“Take these men to the jail,” Sotu ordered, glaring at them both. “Clearly, banishment that let them live freely was a mistake.” Sotu glanced at me with a quiet shame, even though none of this was his fault. “We will take responsibility for our problem now.”
The Skrofa clan guards took hold of the poachers, who didn’t struggle as they were dragged away. Sotu turned to Raja with sympathetic eyes and put his hands on his shoulders.
“I am sorry that this happened to you,” Sotu said. “I feel responsible for banishing those men from our clan.”
“It’s not your fault, it was theirs,” Raja protested.
Sotu grunted. “Nonetheless, you did not deserve to experience this. Does Chief Eka know?”
Raja shrugged. “Yes, he knows about the initial attack that happened a while ago, but not this one. And he doesn’t know I’m pregnant yet.”
Sotu shook his head, sighing with anger directed at himself. “Please, come inside the village.”
“I really did want to get going,” I said quickly.
Sotu met my gaze, then pointed up at the pitch-black sky. It was early evening when the poachers attacked, and after the battle and journey here, it was deep into the night now.
“It is late, and you have both had a difficult night,” Sotu said. “Please, let my clan take care of you. It won’t make up for what you have suffered, but we will try.”
Raja and I exchanged a brief, awkward glance.
“Okay. Thank you for your hospitality,” Raja said, bowing his head.
I shifted back to human form and followed as Sotu lead us into his village. It was similar to Raja’s in many ways, but also wholly different. Everything was built from the ground up using wood, metal and hardened mud, and there were no platforms or homes in the trees. It was clearly built for hefty boars instead of agile leopards.
We stopped in front of a small but cozy-looking hut, and Sotu said, “This is our guest house. Please use it, and everything else in the village freely. You’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like.”
“Thank you, but we should get going in the morning,” I told him.
Sotu nodded. “I understand. You are a young married couple now and have things to do, I imagine. Goodnight.”
He ambled off before either of us could say anything. Once he was gone, an uncomfortable silence fell on us like a dust cloud.
A large bed stood at the far wall of the hut, alongside a small table and lamp. I headed straight to bed and climbed in. Despite my initial hesitation to agree to Sotu’s offer, fatigue hit me like a brick the moment I sat down, and I was grateful to have a place to rest.
Even though the last thing I wanted right now was to sleep in the same bed as Raja.
His soft footsteps indicated his proximity to the bed. I stared at the opposite wall and ignored him.
“So, now what?” he asked quietly.
“What do you mean?” I muttered.
He sighed hard. “Are we fighting?”
I sat up in bed and faced him. “Iamrather angry with you, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“You’reangry?” Raja spat, his face twisting.
“Yes, I am. I almost watched you walk right into a sex trafficker’s hands while you’re pregnant with our child. Do you expect me to shrug that off and pretend like it never happened?”
His jaw dropped. “Lorenzo, they were threatening me and my family!”
“Only with information. And you didn’t even try to break the recorder,” I growled. “It should have been easy for you with your reflexes. Instead, you just gave up and nearly let them take you away.”
“You don’t understand!” he protested. “My family would have thought Iwasbetter off dead if they found out!”
Anger surged through me like fire. I bolted up out of bed and glared at him. “Yeah? Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you put up an ad for a fake boyfriend. Because if it was anyone other than me, they could have sold you out instantly. But not me. Why? Because I actually give a shit about you, even though it’s not like you even notice!”
