MATE AND HIS LOVER 11

13. You Are Mean

The climax of a raunchy dream wakes up Ethan. After taking a moment to come back to the reality, he softly laughs. It was a great dream. And it was great because she was in it.

His smile slowly disappears, however. And concern replaces the high. She's affecting him too much. Way too much that it hurts. She shouldn't. Not the girl who lied against him once, leading to him being sent away from his pack when he was young. Not the girl who's a sorceress. Not the girl who's not his mate.

But how does he put an end to it? Maybe once he gets what he wants, it'll stop. Hopefully it will.

Adam enters the tent. "Are we resting or moving today?"

"Moving," Ethan says, getting off from the mat on the ground. "The temperature has dropped too much. We better cross the Tao before the first snow."

"Devon said the same thing," Adam says.

Ethan ignores the comment knowing his friend is trying to pull his legs.

"Guess you two have a lot in common," Adam adds before leaving the tent.

Ethan disagrees. Devon is no match for him. But it seems they do want the same girl.

LEANED AGAINST THE barrels, Helena watches the fur sheets getting loaded into the carts. "It shouldn't be this cold this time of the year," she mutters.

Devon puts down the barrel he just brought. "Don't worry I can keep you warm tonight."

"There's still three more left. Hurry," she says. Devon narrows his eyes. "What?" Helena says, "You were the one who said you can take care of this by yourself."

After he leaves she turns her gaze back to the cart, and her thoughts back to the icy temperature. Something feels off. It really shouldn't be this cold this early in the year. If she hadn't cast a fire into a bottle last night in her tent, she would've gotten sick today from the chill.

"Don't you have something to do?" Ethan says, blocking her view of the cart.

She points at the barrels behind her. "Just finished moving them. Devon has gone to bring the rest."

He smirks. "You expect me to believe you could even roll one of these? I saw him bring them while you just stood there."

Helena shrugs. "He volunteered. So I let him help."

"And why would he volunteer for you?"

"Not everyone is as mean as you, Mortimer, sending a poor girl into dragons' den. Some are sweet, and offer to lend a hand in moving barrels."

"And what about you? Does he know you are a mean liar, and not a sweet little damsel?"

"He knows, and seems to like me even more for it."

Ethan stops smiling and steps towards her. She straightens, feeling a little alarmed.

"Stop playing games with me," he says.

"What are y—"

"You know what I'm talking about. What do you want from me?"

You, Helena wants to say. But in truth she doesn't know what she wants. "Mortimer, I—"

A loud thud breaks her sentence. "Anything I can help with?" Devon says.

"How about sticking to your own chores instead of meddling in others?" Ethan says and walks away.

"What's with you two?" Devon says.

With that tone, she can tell he's angry. "He's just a stickler for rules. Pulled the same in Yorkton," Helena says.

"Does he know we're not his fucking pack members and are volunteers from our coven? His rules don't apply to us."

Helena sighs. "Be sure to let him know that next time," she says and heads for her tent to start packing.

Devon watches her. His instinct tells him she's hiding something. He better keep an eye on Helena. Especially when Ethan is around.

ONLY A FEW minutes left for the moving party to cross the Tao river when the first snow falls.

Everyone stops for a moment to admire the snow. Ethan watches Helena reach her hand out to catch the flakes.

But soon the precipitation increases rapidly.

"Everyone, hurry! Cross the river!" Ethan orders from the very back of the group.

The people do as he says. Devon and Helena stay behind to make sure everyone's accounted for. That's their duty when on the move.

Once they have tallied the count, and is sure no one's missing, they head for the river, too, when a sudden gush of wind sweeps through the riverbank.

Devon conjures up a shield before him fast enough. But Helena is pushed back and falls. Devon tries to reach her.  The heavy wind, however, is now morphing into a storm and he struggles to push through it even with a spell cast to help him stay on his feet.

And since he's standing, Devon feels the wrath of a squall. "Leave!" Helena shouts, "cross the river. I'll ride it out." She can't stand up against the wind. But on the ground, she can at least keep herself from getting blown away.

Devon doesn't leave. Not until Adam's wolf appears and pushes him towards the bridge.

A hand grabs Helena and lifts her up to her feet. Soon the wind stops for her. She looks up and sees Ethan blocking it.

Keeping her close to his chest, Ethan moves ahead. But as soon as he hears wood snapping, he stops.

"Down!" Ethan says and pushes her down while crouching. A part of the bridge sweeps past over their heads.

They get back up. "Go ahead. We'll join you later!" Ethan lets his friends across the river know. Adam and Ken quickly rush everyone away from the storm. Devon resists.

"She's safe!" Adam says, "We can't go back now."

Ethan moves himself and Helena away from the river, towards the patch of trees. Once there, they sit down close to a large tree's trunk that shelters them from the gust.

He notices she's breathing too fast, and pulls her closer to him. "It's okay. The storm will pass soon."

It's not the storm that's scaring her. But she can't tell what it is either.

Whatever it is, though, she's relieved Ethan is here. "I'm sorry," she says under her breath.

"What?" Ethan says, not hearing her well through the storm. His acute senses are overwhelmed by the barrage of wind's noise.

"I'm sorry," she speaks up a bit, "for lying about you that day."

Ethan doesn't say anything first. Then whispers something her ears don't catch: "You really are mean."