Rain (Stranger in the Woods Book 1) Read online

  Gunner, too wrapped up in his own thoughts, says, “My dad tried every formula he could find.”

  Many confused expressions appear, so I pull myself together and explain, “Formula is a substitute for breast milk.”

  Crystal readjusts on her log. “I see. Her little body would not have accepted a substitute, only another female’s milk.”

  “Why did she choose to get pregnant right after delivering me?”

  “Gunner, we heal so quickly that females can reproduce again right away. Your father, being human, was not able to close his valve. Elves have extra valves and different internal construction to form milk and control our production of life. A male shuts off certain valves to prevent impregnation.”

  This gets my attention. I want to ask a question, wondering about Ryder and I, but Olaf says to Gunner, “Be glad your papa wuz no able to Link to your mama, or he me hev perished also.”

  Now I can’t stay quiet. “Wait. What do you mean?”

  Ryder looks away.

  Solemnly, Thord answers, “A Linked male usually follows heez mate.”

  “Do you mean he dies?” I can hardly swallow at the thought of Ryder passing.

  Ryder walks into the darkness of the campsite. I attempt to follow, but Ivar says, “Let heem breathe thru heez past and fear of the future.”

  Gunner is not catching on to any of this since he’s lost in memories. “Do the ones who sent my mom away have any regrets?”

  Everyone glances at each other. Isolde answers, “We don’t know. The tribe divided after she was banished. The ones who surround you and your unborn never turned their backs on Eve and will never turn their backs on Rose.”

  His throat strains. “Why didn’t you take my mother back? She, she—could be alive.”

  Isolde bows her head. “We tried.”

  Hunter says, “Eve did not want to feel responsible for the split among our leaders. She also didn’t want to be without your father, and she refused to take his unborn from him. She loved him. We respected her choice.”

  Gunner tries to hold back emotions with no luck. “She was pregnant with me?”

  Isolde nods. “Yes. You were a successful birth—as you know. And during the pregnancy with your sister, we had already relocated for another Demon.”

  Crystal says, “As soon as we learned of her pregnancy, Eve, Halo, and I rushed to be with Eve in case anything were to go wrong. Halo was still nursing Ryder and preparing for his brother to come.” What? Ryder doesn’t have a brother.

  Sage puts an arm around his mate as she wipes tears. “Your mother, my Crystal, and Halo were dearest friends. It was no shock that two of the three became pregnant in the same season. Crystal probably would’ve also been carrying if I were permitted.” I want to ask what that means, but Sage says, “Losing both females was a terrible shock.”

  Isolde says with sadness, “With Eve already in the afterlife, nature’s design failed. Neither young survived. Ryder lost his mother in childbirth along with his brother. Soon after, his father followed. This is why only one Warrior is allowed to reproduce at a time. We can not afford to have multiple Guardians following females into the afterlife at once.”

  Gunner and Ryder lost moms and siblings at almost the same time. “Ryder was at my house, wasn’t he?” Gunner asks, also connecting the dots.

  Crystal replies, “A nursing young always travels with the mother. You and Ryder bonded while you traveled with us. He was saddened to see you leave. I’m surprised neither of you remembers this.”

  “Wait. I’ve lived with you?”

  “A temporary female camp had been set up because males were away fighting a Demon most dangerous to young. The males never met you or they would’ve recognized your scent when meeting you full grown.”

  This is why Gunner is adjusting so well compared to me. He’s already lived this way. He mumbles, “I don’t remember any of this.”

  Isolde explains with one word. “Trauma.”

  “Holy shit.” Gunner rubs his chest as if a sudden pain has taken residence. He turns on his log to me with haunted eyes. “Ryder would follow you. I just know he would.” Gunner struggles to breathe. “And if he’s following you, that means you have died.” Still standing next to him, I pull him to me, feeling like I’m consoling him for something that hasn’t even happened yet. “I can’t lose you, too, Rose. Don’t you make me raise her alone.”

  I rock him. I would promise to survive, spare him a pain he has never known, but it’s clear my fate is out of my hands.

  Holding my best friend, the father of my baby, I see a figure in the dark, watching me. Maybe it won’t come to that, I tell Ryder.

  No reply.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Ryder

  Watching Rose comfort Gunner only makes me love her more. Her compassion is unlimited, and seeing her devotion, not just for me, but for others, makes me realize what a loss this village will endure if Rose doesn’t survive. They will only become more attached to her as time moves on.

  I didn’t want Rose to learn of the high rate of complications with bearing our young. Rose doesn’t need another worry. She’s smart and has probably already guessed that being human raises her risks. And I didn’t want Rose to know that, without a shadow of a doubt, if she passes on, I will follow.

  I sit on the ground and close my eyes, leaning against a tree, searching my memories of my mother. I’m only four years older than Gunner, so I must have been five when we met…

  “Hem da seri lu futon nor?” I ask my mother where we are traveling.

  “Tu perri van son vari cu pla.” My mother tells me she is carrying me to a place where a female is in need. “And you must speak English there, Ryder.”

  I search my mind for the language she’s referring to. “Yes, mother”

  “Thank you, my young.”

  Crystal slows our pace to a light run. “We are approaching.” We come over a hill and enter a valley. I smell another of our kind has been present. The little country cottage has smoke rising from its chimney. Even though it is winter, the house is covered in vines and flowers, announcing an elf’s work.

  A man rushes out the back door with a rifle aimed at us. My mother and Crystal duck behind a tree. My mother announces, “We bring you no harm. We’ve had word that your female is about to deliver within months and would love to be of assistance to you at this special time.”

  I hear the gun fall to the wood on the porch. When my mother dares to peek around the tree trunk, we see this male on his knees, sobbing. Crystal gasps, “Oh, no.” Both females slowly approach the broken male. “Are you Eve’s mate?”

  “I was.”

  Out of the open door behind him crawls a little male. “Mother, may I get down?” I am silently released. This young appears to be of age to now be traveling on his feet. The soggy foreign undergarment between his legs is also a mystery to me. As the females console the broken man, I stand the odd young on his toes. He wobbles with his arms wide, expecting to fall. I lend him a finger for balance. “No worry, young. I will catch you if you fall.”

  Brown-and-gold eyes inspect me as I remove his covering. “Why do you wear this?” When his now exposed organ urinates on my bare toes, I quickly comprehend the meaning of this soaked device. “No, young. You are to relieve yourself away from your home.”

  The man looks at me with red, watery eyes. “What is your name, boy?”

  I stand tall since I have been addressed. “I am Ryder, soon to be a Guardian Warrior. Leader of the Travelers.”

  The man tiredly nods. “Well, my little warrior friend, Gunner here is still a baby.”

  “I don’t know what a baby is, but this young is behind.”

  The man looks at my mother. “How old is he?”

  “My young is five.”
/>   “Holy shit.”

  I command. “Come.” The young follows me to the woods.

  With reddened eyes, the man watches. “My son is walking?”

  “Ryder is destined to lead. Therefore, elves naturally follow his demands, even at an early age.”

  “Holy shit.”

  I pull my pants down and relieve myself in the woods as an example. Gunner does the same. When we return, my mother is asking, “Has your young fed?”

  The man wipes his leaking nose. “Only table food. He was forced to stop—when she died.”

  My mother tells me, “Ryder, bring me this young.”

  “Come.”

  She opens her arms and takes the young into her embrace. She studies him then holds him above my unborn brother in her belly. She tickles his nose. He smiles and his body relaxes, settling in her arms. She tilts his body to hers and studies his reaction. The young sniffs her chest then aggressively pulls at her clothing. My mother laughs. “Oh, you understand what I have to offer, don’t you, hungry little one?” She exposes a breast, and the young latches on, heavily suckling as if starving.

  Crystal tells the shocked man, “Females feed their young until after the fifth year if needed. My son, being of Warrior blood, is still demanding of me. If you wish, we can take this young for a while.”

  “But Eve wanted him with me. He’s my son.”

  “And always will be, but observe.” She points to the young still urgently feeding. “He is malnourished without a female’s milk. We could wean him safely within a year and can bring him to you often.”

  The man watches as my mother transfers the young to her other breast due to being depleted so rapidly and nods with sadness.

  My eyes open then reclose.

  Back at home with the other females, I’m hungry and frustrated with this new young always latched to my mother’s breast. I fold my arms across my chest. “Ul te—”

  “English for Gunner, Ryder. He must not take our language to the humans.”

  “Mother, when do I get my turn? This young is gluttonous.”

  She laughs at me. “You are already acting like a true male. Be patient, my son. This young has much catching up to do.”

  I smile. Rose is not the first woman Gunner and I have shared.

  “Come, Gunner,” I say as I teach him to climb a tree. He is growing quickly, and his hands strengthened once I began working with him.

  Music plays in the background. The mood around the fire has shifted. This makes it tolerable for me to return, to breathe again.

  “Ryder, I want to swim again.”

  I look at the young, now talking as he should. “Gunner, Mother said not until tomorrow.”

  I get up and walk to our outdoor kitchen. After gathering necessities, I approach the fire, thinking of Gunner and have to stop with my next memory.

  My tiny brother lies next to my mother. Neither moves. Blood everywhere. Gunner crying, clinging to my leg…

  I swallow hard. “Let’s catch up with our long-distant family.” I hand the now fully grown Gunner a jug of wine. Gunner, holding Rose’s hand tightly, looks up at me. I nod. He swallows hard and nods back. He’s remembering too.

  Ivar cheers, “Young Ry-dore, it eez a pleasure to be et yor service.”

  Inga has her baby in her lap, who is older than Asta’s young by, if memory serves me correctly, six months. Thinking of Gunner and I sharing my mother’s breast, I’m wondering how Rose is going to handle the arrangements between the Vikes. Inga’s young wants to nurse, and after starting, he pulls away from her breast and reaches for Asta.

  Thord teases Inga. “I told yu no to eat de radishes. He does no like how dey taste.” This would explain the young preferring Asta’s milk. Rose watches as the young is passed off from one mother and accepted by another with no complaints as the little one latches on for the replacement dinner.

  Rose’s eyes are as wide as saucers. Gunner chuckles, looking at me again. Yes, he remembers. I shrug. He laughs again. “Not much has changed with you, Ryder.” I guess he’s implying I still do not like to share. He is correct when it comes to Rose.

  Asta hands off her young to Ivar. “Here, hold your son.”

  Rose’s jaw practically dislocates and stays that way. She numbly asks Ivar, “I thought Asta is with Olaf?” Of course she thinks this. Olaf is the one who has been carrying Asta.

  “She is.” Ivar winks at me. He is very aware that Rose is in for a culture shock.

  “So, Asta is babysitting your… young?”

  Asta laughs. “Or Olaf’s.”

  Poor Rose tries to follow. “Umm, please forgive me if I’m intruding, but are you and Olaf—well, with—uh, hmm, never mind.”

  Ivar glares at Olaf. “Rose brings up guud point. Olaf, are yu with my female?”

  Olaf stands, leaning forward threateningly. “Ya, so? What ar u going to du about eet?”

  Now Ivar stands, matching the aggression.

  Rose—in utter shock that she has just exposed a deep secret of cheating and betrayal—jumps to her feet and gets in front of Ivar, pushing on him, getting nowhere, of course. “No! No, please don’t fight. I will mind my business.” She nervously grabs the jug. “Here, have some more wine.”

  Ivar accepts the offering. “You no tink I should fight him for my female?”

  Rose’s eyes beg for mercy. “No, no I don’t. Oh, God, Ryder! Help me.” I just smile at her. She takes a second look at my expression and puts her hands on her hips. “What’s so funny?”

  “I sex them both,” Asta blurts out.

  Everyone laughs as Rose gasps and covers her mouth. “You no sex both?” Asta asks as she points to me and Gunner, whose jaw is also resting in his lap.

  All Vike males tease Rose now. “Oh, Rose, we know what yu doing with dese males.”

  “What? No! I mean—Ah, well, see, what happened was—uh, Gunner is—but Ryder—we don’t, uh, but it’s okay that you do. To each is their own, I always say—umm—”

  “Rose?”

  She is flabbergasted as she faces me. “Yeah?”

  “They are messing with you.”

  It takes a moment to sink in, and everyone waits, dying to laugh some more. Rose rushes to me and smacks my chest. “You knew that—that—they knew?”

  The roar of laughter echoes through the whole forest. I’m sure of it.

  It’s impressive how Rose has changed her sleeping schedule for me. She says she wants to be awake when I am. Now I understand Gunner acclimating so easily. His body is simply remembering. This morning, in our home, as we get ready for bed, Rose has a million and one questions. “So Asta, Olaf, and Ivar are an item?”

  “Yes.”

  “And they don’t know who Junior belongs to?”

  “Both men raise her young, so it does not matter to them. Of course, when the young gets older and does something not pleasing, each male claims the troublemaker is not his. It is an ongoing joke.”

  “How, when, do… they—”

  “Make the sex work?”

  Rose exhales, seemingly relieved I said it for her.

  I shrug. “I never asked to witness the event.”

  Rose smacks me, laughing. “Ryder!”

  “But I’ve seen two or three of them go into their tent, and the way they were touching each other, it was clear they weren’t going for an herb break.”

  “Am I supposed to be that way with Gunner?”

  My eyes must have flashed an intense blue even though I’m trying to contain my instant jealousy.

  “I’ll take that as a no.”

  “Do you want to be with him like—”

  Her head shakes no before I even finish. “No. I love him. You know I do, but I don’t have that kind of desire fo
r him, nor does he have it for me. And I don’t think I’m cut out for the whole sharing method.”

  “Sharing gives females some security. Asta is with two Warriors. The chances of one of them dying in battle is—” Rose’s worried eyes stop me. I battle too. “Well, you know, and now she will always have a male to provide for her and her young. The other male can see it the same way. He always has someone to treat his mate and young as his own. Same for Manni, Gizor, and Dalla. They have older young at home.”

  “They all share?”

  “Yes. Kar, Thord, and Inga. Saxi, Varin, and Svala. Also, Alrik, Finn, and Helga. See, Vikes don’t Link like we do, so it is different for them. And since females have such a high mortality rate—well, you know, males outnumber females. It’s a way to keep reproducing in harmony. In their village, when a female is of age—”

  “Which is?”

  “Thirty.”

  “Oh, so there’s not a bunch of old guys with some young, innocent girls?”

  “No, no way. And the fully grown female gets to choose the males if she says she’s ready. It’s a violent time in the tribe as the males fight for her affections. The females get to make all the calls. Don’t worry. Thord was right. They truly are spoiled. The males in that tribe feed their females by hand, and the females receive whatever they want, when they want it.”

  Rose smirks. “So you’re not gonna share me?”

  I pull her on top of me. “I’m not human, and I’m not a Vike. I get territorial.”

  Rose sleeps into the afternoon, still adapting to her new schedule. I sense her approaching and hear crunching leaves getting louder the closer she gets. Sitting under a tree away from everyone, I’m mirroring—seeing myself as nature does. Elves recognize when someone is trying to reconnect with earth and give space to do so. Rose does not know this, and I would never ask her to not join me. Yet she still approaches hesitantly and with respect, naturally sensing me doing something of importance. Without opening my eyes, I smile. “How did you sleep?”