Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 226

Chapter 226

IVORY

“Eight years ago-through Nina’s stories, pieced together from fragments*

Finished

“You were so fucking stubborn,” Nina had told me months ago, trying to fill in the gaps my memory loss had created. “During the last Hunt. You’d been injured-some enhanced creature had gotten past your defenses, clawed you up pretty badly. And you refused to let Kael help. Kept saying you could handle it yourself. Kept pushing him away even though you were clearly dying.”*

*”What happened?” I’d asked, trying to imagine myself in that situation, trying to feel the memory that should have been there but wasn’t.*

**Kael saved you anyway,” Nina had said simply. “Ignored your protests. Ignored your pride. Just picked you up and carried you to safety while you were too weak to stop him. You were furious at first. But later-after you’d recovered, after you’d had time to think-you told me it was the moment you fell in love with him. Because he’d refused to let you destroy yourself out of stubborn pride.”*

The memory of Nina’s story hit me like physical blow as I watched Aria’s consciousness fade, as I felt her body go limp in my arms, as I realized we were both about to die because I’d made the same stupid choice Kael had made eight years ago.

Choosing partnership over survival.

Choosing to save someone who’d told me to leave them.

Refusing to let pride and practicality override what felt fundamentally right.

History was repeating. Just with me in Kael’s role and Aria in mine. And I was apparently just as stubborn and stupid as he’d been.

The wolves were closing in. Three of them left—I’d killed three during the chaos of freeing Aria from the homicidal plant. But three was still too many when was this exhausted, this injured, carrying deadweight that I refused to abandon.

I laid Aria down as gently as I could manage, positioning her behind me, using my body as shield between her and the wolves. Drew my knives with hands that were shaking from exertion and blood loss and the accumulated trauma of the past twenty-four hours.

The wolves circled, assessing. They were smart enough to recognize that I was weakened. Smart enough to coordinate their attack for maximum effect. Smart enough to know that time was on their side-they could afford to wait, to let exhaustion do their work for them.

But I couldn’t afford to wait. Aria was bleeding out behind me. Was unconscious and possibly dying from the combination of stab wound, strangulation trauma, and blood loss. Every second I spent in defensive posture was a second she got closer to death.

I needed to end this. Fast. Before we both ran out of time.

I attacked first, abandoning defensive strategy for aggressive offense that caught the wolves off-guard.

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14:50 Mon, Jan 19 G

Chapter 226

Finished

They’d expected me to conserve energy, to play it safe. Instead, I went straight for the nearest one with techniques that sacrificed my own safety for the chance at a killing blow.

My knife found its eye, driving deep into the skull behind it. The wolf dissolved into magical smoke before it could even yelp. Two left.

But my aggressive move had left me open. One of the remaining wolves took advantage, lunging for my exposed side. I twisted at the last second, taking the bite on my arm instead of my torso. Felt teeth tear through fabric and into flesh, felt the sickening sensation of canines scraping against bone.

I drove my other knife into the wolf’s neck, sawing through muscle and sinew until I hit something vital. It released my arm and staggered, bleeding out even as it tried to retreat. Dissolved into smoke seconds later.

One wolf left.

It was the largest, the leader probably. And it had learned from watching its pack mates die. Was more cautious now. More strategic. Circling just out of range, looking for the perfect opening.

I didn’t have time for a prolonged standoff. Aria didn’t have time. So I did something reckless and stupid and completely against every tactical principle I’d ever learned.

I turned my back on the wolf.

Knelt beside Aria and began checking her wounds, giving every appearance of completely dismissing the threat behind me. Making myself vulnerable in the most obvious way possible.

The wolf took the bait. I heard it coming-the change in its breathing, the shift in air pressure as it moved. Spun at the last possible second and drove both knives upward into its chest as its momentum carried it forward into the blades.

We went down together, the wolf’s weight crushing me into the ground beside Aria. Its teeth snapped inches from my face, its claws scrabbling at my chest, trying to disembowel me even as it died. I held the knives steady, keeping them buried in vital organs, waiting for the life to fade from its glowing eyes.

Finally, it dissolved. Leaving me lying there, bleeding from my arm and probably a dozen other places, gasping for air, wondering how the hell I was going to carry Aria to the checkpoint when I could barely stand myself.

But I would. Because the alternative-leaving her here to die after everything I’d just done to keep her al -was unacceptable.

I forced myself to sitting position and properly assessed Aria’s condition. The wound had definitely reopened-blood had soaked through all my careful bandaging. Her throat was bruised and swollen from the strangulation, marked with angry red lines where the vines had crushed her windpipe. Her pulse was weak but present. Her breathing shallow but regular.

She was alive. Barely. But alive.

I started to examine the wound, preparing to do more emergency field surgery, when I noticed something odd. The plant that had attacked us-the one whose vines had been strangling Aria-it was wilting. Dying. Its vines were turning brown and brittle, its leaves dropping like it had been poisoned.

I looked closer at the base of the tree, at where Aria had been pressed against it. Saw marks in the soil. Scratches. Like someone had been systematically digging at the roots.

2/3

14:50 Mon, Jan 19 G

Chapter 226

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