Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 534

Chapter 534

KILLIAN

Kael had not technically invited me to follow him.

To be precise about it, Kael had not done anything that could be interpreted as an invitation. He'd walked past the secondary clinic's doorway at half past ten at night with the specific purposeful quality of someone who knew where they were going and was going there, and I'd been sitting in the recovery room's doorway because the room was small and the night was the kind that made small rooms feel smaller, and I'd seen him.

And I'd followed him.

I was aware this was not the most sophisticated decision I'd ever made. I was aware that *following Kael through the pack grounds at night because I wanted the company* was not behavior that communicated the kind of settled, reasonable presence I was trying to establish in Shadowmere during the very narrow window of time when my continued existence here was conditional on not making things worse.

The wolf had wanted the company. The wolf had been in the recovery room all week and was restless in the specific way of a rogue wolf who had access to open space but had been choosing not to use it because the open space was everyone else's and the everyone else had opinions about my presence in it.

The wolf had said: *Follow him.*

And I'd followed him.

The problem was the dark.

Shadowmere's interior grounds had lighting along the main paths, but Kael had taken the secondary route that went through the inner garden section, which had minimal path lighting because it was Ivory's space and Ivory's botanical work was sensitive to excessive artificial light at night. The path was navigable — I could see adequately, wolf senses working even without the full shift — but it was dark enough that the specific combination of a root system that had grown across the path and my attention being on the moving figure ahead of me rather than the ground beneath me produced a predictable outcome.

I caught my foot.

My instinct was to grab something to stabilize.

The something I grabbed was Kael.

The sequence of events from that point was very fast and very specific and ended with me on the ground and Kael on the ground beneath me, in the way of things that couldn't have been arranged more awkwardly if someone had been trying.

I processed this.

My wolf said: *Say something.*

I tried to think of something to say.

My wolf said: *SAY SOMETHING.*

Nothing useful was coming to mind. The specific problem was that the list of things I could say that wouldn't make the situation worse was very short and I was going through it rapidly and finding most of them inadequate.

Then I heard the gasp.

Not one gasp. Two. From approximately eight feet away, at the edge of the path where the lighting from the main garden section was slightly better.

Ivory and Jordan.

Standing at the edge of the path. Looking at us. Their mouths open in the specific way of people who'd arrived at a scene and were in the process of interpreting it. The interpretation was visible on their faces and it was not the correct one.

"Kael," I said, at the same time Kael said "Ivory."

"We—" Kael started.

"No," Ivory said. Her voice had the quality of someone who'd been presented with information and was organizing it. "We don't—we don't need an explanation."

"Yes you do," Kael said. "Because the explanation is—"

"It's fine," Jordan said. His voice was extremely controlled. The kind of control that existed specifically to prevent a different response from escaping. "We can give you some privacy if you need—"

"We don't need privacy," Kael said. "Nothing happened. Get off me," he said, to me.

I got off him.

We both stood up with the specific quality of two people trying to establish through the act of standing that they had been horizontal for entirely innocent reasons. The establishing was not going well.

"There was a root," I said. "On the path."

"Of course," Ivory said.

"I tripped," I said. "He was directly in front of me."

"Naturally," Jordan said.

"This is completely—" I started.

"Killian," Kael said, and his voice had the specific quality of someone who'd located what he wanted to say, "get off my—get away from me."

"I'm already standing," I said.

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