Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 368

Chapter 368

KAEL

“Quiet as in settled,” Jordan said. “Not quiet as in giving up.”

“No,” I said. “Not giving up. He doesn’t give up. It’s one of the things we have in common.”

Jordan was quiet for a moment, considering. “When the curse broke,” he said carefully, “when the bond formed I’ve always wondered something. Whether the integration came back

—

fully. After.”

I looked at him. “No,” I said. “Not fully.”

He absorbed this. “Does Aria know?”

“No,” I said. “Nobody knows. It’s not-” I stopped, organized the next part. “It doesn’t affect my functioning. It doesn’t affect the bond’s validity or Aria’s safety or anything practical. It’s internal. A disagreement that I’m managing.”

“A disagreement that’s been going on for eight months,” Jordan said.

“Yes.”

“And the other side of the disagreement is waiting for something,” Jordan said. “Specifically.”

I didn’t answer, because the answer was obvious and saying it felt like giving it more reality than it already had,

Jordan didn’t push. “Is there a path to the integration coming back fully?” he asked instead. “Is that even possible, after the curse?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “The integration wasn’t supposed to fracture in the first place. The curse did something that shouldn’t have been possible, Whether the reversal is possible-” I shook my head. “I haven’t found anything in the texts that addresses it directly. It’s too specific a situation,”

“Ivory would know,” Jordan said. And then immediately: “Sorry. That wasn’t helpful.”

“It was accurate,” I said. “She would know. She probably knows more about what the curse did to me medically than I do, because she spent three years observing it from the outside and documenting it in ways I wasn’t capable of from the inside.” I pressed my fingers against the desk. “That’s a conversation for another time.”

“Is there anything that helps?” Jordan asked. “The integration. Are there moments when it’s closer?”

“I’m going to go check the perimeter reports,” I said.

“Of course,” Jordan said, with the equanimity of a man who’d gotten his answer without it being given.

I stood. Gathered what I needed to function for the rest of the evening. Put the Alpha on in the way I did when the interior was complicated and the exterior needed to be functional regardless.

My wolf, who’d been still since the clinic, stirred slightly. Not the restless pacing. Just attention – the lifted-head quality of an animal that had heard something and was checking the direction.

*You said either*, he noted.

I walked out of my office without answering him.

He was patient. He’d been patient for eight months. He could be patient a while longer.

That was what I told myself.

I was less and less certain he was going to agree with how much longer constituted a while.