Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
It was time to go find out, Lan’ara told herself firmly. She still felt weak, but she was sure she could manage to get up out of bed and take a short walk. If Nate wouldn’t come to her, she would go to him.
She started to sit up but Tante Na’lla tried to stop her.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she demanded, pushing Lan’ara back down with a stern frown.
“Out,” Lan’ara said, sitting up again. “I can’t stay in bed forever, Tante. And I feel so much better now,” she added. “Thanks to your nursing.”
But her thanks and praise did nothing to lessen her mentor’s disapproval.
“If you’re going to go find that useless human that nearly sucked you dry, you can save yourself the trouble,” she snapped. “He hasn’t even put his nose in the door once, the whole time you were at death’s gate!”
Lan’ara felt the words like a stab in the heart, but she couldn’t give up. She needed to find Nate and see what was going on. What if he’d been triggered again somehow and was wandering around in a combat-fueled rage?
She didn’t think it was probable—she had felt his psyche mending as he sucked the Healing Nectar from her breasts—but there was always the possibility that he hadn’t healed completely. She wanted to check on him and make sure he was all right.
Besides, I miss him—I love him, she thought desperately, as she sat on the side of the bed and drew on a loose white gown. I need to know that he’s well and safe.
The fact that he hadn’t come to visit her hurt, but not knowing if her fated mate was all right was worse.
“I tell you, child—he’s no good for you!” Tante Na’lla lectured as Lan’ara rose on unsteady feet and swayed for a moment, waiting to see if her legs would hold her.
“Nate is the one the Goddess set apart for me,” she said quietly, trying to remain calm. “He is the one I dreamed of—the one I must heal.”
“You already healed him as much as you can!” Tante Na’lla cried. “He drained you to the point of death when you made the Healing Nectar for him! And what thanks do you get for it? None! He abandoned you in your hour of need—leaving me to nurse you alone. What kind of faithless male acts in such a way?”
Lan’ara had no answers for her.
“I only know I need to speak to him and make certain he’s all right,” she said. She took a few steps towards the door and the world spun so that she had to catch the doorframe of the hut.
“Look at you! You’re weak as a baby—come back to bed!” Tante Na’lla caught her by the arm and tried to steer her back to the low sleeping platform and the soft mattress but Lan’ara pulled away.
“No! I can’t spend any more time in bed.” She sighed and looked at the wrinkled face that was peering anxiously into hers. “I’m sorry, Tante Na’lla, but you know that as many good feelings as you poured into me, what I mainly need are the positive emotions of my fated mate. Please—let me go seek him.”
“That one has no positive emotions to give,” her mentor said, frowning. “I’m afraid he’ll only weaken you further, child!”
“Nate has many strong positive emotions,” Lan’ara protested. In fact, if he hadn’t been feeling such intense desire for her the night he’d sucked the Healing Nectar from her breasts, she probably would have died. The positive emotions he had been exuding had been just enough to keep her head above the waves, even as she was being depleted.
“I see I can’t stop you from going, but I must say I think this is a bad idea,” her mentor said. “He’s no good for you, child. Please be careful!”
“Nate is good for me—and I’ll be fine,” Lan’ara said with more certainty than she felt. She opened the door of the hut and drew in a deep breath of fresh air. It smelled of the inland sea and the sweet glow blossoms that grew in the caverns.
The warm, comforting, familiar scents seemed to bring her new strength and she straightened her back and lifted her chin. She didn’t care what her mentor said—she loved Nate and she needed to find him and make certain he was all right.
And she wasn’t going to let anyone or anything stop her from going to him.
FORTY
NATE
Nate saw her coming long before she reached him. He was sitting on a rock at the mouth of the cavern that led to the Outermost Lake, eating his fourth pw’alla fruit of the day. Since moving out of the hut they’d been staying in together, he’d been camping rough on the beach and eating whatever he could find growing in the nearby tropical vegetation.