Anne
The Europeans crowd us in, separating me from Waya, leaving chaos around me. Gun shots ring out and my heart stutters each time one goes off. Fires are set, sending the wattles up in flames.
Children cry and I whip my emotions together. Kids. Keep them safe. I make my way to the children, gathering them by the outskirts of the fight. The children gather around me and I comfort them, keeping myself calm despite the fire inside me.
The fighting is chaos and my insides flip over and over, Waya lost in the crowd. A man I recognize as my mothers brother separates from the crowd, eyes wild and locked on me. "Anne?" his voice is raspy.
Adrenaline courses through me and one of the children press a knife into my hand and I close my fist around it, I step in front of the children and widen my stance. "Anne, I've been searching for you, I was beginning to wonder if these savages had killed you."
My jaw clenches at the word savages. If anything they are the savages. Taking my peoples land, killing for no reason, pillaging this village for one girl. "Leave," I growl.
"Come on we can go together."
"No. Leave, I am not coming with you."
He shakes his head. "This isn't your home."
"It is home, this is where I belong." I pull out the knife between us.
He makes a gesture and three other men close around me. I swipe at him with the knife and then at another. My knife isn't enough to hold them off. They are going to take me. A man lunges at me and I punch the knife into his thigh and then step back into another man. Hands clamp around me and I scream, bucking and thrashing. Another set of hands grab my ankles and I thrash as hard as I can and scream.
Twisting I catch a sight of Waya and reach out towards him, he lurches towards but is attacked. Tears blur my eyes and my chest aches.
"Let me go! Get off me!" I kick my feet and twist my body, futilely.
But the hands only tighten.
Carrying me away from Waya.
-~-
The men throw me in a carriage and I push the door open and take off running.
Or attempt to.
A hand clamps around my hair, yanking me down and I slam into the mud and they throw me back in, the seat hitting my head and darkness consumes me.
-~-
My head aches and nausea roils my stomach. Light shines through a window and when I open my eyes, wood is all around me and my surroundings sway. I get off the bed and my literal surroundings sway. My eyes widen and I rush to the window.
Ocean.
Ocean.
Ocean, lays before me. No, no, no! My chest aches and tears roll down my cheeks. I move towards the door then I am stopped short, looking down at the chain around my ankle.
No!
I grab the small end table and hurl it against the door, screaming. Yelling, angry voices sound beyond the door and it abruptly swings open. My uncle stands in the doorway.
"I see those savages have rubbed off on you," he sneers. "It's a good thing we left them in shambles."
His words hit me like a punch to the stomach. "Take me back. I was happy there. It is my home."
"No," he bites out. "London is your home. Your foolish father never should have moved your family out here to begin with."
I yank on the chain. "Let. Me. Go," I snarl.
He smirks like the devil stepping on an angels wing. "Will do. We've just arrived in London."
-~-
I was asleep for a week. A week in which I was kidnapped and taken to London. My husband... my wolf... Waya... Where is he now?
Please, Waya, be alive. I'll come home, I whisper silently.
Uncle transports me from the boat to a carriage. News papers have come, citizens have come to gawk and stare at me. Uncle and the other speak of their "heroic" rescue and when I try to mention the slaughter, I am swiftly silenced. They shove me into a carriage and set the destination for my family estate.
The ride is long and I don't speak or accept anything uncle offers me through the duration of the trip. All that occupies my mind is the welfare of Ahyoka and her children, Elder Inola, other tribe members and Waya.
The long hours I spent teaching the tribe English to help them, playing with the children... making love to Waya.
Waya. The memories burn my chest, causing my eyes to blur with tears. Curling up into the bench, I close my eyes, letting the tears roll down my face as my time with Waya flashes in my mind eye. The river, the smiles, our wedding. Despite our strangeness, the intimacy of our embrace. When he came home from the hunt.
The carriage halts abruptly and the door I am leaning against opens, causing me to fall out of the carriage. The men around me chuckle and snicker and I hastily stand up, wrapping my arms around myself.
"Welcome hom..."
I spit at uncle and a shriek goes up across the lawn and light hair flashes as a tiny figure runs across the grass. A gasp leaves my body as I stumble and catch Elizabeth in a hug. "You're home!"
The word sends a pang through my chest, but I ignore it as I hug my little sister. She pulls away, dragging me across the lawn, rambling. "Prince doesn't like London, but I take him to the pond int the back." she pulls me to the back before plopping on the ground and grabbing Prince, petting his head before finally looking at me. "Your clothes are strange, Anne."
I sniffle and sit beside her, much to her bewilderment. "I was living with the Native Americans."
Elizabeth gasps and lays her head in my lap. "Tell me!"
Taking a deep breath, I tell her the tale of my time in the tribe and Waya. Her eyes are wide with wonder and when I finish my chest aches even more and she looks down at her frog.
"Is Waya your servant boy?" she asks, referring to the last story I told her all those months ago.
Tears lodge in my eyes. "Yes, I love him."
"Are you going to go back?" she asks.
Sighing, I close my eyes. "I want to but I don't know how I can."
-~-
The next day I am shoved into a corset and layered dress and I sit in the garden, holding my carved orchid that luckily survived the trip. My head throbs from the tight knot my maids yanked my hair into. I trace the petals and I see his face.
His body is silky yet strong beside me, his arm wrapped around me, lips feathering over my shoulder and neck, hair tickling my skin. "You're so beautiful, my adsila. Soft." he runs his calloused hands over my belly and thighs, the dip in my waist. "Sweet." he ducks his head to kiss my chest and lower. "Strong." he squeezes my thighs as he settles between them. "Luxurious.
Abruptly he moves to sit, pulling me so I straddle his lap. "And you!" I interrupt. "Handsome, strong, delicious." I wink, taking his lip gently between my teeth. He smirks as I rock my hips, running my tongue over his throat.
"You are so tan." a familiar voices breaks my memory of Waya.
I look up and see my closest friend Mary, walking towards me elegantly. "You're the same, glowing even."
She smiles, taking a seat beside me. "I suppose it's the pregnancy glow everyone has been referring to."
My chest squeezes as I remember the children I tried to protect. "Congratulations." my smile falls and I look out over the garden.
"I heard you came back different, I wanted to see for myself. It's true," Mary sighs, folding her hands over her belly.
Anger spikes through me. "I'm not. I was ripped from my home!" I stand up, affronted. "You have no idea what I saw. What our people have done is not okay!"
Mary rolls her eyes. "Anne, it's the way things hav..."
"No! It isn't right. We went about this in all the wrong ways. We should have talked with them. They are being slaughtered!"
Mary raises her hands as if to placate me, but I am done.
I leave the garden and don't look back.