Love's Fool
1902 Words
Long lashes fluttered against soft cheeks until red-rimmed honey-brown eyes slowly revealed themselves.
A white ceiling littered with green glow-in-the-dark stars greeted Flora and, like a wrecking ball crashing into a brick wall, her memories came flooding back.
"I'm alive," the bright-eyed woman whispered as she caressed the skin of her cheeks to feel the proof of her existence.
"And out of my cell," she observed, taking in the large colourful room she had once called her own.
Fresh tears gathered in her eyes and it took everything she had not to burst into bitter tears.
After months of being trapped in that bleak grey room, void of colour and warmth, cut off from her packbond by the binds and isolated save for the stony-faced guards who tossed food and water into her cell every other day, Flora had thought she would never see the light of day again.
Yet here she was, breathing fresh air without the damp smell of being underground, basking in the warm sunlight and breeze streaming in through her open windows. Surrounded by the explosion of different colours her mate had delightfully helped her paint on in another life. A better life.
It was all so much, so soon, and Flora had to pinch herself and count her toes to make sure it wasn't a figment of her imagination that would disappear when she woke up bleeding on the floor of her cell.
A small noise came from her left and her attention was drawn to her sleeping baby still dressed in the rags she had wrapped around and him nestled in the mobile crib that had been one of her many baby shower gifts.
The stained torn fabric covered in blood and fluids stood out against the pastel pink of his little bed and she immediately got to work setting things right.
Careful not to wake him, Flora cleaned her little baby- what joy it gave her to say it- and dressed in one of the many outfits she had readied for his birth, tucked away in a small chest at the back of her closet.
After setting him down to rest all her focus snapped to the second most important person; herself.
Flora was filthy, covered in months of unwashed grime and the stains of labour, and thw pain between her legs, accompanied by the cramping in her pelvis was almost as bad as the biting hunger she was feeling.
Her breastfeeding Aidan the first time was nothing short of a miracle and she would need to eat if she planned on feeding him when he woke up, so she set out to do just that.
After a quick but thorough shower, she slipped on one of the softest dresses she owned, luxuriating in the feeling of soft fabric against her skin after so long, and then she grabbed Aidan from his crib and headed out of her bedroom.
Her and Logan's house had not changed a single bit, Flora noted on her way to the kitchen and it made her both happy that everything was right where she had left it and bitter that the world had remained unchanged and unbothered while she had been suffering for the last few months.
Flora made her way down the stairs on light feet, careful not to jostle Aidan, and she paused at the doorway leading to the large living room devoid of the pictures of Logan and her that had once littered every corner.
Before she could dwell too long on her grief, loud yelling in the kitchen drew her attention and the cautious woman slowly creeped towards the other room.
"....can't do this to me!" Screamed Elaine's familiar voice that caused Flora to freeze just by the bend leading to the kitchen. "That cell was supposed to kill her because you were too cowardly to do it, and now you've brought her back!"
"She is the mother of my child, Elaine!" Yelled back a voice Flora had so longed for, it took a few moments to accept it was really her Logan rather than a figment of her desperate imagination.
"How can you ask this of me when she's been proven innocent?!"
"You made your choice, Logan, and I was it. So you either get rid of them now or ot happens much later when...."
Aidan sneezed, a small sound that seemed to echo as Elaine fell silent and Flora breath caught in her throat.
The seconds ticked by like days as she waited for something to happen and then a figure rounded the corner.
Startled blues, so dark they almost looked black, met wide browns that watered at the sight of him.
"Flora," Logan whispered her name like a prayer, taking small, cautious steps towards her. "You're awake...."
She covered the space between them in less than a second and threw herself into his arms.
With her wolf was trapped by the binds, Flora couldn't smell his coffee and dark chocolate scent, but feeling his warmth was enough.
Being in his arms after so long in the cold, knowing he hated her and would never want to be with her again, felt like heaven to the tired woman and the tears began to flow in loud, ugly sobs.
"I missed you," Flora wailed into the soft fabric of his shirt. "I missed you every day and I wanted to see you, to explain myself. I..."
"I know, darling," Logan shushed, as he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head, something so soft and familiar it caused another wave of tears to flow.
"I wanted you to feel our son kick for the first time, I wanted you to listen to his heartbeat. Smell his scent, hear his first cry. Goddess! I wished I had heard his heartbeat," Flora babbled, mindlessly, only calming when Aidan grew overwhelmed by her distress and began squirming between the cradle his hugging parents formed around him.
She pulled back to check on her darling angel, who settled as she calmed down, and she watched with awe as his red lashes fluttered until his eyes were revealed.
Soft blues, lighter than his father's, stared up at her, unseeing yet they held such an intensity that made it feel like he really was looking up at her with love and devotion.
The sight of his eyes, she had thought she would never get to see, nearly sent Flora into another crying fit and she looked up at her mate who was staring down at their baby with warm adoration.
"His eyes are blue, like yours." He could see it for himself, but it felt so much more concrete saying it out loud.
There he was, the proof that Flora had been true to Logan and now things would be perfect, things would be like they had once been and Aidan would grow up with parents who loved him as much as they loved each other.
It's all Flora could ask for and she was willing to erase the last six months from her memory if that's what it took to go back to who they had been.
Alpha Logan and Luna Flora of Golden Claw, with their sweet little angel.
"He's perfect," Logan marveled with a beaming smile, his finger gently and cautiously stroking Aidan's chubby cheeks, careful not to wake the baby who had now gone back to sleep.
"You're perfect," he said, raising his head to stare at her like she was a painting of the Goddess come to life, a look that she had never thought she would see directed at her again.
"Flora, I..."
"Logan!" Elaine snapped, breaking the spell that had settled over the small family, and reminding Flora of the unsettling conversation she had overhead.
Like a switch had been flipped, Logan suddenly grew tense, his eyes shifting guiltily between the two women like he couldn't decide if he should go to Elaine or stay with Flora.
Which left Flora shocked that he would be so concerned with pleasing the very woman who had torn their family apart and nearly cost him his mate and child's life.
"Logan! Come here!" Elaine called out again and Logan obediently hurried over to her side, to Flora's shock and horror.
Flora's head felt hot and she struggled not to drop Aidan from her trembling arms as she watched one of his hands settle on Elaine's waist, like it had been there so many times he didn't realise he had done it.
"What's going on, Logan? Why are you letting her speak to you like this?" Was all Flora could think to say as hurt and confused as she was feeling.
"Flora. We're in a very complicated situation."
"Situation!" Elaine screamed, slapping his hand off of her waist with such force even Flora's dulled sense of hearing picked up the crack of bones.
If her wolf wasn't trapped behind the binds, she would have growled at Elaine for the disrespect of behaving in such a way around her Alpha, but all she could do was look to Logan to do something.
"Easy, baby. You know you shouldn't rile yourself up," he said in a sickly sweet voice that caused bile to rise in Flora's throat.
"Logan." Flora called out softly, but he did not once look away from the annoyed woman whose waist he was stroking to calm her.
A year ago, Flora would have never believed this would be her life, yet here she was, holding the baby she had birthed in the cell her mate had kept her imprisoned in for the last six months, watching said mate caress and coo at another woman in the very kitchen she had once prepared his meals with painstaking attention and care, in their home.
"How the hell do you expect me to stay calm when you call our relationship a 'situation'?!" Elaine screamed into his face, glaring hatefully at him.
Her words were like a slap to Flora's face and the weak woman felt her legs begin to tremble like they would give up under her at any moment.
"I'm your mate, for Goddess' sake! Not some easily disposable mistress!"
Flora choked and she nearly toppled over if not for Aidan's warm weight keeping her grounded.
"Y-You... mated with her," Flora accused in a breathless whisper, her tears spilling down her cheeks and dropping to the floorboards in little 'taps'.
Logan was now staring at her with guilt but his hands had still not left Elaine and Flora felt dirtied for allowing those same hands touch her or Aidan.
"You took her as your mate, while I was down there..."
"I was heartbroken, Flora. I thought the woman I loved, the mother of my child, had betrayed me!" He argued, fiercely.
"I betrayed you?"
He frowned, his hold on Elaine tightening as he responded. "This is different."
"Not that different," Elaine argued, lightly as her hand rested beside his hand on her waist and then she smoothed down the flowing fabric of her top over the swell of her belly.
"Oh Goddess!" Flora gasped, colour draining from her already pale face.
Elaine smiled with malicious glee and gave her large belly six playful taps.
Logan looked away, unable to meet her eyes.
"That's right, Luna Flora," she spat her title, with a sneer. "Two more months and I'll have a little red-haired baby of my own.”
- Writer
