Page 24 of Forsaking His Mate

“There is a stack of sliders in the cupboard by the front door. Find your size. Let me get dressed and I’ll show you where you’re staying.”

I go to the cupboard and pick out a pair, pulling the tags off before slipping my feet into them. When I return to the kitchen alone, I try not to breathe Abel’s scent in. Instead, I focus on the anger, on the dismay, and the pain.

By the time Hester returns to the kitchen wearing jeans and a hoodie, I’ve dug half-moon indentations into my palms from squeezing my hands tightly into fists. I force my fingers to unfurl and give her a smile that is definitely forced.

She directs me out the door that leads out to the back porch.

The fresh Montana air is warm, but there’s a slight bite to it that feels amazing. It cools my heated skin, making it a little easier to breathe.

Hester takes me past the first cabin. There’s a neat little garden in front of the steps and porch with colorful flowers in full bloom. It’s clear whoever lives here takes care of their place. The next cabin has fewer personal touches, but it’s still tidy, and the one opposite has a porch swing that looks ideal to sit on as the sun sets.

As we walk down the path that runs between thecabins, I can smell him getting closer, and my stomach tightens. How am I meant to be around him when everything feels this way?

“This is Apryle’s cabin,” Hester says, oblivious to my suffering. She points at the cabin with wind chimes and dream catchers hanging around the porch. There are a few pots filled with brightly colored flowers and a bench turned toward the lake.

“Morning!” a cheerful voice says from our right.

I turn my head, trying to focus on not passing out or throwing up.

The voice belongs to a woman maybe in her mid to late twenties with black hair streaked with white, just like me. We both look as if the moonlight touched us and I wonder if that is a tau thing. A tattoo on her neck and chest and another on her left arm peek out from under her tee. I can’t make out what they are from here, but they look detailed.

The woman watches me, a smile playing on her lips as she takes me in. Her cabin frontage is tidy, with a few plant pots on the deck, but there’s an easel too. The paint splatters on the surrounding wood tell me she uses it.

Hester stops and smiles at her with a fondness that makes me think of a mother and her child. Is that how she sees the tau wolves here?

And she is tau. Now that I know what that scent is, I’m able to recognize it in others. Her wolf half comes through stronger than her witch one, which surprises me. That is not the case with Hester, Apryle, or myself.

“Tessa, this is Roux. She’s been with us for about two years now. Roux, this is Tessa.”

I flicker my fingers in a wave.

“Welcome to the sanctuary,” she says, her words fullof warmth. She holds her hand up, fingers steepled, and concentrates before a flower appears between them.

I blink, my brain refusing to believe what I’m seeing. Did she just conjure a flower out of thin air?

“Roux is a talented tau.” There’s no mistaking the pride in Hester’s voice. “She’ll help with your training.”

I stare at the flower in Roux’s hand, as if it might disappear at any moment. “How did you do that?”

“It’s easy when you know how,” Roux says.

“Show me.” I want to know everything about magic so I can protect myself.

In the woods, when I was running for my life, I had no protection. I was afraid, alone, and the odds of my survival were low. I never want to be in that position again.

Roux smiles. “I’ll teach you, I promise.”

“I’m putting Tessa in cabin nine,” Hester says.

“That’s a good spot, right in front of the lake. Prime real estate at the sanctuary,” Roux says.

I twist to glance at the cabins behind us. There is one standing away from the others, alone. Even if I couldn’t sense him in that direction, I would have guessed it belonged to Abel.

“He doesn’t like being around the others?” I ask, curious whether this behavior is arrogance or something else.

“Abel likes his space,” Hester says.

As if he can sense me, the door of the cabin opens, and Abel steps out onto his porch. His eyes lock to mine like metal to magnet.

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