So, I went for the fruit that was the least surrounded.

It was plum-sized, but the flies, though tiny, like flying peridots, shone like LEDs, giving the fruit a disproportionate appearance.

I eyed it, its flesh morphing from the green of a Granny Smith apple to the bright red of a strawberry. It had the coloring of a mango, I guessed, but there was something a thousand times more vibrant about it.

It had a thick stalk that connected it to the tree, and I raised my hand, studying the movement of the flies to discern when I could snatch it off the stem.

They moved in a counterclockwise motion that was close to transfixing, but I focused, knowing my woman needed me.

I felt sure this was the answer.

That I’d been led here for a reason.

I sucked in a breath and snatched the fruit.

The flies buzzed angrily, the sound so much more than they should have been capable of for their size, but when they darted away to another one, I sighed with relief.

Tucking the stem, which was still connected to the fruit, between my teeth, I made the long journey down the tree in record time—i.e. quicker than I’d made it up there—and rushed over to Sabina.

She was still alive, thank the Mother, but she was sluggish.

Limp.

I sighed with relief though, and tugged off the stem, before I dug into the fruit with my thumbs, tearing it apart.

The blood that spilled from it almost had me jerking in astonishment.

It wasn’t juice. Wasn’t even the flesh of fruit.

It was human flesh.

The sight was repulsive, the smell was too, and even though I wanted to back away, I couldn’t.

I was compelled to offer it to Sabina.

As it hovered in front of her nose, her eyes opened. She was confused, sleepy and exhausted from blood loss, but at the scent of the most repulsive fruit I’d ever seen—and I’d tasted fresh durian—she snapped her jaws at it, almost biting me in the process.

She gnawed on that damn thing like it was a fresh kill, and even released a soft burp as she settled back on her side.

I sat on my haunches, hoping for a fucking miracle, but when it didn’t come, I had no idea what to do next.

She was sleeping, wasn’t restless, and just as I started to despair that nothing would work, I heard them.

The buzz. I recognized it.

A swarm was coming toward us. I wanted to grab her and run away from them, but I’d taken the fruit, and that was what they wanted.

Damn!

No matter where I took her, now that she’d eaten it, they’d come after us.

I woke up with a bang, only just realizing that I’d been in a daze.

I felt the control of someone else, and though it could have been a malevolent power, I felt certain it wasn’t.

That didn’t fill me with faith, however.

My supposedly sound reasoning had seen me climb a tree, pick a fruit, and feed said fruit to my mate.

My injured mate.

A piece of fruit that could be poisonous for all I goddamn knew.

I shook my head at myself and started to wave my arms, uncaring now if they gnawed on me, wanting them only to avoid Sabina.

But no matter what I did, the swarm, which felt like every single bug from the tree had come to visit, surrounded her in a cluster.

She was one big ball of light, and whenever I tried to wave them away, free them from her, she yipped at me.

In truth, that gave me hope, so with nothing else to do other than wait, I decided to watch and worry at the same time, because that yip?

Told me not only was she not asleep anymore, not dazed, she was okay with what was happening.

And I had to have faith.

Even though it was really goddamn hard to have that right about now.

The light was blinding, enough to brand my eyes with the glare, and I wanted to look away, but fear told me that if I did, she might not be there in the next second.

I had already seen how strangely time passed. There’d been less than a couple minutes between her and Austin disappearing before they returned, and with Eli, she’d been gone ten. Max.

Only the Mother knew how long we might be parted. To be away from her, forced apart…that was the last thing I wanted. Or needed.

I was so ready to claim her, I was about to fucking howl.

I needed to be tied to her. Needed it like I needed my next breath, because if I was tied to her, I’d know how she was doing, what she was thinking and feeling, enduring.

I stared at the flies as the humming rose to a crescendo that I was sure I could feel in my bones, the vibration throbbing through my skull like the power of a pneumatic drill, and suddenly, just like I’d clicked my fingers, it was gone.

The lights winked out, and I stared, aghast, as they all fell to the ground, surrounding her in a pile of dead things that were so small, I barely saw them in the dim light.

What I did see?

My mate’s naked, sleeping form.

I sighed at her beauty, loving that she was back in her skin, because that meant I could hold her as I moved her around.

She was still sleeping, and that was fine, since I saw her belly wasn’t torn to shreds. If anything, she was back to normal.

Perfect.

In all ways.

Relieved to the point of fucking tears, I shrugged my feelings aside and instead, gathered her in my arms.

She was a deadweight, but that was nothing I couldn’t handle.

Maybe I should have kept her there, close to the tree, but I wasn’t sure if this place was safe. The cougar had attacked here, what was to stop her from coming back if we were trapped in the clearing for days? That’d be enough time for both the beast and my mate to heal some.

No, I needed to put some distance between us.

With her in my arms, her skin against mine, my heart settled some, making me realize just how fast it had been beating. How hard the panic had filled me.

We seemed to walk for ages, but I carried on tracing Eli’s original path to wherever they’d come from.

I knew that Austin had felt sure he’d been with her for five nights, so I knew there was definitely somewhere safe for us to find shelter. Even if wolves had entered his territory…

Nowhere, technically, was safe in a place where I couldn’t reconnoiter without leaving my woman unguarded.

Not going to happen.

Just the thought had me tipping her up so I could press a kiss to her forehead.

She sighed, and almost scared the shit out of me when her arms moved up to curve around my neck.

The kiss… Was she Sleeping Beauty or something?

Before I could overthink shit, she didn’t improve my mood by waking up.

No, she just sighed, cuddled into me, and squeezed my neck like she was awake.

But she definitely wasn’t.

Even now, I couldn’t hear her, so she was either unconscious, which felt impossible with how she was able to cling to me, or she was unable to communicate with me at all here.

Loneliness speared me yet again, and it was with relief that the sudden tumbling of water made itself known to me.

When I peered over into the distance, squinting slightly because the light was so strange here, and amid the trees it was even fainter, comfortable, but still a little difficult to see into the far distance, I could discern the pool Austin had described.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Sabina and he had been knocked out, I’d have thought them both insane.

Seeing, however, was believing.

I tugged her tighter to me, needing her close, now that I was utterly alone in my head.