Page 54 of Replaced Mate

When I woke up, I sobbed and felt ridiculous for it as I laid on the dirty cage floor. How pathetic was that? I dreamed up my mate to make everything seem okay when in reality, I would probably waste away in this cell.

Maddening. This whole situation was driving me insane, and I didn't know if I would ever be able to recover.

I closed my eyes and pretended I was still in that bed with her, curling my arms around myself.

18

THE MONSTER

ARIA

Neo’s warnings are shoved firmly into a box and ignored, even after the weird dream I’d had.

It lingered as I drifted awake, reluctant to open my eyes even as the sound of my mate shuffling around reached me. Slowly, I forced them open and smiled.

Sariel had flowers sitting on our nightstand.

I giggled when he crawled up the bed to give me a soft kiss. It was so normal, I just took a moment to bask in the attention, wrapping my arms around his neck and staring into his eyes.

Something flashed there that I couldn’t quite place, but it was gone in a blink.

I touched our bond tentatively, trying not to wince at the numb sensation before soothing warmth washed down it.

“What’s the occasion?” I asked, and Sariel pressed his forehead to mine, breathing deeply and then humming.

“I just thought you deserved flowers.”

My cheeks heated at the soft admittance. He grinned before pulling away completely to finish getting dressed. I watched him for a moment, then rolled out and got dressed.

Breakfast was uneventful. Our group sat together as usual, despite Neo’s theories; it wasn’t until the end when I’d stepped outside with the girls, and Sariel took our trays back to the kitchen, that things got weird again.

“Aria, can we talk?”

Johnny caught me walking out of the kitchen, lost in my own head; I could hear his nerves.

He wasn’t looking forward to whatever he had to say, which settled in my gut like lead.

After talking to Neo, I’d been able to brush off all the weirdness coming from my mate pretty easily. I’m sure he thought I was just in denial, but… yeah, okay, maybe I was in denial. I didn’t know for sure if Sariel was really himself, and it was driving me a little insane.

Because I wanted him to be, which felt terrible. I wanted this to be Sariel; happy, flirty, and finally at ease with his life.

If this wasn’t Sariel, what did that say about me?

I brushed that aside, letting Johnny lead me around the back of the building with a slight frown. He ran his fingers through his hair, blew out a long breath, and then looked at me with anxious eyes.

“Sariel’s been replaced.”

I opened my mouth to argue, and he hurried to continue. “I know Neo already told you, butIam telling you now—that isn’t Sariel.”

“How do you know?” I croaked.

He sighed. “I sparred with him yesterday and managed to get a blood sample. We ran it against Auren’s; there’s no relation.”

My instinct was to argue. There were so many ways that could have gone wrong, after all. How did he get the blood? Could it have been contaminated?

Those thoughts swam circles around in my head, but in the end, they didn’t matter.

“He’s telling the truth,” Sariel spoke up from behind me.

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