Page 3 of Forgotten Fate

To my surprise, a small moan escaped her shockingly full lips at my touch, and her eyes fluttered, revealing a set of startling cerulean irises that glowed against the gloominess of the cave.

I almost leaped back at her reaction, relief shooting through me as I recognized she was, in fact, alive. But just as quickly as that sensation developed, it evaporated and gave way to a deep, penetrating suspicion. I waded back toward her, hovering closer to study her face.

I didn’t recognize her. She wasn’t a member of my household or staff. Once more, I tried to make sense of what she was wearing, but the ragged remains of the clothes left little for me to work with.

Without skipping a beat or allowing myself to fall victim to whatever ploy this might be, I splashed forward, my hands pinning her back to the boulder on which she lay, palms flat against her shoulders before she could perform any magic or attack me.

Her eyes popped at my movements as her jaw slacked, but before she could utter a single word, unleash a spell upon me, I spoke first.

“Who the hell are you?” I hissed. “And what the fuck are you doing on my property?”

Chapter2

Mirielle

The rush of water was the first thing I heard, the swoosh obscure and strange to my ears, spilling in torrents foreign to my mind somehow. The scent of damp soil and rain-kissed moss reached my nostrils as my sealed eyelids struggled to part and see where I was, what surrounded me, my senses confounding me more by the minute.

“Who the hell are you? And what the fuck are you doing on my property?” a voice barked, the anger in his words palpable.

I gasped, blinking to see the furious smoky irises inches from my face, the too-handsome features so near, I could make out the angular line of his controlled scruff, the blackness of his hair against olive skin only enhancing his intensity. His full mouth parted in a silent hiss, the distrust etched deeply in the perfect edges of his sculpted expression.

I tried to withdraw, to pull back, but there was nowhere else to go, my head solidly against something, my arms numb and tingling as I tried to raise them. I realized I was pinned to the surface on which I lay.

“I’m not going to ask you again,” he snarled. “My guards are just behind me, and I suggest you answer before they get here.”

I struggled to sit up, the environment slowly becoming clearer—and more horrifying by the moment. Whatever outfit I’d been wearing was no longer recognizable, and it had nothing to do with the shadowy lighting of the cave in which I found myself. I was a mess, both physically and mentally, my brain swimming and my body in pain.

Sprawled uncomfortably against a rock, barely raised over a pool of water, I felt the cold, damp surface beneath me seep through my tattered clothes. A waterfall fell furiously near the mouth of the cave, and its thunderous cascade echoed through the chamber, nearly drowning out all other sounds, making this male’s words barely audible.

I had apparently been unconscious until this male had chanced upon me. And my presence was making him very unhappy, it seemed.

“ANSWER ME!” he roared, and I gasped again, managing to pull my arms up as he kept my shoulders in place, my hands raising over my chest as if to cover my nudity, but it wasn’t me who was naked.

My gaze fell toward his bare chest, and I couldn’t see below his waist, but he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and from somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I realized he must have just shifted from his beast form. I wasn’t sure how I knew that.

I struggled mentally and physically to get a grasp on everything, but the more I fought with it, the more perplexed I became.

The understanding that I knew nothing only fueled my anxiety, and I licked my lips as he advanced on me again, unwilling to leave me to sort my jumbled, headache spun thoughts. My brain pulsated, aching, but not as if I’d been hit.

Like I’ve been drugged?

Again, I didn’t know what my own subconscious was trying to tell me, even with these little questions flittering through my head, and I really didn’t have the time to sort through them with this irate being on me.

“Say something!” he snarled, flashing a row of even ivory teeth. “Or I’ll find a way to make you talk.”

I believed him.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, unsure of what elsetosay.

“You’re sorry?” he echoed. “This ismyprotected land!”

Again, I shook my head, tearing my eyes away from his muscled torso, peering through the cavern as I willed myself to make sense of how I’d gotten there in the first place. I willed my mind to remember, to retrace my steps.

“Are you from Catalonia?” he barked. “Who is your father?”

I gnawed on the insides of my cheeks.

“Catalonia? Is that a city?” I murmured aloud, the name sounding faintly familiar yet elusive, much like my own identity.

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