Daughter of the Witch Wood Pt. 06

Author's note: this chapter is one of a series, and does not contain erotic elements.

-rb

06.

Reunited

When Min stepped into Sergen's tent, she pressed her fist to her mouth to silence herself—she didn't know whether to cry or laugh, but both of them seemed like equally bad choices. Standing there, head down, she closed her eyes and listened to the noise outside: for a long time, nothing seemed to move or stir. Then something broke the spell of the moment—she heard people talking, the sounds of feet moving in the brush, even the birds began to call again.

Min sighed, raised her head and opened her eyes.

Sergen was standing right in front of her.

She jumped, gasping aloud. "Don't do that!" she hissed, stepping around him. The tent was large enough for someone of her size to stand upright. The grass and underbrush were soft under her feet, and his bedroll was unfurled.

"Don't do what?" he said, turning to look at her. "This is my tent."

Min took a second to observe her man in his human shape. He was almost as tall as she remembered, as solid as if he'd been carved of a mix of dark rock and chiseled bronze. His manhood was soft, lying amidst his grey curls, but that and the hair on his head was different from Erkin's, as if Sergen had gone prematurely grey for some reason. He did not look fleshy or gangly in the least bit, something she was thankful for.

"So I've been told," she said. Min felt a new rush of anger and jealousy left in the wake of confronting that woman—she didn't even want to name her, for some reason. "I was also told that you chose me." She turned towards him, crossing both arms. "Is that correct?"

Sergen nodded. "As I told you the day we met. I made no secret about that."

"You failed to mention your 'choice' of me was as your mate!" She hissed the last word, stepping closer to him, pushing a finger into his wide chest. "You could have told me that much before...before you claimed me in that hole." The memory of it was one that Min fought to repress, even if it made her chest tighten and something warm kindle in her belly.

He seemed to consider her words and nodded. "Very well. I could have told you, but did not. I apologize."

"You—" Min tipped her head in surprise, looking up at him. She blinked. "You're saying that you're sorry?'

Sergen shook his head. "No. I could have told you that laying claim to you would make you my mate. I did not do that. I am not sorry for doing so."

"Why not?" She frowned. "My mother is probably worrying herself sick because I'm gone. I got this because of you." She tapped the rough patch of flesh on her shoulder, surrounded by Ilay's intricate magic and ink-work.

"I hoped to remove its infection, but was unsuccessful," Sergen said. "You were wounded because an infected bear attacked you—my claiming you or not claiming you had nothing to do with that." He was insufferable, unflappable, as if he had an argument for every complaint.

Unfortunately, on that count, he was right. Min looked down, sniffed. "Well...maybe not. But why did you do it?" She looked back up again. "You were the first man I ever met. You didn't have to mate with me at the first opportunity."

"No, but I wanted to." Now it was his turn to tip his head, tilting it in confusion. "You were desirable and available; you were injured, which I attempted to heal; you were a witch woman, which I had a need of for the reasons I explained. I brought you here and sought a healer to tend to your injury. Have I not been an acceptable mate to you?"

"'Acceptable?'" She threw up her hands. "You didn't even know my name when you brought me here! I asked for your name; you couldn't even bother to do that much!" She took a seat on the bed, but her frown didn't fade. When he stepped up next to her, took a seat beside her, Min resisted the urge to scoot away. "And now I find you with some woman in your tent, and I don't know what she did with you when I wasn't looking. I've never been away from home in my whole life, and I..." Min closed her eyes, took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Who, Selin?"

She opened her eyes, giving him a flat look. "Do wolves take multiple mates?"

He blinked—a very wolfish sort of reaction, she thought. "Some might; I do not."

"Have you claimed her? Lain with her?"

"Not for a long time," he said. Sergen didn't flinch or look away.

"She wants you. She wants your cock so bad I could see it in her eyes. Do you understand that?"

He nodded, not speaking.

"I don't know how wolves do things." Min took a moment to compose her thoughts, choosing how to say them aloud. "I know how my mother and I lived together, and I believe...I could be comfortable here. Ilay was very kind; her husband and son seem the same."

He nodded again. "They're good people."

"Let me finish."

Sergen closed his mouth, and again, he nodded. His gold-brown eyes were so intent, so focused on her that she had to take another calming breath—the man had a stronger effect on her than she wanted to admit. "They may be good people. This whole place might be filled with good people. But I will not share a tent, a bed, or a man with a woman like Selin. Ever. If you can't make peace with that, I'll help you against the bears as much as I can, and if we both survive, I'll let you have her and go home when this is done."

"I don't want Selin."

"...You don't?"

"No." He frowned at her, still looking confused. "I rejected her before I went in search of a mate, I rejected her when I returned with one, and I saw no reason to not reject her again."

"Oh." Min paused, took a breath. Her hands were shaking and she clenched them to try and make the shaking stop. "Why? She is..." She twisted up her mouth. "...not unattractive—physically, anyway; she desires you; she's a wolf, like yourself—"

"I don't want Selin," he repeated. "If I don't desire her, I don't want her as a mate. We shared a bed, once." He pressed his lips tight together, the most emotion she'd seen out of it, maybe ever. "Once was enough."

"I...suppose that makes sense. But, why do you desire me then? You've known me for two whole days."

"Is it a requirement among witch women to know the man they intend to mate before they mate with them?"

"Well..." Min hesitated. "I don't fully know, I suppose. I don't think so."

Sergen frowned. "Then is it some personal requirement? Something that other humans do?"

"I only meant that—"

He rubbed at his neck, a thoughtful look on his face. "I was not aware that witch women acted so strangely when it came to mating, except I heard that Ilay pursued Erkin for months when they were young. Perhaps I should have expected some strangeness."

"No."

He paused. "No?"

For no other reason than out of some desire to, Min took his hand and set it in her lap, clasping it in both of hers. "It's not strange. I was just...oh, never mind." She shook her head, forcing Selin out of her mind. "I suppose I am strange to you. I've lived with one woman my whole life. I'm not even a full-grown witch woman yet. You brought me to a strange place, and I don't have any idea how I'm supposed to help you do anything since you had to help me the last time." She looked down into her lap, fighting to compose her thoughts. "I don't know how to be someone's mate. I don't even know how to not pick fights with total strangers." She looked up at him again, took a breath. "But I have to make the best of all of it. I'll do what I can. I will—" She took a breath, meeting his eyes "—be a good girl. As I promised."

He was watching, listening, absorbing her words in that deliberate silence of his. He didn't seem to speak as easily as Ilay or her family did—perhaps he found speech awkward. But he did answer, eventually: "I am not sorry for claiming you. I desired you very much once I saw you. Shall I apologize for that?"

Min shook her head. "No. But why did you desire me?"

"I found you attractive. You smell good—very good, in fact. I saw you hold your own against the children of Bhalot, and how you sacrificed yourself to keep your mother safe. Mating with you gives me pleasure, and you appear to both desire me and experience pleasure with me in return. Those are all admirable qualities in a mate." He leaned in closer. "Are you angry at my claiming you?"

"I..." She shook her head. "It's not that simple. I'm still processing belonging to someone. I always knew I couldn't stay with my mother forever. I just didn't think my leaving would happen...like it did." She flushed, squeezing his hand. "I even liked some parts of it," she said in a softer voice.

"Did you?"

Min nodded, squeezing his hand harder. "Very much. I told you so, remember?"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I don't know. I don't think so. I just had ideas—or dreams, really—of what my first encounter with a man would be like. Your method was...more direct." She reached out, touching his shoulder. "I hope I was good enough—you were the first man I was ever with."

"You were. I assumed the proof of that would be obvious," he said, showing a small, rare smile.

"You mean—oh!" Min resisted the urge to look down between his legs and failed miserably. His cock was impressive, although she'd only seen a handful of men so far; her education had a great deal of catching up to do. "With the...the swelling—"

"Yes." He leaned in closer, so close she could feel his breath across her face. "It ties a wolf to his mate, so that pups might be sired with more certainty."

Min's chest ached; her breathing was more labored, and she was fully aware of what he could see of her, how exposed she was, how he might smell her arousal while sitting cross-legged next to him. "I liked it," she murmured, reaching out to touch his chest; her fingers slid slowly down towards his belly. "Did you like it too, Sergen?"

"Oh yes," he said in a husky voice. "Now, will you tell me your name?"

Min took another one of those labored breaths, looking into his eyes. "My name is—"

"Yasemin!" A woman's cry in the distance was followed by the sound of an enormous crash. Voices began to call—men shouting, women screaming; even the wild goats got into the action, braying amidst the chaos.

Min knew that voice: "Mother?!" Sergen's presence forgotten for a moment, she pushed to her feet and exited the tent at a full run, but she could sense her mate right behind her.

The camp was in chaos. One tent was flattered under the bulk of a great stone larger than the mad bear that had attacked Min just a day or two ago. She heard wolves calling, barking and howling, and more shouting.

"Yasemin? Answer me!" There was another crash and Min saw someone go flying through the air, limbs flailing. "Ozan!" Erden shouted. "Where are you hiding, you mongrol spawn of a she-boar?!"

"Mother!" Darting around another tent, Min saw that it was indeed her mother standing near the edge of the camp. She had a sack at her feet, and carried a sapling as thick as Min's arm that appeared to have been pulled straight out of the ground, roots and all, which she carried like a club; her eyes were all black, a side-effect of the power of vuk flowing through her. This particular incantation was one Min had seen before, when a tree had fallen during a storm and blocking the creek, their only source of fresh water—Erden made herself strong enough to lift the tree up and throw it away with only her bare hands.

"Mother, stop!" Min shouted. Erden was half-surrounded by wolf-men warriors, all of them gone to that humanoid shape somewhere between animal and man, covered in fur ranging from onyx-black to ivory-white. They all stood uneasily just out of reach of Erden's makeshift club, snarling or waiting for some ungiven order.

"What is going on here?" Erkin's voice was an ear-rattling roar as he approached, his footfalls so heavy that Min expected the ground to split under his feet. When he came within sight from between two nearby tents, he stopped, eyebrows going up so high they were nearly lost in his grey hair. "Erden?"

Erden locked her black eyes with Min for a second, then waved her tree in a slow circle, keeping the wolf-men back. "Chieftain," she said, in a tone of familiarity, as though they knew each other. "Where's that flea-bitten excuse for a man I left here? I thought you banished him."

Erkin gave an angry snort. "I did banish him. Ozan hasn't shown his face to me in twenty years, and if he does, I'll rip it off and show it to him."

"Then why is she here?" Erden shouted, gesturing at Min.

"Now just wait a—"

"Erden?" It was Ilay's voice, but rather than anger, it sounded more like joy to Min's ears as the silver-haired witch approached at a run. "Is she really back?"

Back? Min mouthed the word, her head spinning.

"Get behind me," Sergen said to Min.

"What, why?"

"Just do it." He forcibly moved Min, ignoring her protests, until he was standing between her and her mother. She heard bones cracking and reforming as both hands remade themselves into elongated claws, ready to attack if needed.

"Yasemin—are you alright?" Erden kept scanning the small crowd around them, as though looking for someone—the aforementioned Ozan, Min guessed.

"I'm fine, Mother."

"Mother?" Both Erkin and Ilay said it simultaneously; Ilay's eyes went wide with surprise. Sait had joined them by that time, and he was watching Erden with a focused, intense stare. As for Selin, Min didn't see her anywhere.

"Why did you follow me?" Min asked. "I said I'd come home."

"You expect me to sit by while you're in danger?" Erden fixed her black eyes on Sergen last, and they went to slits as she turned in her stance to face him, as though readying herself to charge at any second. "Are you the one who took her, Pup?"

Sergen didn't flinch. "Yes. Until the bears are dealt with, she belongs here, and belongs to me. I claimed her as mine." He peeled back his lip, showing his teeth. "And I'm no pup to you, Witch." Min tensed up, one hand on his back, the other on his arm, in the hopes of stopping him from attacking.

Erden's eyes stayed fixed; her tree-club never wavered. "You took her? Of your own accord?" She spoke with that same familiarity as before—Min couldn't remember her mother ever talking about the ways of the wolf people before.

Sergen nodded. "By the First Law of the Wood—for myself, and the good of the tribe. Once the threat has passed, she'll be free to make her own choice."

Erden was quiet for a long time, studying Sergen's face, considering his words. "Erkin."

The chieftain seemed to jump at the sound of his own name. "What, Erden, what is it?"

Erden gave the sack at her feet a hard shove with one foot. Its contents spilled out, rolling across the trampled grass to lay at the chief's feet: a severed head that once belonged to a brown-furred bear with gaping holes where the eyes should have been. The fur was spattered with blood and foul ichor. The gathered crowd gasped or shouted in disbelief and anger.

"You had a spy," Erden said, nodding towards the head. "I took care of him for you, but it's likely that the bear-men already know where you are."

Erkin growled under his breath before Ilay laid a hand on his shoulder. The old wolf took a breath, shaking his shoulders. "Put down your weapon, Erden; let your magic go. You were never an enemy of my people, even when you chose to leave—don't make yourself an enemy now."

Min saw, for the first time, hesitation on her mother's face. Erden looked at her, considering her words. "Is what he says true, Yasemin? He claimed you? There was no one else?"

"No, Mother. There was never anyone else." She swallowed, hoping her voice didn't waver. "I agreed to his terms, and he agreed to mine." Min wasn't sure what Sergen meant, speaking of laws and such things, but the truth was the truth.

Erden took a moment, then nodded. Turning, she heaved the heavy tree away, where it fell with a crash in the underbrush. The black faded from her eyes as she turned to the chief. "Then by the Second Law of the Wood, I request the Rite of Joining."

"What?" Erkin was saying that quite a lot, Min noticed. "You left us! Now you want to come back?"

"My place is with my daughter," Erden said, her voice calm. "I can no more be parted from her than you from your own mate. I know what the Rite requires of me—will you grant my request or not?"

Ilay looked so pent up with excitement that she wanted to jump onto her husband's back and ride him. Erkin's face was dark and troubled, as if he was caught in a trap and wasn't sure how to wriggle his way out of it. Finally, he looked to Sait. "Can her request he granted, Speaker?"

Sait, who'd been staring at Erden the whole time, almost without blinking, seemed surprised for a moment when he was called upon. He frowned, thinking for a moment, then nodded. "It's an uncommon circumstance, Chieftain, but the law says the weak may request protection, if the strong allow it. The Rite is only ever refused in cases of banishment or execution. Erd...the witch woman left of her own accord, but she may rejoin the tribe if you grant her request." There was a sound of something in Sait's voice, a hint of something hopeful that Min didn't understand.

Erkin grunted, looking back to Erden. "I see no reason to reject your request, then."

So much was happening that Min could barely keep up with all of it, but her mother wasn't going to have to fight anyone, which was the most important thing—Min wasn't sure who might come out the victor between her mother and her new mate, but she also didn't want to find out.

Erden nodded, but Min saw relief on her beautiful face. "If you've had spies about, it won't be safe to remain here. What day shall I have to face the tribe, then?"

The old man shook his head. "The Rite will take place today—immediately."

"What?!" Now it was Ilay and Erden's turn to talk at once.

"What is going on?" Min said, pressing one hand to her head.

Sergen pointed at Erden. "She was in the tribe, then left. She requested the right to join it again—lacking a mate means any able-bodied male has the right to claim her. The man who wins takes her; if she wins, she joins without having to submit to a man." It was a short, punctual summation, which was exactly Sergen's style.

Erkin nodded. "The bears will be expecting their spy to return and report; since he obviously isn't going to, we have time. The Rite will commence when the tribe is gathered—will you accept?" He eyed Erden, as though challenging her to resist.

Min saw a multitude of emotions pass across her mother's face, but stubbornness won out. Sticking out her chin, the witch woman frowned, fists at her sides. "Very well, Chieftain. I will speak to my daughter first, if it pleases you."

The chief nodded once. "Prepare yourself." Then, he took his mate by the arm and led her away; they talked in low, hushed tones that seemed heated and tense at the same time.

Min pushed around Sergen before he could stop her, passing through the small crowd of people and threw herself into her mother's arms. Tears were warm on both of their faces as Erden pressed soft, quick kisses all over Min, from brow to chin and back again. "You foolish, foolish girl, running off like that and scaring me half to death!"

"I'm sorry," Min said, resting her head on her mother's chest, coiling both arms tight around her. "It wasn't my fault, but I'm sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen—"

"Shhh," Erden said, leaning back, cupping Min's face in her hands. "There's much for us to discuss, and I'll tell you the truth, all of it, as much as I can. For now: are you well?" She eyed Min's shoulder, then gave her a long look.