Chapter 35 (Tarak)

Scooping her up in my arms, I could tell she was in shock. I headed back to where everyone was regrouping. We needed to make a plan and move as soon as possible. We were sitting ducks, easy to pick off if we stayed any longer.

I had so many questions I needed answered. How did Elanora end up with a sword in her hands, and how had she taken down a full-grown man by herself? I also needed to know who the hell she was. The minute I saw her on the ground surrounded by the forest, I realized she was my forest nymph from the river. She was no princess. I knew that for a fact at this point. She was my wife, but she was not the woman I thought I had married.

Setting her down on a log around one of the fires the men had set up to keep us warm, I looked around to assess the damage done. The sun was setting, and we were in the middle of the forest. We needed to move quickly, but I needed to figure out how we would get to safety with how many were injured.

Tate, who had survived the attack and saved many of my men in the first wave of the ambush, pushed his way through the crowd toward my forest nymph. Until I knew her real name, I refused to utter her fake one. Kneeling in front of her, Tate got a little too close as he checked her over, as Helena and I had done beforehand.

She began to cry at the sight of him, clinging to him. She just kept repeating she killed someone to Tate and reliving those last few moments. Seeing her clinging to him irritated me for some reason. She had just been through a traumatic event, and I needed to give her space to process that in the way she needed. I just wished it was me she had clung to instead of him.

Leaving them be, I had Helena guard over them. I needed to walk away before I made things worse for her. As I assessed the damage, after the ambush, we were only left with the carriage that had held my wife and me. We had too many injured to move quickly with only one carriage. If we could make it a little further, we would make it to one of the encampments. I didn't see how that was feasible.

I was left to my thoughts as I walked around, ensuring we had kept everyone and helping tend to those who needed it. As the sun was about to set, I watched one of the wounded men when I felt a tug on the back of my tunic. It was my wife.

"Ara, we need to move soon as the sun is setting." she started looking around as if a monster would pop out at any second. "I know we have too many men who are injured. Could we use the remaining carriage to hold the severely wounded and ride doubles on the horses? We can burn everything that is not food, medicine, water, or weapons to lighten our load." She seemed so calm and collected as she asked.

The way she asked was more of a command, and she seemed so natural to solve our dilemma. It was the best plan compared to the ones I had created. She would be sacrificing a lot if we went with her plans. All of her luggage was on that carriage. She was willing to part with it over people she didn't know.

"And tell me, my princess, how will I get you to safety if your carriage is full of injured soldiers?" I questioned. Her safety was still important to me, even if she wasn't who she said she was.

"I was thinking I could double up with you…" she trailed off as she said it out loud. The smile that threatened to break out on my face was hard to contain.

To ride doubles on a horse was to have complete faith in the person you were riding with. It was challenging, and if you didn't trust who you depended on, it could spell disaster for both riders and the horse.

Agreeing with her solution to our dilemma, we quickly implemented her plan. We were ready to leave as the sun danced with the horizon, and Roland extinguished the last fire. If it hadn't been for my wife, we would have been sitting ducks and easy pickings for any monsters if we had waited till morning to move those who needed it.

Mounting my stead first, I grabbed her arm and pulled her up and into my lap. She seemed small, straddling the back of the horse. Keeping her tucked between my thighs so she wouldn't slip off, we started up the trail. The way she gripped my arms, trying to steady herself so she wouldn't fall, told me she had never done this before. She kept shifting, causing her to rub against me unconsciously. Grabbing her hips to still them, I almost growled in frustration. It took all my willpower not to egg her on to keep doing it.

"Princess, have you ever ridden a horse before?" I questioned, even though it was clear she had no experience.

She shook her head, not wanting to turn around and speak to me. Grabbing her by the waist, I repositioned her so she wouldn't hurt her back or butt on the long journey.

"You need to let your hips move with the horse's motion, don't fight it. You will exhaust yourself and end up sore later on." my lips were so close to her ear as I talked to her.

Once she seemed comfortable sitting on the saddle, I handed the reins over to her. I was teaching her how to steer the horse where we wanted him to go, teaching her a few commands to make the steed stop and go. Once she seemed comfortable with that, I let go letting her take complete control of the beast we were on top of. Showing her silently how much I was trying to trust her, even if I had no idea who she truly was.