He glanced down at his blood-covered body. “Right.” He moved stiffly as he made his way to the edge of the clearing to a small brook just outside the campsite. Quickly, he washed himself with the cold mountain water as best as he could and then slipped the shorts on before heading back.
The clearing was starting to fill with people from The Agency. He saw Thoralf talking to Jason and one of the female agents wrapping a blanket around the girl, and he sighed with relief. However, when he saw a familiar figure sitting at one the picnic tables, he tensed once again. Sarah.
She’d been worried for him. Believed that he was in danger without any hesitation. And she’d even fought a Blackstone dragon so she could come and rescue him. If that didn’t mean she was ready to be mates, he didn’t know what else would prove it.
His heart hammered as he pivoted in her direction, his steps picked up as he approached her. All he wanted to do was hold her in his arms and kiss her. And tell her he loved her with all his heart.
She must have sensed his approach, because her head lifted. The sight of her velvety brown eyes growing wide pinned him to the spot. “D-Daniel.” Her lower lip trembled. “I—” She sucked in a quick breath. “You’re … okay.”
“I sure am,” he said, his voice hoarse as emotion welled up.
She gave him a curt nod. “All right then.”
All right then? That didn’t sound like the warm reception he was expecting.
Standing up, she smoothed her palms down on her jeans. “I’m glad. And that it’s all over.”
“All over?” he echoed.
“Yeah. The Knights … they’re gone, right? They’re not a danger to you anymore.”
“I suppose.” Nox and his men were dead, and the hiker was safe.
“Good.” Her shoulders did a little shrug. “Well, I guess that means me and Adam and Darcey aren’t in danger either.”
“I guess.”
“Great. I’ll catch a ride back with the agents, and I can go pick up Adam.”
“Pick up Adam?” What the hell is she saying?
“We’ll grab our things from your house and head back. Christina offered the use of their private jet.” The corner of her lips turned up, but her eyes remained dull. “Adam will be thrilled.”
Numbness spread in his chest, down to his limbs, making it difficult to speak.
She cleared her throat. “By the way, I’ll file the paperwork first thing tomorrow when we get back.”
“Paperwork?”
“Yeah, the annulment papers.”
The words were like knives twisting in his gut. He stared at her, not saying anything or moving, as if that would slow down the world crumbling around him.
She stood there, her lips pursed together for what seemed like eons. “All right then. Have—have a good life, Daniel.” Quickly, she pivoted on her heel and rushed off.
He stared after her, dumbfounded. “Have a good life?” he repeated.
What. The. Fuck.
“Sarah!” He called after her. When she didn’t stop or turn back, he finally found the strength to pry his feet from where they were frozen to the ground and tore after his mate. It only took half a second to get in front of her. “Sarah! Wait!” He grabbed her arms. “Sarah … Sarah, look at me,” he urged, gripping her tighter when she turned her head away and tried to squirm away. “Please.”
Chocolate brown eyes glittered with unshed tears, and he felt his heart crack. “Let me go, Daniel.”
“Let you go?” The forcefulness of the last syllable made her flinch. “I can’t, Sarah. I can’t let you just walk out of my life.”
Her jaw tightened as two tears tracked down her cheeks. “You don’t want me around.”
“Don’t want you—” He wanted to shake her, but stopped himself. “What the hell makes you think that?”
“Because you didn’t tell me I was your mate!”
Oh, shit. How did she—
“I had to find out from Gabriel,” she spat.
“Fuck. That’s not how—”
“It’s all right,” she said, her shoulders sinking. “I just … I understand. This was all temporary. And getting married was a drunken mistake. We shouldn’t have—”
This time, it was his grizzly who answered with a roar of denial. It rattled through his chest and ripped through his throat so loudly, it made Sarah snap her mouth shut. “I don’t know where you got that idea, but you’re wrong.”
Her nostrils flared. “Then why didn’t you tell me? Gabriel said you didn’t want to.”
“Not yet.” His chest ached with desperation as he felt her about to slip from his fingers. All because he didn’t tell her right away. “You weren’t ready to hear it. If you were a shifter it would have been easier. You would have known right away, like I did.” He took a deep breath and took her hands into his. “I think … that night we met, someone roofied my drink. It’s a special drug that only affects shifters. But right before I took it, I saw you and recognized who you were to me. But the drug made me forget, for the most part.
“I woke up the next day, and there were flashes. For months, I could feel something was wrong with me, but I didn’t know what. Then you came here and found me, and I knew it right away. I wanted you right then and there. I concocted that plan to fake our marriage, though I knew it was wrong. But then you walked back into HQ and told me you wanted to stay, well, I went along with it, but all this time, I’ve been trying to find ways to win you over.”
She double-blinked. “Win me over?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his head with his palm. “I wanted you to want to stay because of me. Not because of some publicity stunt. But the mating thing is complicated enough as it is. I didn’t think you felt the same yet, not with the same intensity as I did. Mates, you see, once they’re ready to open
