Chapter 6 - Linnea

A cold wind whistles through the trees as we wind our way through them. I can feel Aris's heavy presence at my back, his eyes drilling a hole in the back of my head.

I've always felt him, always been aware of the budding connection between us, but now it feels raw and scraped, like an exposed wound. Aris's team walks around me, and I can only imagine they're pissed they can't shift.

Go ahead, I think, wishing they would just leave me behind. If I could make it back to my house without Varun finding out, I might be able to get back in touch with the doctor. I could break this blood-marriage with Aris and follow through with my plans to escape.

We come to a clearing, and several members of the team stop to drink. I notice a look pass between Aris and Bigby—I recognize him from high school—and I marvel at the fact that they're friends now. Bigby was always nice to me during the few interactions we had. He and Aris are like totally different people.

Back in high school, Bigby was cool-headed, leading the debate team and winning student class president in a landslide. Aris was known as a hot-headed bully, the kind of guy who banged on lockers and whose voice you could always hear hollering down the hallway.

I get the feeling they're communicating silently as the short, blonde man with the lethal look to him turns wordlessly and starts heading a little further west. I wish I could tap into whatever silent, mind connection they're using. Then I might be able to get away. Once again, without saying a word to me, they're falling back in line and continuing the march up the side of the mountain.

Stubbornly, I plant my feet and refuse to go with them. I wait for a moment, thinking they might just not notice I'm not in their ranks, but Aris turns back immediately, his eyes narrowing at me. His team halts just ahead, turning and looking at us. The woman looks especially impatient, her hand on her cocked hip.

"Let's go," Aris says, his voice cold. Though it's dark, I can still see his eyes glinting in the moonlight, the dark bags under his eyes. This close, I can feel the body heat coming off him in waves. He smells like sweat and pine.

"No," I say, sounding much more confident than I feel. Up ahead, a ripple goes through the team. Even from here, I can tell they're surprised I'd defy Aris. What do I have to lose? "I'm going my own way."

Aris stares back at me, disbelieving. I feel that connection between us tug, get a hint of the tidal of emotions he's experiencing right now. One of which is just barely contained rage, and the feeling of it makes me gasp as he takes a step toward me.

"No, you're not."

"Look," I say, holding my hands up. "Thank you for not letting them kill me, but I have no interest in whatever's going on here. You can continue with your mission or whatever you're doing, and I can go back to my life. We'll never have to see each other again."

Aris's hands ball into fists, and he takes another step toward me. My body feels like a magnet drawing toward his, and suddenly, I desperately want to obey it, to follow the urgent pull that insists I step into his arms and fit my body in his. I see his nostrils flare and wonder if he's feeling the same thing.

"I told you you're coming with us. End of story. Don't make me carry you again."

At the thought of Aris wrapping his arms around my waist and throwing me over his shoulder again, a thrill rises through me, and my stomach clenches. I internally shake my head at the notion—him abducting me should not create more desire for him.

"I'll scream. I'll fight you every step of the way," I counter, stepping back. No way am I about to be kidnapped twice in a row and thrown around like a sack of potatoes. Never mind how nice it felt when Aris was carrying me like I weighed nothing, I'd still fought him to be let down so I could walk on my own.

His hands lingered on my waist as he lowered me to the ground, his stare deep and intense.

"The fuck you will," Aris growls. Without even glancing back at his team, they seem to have gotten a message to keep going, because they turn in unison and continue tromping up the incline. "You are coming with me. End of story. And you will be quiet."

With his voice so low like this, I can practically feel the vibration of it on my skin. I stare at the soft part of his jaw, where a bit of stubble has started to grow, and imagine what it would feel like to put my hand there.

"I just want to go on my own—"

"They will kill you, Linnea. Do you understand that?" Aris reaches out and takes my arm as I try to step away from him.

"So what?" I ask, ripping my arm out of his grasp. He lets me, his breathing coming harder now, his eyes boring straight through me.

"So—we're blood-bonded now," he says through gritted teeth. I stare at him, wide-eyed and confused. He can't be telling me that he actually cares about the blood-bond—that it's so important to him to uphold old, silly, traditional marriage rights.

"So, I officially blood-divorce you," I say, rolling my eyes. "You don't even have to take me to court."

"No, Linnea," he says, stopping to bury his hands in his hair. He looks up to the sky like he's asking for courage to put up with me. Good. Maybe if I'm annoying enough, he'll just let me go. "We're blood-bonded. And—well, you know what happens with the blood-bond and…"

It finally clicks.

As a shifter, finding your mate isn't a guarantee. Mostly, the strongest shifters are sure to get a mate, but as it goes down the pack line, you may not. Those who aren't mated can get a blood-bonding marriage as something to stand in the place of the true mating bond. It's only slightly stronger than a human marriage, with minimal physical effects if one shifter betrays the other.

But for mated shifters, a blood-bond marriage is a little heftier. You get more benefits, such as your mate suffering if they aren't faithful (which is practically unheard of, as mates typically only find one another attractive), you have a better connection, and your offspring are typically stronger, but there's also a higher price tag.

Mates that complete the blood-marriage ritual bind their lives. Meaning if one dies, so does the other. That's why mates typically avoid the blood-marriage ritual if they can help it. It would mean if one parent died, their children would be orphans. It means for your entire life, you have the weight of two lives to think of every time you cross the street or get on an airplane. It means literally trusting your partner with your life.

I should be happy. This is Aris admitting after years of denial that we are mates, just like I said to him that prom night. Instead, all I feel is a sinking, sputtering dread in the pit of my stomach.

"You understand?" Aris says, dropping his voice and moving even closer to me. For a moment, it almost seems like his face has softened and opened to me, but I know him better than that.

He's not telling me I have to stay because he's concerned for my safety—he's doing it because he's concerned for his own. If I die, he dies. And poor Aris has gone and hooked himself to a non-shifter, which means the probability of me dying is a lot higher than if I could shift like him.

I almost laugh out loud, realizing I thought he actually cared about me for a moment. I think of every terrible comment, ever slight, whispered to me as we passed in the hallway when we were in high school. He doesn't care about me. He's always made that clear. Bursting forward, I jam my arm into his side as I push past him.

He doesn't even stumble, the bastard.

Instead, he takes up his position behind me, as he has been the entire time we've been walking, and confidently commands his team to slow down because we catch up with them minutes later.

After watching Aris mess around in high school with his pack of cronies, it's weird to watch a group of capable people listen to him. He's obviously not the same kid he used to be and now commands respect, but it doesn't fit with the image I have of him in my brain.

"So—" I jump when one of the team members appears next to me, already talking. He's grinning broadly and sticking his hand out over his stomach for me to shake as we walk. I give him a look but find myself reaching out to shake it. I must be imagining it, but it almost sounds like Aris makes a noise behind us. If Percy hears it, he doesn't mind it.

"I'm Percy," he says. "Sorry for startling you. People say I have that effect."

Despite myself, I laugh. He grins even broader at this, and I get the sense that he likes to raise the spirits of the group.

"I have to ask," he says, angling his body toward mine so I can see his whole face. He's adorably handsome, in a golden retriever kind of way. His golden curls flop over his forehead, and he doesn't go more than a few minutes without making a joke or smiling. It seems like the other members of the group are used to this. "What was Aris like in high school? I have him pegged as a dumb jock."

I stifle another laugh, and then, like always, the true reality of our high school experience comes barreling back to me.

You know, you'd be like a six if you lost 10 pounds.

Linnea is always the elephant in the room.

Maybe your grandma died to get away from you.

"He was very dumb," I say, after a long beat of silence stretches out, blanketing the group as we continue trudging up the hill. Even Percy, who feels like the kind of guy with a perpetual smile on his face, starts to waver as he waits for me. "That's why he failed geometry."

"I was not dumb," Aris grumbles as Bigby breaks into laughter ahead of us. "That teacher was out to get me."

"More like Mrs. Farry was the only woman in that school who didn't give you grades based on your looks," Bigby says, putting his hand on his stomach as he laughs. "I forgot about that. Damn, she hated you, Aris."

"Yeah, yeah," Aris says, "stop chatting and keep up the fucking pace."

Though his voice is authoritative, I feel through our connection an undeniable warmth for the shifters walking with us. I get the feeling that Aris would give his life for this team. I glance around them, a chill running down my back. Does that mean he would sacrifice mine?

My thoughts fizzle out in my head as we finally come to the crest of the incline. I have to put my hand to my mouth to keep from gasping—I've lived in this town my whole life and somehow didn't know this was here.

Up, much higher than we are, beyond several more hills and groups of trees, is a huge, stately mansion with an air of history and importance to it. Though it's beautiful, it's clear that nobody has lived in it for a long time. Vines crawl up the sides of the building, and I can see, even from this far away, that weeds have overgrown the driveway, and the rosebushes under the windows have gone completely wild.

The team comes to a stop, and I bounce off the woman in front of me. She turns to give me a look, and I have to tear my gaze away from the mansion. Aris stalks ahead of the group, taking a moment before he turns to face everyone. It is obvious from how everyone looks at him that he's the leader of the group, but I also see it in the way he carries himself, how he addresses everyone, assessing them for injury. I can practically hear his mind whirring.

He's standing in the center of a group of small cabins right next to a large fire pit. The cabins are clearly old and underused, just like the large mansion up on the hill. Unlike the mansion, the cabins are small, and I wonder if they even have running water. Aris claps his hands together and our eyes meet for a moment, but he quickly tears them away, looking back to this team.

"This," he says, broadly gesturing to the cabins around us, "is where we'll be staying for the foreseeable future."