Page 49 of Love in the Wild

“What is romance?” Thorne asked suspiciously.

His friend chuckled. “Matingis what I believe you call it. We will surprise Eden.”

Afiya rolled her eyes. “I hope you do not make her angry. A heartbroken woman doesn’t always like surprises.”

“Not even good ones?” Bwanbale challenged with a teasing chuckle at her before he kissed her and Dembe goodbye.

Then Bwanbale took Thorne to a massive strange object outside that made Thorne grin as he recognized it.

“Truck!” he exclaimed. Memories of holding a tiny truck as big as a child’s hand came back to him. He remembered he used to play with the toy truck.

“It’s good to see you remember more words, but you have many more to learn if you wish to be out in the world.”

Thorne nodded solemnly. He needed to leave the language of the birds behind and speak the language of men and women.

As Bwanbale drove, Thorne listened to all the advice his friend could give him. It was a little hard to focus on what Bwanbale said at times, because Thorne was distracted by being inside a moving vehicle for the first time since he was three. The roads were bumpy, and the old leather of the seat squeaked as he shifted on it, but there was something intrinsically fun about the experience that had him grinning the entire time.

“Are you listening, Thorne?” Bwanbale’s laughing question pulled Thorne away from staring out the window as they flew past faster than he could ever move on foot.

“Yes,” he replied, and once again he pushed himself to focus on his friend.

Two hours later, his head had begun to ache, and he wasn’t sure if it was because he was trying to learn too much too fast, or because he wasn’t used to riding in a car. He was relieved when they finally reached Kampala. The towering buildings were brightly lit, and the city was noisy. Despite the rain that started to fall, he could hear the hum of the city, not unlike a great hive of bees. The sound made him restless.

“I will park here, and we can go to the front desk to find her room.” Bwanbale parked in front of a reddish-brown building. A clear pool in front of the building was dark with the stormy night sky as Bwanbale stopped the car and turned off the engine. Bwanbale cursed the rain, but it didn’t bother Thorne. Rain brought life—he would never curse it. He started toward the pool, ignoring Bwanbale calling his name.

There was a wall of roughhewn rocks, like the back side of the waterfall, and palm fronds banked it, making it look like the jungle, but it wasn’t real. Thorne knelt by the pool and cupped the water in one hand and raised it to his lips, tasting it. He spat it right back out. There was an unnatural taste to it—it was wrong somehow.

“What is wrong with the water?” he asked.

Bwanbale shook his head. “That is pool water. There are chemicals in it.”

Thorne’s eyes widened. “It is poison?”

Bwanbale sighed. “Not exactly. Just don’t drink it. We can get water inside.”

Thorne let the falling rain wash his hand of the tainted water, and he straightened.

“Thorne, follow me. We must use the entrance.” Bwanbale pointed to an entrance glowing with artificial lights.

Thorne was about to follow when he caught sight of someone standing on a ledge above the pool. It was a strange small opening in the building, like the entrance to a cave, but filled with light. Cloth billowed out around the opening. But despite the rain, Thorne recognized the figure standing there.

“Eden,” he gasped. He looked to Bwanbale. “She is there. I will go to her.”

“Thorne, wait!”

But Thorne had already waited too long. Eden’s figure disappeared from the ledge. He raced toward the building. She was perhaps as high up as his favorite waterfall. He could easily climb that.

Thorne paused at the wall. This was not like a tree; it was more like the cliffs by the falls. Thorne’s hands searched the stones for tiny gaps to find a grip. He felt certain he could climb it. The boots on his feet made things more difficult, but he would not give up. He would get to his mate at long last.

12

Eden left the balcony door of her room open as she listened to the staccato sounds of rain pounding the hotel and the pool deck below. She had always loved the storms in Arkansas. She had grown up in storm country, so normal rainstorms were actually soothing. The rumbling sound of the thunder and the ephemeral striations of lightning across the sky made her miss home.

She lingered at the edge of the pale-blue curtains of her hotel suite, embracing the static charge in the air that sent a strange ripple of excitement through her. It was as though something was coming through the storm, something coming forher. There was a good chance she was simply on edge because of everything she’d been through, but the longer she stood there, listening to the rain, the more she could have sworn she could hear a voice beneath the pattering rhythm of the raindrops. Straining, she thought she heard a word that was more a whisper than anything else.

“Thorne ...”

Eden closed her eyes.I’m just missing him, that’s all. I need to focus on moving forward.

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