Page 34 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
Both Lachlan and I snap our heads up to look at him.
“What?” Lach asks, anger rising to his voice again. “What should convince you? She barely ever leaves her room!”
“Except for when Soren finds her in the middle of the woods,” Xeran says coolly, and I can see how the exhaustion is getting to him. It would be much easier for him to just punish Aurela, to go through with his missive to the pack. “We all saw what Aurela was capable of out there. Freezing us right in our places—four of us at once. That’s stronger magic than I’ve ever seen, and I’m sure it means she could sneak in and out of your parents’ house without issue, Lach.”
Lachlan is quiet, so I speak. “She may have been in the woods. That’s true. But she didn’t go out there of her own volition. Tara…calls to her. Must be using some magic to lure her out into the woods.”
Xeran’s jaw works.
“We shouldn’t be focusing on my sister,” Lachlan grinds out, his gaze swinging back to me. “We should be focusing on thefuckerwho took her. Kidnapped her and held her hostage for days.”
Kalen scribbles furiously at the desk.
“I didn’t take her, I saved her life,” I snap, finally turning to him, defending myself. “And maybe if you and your family hadn’t completely abandoned her, she could have gone to someone about this.”
Lachlan growls. “You stupid prick—”
“Enough!” Xeran bellows, standing up between us, and exercising a rare show of his supreme influence. My neck tenses with the instinct to bow to him as he growls. “I’m tired of this. So fucking tired. We have enough to deal with right now without the two of you bickering like toddlers. Stay here,” he orders. “I’m going to talk to Aurela.”
With that, he stalks out of the room, and even through the anger, Lach and I share a look. He might be furious with me, but there is one thing we can agree on without even needing to say it out loud.
Hopefully, Xeran is in a better mood when he arrives to hear Aurela’s side of the story.
Chapter 18 - Aurela
When I start to gain consciousness again, it’s with the deep, herby aroma of a healer’s tinctures around me. And when I finally start to open my eyes, I see three faces staring down at me, their eyes intense and hopeful.
I can see we’re in a healing bay, but I’m the only patient.
“You’re awake!” Valerie exclaims, leaning down to hug me, her voice echoing through the large, empty room. Other than Soren, it’s the most physical touch I’ve felt in years, and embarrassingly, I burst into tears.
It’s all too much. Being here. Everything that happened. Soren marking me, me wanting him, grappling with everything that happened back in high school. Finding out that the series of events leading to the worst thing that’s ever happened to me—watching Tara go up in a column of flame—was directly caused by my parents.
They meddled in my happiness to preserve their image.
And now here I am, surrounded by the three friends I thought I’d lost forever, gasping for air and waiting for the sobs to relinquish their hold on me.
“That’s right,” Phina says, one of her hands on my back, rubbing steadily. “Let it out. It’s okay. Just try to breathe. You’re okay.”
Iamtrying to breathe. I’m trying desperately to stop crying, to pull myself together, but it’s like the more I fight against the hysteria, the more it takes root.
The girls stay with me, swapping out a cool cloth, bringing me water, and rubbing my back until I finally get too tired to fight it, and it peters out.
“I get the feeling that was long overdue,” Maeve says soothingly, resting her hand on my knee.
I nod, take a sip of water, and lean back against my pillow, feeling wholly wrung out.
“Now that you’re awake,” Phina says, swallowing, “Xeran is going to want to talk to you. But we wanted to talk to you first.”
I blink up at them, stunned. “I don’t know how you all don’t hate me. What have I done to deserve you standing by me, having my back? Leaving you on the ridge? Hiding away in my mansion while your reputations—your lives—were ruined?”
“My life isn’t ruined,” Maeve counters. “And it never was. Everything that happened was the catalyst that forced me out of this town. It’s what I needed, at least for a little while.”
“I got Nora,” Phina says, lowering her chin to meet my eyes. “And I wouldn’t give her up for the world.”
“Yeah, shit sucked for a while,” Valerie deadpans, making the others roll their eyes. “But I don’t think your life is as easy as you’re making it out to be. We see your parents atmostonce a week, and that’s enough to make me go crazy.”
I just stare at them, sobs threatening again at the back of my throat.
