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The unease in my stomach grew. Wilder and I already had our problems when it came to the idea of sharing me. I wasn't sure what was going to happen now that Daxon was my mate.
"Do you know how long ago Wilder left?" I asked one of the men gathered around the fire.
"About two hours ago," he answered, the reverence in his gaze making me uncomfortable. The only eyes I liked to see that emotion in were my lovers’, as weird as that sounded.
"Thank you," I murmured. Daxon had approached the fire, and belatedly I realized there was a large pot on one side of it, sitting on top of the flames. "What do you have cooking in there?" he asked.
"Rabbit stew,” one of them answered gruffly.
My ears perked up at that. I hadn't had rabbit stew, although I knew I’d eaten rabbit when I was shifted. Surely the cooked version tasted better than the raw one, although my wolf had thought it was delicious.
"Could I have some?" I asked hopefully.
It was chaos as they all basically battled to get me a bowl. But of course my mate somehow exited the pile triumphantly, holding an enormous bowl of stew in his hands.
"I love you," I beamed at him, and a blush rose to his cheeks that I didn't think I'd ever seen before.
"Oh, is that all it takes?" Ares asked casually.
And now I was the one blushing.
"Better luck next time," taunted Daxon as I settled onto one of the wooden logs that had been put around the fire, and I devoured the stew. And I mean devoured. The bowl was enormous, and in about two minutes flat, it was completely empty, and I was eagerly hoping to get it filled again.
This time Ares was the one to grab the bowl and get me a second helping.
"Thank you," I murmured as I took it from him.
"Don't you have anything else to say?" Ares teased. I just rolled my eyes at him while I worked on my second helping. Next to me, Daxon was devouring his own bowl just as feverishly. Looking back, it was truly amazing we’d survived without water or food for three days, and I hadn't thought of either once. The frenzy was a crazy thing.
It took three more bowls before I was done. All of the servings had been offered so eagerly that I felt guilty taking so much from the bear shifters.
But the pot was truly enormous, almost like a witch's cauldron in a children's story book, so at least there'd been a lot to go around.
I leaned against Daxon with a groan, holding my now stuffed belly. "I think that's the best meal I've ever had."
"Agreed," replied Daxon, sounding just as satisfied as I was.
At that moment, I glanced up, and there, standing at the edge of the clearing…was Wilder.
"Wilder," I gasped, locking gazes with him.
I couldn't read his face at all. It was completely blank, and chills slipped over my skin at the sight.
"I'm going to talk to him," I said, moving to stand up from the log. Daxon grabbed onto my hand. "He's not allowed to make you feel upset about this," he growled.
I shot him what I hoped was a comforting smile. "There's absolutely nothing to regret," I murmured, earning myself a blindingly gorgeous grin.
Daxon let go of my hand, and I tentatively walked over to Wilder. He hadn't moved from where I’d first spotted him, and my nerves only grew as I got closer.
"Hi," I breathed, because I was nothing if not eloquent.
"Rune," Wilder answered, and that's when the blankness broke. The way he said my name, it was…tortured. I was brought back to that night at the cabin where he'd let me go and walked off into the woods. My lip trembled as emotion tore through me. I reached up to touch his face and he took a step away from me.
"I'm not going to say ‘I'm sorry,’" I told him, trying to keep the tears at bay.
"I wouldn't expect you to," he said, his voice pure melancholy. "But he shouldn't have forced you into it.” This time there was a growl in his voice as he shot a death glare at Daxon who was watching us both with interest.
"Obviously this wasn't how I envisioned it happening, Wilder. But you know I've been ready for this for quite some time."
