by V. K. Ludwig
Her walls clenched my cock and squeezed my shaft. That did it for me. I pounded in and out of her, her scream making me feel all man, all rebel and not a bit of scientist.
I let out a deep husky moan, and my balls tightened.
“Max,” she said it as a warning but ground herself against me, taking my cock all in. The sweet suction of her pussy was too much to handle. Too good to leave.
“Max,” she said once more, this time louder and hooking her feet behind my back. For a moment I separated my brain from my body and hammered in and out of her. Every muscle inside of me tensed. Trembles and jerks ran across my shaft. I gave one last thrust as hard and deep as I could. My cum spilled itself inside of her. Paralyzed by pleasure I couldn’t move except for the jerking bounce of my hips.
My body collapses on top of hers, squeezing an oomph out of her lungs. I stared in her eyes, those beautiful blue eyes. Tears waited behind them, I could tell. Not the sad kind, but the kind someone got who just received a lifetime wish delivered to her doorsteps.
Chapter 24
Autumn
I gave his shoulders a little shove, took a deep breath and stared down at our unbroken bond. “Why did you do this?”
“Because it felt like the right thing to do.” He stated it like a fact: quick, to the point, leaving no room for objection.
Within the fraction of a moment, he had rolled onto his back pulling me on top of him, his cock still snug inside me. I rested my hand on his chest, those remaining heaves swishing through his lungs turning into a pleasant melody.
Exhausted and deeply satisfied, I placed my hand onto where it came from, his heart’s slowing beat knocking against my palm.
“This isn’t a requirement, Max,” I said. “All my life I was looking for someone I can love and loves me back. Now that I have it, I won’t put a stipulation on it. If we can’t have a child, so be it.”
“I know,” he said in a certain voice, yet there was a slight undertone of doubt that remained. “It’s not that I see the way the clans do it as the right one. But I also can’t ignore where the Districts failed. Right here, right now, it’s what I wanted.”
He lifted his head and placed a kiss on my forehead, adding another butterfly to my already crowded stomach.
“Most of all,” he continued, “I’m just sick of running away from my memories. Not sure why. I have great memories of my time with Nathalie. More good ones than bad ones, actually.”
“I wanna hear them all,” I mumbled into his chest.
He cupped my chin and turned my head to face him, and those beautiful eyes that appeared more vibrant now than they did a few days ago. Everything about him was still Max. But more of it, as if he had shed a skin that had been too tight for him from the get-go.
“My dad said something back at the church, you know.” He gazed deep into my eyes as if the words that followed had flipped a switch for him. “Life is a privilege, and so are the pains we feel. When Ruth took you away… it was damn painful, Autumn. But I realized it made me feel more alive than I had for years.”
I grabbed his shirt from beside us and pushed it between my legs where his cock slid out of me, droopy and covered in a mix of wetness and cum. Then my mind drifted hundreds of miles up North. How would my clan react if I came back?
With a guy in tow. Not just any guy.
A man from the Districts — the lowest kind for most back home, right after the outlaws we sent to the Ash Zones. A nervous avalanche rumbled in my stomach, turning the blood in my veins cool and thick.
Max’s hand wandered toward the cans. Or, to be precise, to the zebra-striped memory stick. “This looks an awful lot like the one I used back at the server room.”
He grabbed it and let his fingers run over the sticky-matte surface, turning and flipping it as if answers might fall out. “How did you get this?”
“Believe it or not, but Svea gave it to me. Said she was the one in the server room. She asked me to keep it safe and take it to my clan.”
A deep breath made his chest rise — then it stalled.
He wrapped his fist around the stick and rubbed his knuckles across his forehead, occasionally hitting against it like a woodpecker. “Did she say what’s on it?”
“Yes and no,” I said, standing up. “She said it has everything we wanted to know and more. She wouldn’t be specific, but then again, there wasn’t a lot of time.”
I leaned over and gave him a kiss on his blotchy forehead. “She also said that if you were to join me here, the people would think I kidnapped you, which in turn would hurt the political relations.”
“Kidnap me?” he scoffed. “Maybe luring me with that sexy ass of yours.”
I clamped his shirt between my legs, his seed dripping out of me and making the world spin faster. Would he weep at the potential consequence? Or embrace it like he embraced the love between us? I clenched my pussy, trying to keep it all in, hiding it away between my legs like the treasure it was. At least to me.
“We need to get ready. She said someone called Ayanna will join us here soon, and together we —”
Hushed voices sounded from behind the door, and feet shoved over the gritty concrete floor on the other side.
“Shit!” Max jumped up, rummaging through the sleeping bag in desperate search for his briefs. Once he tracked them down, he put them on, kicked his legs into his pants and ripped his shirt out from between my thighs.
I swayed a bit at the sudden yank but continued punching my fists into the sleeves of my shirt. “Svea only talked of one person joining us. That out there is more than one,” my voice came muffled through the fabric of my shirt.
Max gave his shirt a quick glance, brows furrowed and all, then shrugged his shoulders in a whatever and put it on. It’s not like he had any other options, anyway.
I walked over to the door, the cold iron key already burning between my thumb and index finger.
“Let me!” Max stepped up beside me and pushed my body behind him.
Metal scratched inside the peephole.
Hinges screeched a song of rust.
“I am Ayanna,” it came from the other side, her voice shakier than my knees. “I believe councilwoman Svea sent us here, though I don’t really understand why, but —”
I stepped up behind Max, trying to get a glimpse of her. Svea said she had gone to the clan in my place. She was the teacher, called back because of the server room incident.
“I am Max”, he said. “The scientist? You know, the guy everyone says got kidnapped by the clanswoman?”
“Oh,” she said. “So, um, is Autumn with you then? I am sorry that we are just —”
“Who is she?” Max interrupted her, confirming my fear that it was more than one person out there.
“Her name is Isabelle. She is my friend…” I tried to read her voice. See if I could detect a signal of distress. Track down a lie. They went on about their talk, but all I could hear were high and low tones, along with tremors in everyone’s vocal cords.
I sidestepped and peeked through the gap, but my eyes didn’t land on Ayanna. No, they went straight to the familiar face behind her.
Isabelle my ass! My stomach convulsed, the nasty goo from earlier tickling that little thing at the back of my throat, making my mouth go soaking wet and ready to vomit onto the ground. What the fucking fuck?
The brown hair of hers that Rowan loved so much cascaded down her shoulders, her gaze resting on…
No! Uh-uh! It can’t be true. A baby rested nestled in her arms, swinging from left to right in a soothing, steady rhythm.
Like a reflex, my hand clamped across my mouth, and my breathing turned shallow. She looked awfully alive for someone presumed dead, dressed in freaking linen like everyone else in this shitty cotton-infested place.
“Darya!” it ran off my tight lips, each letter scratching my throat like shards of glass.
How could she do that to my brother, after all he had done for her? Max reached out for my arm, but I slappe
d it away. This wasn’t the time for calm. Not even for anger. It was time for fucking fury, and I unleashed in onto her in a scornful thunder.
I asked her everything, each question aimed at her heart like a fatal bullet. Did she know men died for her? Did she know Rowan still looked for her? Was that baby the reason she left?
It all came to nothing, except for deep anger inside of me and a crying infant startled by the turmoil.
“Ladies,” Max interrupted our verbal catfight after what felt like twenty seconds to me. Ayanna stood open-mouthed beside him, the confusion written in wrinkles across her forehead.
“I hate to bring this to you,” he continued, “but we will have to leave, or the entire plan will fail.”
My pulse pounded inside my ears, reminding me that I wasn’t done yet. But Max was right. We had to stick to the plan, or none of us would make it out.
I bit down on my lips once more, this time tasting blood. But it was the only thing that kept me from boiling over.
“There is an abandoned building at the East side of this district. Apparently, we can get out through there. That child councilwoman told us someone will wait there and bring us back to the clan.”
Max tugged on my shoulder and whispered in my ear. “Do you think it’s safe?”
“I’m sure Svea did her best.” I was sure she did, but somehow his question covered my limbs in goosebumps from the toes up. “I think it’s safe enough.”
Chapter 25
Max
“Holy fucking Jesus, it burns like a motherfucker!” I pushed my hand down on the oozing wound. It kept on pouring, staining my pants red and trickling on the beige floor mat of the truck. “If Svea considered this a sound plan then she’s off her rocker.”
The lady driver stepped on the gas, blowing up dust into the night and rumbling over rough and smooth. Each time the terrain turned rocky, a sting went from the wound all the way inside, penetrating my bone.
Autumn let our hands intertwine, making my heartbeat settle once more in a steady rhythm. We made it out. Injured, but alive. But her face had turned paler than a bag of flour.
“I’m sure she didn’t expect they would shoot,” she said.
“Oh, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Clark, the contact that got us out of the Districts through an old service tunnel, said.
He rummaged through a small red bag and pulled out a ball of white bandage, stained yellow in most places, and flung it onto Autumn’s lap. Next, he grabbed into the pocket of his jacket, pulling out a dinged metal flask. “Bullet only grazed your leg. Pour that over your wound. It’ll give ya’ a taste of a real burn. Let that sweetheart of yours wrap the bandage around ya’ leg. Gotta get done tight. Hear me? As tight as ya’ can.”
I grabbed the flask from him and brushed it by my nose, the strong alcoholic stench burning away the hairs in my nose like acid.
“What is this stuff?” I asked, tipping the bottleneck. “It stinks like … shit… shit… aaugh…”
The excruciating pain made me near dizzy, and the way Autumn’s hands kept on bumping against my thigh didn’t help. Just like Clark had ordered, she wrapped the bandage — likely cholera infested — around my thigh in sharp, tight yanks.
“Yellowstone Yodel,” Clark said, the tone of his voice painting a picture of a wide grin on his face. “Burns like lava and makes you holler. Get it? Like the volcano?”
The infant in Ayanna’s arms let out a gurgle of complaints, probably spooked by the commotion. Ayanna wrapped the fuzzy swaddle blanket a bit more snug and dandled her in a swing of arms. A soft sh… left her barely parted lips, trying to calm the little one.
Autumn tied a knot into the bandage and ripped the flask out of my hands, holding it up. “Do you mind Clark?”
“Not one bit,” he said. “Go ahead, sweetheart.”
Before the flask touched Autumn’s mouth, the lady with the wrinkly face driving the truck punched her elbow into Clark’s side. He gave a puff, then dived his hands into the lady’s hair, leaned over and whispered something into her ear. She giggled like a girl a quarter of her age, placing her palm onto Clark’s lap.
Autumn took a sip of Yellowstone Yodel, her face falling into wrinkles starting around her eyes and ending around her pouting lips. She handed the flask back to Clark, who took it with a dip of his head.
“So,” her voice had gone husky. “I take it you guys are from the Ash Zones?”
“Born and raised,” the lady driver rasped, her dusty vocal cords more proof of her origin than required. “Been in this business for the last thirty years.”
I leaned to the side, trying to get a better look of her face, but a sun-bleached handkerchief hung around her neck, bunching up against her cheeks. “And by business you mean…”
“The transportation business, love.” She turned around and fumbled the handkerchief down, revealing chapped lips on a full face. “Been working with ‘ya daddy for almost as long now. Knew your mother, too. A good woman. Always kind and —”
“You worked with my dad?”
A sudden heat burned inside my lungs as if something imploded within my ribcage. Dad’s work never felt more important to me than at that moment. Without him, Autumn and I would have been split.
“Damn straight,” Clark said. “But the council ain’t making it easy anymore nowadays. Old tunnels are being sealed shut. Not much longer and Mama Bear and I gotta retire.”
“Yup,” she said. “Your daddy hoped ‘ya would be part of this ride to freedom. I’ll let the ole man know ‘ya made it.”
Autumn squeezed my hand and placed a kiss on my knuckles. Then she let go and leaned forward, hanging between driver’s and passenger’s seat. “So, Mama Bear,” she said. “How come you guys are alive and well when going to the Ash Zones is a death sentence for anyone at the clans.”
Clark wiped his huge hand across the deep grooves around his eye, revealing pale skin whenever they stretched flat on his otherwise tan face. He let out a laugh. “Because ya’ll are a bunch of pussies. It ain’t so bad as long as you got a club that got your back. They keep the men in line. And so do the Lilies.”
“Shut up Clark,” Mama Bear hissed. “All you gotta know is that the place sucks, and you’re gonna try to stay away from it. Clear?”
Autumn plunged herself back into the seat, making the entire bench vibrate underneath me.
I flung my hand onto my leg. “Aaugh, shit…”
“Oh my god I am so sorry, Max,” she said, cubbing my cheek in her hands.
I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer, taking in the scent of our lovemaking that still clung to her. “Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad we made it out together. Nothing is ever going to wedge between us again, baby. And I want to marry you by that church you mentioned.”
“It’s a ruin.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I caressed her cheek with the tip of my nose, placing the occasional kiss along her jawline. “It could be nothing but a brick in a field for all I care. I just want you to be my wife.”
My adoration for her warmed my entire body, almost bringing tears to my eyes. For the first time in years, I felt complete.
Ayanna let out a deep sigh, still swinging Rose in her arms, although she had fallen back to sleep a good while ago. “I can’t believe we had to leave Darya behind.”
Autumn pushed away from me and flung around. “Doesn’t it piss you off that she lied to you? You said she was a friend of yours. Real friends don’t lie about their identity, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know the entire story, so I try not to judge.”
“Oh that’s a quick one,” she said with a sweeping arm gesture, the tone of her voice once more turning grim.
I wanted to stop her right then and there and take her into my arms again. But Rowan was her brother, and whatever happened between him and Darya, it seemed to mean a whole lot to her. Besides, I was fucking curious myself.
“They’ve been married for years and, well, th
ey tried to get pregnant but it just never happened,” she shrugged her shoulders. “Guess she thought she’d come to the Districts, get herself a new life with that baby she wanted, leaving my brother behind broken-hearted.”
“What if she had other reasons?” I asked, but she quickly turned around giving me the evil eye. I sunk deeper into the seat. Rowan was her only family. Of course, she was pissed.
She leaned over, stroked my cheek and whispered a kiss onto my lips. “Sorry. I’m just drained and confused by all this.”
I pulled her against my chest, offering myself as a pillow. As she lay there, I gazed out the window, overlooking the change in terrain. We had left the walls behind us, and nobody seemed to follow.
The engine of the truck hummed like a bumblebee but creaked whenever Mama Bear had to slow down and drag the old shift stick across the center console. Less than five minutes later, Autumn’s breath had slowed, and her body had gone limp against mine.
“They called you back because of the server room incident?” I asked, keeping my gaze stuck to the window.
“Uh-huh,” Ayanna answered.
“So why go back to the Clan of the Woodlands? Why put your life in danger like this?”
When she didn’t answer, I turned my head around, instantly meeting her stare. She carefully lifted her finger which lay wrapped around the baby, pointing at Autumn. “Same reason as you, I guess. I fell in love, and can’t picture my life without him anymore.”
Her words hit me like a rock on the head, making dozens of questions spill from the crack in my brain. How many citizens of the Districts would choose love over safety, if given a choice?
“You didn’t drink your water?”
“Nope,” she shook her head. “Not a drop. The council refused my application to be impregnated. I had the glorious idea to go on the exchange, steal their samples and turn it into a do-it-yourself kind of project. You?”
