Before I knew it, the camp had disappeared and I was alone.The sounds of crickets and the rustling of scrub grass around me was all I could hear and I took a deep breath, savoring the taste of the cool air.This was what I needed.Just some peace and solitude to figure myself out.
No friends giving me disapproving looks, no crazy aliens crashing through tents as they fought over who got the last leg of deer on the fire.No Dargo, trying so hard to make me happy, when it wasn't his fault.I slowed down and let my eyes adjust to the cast of moonlight over the barren ground.
Maybe I should just keep walking.Strike out alone, taking shelter in abandoned buildings and scavenging for food.I'd always preferred my space, and if I was alone I wouldn't have to walk the exhausting line between being myself and upsetting the people around me.
The thought of leaving Dargo without a word sat heavy in my gut, but I remembered the look on his face when I pulled away from him and felt my resolve harden.I wasn't the kind of girl that fell in love at the drop of a hat, and he was just going to keep running into my walls and getting hurt.
My friends were safe with their mates, and Dargo would get over it.Mind made up, I set my course for a large clump of rocks in the distance and kept walking.
29 Dargo
Taz’s scent was stillfresh on the outskirts of the camp, too recent to be from our earlier patrol.I stared out into the darkness, hoping I’d see her coming my way.
She’d left.
She’d walked out of our tent and left, just like that.
I cursed and paced the edge of camp.Every instinct in me demanded that I chase after her, but chasing Taz always seemed to push her farther away.Maybe she needed the space.Maybe she was coming back and I was worried for nothing.
But my gut told me she’d run scared.
Something inside my mate still didn’t trust me, and that realization was like a blade to my gut.Hadn’t I pleased her, protected her, given her time to get used to the idea of being my mate?I’d held off on gentling her until she’d demanded it, and now I saw it had still been too soon.
I’d claimed her, gentled her and she’d run.
If she didn’t want to be my mate, she could have said it to my face.She could have given me the chance to plead my case.
I flicked my tail against my thigh as my frustration grew.Taz was my mate, she’d accepted me and if she wanted out, she’d have to say the words, because I wasn’t losing her without a fight.
Striding back into camp, I grabbed an ax from a pile near the fire and headed out into the night.
If it was a chase she wanted, I’d chase her to the ends of her planet.
***
Itracked my mate throughthe night.Keeping a steady lope as I followed her scent.Even now she smelled of me, a fact that infuriated me all the more.Her fear and her stubbornness might be telling her to run, but her body knew she belonged with me, her pheromones calling to me like a beacon.
