made Bae wonder. “I…I don’t know how I feel about kids. I always figured I’d like to adopt a few. Maybe a half-dozen, try to keep up with Brad and Angie.”
    Isaiah paled and gulped and Bae laughed. “I’m kidding. Kind of. About how many, I mean. I’d love kids, but they don’t have to be spawn of my loins—or yours—and all that crap. I don’t think DNA is what makes a family, a family.”
    Isaiah nodded and walked back to his coffee. He grimaced when he