Chapter 92: Aina Is Undesirable!!

Aina stomped back toward the lakeside, the wet forest floor squelching violently beneath her boots with every agonizing step.

I am a walking disaster, she thought, her stomach twisting into knots as another gust of damp wind blew her own putrid scent right back into her face. A complete, absolute, utter biohazard. But it worked. The jasmine is buried. My secret is safe.

Under the low overhang of a massive oak tree, the four imperial princes stood huddled together, desperately trying to shield themselves from the driving rain. From a distance, watching them shift uncomfortably with their wet hair plastered to their foreheads, Aina couldn’t help the bitter thought that crossed her mind.

Look at them, she sneered silently, wincing at a sharp throb in her sprained ankle. The high-and-mighty royal heirs off the pack govern all packs, looking like pathetic, drowned stray dogs.

The second she stepped underneath the sprawling canopy of the tree, all four of them stiffened. Their noses wrinkled in unison, their lips curling back in immediate, synchronized disgust.

Vance thrust a hand out, physically blocking her path while violently turning his head away. "I’m sorry, where do you think you’re going, and why on earth do you smell so bad?!"

Aina stopped, letting her shoulders slump as she put on her best clueless, pathetic boy persona. "Oh... I was getting some wood, I told you. And then I slipped into a pile of poop. Silly me."

The silence beneath the tree was deafening.

Malric, Theo, Vance, and Keali all slowly turned their heads to stare at each other. Then, slowly, as if synchronized by sheer disbelief, they turned back to look at her like she was, without a doubt, the single biggest idiot walking the face of the earth.

"Why would you go look for firewood in the middle of a torrential downpour?" Theo demanded, his voice laced with incredulous irritation. "And how in the hell do you slip and fall so hard into leaves that you come back smelling like a rotting corpse?!"

Aina merely lifted her shoulders in a mindless, indifferent shrug, offering them a blank stare. Ask me all the questions you want, she thought, inwardly gloating as she watched Vance’s face turn a sickening shade of pale. I don’t care if you think I’m brain-dead. As long as you stay ten feet away from me, you can think I’m a rock.

"Shoo! Shoo!" Vance hissed, frantically waving his gloved hands as if fanning away a plague. "Get away from here! Stand over there, downwind!"

"Oh. Okay," Aina mumbled, turning on her heel without a single fight. Inside, her heart was practically singing with joy. Yes! Please, keep pushing me away! The further you kick me, the less likely you are to catch a stray whiff of my scent!

She trudged over to the far edge of the clearing, sitting down against a mossy boulder right out in the cold dampness. The minutes dragged on and the sky darkened from a dull gray to an ominous, pitch-black slate. The rain didn’t slow down; it escalated into a howling, freezing gale that whipped the lake into white-capped peaks.

Aina wrapped her arms tightly around her knees, her teeth chattering so hard her jaw ached. This is brutal. If the cold doesn’t kill me, the sheer misery of this night will.

Suddenly, movement caught her eye. She looked up through her wet, muddy lashes and blinked. The princes were leaving. Without saying a word to her, Malric turned and began marching back into the thick, dark depths of the forest, his brothers falling into step right behind him.

Aina’s eyes widened in panic. Wait, what?! Where are they going?!

Scrambling to her feet, her bad foot giving a sharp, agonizing protest, she began running after them, her boots splashing wildly through the mud. "Hey! Wait up!"

She caught up to the rear of the line, where Keali was strolling slowly, completely unbothered by his brothers ahead who were walking briskly and huddling against the storm. Panting heavily, Aina fell into step beside him. "What’s happening?" she gasped out, wiping wet hair from her forehead. "Why are we going back into the woods?"

Keali glanced at her sideways, his milky, eerie eyes tracking the mud on her face. "We’re going to find a cave to stay in. This is insane. Malric doesn’t like being in the rain, reminds him of pools."

"Oh," Aina breathed, letting out a small sigh of relief. At least they’re not abandoning me to be eaten by ghouls.

She looked at Keali’s calm, stoic side profile. A strange wave of awkward gratitude washed over her, mixing with the nervous knot in her chest. She looked around to make sure the other three were far enough ahead, then leaned in slightly. "You know... thank you."

Keali didn’t slow his pace. "For what?"

"For not telling on me," she murmured quietly. "You know... that I’m a girl." Keali stopped dead in his tracks. He turned his head, staring at her with utter, blank confusion. "You’re a girl?"

Aina’s soul instantly left her body. Her blood ran ice-cold. She frantically slapped a hand over her own mouth, her eyes darting ahead to check on Malric, Theo, and Vance before dropping her voice to a furious whisper. "Put your voice down!" She hushed waving her hands

"Remember, you saw me naked and you saw me in the wig that morning!"

"Yeah, I think I did, but my brother said I didn’t." Keali replied smoothly, his tone utterly devoid of any tension.

"No, but, why would you believe him if you saw me?!" Aina hissed, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

Keali simply shrugged his shoulders, looking at her as if she were asking why the sky was blue. "Well... because it’s Malric. And I believe whatever he says. He’s more trustworthy. I don’t know what’s real or what’s fake. So... you are a girl?" Panic seized her by the throat. She backpedaled so fast she nearly tripped over her own feet. "No! No, no, no! I’m a boy! I’m a total boy!"

"Oh. Okay," Keali said softly, accepting the blatant lie without a single flicker of doubt. "So I guess you’re also not the fated mate that they’re looking for."

Aina aggressively nodded her head, desperation bleeding out of every pore. "You’re right! Exactly! I’m not!"

Keali hummed thoughtfully, taking another slow step forward as they resumed walking. "But that doesn’t make sense, the scent I smelt that day when I saw you... you know, compromised... was the scent the girl in the purple dress had. It was all the same scent."

Aina swallowed hard, her mouth suddenly feeling bone-dry despite the pouring rain. "Fine, you are right, I am the girl in the purple dress and you know that, why didn’t you tell them?"

"Well, I did and Malric said it was untrue. So it was untrue," Keali repeated, as if that singular logic governed his entire universe. He paused, his pale eyes drifting over her filth-covered clothes. "Is that why you’re covering yourself in manure? Because you don’t want them to know or smell your scent?"

Aina felt a lump form in her throat. She looked down at her muddy boots. "Well... yeah."

Keali let out a soft, breathy sigh. "Well, I don’t entirely understand why you are avoiding my brothers... but I can assure you that even though they may be terrible to you, they are good people. Give them a chance."

A bitter, hysterical laugh almost escaped Aina’s lips. Give them a chance?! They shot me with an arrow, used me as bear bait, and made me stand in a thunderstorm!

"You’re just saying that because you want me to give you a chance," Aina spat defensively, her pride flaring up despite the mud on her nose.

Keali didn’t look offended. In fact, he turned his head and looked at her with a chillingly detached clarity. "There is no chance of me and you ever happening. I believe the goddess made a mistake when she made you my fated mate."

Aina froze in her tracks, her jaw dropping open. "Wait... what?"

Keali stopped and looked back at her over his shoulder, his face entirely serene. "I believe the goddess made a mistake. You are not my fated mate." Aina’s eyes widened, a sudden, bizarre sting of offense piercing right through her shock. "Um... what’s that supposed to mean?!"

"I do not find you desirable," Keali said plainly.