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I was as sure of my fated mate being there as I was the breath in my lungs. That feeling wasn’t the kind I'd ever forget. It waslike being lost in a lightless, eternal night, then suddenly seeing the North Star. After so many years blind, and relatively alone, there was a shining beacon of hope to guide myself by.
It vanishedagain.How was that even possible?
“I’ll get that for you right away, Captain.”
“Thank you, then I’ll go find her.”
“Find who?”
I looked at Oren like he was a moron. “I already told you. My fated mate!”
Was I like a dog with a stick in its mouth? Yes. But Iwashalf wolf, so I figured it was justifiable. Besides, no one was guaranteed the universal gift of a fated mate, so it’d be awful entitled of me to take my blessing for granted.
“Look, Kai, I know this has to be important to you, but the fort is still recovering from the battle two days ago. Before you go chasing after a phantom from a near death experience, your people need you to recover first.”
I tried to sit up. “I’m sorry, did you just say that the battle was two days ago?” That couldn’t be possible. I could tell I’d been out for at least several hours, buttwo days?I really must’ve been on the edge of death.
“Fifty-one hours, to be exact.”
“Huh.” I went quiet for a moment and tried to digest it. It was hard to wrap my head around when I didn’t think I’d ever slept that long in my entire life.
But I knew Oren was right. That battle had been our worst yet, and I was sure there’d be plenty of repair and analysis to do in order to make sure such a thing never happened again.
“Two days, then. All right.” I took a deep breath, trying to center myself and get on track. “Were there any recursions?”
“No, the enemy seems soundly beaten back for now.”
“Casualty count?”
“Within reason, but we did suffer quite a few losses. A little over two dozen.”
I winced, but it wasn’t unexpected. War was paid for in blood and sweat, with both sides eventually having to settle the bill. But I still hated it. I hated losing amazing men and women over a seemingly endless conflict.
Something else was bothering me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It slid around my brain but refused to be caught, teasing at the periphery of my mind.
“Thankfully, our medics really did an incredible job with triage and dealing with the wounded.”
Our healers!
“What about Medic Everton?” I said, remembering how she’d healed Sargent Kahn so expertly. The last I’d seen of her was when I’d assigned her an escort.
My stomach twisted at the thought of her being hurt out on the battlefield, but surely the protectors I assigned her would've been more than capable of keeping her safe. It wasn’t like Ayla had a death wish or anything.
Oren’s face grew even cloudier, and before I knew it, I was sitting up again.
“Where is she? Is she all right?”
“Whoa, relax there, relax. I just was trying to remember who the hell you were talking about for a moment.”
I cooled off, allowing Oren to guide me back onto the cot. To be honest, I wasn’t sure why I’d reacted so strongly. It wasn’t like I knew her all that well. When did we even have a conversation before? I tried to recall, but as far as I knew, our longest interaction was from when she’d saved Darla’s life.
Wait… that didn’t seem right.
I frowned, trying to reach deeper into my thoughts, but they grew even slipperier. How frustrating.
“Are you all right? The healer will be here in a moment with those pain meds.”
“Never mind that,” I snapped, getting frustrated from everything stacking on top of me. From my fated mate, to learning I’d been out for two days, to momentarily believing Ayla was hurt, then confusion as to why that mattered at all: it was all a little much. “You were talking about Ayla.”
