Chapter 49: Chapter Forty-Nine

Saffron stared at Zayden’s back, as she followed behind him, water dripping down from her hair and falling onto the soft earth in droplets.

Her dress clung to her body like a second skin, showing off the entirety of her nudiness beneath to any person who was traipsing the woods as she and Zayden were, this time of the night.

Unsurprisingly, her vision had changed, and adapted to her surroundings, giving her a clear view of the path they were walking, her sight as clear the day, as if she was seeing beneath the glow of a sun.

She had kept her lips shut though, never uttering a word about the changes her body was undergoing, even if she badly wanted someone to help her make sense of it all.

There was no need to paint a larger target against her back, especially when she had no true ally on the island. Lydia might love her and treat her like her own daughter, but Saffron knew that if it ever came down to a choice between her and Kiera, Lydia would pick her own daughter over her, without batting an eyelash.

Ryder, trust him as she did, had a familial connection to her greatest enemy. So, it wasn’t even a point of contention, to hide her secret from him. Besides, she knew that he had secrets of his own. And until they had a sit down, or a heart to heart conversation, and laid all of their cards on the table, then this secret would be hers to keep until the day she died.

She took a deep breath, and focused her attention on the infuriating man in front of her, her curiosity mounting, as her mind wandered to what questions he had, which he was sure she was the only person that would be able to provide the answers to.

Did it have something to do with her attack?

The attack which she had miraculously healed from, with no scars to tell the tale?

Or, was it something else?

Something that had to do with the growing changes in her body’s biology?

“Where exactly are we going?” she asked, her heart skipping a beat, as she came up with different scenarios, each with a different question to which she was hiding the answers to.

When she got no response, she huffed out a breath, and stopped walking. Crossing her arms over her chest, she glared at his back before saying, “You know, if you don’t speak soon, I will have to abandon whatever quest this is, right? As it stands, I have to get back to bed, and whatever questions you have in mind, are of no business of mine. I dare say that this is a form of kidnapping, if you won’t tell me where we are headed to.”

Zayden halted his stride, and turned around slowly, his gaze fixing on her slight frame, as he regarded her with a serious expression on his face.

“Do you always speak this much?” he asked, irritation coloring his tone.

“Most of the time,” she shrugged, unapologetic about her word vomit. It was either that, or panic. And she chose talking, because she was done with panicking, until the foreseeable future.

“Do you know what I am?” he asked, his onyx eyes narrowing slightly, as he began to walk back to join her in the spot she was standing.

“Do you mean who?” she asked back, her brows pinching, her confusion obvious on her face.

“I meant what.”

Saffron’s heart skipped a beat, as he reached her side within seconds, his hand grasping her chin in a bruising hold.

His hand was cold, so cold that the frostiness of it bit into her skin, chilling her to the bones.

She no longer felt apathic.

Instead, raw terror wrapped its unforgiving talons around her heart, squeezing tightly, and changing her heart’s beating from soft and steady to hard and fast within a span of seconds.

She struggled with each panicked beat of her heart, her breath catching, as saliva thickened in the back of her throat.

Her fingers curled into a fist beside her, as she stared into the eyes of death itself.

She felt less like a human and more like a prey in this moment than she had ever felt, with every close encounter she had had with death in the past.

And just like a young rabbit frozen in terror as it gazed into the eyes of its predator, Saffron knew that she was going to die then, as frightened and alone as she had felt all the times when her life had been endangered.

Through the ensuing panic, she couldn’t help but wonder how Ryder was friends with this guy, when he oozed such lethality that had her choking on her breath.

But, Ryder was also a predator, her mind supplied. She just was stupid enough to not see him for what he was. Which was a slight on her part.

She wouldn’t be making the same mistake again though, if she survived this encounter.

“Scared little one?” Zayden asked, his tone amused, as his lips tilted up into a ghost of a smile that had Saffron closing her eyes on instinct.

“No,” she lied, mentally cursing herself for the stupidity, when her very life hung on the balance.

“No?” Zayden teased, his breath fanning over her cheekbones.

“No,” she shook her head, but she still refused to open her eyes.

If he was planning on killing her, then she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing the true extent of the terror that was threatening to suffocate her.

He didn’t deserve to see her fear, or panic.

“Open your eyes,” he commanded, his voice deepening slightly, his hold on her chin slacking off, and turning into one that resembled a lover’s caress.

She popped one eye open, and stared at him with uncertainty, before she opened the other one, blinking owlishly at him when he began to rub his thumb on her chin in a soothing circle, her confusion reflecting in her gaze.

“What’s going on?” she queried, hating how small her voice sounded, as her mind raced a mile a minute.

So, he didn’t want to kill her?

Or, was he just trying to play a sick game with her?

Was he trying to seduce her? The thought had bile raising up in her throat, but she tampered it down, because the last thing she wanted was to vomit all over him and enrage him.

“Shhh,” he cajoled, smiling sweetly at her, as he used his free hand to brush her hair away from her face. “You really are beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that? Has Ryder?”

“What game are you playing?” she asked, her lips wobbling as tears gathered in her eyes.

“It’s okay,” he said, ignoring her question, as he brushed his thumb over her lower lip, his lips tilting up into another smile when he felt the sharp intake of her breath. “There is nothing to be afraid of here. You want this too, don’t you? You want me to kiss me Saffron, don’t you?”

Saffron’s breath caught, as the low tenor of his voice sent shivers of pleasure down her spine, her mind fogging a bit, until all she could was focus on was him, and all she could think about was kissing him.

She leaned forward, her lips only a hairsbreadth away from his, before she blinked, and the fogginess was cleared away.

She jerked away from him, as she stared at him in horror, her hand going over her mouth, realization of what she had almost done dawning on her.

Before she could register what she was doing, her free hand had moved, as if it had a mind of it’s own, and she hit Zayden right across the cheek, shock and revulsion replacing the fear she had felt earlier.

“How could you?” she gasped out, raising a trembling finger to point at him. “Your own friend.”

She didn’t wait to hear what he had to say, Saffron turned on her heels and ran as fast as her legs could take her.

“So not entirely human then,” Zayden mused, as he flexed his jaw, watching Saffron as she ran away from him, until the trees swallowed her whole. “But what?”

He had an inkling that she was a werewolf but until he conducted another experiment, he wouldn’t be sure.

Compulsion hadn’t work on her, and as far as he knew, only the wolves were immune to a vampire’s compulsion. But, there were also other supernatural species that were yet to be accounted for. So, he couldn’t say for sure that she was a wolf.

There hasn’t been a hint of a wolf inside her, as he taunted her.

But at least now, he had one more thing off his plate. This mini jaunt in the woods had confirmed his suspicion about her affiliation to the supernatural species. All that was left, was finding out which of the supernatural faction she belonged to.