His Regret: I Am Not Your Mate

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Eric's POV

Aiden told me Flora had refused to come.

I stood there a second, waiting for the rest of it, the part where he explained she was sick or injured or had some good reason. Instead he just shrugged, like that was the whole story, like she got to simply say no and that was that.

"She's never turned down an assignment," I said. "Not once. Not for anyone."

"First time for everything," Aiden said, entirely too amused for my liking.

I went to find her myself.

She was outside Daisy's place again, back to sorting herbs like she hadn't just upended the entire border patrol with one word. She saw me coming and her spine went straight, her chin lifting the way it always did right before she planted her feet and refused to move an inch.

"Why won't you come," I said. Not really a question. More like a demand, and I heard it land that way the second it left my mouth.

"I have my reasons," she said, not looking up from the leaves in her hands.

"You've never refused an arrangement before. Not for Aiden. Not for anyone." I crossed my arms. "Is this about me. Do you hate me that much."

That got her attention. She looked up, something sharp flashing in her eyes. "I don't want to travel with a warrior captain who doesn't trust comforters," she said. "If I can't do my job properly out there, there's no point going at all."

"Nobody trusts you," I shot back, and the words were out before I thought them through, ugly and unfair even as they left me.

"You don't trust me," she said, quiet, steady, like she'd been waiting for me to say something exactly that stupid so she could hand it right back.

"I do," I said.

"Then tell me what happened," she said. "Tell me what you saw right before the attack hit you. What scared you so badly your own heart tried to give out."

I felt my jaw lock up automatically, the same way it had the night before, some wall inside me slamming shut before I even chose to let it.

She watched me say nothing, and something in her face closed off too, like a door quietly shutting.

"See?" she said. "That's exactly what not trusting looks like."

I didn't have an answer for that. I turned and walked away instead, which probably proved her point better than anything I could have said.

I found Aiden by the stables checking the horses for tomorrow's ride.

"Bring whoever you want," I told him. "Any comforter. Just not her."

"Fine," he said, easy, like it made no difference to him either way, and went back to checking a horse's leg.

I stood there a second longer than I meant to.

"Actually," I said. "Is there another way to talk her into it."

Aiden looked up at me slowly, one eyebrow lifting in a way I didn't like at all. "Thought you said not her."

"I might need the comfort," I said, lower now, glancing around to make sure nobody else was close enough to hear. "And I don't want anyone else knowing what's wrong with me. If it happens again out there, in front of a whole patrol, that's worse than anything."

Aiden actually laughed. Not a small laugh either, a real one, the kind that made two of the stable hands glance over.

"You want my advice on how to convince a woman you've spent months insulting to willingly climb on a horse and follow you into rogue territory," he said, still grinning. "I've got nothing for you, Eric. That's a hole you dug yourself. I can't dig you out of it."

"That's useless," I muttered.

"I know," he said, entirely too pleased with himself. "Good luck."

I walked away from him with no plan at all, which wasn't like me. I always had a plan. I'd led men into fights against packs twice our size with a plan. But standing outside Daisy's house an hour before we were meant to leave, staring at that closed door, I had absolutely nothing.

So I did the only thing that felt like it might actually work.

I walked in.

Daisy looked up from whatever she was doing near the hearth, startled. Flora was across the room, back turned, gathering something off a shelf.

"Eric, what—"

I didn't wait for her to finish. I crossed the room in three strides, wrapped an arm around Flora's waist before she could react, and hauled her up over my shoulder.

"Put me down!" She kicked, actually kicked, her fist landing hard against my back. "Eric! Put me down right now!"

"You're coming," I said, already turning for the door.

"This is kidnapping! I will report you to the Alpha himself, I swear on the Goddess—"

"Report me," I said. "After you help me not die out there."

That got a beat of silence out of her, though her fists didn't stop hammering against my shoulder blade.

Behind us Daisy made a strangled sound that might have been a laugh, quickly smothered. "Should I pack her satchel?" she called after us, entirely too helpful for someone whose friend was currently being carried out of the house against her will.

"Yes," I said. "Thank you, Daisy."

"Daisy!" Flora's voice cracked with outrage. "Don't help him!"

"He's not wrong that you're needed out there," Daisy said, already moving to gather Flora's things, and I heard Flora let out a noise of pure betrayal behind me.

I carried her all the way to the stables like that, ignoring the stares from every soldier we passed, ignoring the way my own face burned with the sheer audacity of what I was doing. Flora didn't stop protesting the entire walk, alternating between threats and demands and one particularly creative insult about my ancestry that I decided not to dignify with a response.

"You cannot just carry people wherever you want," she said, breathing hard.

"I needed you to come," I said. "You wouldn't listen any other way."

"That doesn't give you the right—"

"I know," I said, cutting her off, and something in my own voice surprised me, quieter than I meant it to come out. "I know it doesn't. But I'm asking now. Please. Come with us."