Page 22 of Healing His Mate

“Nalba,” she mumbles, looking around the shop with disbelief in her large brown eyes, “what the hell is going on here?”

She looks down at my legs. “Why aren’t you wearing pants?”

“Hmm?” Dropping my gaze, I discover that my leggings are, in fact, gone. When did I remove them? I cannot recall, so I decide it is unimportant. “I am sure they are somewhere, dear Cloh-ee.”

“Are you drunk?” she asks as I make my way over to her via several small twirls.

The bottom hem of my tunic flares out when I twirl, and the sight is hypnotic. I continue twirling because it makes me giggly and dizzy.

“Nalba!” Cloh-ee calls again as she places her tiny hands on my arms, stopping me.

I pout at my sudden stillness. It was much more pleasant when everything was a blur around me.

Cloh-ee’s face splits in two, then three Cloh-ee heads briefly before melding back into one. “Mmm, yes. I believe I am.”

She shakes her head, then glances at the empty jars around the worktable she and I share. “It’s the middle of the day. Where’s Waldric?”

“Do not know,” I answer quickly. That aggravating male just left my head. I do not wish to think of him now.

“Hey, Nalba! Just came to ch-” Aye-vah stops when she enters the shop, Kaiva at her side. “Whoa,” she waves her hand in front of her nose. “It smells like a frat house in here. Looks like one too.”

“What is frat house?” I ask, suddenly eager to learn more about human culture. “Did you live in a frat house, Cloh-ee?”

“Nope. Every frat house I’ve been to is a den of horrors,” she says dryly. Then she turns to Aye-vah and Kaiva as I start humming a song I learned as a child. “Uh, yeah. So, Nalba’s wasted.”

“I see,” Aye-vah replies with a nod. She takes three steps in my direction. “Nalba, Kaiva was hoping to get an update on your memory loss, and I was thinking you and I could try a meditation session. See if that knocks anything loose. But maybe today isn’t the best day for it?”

“Well,” I say before taking another sip of ale. “My memories have returned in only a few quick flashes. Single images without context. My head is still broken. That is my update.”

“Ooohkay,” Aye-vah replies as she makes notes on her screen pad. “And the meditation, would you like to try tomorrow?”

“Yes,” I tell her. “We shall meditate tomorrow, Aye-vah.” I have grown tired of being still inside my body. Time for more twirling. I am on my third spin when I hear the door open again, and familiar heavy footsteps make their way across the floor.

“What is this?” Waldric calls out, a mixture of confusion and worry in his rich voice.

When I lift my head to look at him, the room is still spinning, and I stumble. My hip slams into the corner of the nearest table and I go down, face first.

CHAPTER 11

WALDRIC

The moment Nalba starts to stumble before me, I do not hesitate––I dive. I know the path her body shall take as soon as she loses her balance, and I will not let her endure any more pain this day. As I am sliding beneath her, my arms are outstretched, and she lands inside them just in time.

Her eyes are dazed when she looks at me, but I can tell the moment her vision clears. An appreciative smile spreads across her face as she returns my embrace. But all too quickly, her memories of this morning return, and she shoves against my chest as she crawls away.

My arms remain open as I take her in. She wears only her tunic, and her mane is rumpled and frizzy, just as it looked when I left her. “Are you well?” I ask. She does not answer me. I do not know where her leggings are, or why she has chosen to spend the better part of the day guzzling Bruvix’s ale, but I know I am to blame for it.

I turn back toward Cloh-ee, Aye-vah, and Kaiva. “I shall handle this. I am the cause for Nalba’s current state.”

“What happened?” Cloh-ee asks quietly. Her eyebrow lifts in a way that tells me she has some idea of what occurred, and she disapproves.

Looking back at Nalba, my heart fills with sorrow. I see remnants of the syrup along the side of her neck. Her eyes are bloodshot and unfocused, her feet are bare and dirty, and she shivers in just her tunic as she yanks it down to cover her legs.

“A moment of foolishness,” I tell Cloh-ee without lifting my gaze from Nalba. “That is all.”

Aye-vah clears her throat. “Okay then. We’ll come back tomorrow.”

“Get some sleep, Nalba,” Cloh-ee adds as the three of them leave the shop.

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