Page 105 of Love Bites

BELLA

Istepped out onto the stones of the courtyard again. At least this time I was wearing shoes.

The breeze picked up, lifting my hair and swirling my dress, carrying the scent of the forest to me.

Cori and Anya had helped me get ready, and they were scandalized when I chose to wear one of my modest uniform dresses.

“I don’t want him to think I’m trying too hard,” I had said.

“Don’t worry,” Kendall had said with her mouth full from where she sat perched on Cori’s desk chair, eating her stash of hard pretzels. “He won’t.”

“Don’t you want to feel your best?” Anya had asked me. “It’s an important night for you two.”

But I wasn’t interested in looking my best.

My heart was set on somehow refusing the mate bond.

If I could manage to do that, then I could still help my brother, even if I wasn’t exactly a natural at magic right out of the gate.

I just needed a little time.

And while I couldn’t be so disrespectful as to go to the lord protector looking slovenly, I hoped that wearing the school gown would tell him I was doing my duty, not coming to him for pleasure.

With my luck he would tear the thing off me before he could make any judgements about it. And the most infuriating part was that I couldn’t decide if that would be a bad thing. I didn’t want to be someone’s mate, but I couldn’t deny that I was attracted to him. How could Inotbe? He was so hot.

I bit my lip and looked around.

The courtyard was empty, but that was as it should be. I was supposed to go to him, alone. He would be waiting on the other side of the labyrinth, at the edge of the trees.

Well, there was no point putting it off.

I took a deep breath of the chill night air and marched across the courtyard toward the labyrinth.

I had never been good at these types of things. I’d gotten helplessly lost in the corn maze on the farm trip in elementary school and had to be rescued by an embarrassed looking farmer in front of everyone.

But tonight I had a sense of which way to turn.

It might have been the boxwoods guiding me, sensing my magic.

But I suspected it was the pull of the mate bond, dragging me closer to my fate. The idea made me almost frantic with despair, but I kept going, rounding one wall and curving around to the next.

I emerged on the other side so suddenly that it was a little bit disorienting. One second I was navigating the maze, the next I was in the open space between the boxwoods and the tall trees of the dark woods.

Moonlight bathed the edge of the forest in a soft glow. It reflected in the large, waxy leaves of the rhododendrons and was lost in the heavy shadows under the pines.

My lord protector was nowhere to be found. Maybe he had forgotten, or changed his mind.

Somehow, even though it should have filled me with relief, the thought of him not showing up made my chest tighten.

I turned back, wondering how long I would need to wait until I could safely go back to the castle and my friends. Was this like in college, when everyone said if the professor didn’t show up in fifteen minutes, you were allowed to go home?

Somehow, I didn’t think that rule applied here.

The castle looked somehow further away than it should have. Warm light glowed in the windows and it looked cozy in spite of its incredible size.

I decided to distract myself by working on my magic for a moment. Maybe out here in the quiet night, it would be easier to commune with the plants.

I focused on the tight buds of the nearest rhododendron and closed my eyes.

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