Page 29 of Claiming Their Slave
Chapter Ten
“Mother!” Wolfe ran outside into the midday heat. He hurried to the fallen form of his mother. A basket of food had spilled out in front of her, the contents splattered on the stone walkway. Another basket filled with dresses rested beside the mess, though the contents were mostly still in order, as if she’d been trying to protect the basket of clothing in particular. He knelt and helped her move into a sitting position.
“I’m fine,” she said in a quiet tone, but worry clouded her gaze. He’d seen this particular anxious expression cross her face before, and a chill went down his spine.
“Tell me what you saw, Mother.” He grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet, just as his fathers and Jaxon rushed to the scene.
She glanced at each of them in turn. “There’s a small army headed this way. They will arrive in three days as dawn is breaking through the trees.”
“An army?” Jaxon asked. “Are you sure?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Quite positive. Has my sight ever been wrong?”
“Who are these men that are coming?” Wolfe asked.
“I don’t know. I can’t see their faces, so I don’t know if they are River Men, elves, or humans. But they are armed with swords and knives.” She brushed off her skirts and reached for one of the baskets she’d dropped. “Here, this is for Ava. A few dresses that should fit her. Two pairs of shoes too. I’m assuming you two have come to your senses and mated with her already?”
At that moment, Ava appeared in the doorway, wearing the same raggedy dress she’d had on when Jaxon had brought her home. Wolfe exchanged worried looks with his fathers and Jaxon. An army was coming here, to their homestead. Concern for Ava and his dear mother rose to the forefront of his thoughts. No matter what, the women must be kept safe.
“Yes, Mother,” Jaxon said, urging Ava to join them. He put an arm around her. “Ava has become our mate. I apologize for any distress it caused when I announced she was my slave. Yes, I’d bought her in a village but—”
“Your son saved me, ma’am,” Ava interrupted. “And both Jaxon and Wolfe have treated me with nothing but kindness. I, um, hope you’re all right. Did you take a hard fall?”
His mother finally smiled. She stepped forward and passed the basket of dresses to Ava, who accepted them with a look of awe. “I knew my sons would soon take a human as a mate, for I had a vision of it happening. But I didn’t know how it would come about, so I was a bit angry with the stubborn boy when he announced you were his slave. All is well that ends well, though. That’s a human expression, is it not?”
Ava returned her smile. “Yes, it’s a human expression. Thank you for the dresses and shoes. Wait, did you say you had a vision?” Confused, she glanced up at Jaxon and then at Wolfe.
“Our mother has the gift of sight,” Wolfe explained. “And she fell down just now because she saw something disturbing. She says a small army is headed this way and will arrive in only three days.”
“I thought the war against the River Lord was over?” Ava’s eyes widened and she peered through the trees, as if expecting the army to storm across the landscape at any instant.
“The war is over, and the River Men and elves who fought with the River Lord have been vanquished from our lands. The only River Men still remaining are the slaves that were freed, and many of them have followed the Banded home to work as their servants.” Wolfe paused and considered the possibilities. “I suspect it’s a human army. Perhaps seeing you walk into their village, brother, has set them off somehow. Perhaps they felt threatened.”
“Only the hunters from my village dare to venture in the forest, but they usually only travel in groups of two or three. Sometimes they will bring back news from the Banded men they meet in the forest. No one in the village besides the hunters has seen a Banded man before. I can’t imagine an army of humans daring to enter the woods. It’s never been done before.” Ava frowned and clutched the basket tighter to her chest.
“In the old days, large armies of humans joined together to push the Banded off their lands and drive them further into the forest. It has been done before, but not in ages,” Durran, Wolfe’s dark-haired father, said with an increasing frown.
“This is a grave threat and unprecedented in these times. We will send out a call to arms to our settlement and neighboring settlements. The human invaders will be vanquished. None of them shall be left alive,” Luke said, running a hand through his silvery blond hair.
“Agreed,” the rest of the men said.
Wolfe took note of the worried look his mother exchanged with Ava and said, “Our house is more fortified. Mother will stay in our house with Ava, and any other females who wish to seek refuge there.”
“Agreed,” both his fathers said.
In a matter of moments, it was worked out that Wolfe and Jaxon would travel to the nearest Banded homesteads with their call to arms, and send out messenger doves to several further homesteads. They could assist in gathering weapons from the closer homesteads, while the settlements further away would hopefully answer the call and arrive with all the weaponry they could carry.
It pained Wolfe to say goodbye to Ava only a short while after claiming her, but it couldn’t be helped. He and Jaxon took turns embracing her and kissing her, and then they set off through the forest, while his fathers presumably went about preparing to send the messenger doves out to the Banded who lived more than a day’s journey away.
They’d all thought the fighting was over, but it seemed war was about to visit their doorstep. He briefly considered hiding his mother and Ava at another homestead in the forest, but he didn’t like the idea of being too far from them to protect them. There was no telling the path that the humans would take on their way to his and Jaxon’s home.
He clenched his jaw and ran faster, his twin mirroring his actions.
They would die to protect what was precious to them.
* * *
Ava tried not to appear nervous, but it was difficult when the two men she cared about more than anything were preparing to fight in a battle. She stood at her bedroom window and watched as dozens of Banded men practiced their sword fighting, dug trenches, and constructed platforms hidden in the nearby trees for their best bowmen to use.
