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This isn’t fucking confusing at all.
Especially when something sweet spills in the air and I lift my head to follow its trail.
Ari…
It smells like her.
7
ARIADNE
How can you be crying as you run away from your kidnapper, feeling as if your heart is breaking in two? How can you be torn apart because you need to find your other two mates, make sure they’re okay and throw your arms around them again—but you also want to stay?
How is this my life, going from the lonely quiet of the Temple to running through the wilderness, breathless with fear? Going from utter need to utter release, from utter fear to utter connection, from joy to affection to love—
No, stop this, Ari. This isn’t love.
Don’t let your body command you.
A bit late for that, isn’t it?
What happens when I go into full heat? What will happen to me? What will happen to my mates?
What do I want?
It’s never seemed more complicated.
Blinded by tears, I have to stop and wipe the wetness from my eyes, struggle to catch my breath.
In the distance, the jaguar roars again.
And now I’m worried about Kiaran.
I press the heels of my palms into my eyes, groaning. How is this possible? I barely know him.
Then again, I barely knew Finnen and Taj a few days ago.
What is this madness?
“Kiaran?” I turn in a slow circle. The trees are closing in on me. The silence is heavy and ominous. “Kiaran!”
If there is one jaguar, could there be more?
Do jaguars run in packs? Do they have… nests? Is there a mamma jaguar around here, waiting to pounce on me? I’m not very far from the cave, given I can find my way back. I think I can. Maybe I should have obeyed Kiaran and stayed there.
But I can’t give up on Finnen and Taj.
Damn.
What I should do is try to get to a high place, see if I catch a glimpse of them.
And it’s still a shock that by that I mean the three of them.
Although deep inside I know, after smelling him, after touching him, after kissing him, that Kiaran is one of my fated mates, too.
I fail to find the way back up to the cave—because that’s a high point, and if I hadn’t been so intent on escaping I might have thought of seeking a vantage point to scan the area. After all, I need to know where I am and which way to go.
Away from the Summer Capital. But also not back to the fort of Artare.
