by V. K. Ludwig
My carefully nurtured confidence crumbled into pity, and I flung myself next to him on the ground. He didn’t look up, but the way he sniffed the snot back into his brain told me he knew I was there.
“You… you… you met my wife?” Rowan asked, his voice riding the devastating waves of pure agony.
“I hid with Autumn in a basement, and she just showed up. Together with Ayanna and…” And Rose, but there was no need to spell out the obvious. The last thing he needed was another punch in the face, though two minutes ago it was exactly what I planned. A verbal one, that was.
“She tried to escape with us, but she twisted her ankle.” I gave him a moment to stomach it before I continued. “Asked Ayanna to leave her behind and so we did. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made it out. She only had one concern…”
I placed the subject at his doorsteps while not taking it between my lips. He and I almost seemed the same height now. Actually, he appeared smaller. Much smaller. His shoulders rounded into a curl and one side of his waist caved in.
His body trembled at every sob, making him look vulnerable, or perhaps already defeated. He wiped his toilet-lid-sized hands across his face, rubbing those tears deep into his pores. A final sniff wormed through his nose, and he threw his head back looking at the branches above.
“Guess I have to take care of that little rug rat in there from now on,” he said between two deep sighs. “No child should grow up without its mother.”
We sat there in silence for a long moment. Not the awkward kind. More like the peaceful one, where everyone appreciated those seconds to rearrange their thoughts. Seeing him like that twisted my stomach hard, especially after he scared me shitless in there. Strength and weakness seemed to go hand in hand for this man.
“So.” He stretched his legs out and crossed one over the other. “She loves you?”
His question tracked a flutter straight down into my stomach. “So she says, as crazy as that might sound to you. Trust me, I can’t even believe it myself. How could a guy like me possibly be this lucky?”
“And do you love her?”
“With all my heart,” I said, not a bit embarrassed by how thickly confidence covered my voice. “And I’m prepared to do what’s necessary to make a life with her here. Start a family —”
“Before you think about starting a family, think about how you’re going to protect them.”
He skittered down and lowered his head onto a patch of moss, his hand wiping away a late arrival of a tear. “We don’t have walls here to hide behind. But that’s the least of your problems. Don’t expect to be well received here. I know at least a handful of men who will give me a headache about how this went down between you two.”
“I understand.” I really did. The moment we arrived here, tracking down the face of a woman in the crowd was harder than finding a speck of dust in the desert.
“Good. I’ll teach you single combat and River will help you out with the bow and crossbow.”
I pushed myself up and gave him a thankful nod. “I gotta get back to the others and check on Autumn.”
“Max,” he said the moment I stepped away.
“Hm?”
“Break her heart, and I will rip that pussy of yours from your face and feed it to the hogs.”
“Right…” I took a few steps back before I turned around once more, leaving him behind underneath the tree.
My brain told me to hurry back to the longhouse, but my heart grew heavier at each step. After less than ten feet, it was pretty much an anchor I dragged with me at the bottom of my stomach. I couldn’t leave this unresolved. Not if I knew I might be able to help.
I turned back around and took a couple of quick steps toward Rowan.
“Listen,” I said. “The Districts kick off each new year with a huge celebration and fireworks at midnight. It was the time my dad was most excited about because lots of shady stuff went unnoticed.”
“And I should care because…?”
“What if I can help you get Darya back?”
He stood on both legs before I finished my sentence, sucking in an edged breath. “Who the hell says I want her back?”
A knot the size of an apple lodged somewhere in my throat. I peeked down at the ground, fully expecting to stand on a thin sheet of ice.
“Nobody,” I said. “But like you said earlier, no child should grow up without its mother. Her mother said she just turned nine weeks old. Nine weeks, Rowan. A child that young belongs with the mother.”
“Right, right…” He paced back and forth between me and the tree, his fingernail noisily running along the edge of his incisors. “I already lost two men trying to find her. There’s no way I can send more after her and invade —”
“There’s no need to invade anything. Help me get in touch with my dad, and he will make sure he gets her out. You can send someone to pick her up and bring her here.”
“For the baby…” he said, his words neither a statement nor a question. Just words hanging there left out for everyone's interpretation.
“Yeah, exactly,” I said. “For the baby.”
He shooed me off with the quick and frantic waves of his hand, his mouth surrounded by incoherent mumbling and half-lived head-shakes.
I jogged back to the longhouse and stepped through the side door, the others waiting with wide eyes behind it.
Autumn threw herself into my arms. “I thought he killed you and buried you somewhere in the forest.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I scoffed. “Where would you get such a crazy idea from?”
I pulled her deep into my embrace, her fiery hair bunching up against my throat and welling out from underneath my jaws. “We just had a talk. Man to man. And I’ll definitely never break your heart, or he’ll rip out my shaved pussy and feed it to the hogs.”
“We don’t have hogs,” River said with a grin on his face and Ayanna in his arms. Rose suckled on a bottle, her eyes wide open and taking in her new surroundings.
“That sure takes the pressure off,” I said, much to the amusement of the others.
I pointed at Rose. “Rose should come with us for now. Rowan said he’ll take care of her, but we might wanna give him another minute or two.”
“Alright.” Autumn formed her arms into a cradle, and Ayanna placed the infant onto her arms, making sure not to break the suction of the bottle. The baby seemed unfazed by it all, having eyes for nothing but the white liquid dripping onto her tongue.
“We can take care of her for tonight,” Autumn said, “but after that, I want to spend my nights with nobody but you.”
I shifted my weight back a bit and took in the woman I followed into clan-territory. My heart settled into a steady rhythm, spreading warmth throughout my core and into every tip of my limbs. She was a task with a capital T, but shit she was all mine.
“We should,” I said. Then I pressed a fiery kiss onto her lips, turning my own legs into stilts. “That baby looks really good on you, and we should make it a semi-permanent accessory once we get the chance.”
A devious smile moved in on her lips, but it had nothing on the love and devotion that danced behind her eyes. “Another experiment?”
“No.” I lowered my head and placed my lips at her earlobe. “Turns out, I suck at science, so I better find myself something else to do.”
This concludes Clan of the Woodlands - The Innocent (#2). I hope you enjoyed the story of Max and Autumn. Don’t worry, we will see them again soon. But first, let’s see if Rowan can forgive Darya.
Did you know that your voice matters? If you liked The Innocent, please support this series by leaving a review. Reviews don’t have to be long. A one-liner will do.
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