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“Really?” she says, her crying subsiding. She looks up at me. “It wasn’t until I was coming back down that I realized how dangerous it was.”
“You did well then,” I tell her. “Did you make it all the way up to Hardashun Point?”
“Yes, it’s beautiful up there. I could see all the way to the ocean.”
“That’s some climb, Mira. I’m amazed you made it. If you want to start doing climbs like that, maybe we could do them together next time?”
I smile at her reassuringly. I want to teach her to climb even more than I did before. She could be quite good if she learned a few safety rules.
“I think that would be wise,” she replies with an embarrassed grin.
“Come on, let’s get you home,” I say.
“But I can’t walk,” she protests. “I tried to put weight on my leg, and it just gave out under me.”
“It’s okay, I’ll carry you back.”
Her face looks like a stricken mask of horror. “You can’t do that,” she says, alarmed. “It’s miles back to the resort.”
I laugh and bend down to pick up her diminutive form. “I think I can manage,” I tell her, lifting her without effort.
She looks like she’s going to protest, and then rests her head on my shoulder. “Thank you,” she says through chattering teeth.
As I wrap her in my arms I realize how cold her body is. “You’re freezing,” I say. “What did I tell you about bringing extra layers with you?”
“I have a jacket in my pack, but I lost everything in the fall. It could be anywhere.”
Glancing back up the slope at the trail of destruction she caused on the way down, I send a prayer of thanks to the Divine Ones that she was not badly injured.
“Okay, I’ll come back up and look for it in the morning. Right now, let’s concentrate on getting you back down the hill to safety.” I wrap my jacket around her as I say it. The cold is the real killer up here. People have frozen to death five meters from their homes up in the high valleys.
Focusing on my footing takes all my attention as we head down to the main track. The last thing I want to do is drop her because I’m not concentrating.
Imagining what it would be like if I woke up tomorrow to find out she’d gone missing in the mountains chills me to the bone. She’s lucky I came along when I did. My heart swells with the knowledge that I’m able to help her. Maybe I’ve even saved her life.
Holding my precious cargo tighter to my chest, my senses are overwhelmed by her proximity. The scent of her is exotic and alluring and yet somehow incredibly familiar at the same time. This beautiful human woman has me beguiled.
“I was scared I was going to die out there,” she tells me, her voice small and quiet. “You probably saved my life,” she adds, echoing my thoughts.
“I’m not even sure why I went up that trail today,” I tell her. “I felt like I was being drawn up there, like it was really important for me to go. Does that sound crazy?”
“Well, I’m lucky you did.” Mira goes quiet for a while, the warmth of her body pressed close to mine. I’m thankful for the break in conversation as I contemplate the fact that I now know, without a doubt, Mira is my fated mate.
The idea is abhorrent to me. I don’t want a fated mate. I never did. But there’s still a visceral response to the closeness of my fated mate I can’t help. My heart is pounding in my chest so loud I can barely stand it. I’m sure it is trying to get out and join hers, which I can feel fluttering against her chest
My mind flashes back to my childhood and all the time I spent watching powerlessly as my mother exploited the special link she had with my father. Manipulating him to do her bidding until he was no more than an empty husk.
I almost dump Mira in the snow and walk away as the memories come flooding in. But my limbs refuse to cooperate. Icould no more leave her here than cut off my own right arm. I don’t regret saving her, and I’m glad to know she’s out there in the world.
Just maybe she should stay out there away from me. I have too many plans to throw them all away on an elaborate heartache, and that’s really all fated mates are, aren’t they?
“I feel a bit warmer now,” she says, her hot breath tickling my neck and sending shivers down my spine. I feel angry that my body would react like that against my will.
“That’s good,” I tell her shortly. I’m in no mood to talk right now.
I notice a little frown crease her brow, but I ignore it. I want to be alone with my thoughts. I have to work out how I can get away from her. Once I get her back to safety, that is.
The setting sun is sending deep orange rays slanting through the trees by the time we get back.
