The Untold Forest by Elisa Menz (web ebook reader txt) 📗

Hakken couldn’t tell. They dragged him to his cave while he kicked and screamed, and Kniv kept guard outside for the entire night.

And then they came back, the familiar dreadful emotions.

Did he lose her? Did his little Maeve die alone and scared? Could he be this unreliable?

He spent the night screaming his lungs out, banging his fists against the rocks until they bleed. He cried himself to sleep, exhausted while ignoring Kniv’s presence. Overwhelming, dark thoughts plagued his mind, and Hakken felt in his gut the next day would be unbearable, as all the days to come.

But the next morning, Kniv woke him with the wonderful news. Numbed as he was, it took Hakken a few blinks to understand his words.

Maeve lived! How could it be possible?

They ran to the village, his eyes roaming in a frantic search. He almost fell on his knees when he spotted her. The matriarch was treating a few cuts in her arms, but besides those, Maeve returned virtually unscathed. He pushed through the crowd, ignoring the protests. As soon as Hakken reached her, he took her in his arms, hugging her tight and burying his face in her curls. Oh, how he missed her! “You’re safe... Maeve,” he uttered.

While he felt happy beyond reason, Hakken realized he wasn’t the only one relieved. The tribe gathered around. He couldn’t care less about them, but deep down, it pleased him to see they accepted Maeve.

“That is too tight, Hakken! I promise you I’m fine,” she smiled. And when he stared into her eyes, he knew she was glad to be with him as well.

“What happened?” he asked.

Safe in his arms, Maeve winced, like expecting Hakken to scold her. “I’m so sorry! I was being stupid, and I got too close to the edge. I slipped.” A chill went down his spine. She fell! The current was terrible. How did she survive?

“Regn saved me,” she said.

And for the first time, he didn’t like the warmness in her eyes or the sweet smile she sent to the irritating nomad. He fixed his eyes on Regn, sensing Maeve’s scent all over him. The young man returned his gaze nonchalantly while the matriarch tended his wounds. Hakken couldn’t help letting out a menacing growl.

Two soft hands landed on his cheeks. Maeve’s gaze turned serious. “He jumped after me and protected me, Hakken. If not for him, I’d be dead.” Well, he didn’t like it!

Why had they been so close? And why was Regn near her in the first place?

What happened after was a gigantic pile of stupid mistakes, and he paid the price. Thinking back, it wasn’t the best idea to order her not to leave the cave without him anymore. Blocking the entrance with rocks was perhaps a tad tyrannical.

He now sat at the edge of the village, freezing his ass off. Enduring Kniv’s scolding while he still recovered from all the insults Maeve had thrown at him. Kniv groaned, rubbing his forehead. “What did you expect? You cannot do that to her. Of course, she’s mad at you!”

“What am I supposed to do? She could have died! I must keep a closer eye on her from now on.”

“Well, good luck! I’m telling you, boy. If you don’t want rocks thrown at you every night, you need to go back to Maeve, apologize and let her be. She is a woman, you cannot treat her like a child!”

Hakken blinked at him, annoyed. Kniv didn’t make any sense. “A woman? Are you blind? She’s tiny. Why would you possibly think of her as a woman?”

Kniv stared at him for a second, stunned, before smacking him in the face. “Are you damn stupid now? I swear if you tell anyone I raised you, I will deny it!” He sighed, rubbing his eyelids before taking a deep breath. “She is a grown woman, and you better treat her with respect, or I’m warning you, she will cut your balls while you sleep.”

A woman? It took a few seconds to understand what Kniv said, but once everything made sense, Hakken’s expression changed from a slight surprise to absolute panic.

Maeve

The night covered the world. She could tell because the sunshine filtering through the stones Hakken piled up went out.

That morning after arriving at the village, Hakken took her to their cave and established new rules. These included her not leaving his side and staying put while he hunted or patrolled. She refused, and that led to the worst fight they had so far. Once Hakken realized he would not get away with it, he decided the most practical thing to do was to force her to stay inside.

Maeve spent the day cursing and screaming, stopping only to eat fruit and shed angry tears. The few rocks she dragged away cut her hands and accomplished nothing but increasing her frustration.

Mynte stopped by for a while to comfort her, promising she would kick Hakken into sense as soon as he came back from wherever he was hiding. Her imprisonment allowed her some time to think. Laying on their bed after abandoning any hope for escape, Maeve realized her life was far from what she had imagined. “Is this going to work? Am I going to spend the rest of my life like this? Like a toy...” Talking her mind out loud helped to clarify her thoughts. While twisting a strand of her hair, Maeve’s anger simmered down. Hakken would return at some point, and she could resume her shouting.

How absurd to think less than a month ago, she was ready to get married and become the lady of a castle. The Callums had been awful, and Maeve didn’t regret not marrying into their family. But they were her only chance to have a simple, homely life.

Until that moment, a family was never a priority for her future. Maeve worried most about caring for her lands and her people. Now, it was clear she would never have children or a husband, and she would spend the rest of her days