Chapter 16

SIXTEEN

Rinan

We stand together outside the caverns waiting for Garrick and Tara to wash themselves. It won't take away the scent of sex from them, won't take away the fact that that fucking animal was inside her, but it'll do something. It'll be better than nothing.

I want to throw myself off the damn mountain.

"How could she sleep with him?" Arlys asks, dragging his hands over his face, his expression one of complete misery. "How could she?"

My words come out bitter and angry. "Maybe because he's nice to her. Something we're not."

Arlys drops his hands, staring at the ground. "It couldn't have been good. She doesn't want him. She wants us. I know it."

"You want to ask her?" My question's a cruel jab, but I'm feeling cruel.

And utterly destroyed. Like my fucking heart was ripped out of my chest by the tiny witch.

Arlys flinches at my question, but doesn't answer me. "Do you think she did it to hurt us?"

To hurt us? How fucking self-involved are we? I've grown up with Arlys and Drogo. They've never been this idiotic before. It's like everything they've done since meeting Tara has been stupid as hell, and I'm even dumber for going along with it.

But I manage to keep the venom from my words. "She thinks we don't like her, so I doubt she even thinks that sleeping with Garrick would hurt us." I pause. "Because we don't like her, right?"

"Right," Drogo mutters, glaring out over the woods, but even I can tell he doesn't mean it.

Arlys starts to pace. Something he does when he's really distressed. "She's too small for him. Too tiny. He probably hurt her. We should fucking kill him."

"She didn't look hurt," I say, and this time, my words hurt me too, because Tara didn't look the least bit hurt. She looked like a woman glowing with satisfaction. A way I'd imagined her in my mind a thousand times while touching myself.

Arlys freezes, and for a second I think he might punch me, before he goes back to pacing. "What do we do? How do we fix this?"

"This fucks everything up," Drogo growls. "Our plan–"

"The hell with the plan!" I shout. "We're talking about how we fix this with her ."

Drogo turns those dark, angry eyes onto me. "No, we're not. Focus on what's important. The plan is out the window already. She fucked him. The alliance between the bears and witches has been solidified. There's no sending her back home and being free from her after this. There's only the bears and witches ganging up against the wolves, and bathing our lands in blood and death."

"So we sleep with Tara too," I say, feeling a little of the pressure on my chest ease with the suggestion. "Then we're all in an alliance."

It makes sense. It's what we agreed to before. This time, we just have to woo Tara. We have to make up for every shitty thing we ever did to her and get her to want to have sex with us.

"No," Drogo says, shaking his head wildly, so on the edge of losing it that I don't even think he realizes how on the edge he is. "If we sleep with Tara, we are forever linked to the witches. We have to play at being at peace until they attack us again, probably in a worse way than the water. And the bears? They'll do the same. No, there has to be another way."

Is he mad? Can he really think there's another way? My voice comes out cold and angry. "I think we should just kill Tara."

Both men look at me in shock.

"It's the only way. Once she fixes the magic, we toss her over the side of the mountain, do whatever the hell we want with Garrick, and finally put an end to all of this nonsense."

"Rinan–" There's an angry note to Drogo's voice, but I don't care.

Let him see how crazy he's acting. Let him see that there's no way out of this that's realistic. And that by all this scheming, and all these plans, he's just putting off the inevitable. Us falling in love with Tara. Us having her close to us always. Maybe even real peace with the witches and bears.

I keep pushing, needing him to see that there's only one answer now. "So, we're in agreement. Once Tara is finished fixing the water, we kill her and rid ourselves of that troublesome witch once and for all."

There's a sound. Garrick's scent reaches my nose. But when I turn, there's nothing there. Just the slight movement of a plant. Is my mind playing tricks on me? Was he really there?

"We're obviously not going to kill Tara," Arlys says tiredly. "We need to decide what to do with her, but we don't need to decide right now. Not when emotions are so high. Not when his fucking scent is still on her."

"But–"

Arlys gives me a look. "I know how you feel, Rinan. I also know how Drogo feels. We're not going to come to an agreement about this, so taking some time is the best thing we can do."

Maybe. But it feels like every tick of the clock brings Tara further into the bear's arms and further away from ours. I know they don't want that. Even Drogo, no matter how much he protests.

I just hope our choices, or lack of choice, doesn't cost more than we're willing to pay.