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Maybe I wasn’t the only one that was cranky about the attraction? I kept forgetting that it ran both ways, at least now with the mating. Was this the situation he wasn’t so happy about? I tried to hide the smile.

He stepped out of the room. I hurried to change, then hopped in bed, hoping I wouldn’t find myself climbing all over him in the middle of the night. Turning on my side, I closed my eyes, and all I could hear were crickets outside in this new, strange world. There was a quietness to it that I might’ve appreciated at another time in my life, one where the silence didn’t also bring with it the weight of why we were here.

Kaden came back, and I tried to return the favor of not gawking at him as he stripped down—not that he seemed to care. With a body like his, it was surprising he dressed at all.

Stop it.I had to stop thinking about his body.

He climbed into bed, and I tried to concentrate on anything but his body right beside me.

“When this is all done, if we can’t getthingsfixed, what would happen if we just ignored it? Went our separate ways?” I asked. There was no way I could keep going on like this, seeing him all the time. We needed space, was all.

I’d thought I’d pay any price for transitioning, but ever since the Kalix imposter had shown up and we ended up here, even our small semblance of a truce had seemed to erode by the minute. Anything was preferable to spending my life with someone who felt as if they were stuck with me, and yet I still couldn’t stop lusting after him.

His soft exhale next to me yelled his frustration as loud as if he were screaming it.

After a few seconds of heavy silence, he said, “It’s been tried before. It never works out.”

“Maybe they didn’t try hard enough?” I couldn’t imagine anyone trying as hard as I would. As attracted to him as I sometimes found myself, it made his disgust of me so much harder to bear.

“There’s a mated couple from a long time ago who got into a horrible fight. One tried to leave the other. Every time he tried to leave Nowhere, a door would lead him back to wherever she was. The same energy that keeps everything else in check will force us back together.”

“So he gave up and stayed with her?” This was even worse than I’d imagined. We would be physicallyforcedback together?

“About the fifth time he ended up back with her, they had the fight of the century. It was so bad, they took out a building by accident. But they hashed it out and were inseparable after.”

“Are you sure that’s a true story?”

“I don’t think my parents were lying to me, so yes,” he said.

Parents. Why did it seem so odd to think of Kaden having parents, being a child? Being vulnerable a day in his life?

Not only did he have them, they’d loved each other, and not because they’d accidentally become mated. Maybe that was why he didn’t want to get stuck with me? He knew there was something much better. Someone he could love.

“Once we get past this situation, we’ll be able to find someone to undo it,” I said. I rolled onto my side, hoping I was right.

He didn’t say a word.

Chapter Ten

Kaden was watching me from a step away as we stood in the field. Suddenly he was swinging at me. He pulled his punch at the last second, barely grazing my shoulder.

“What the hell was that?” I said. This wasn’t going anything like yesterday. First he’d just stood there for a while, and now he was pretending he was going to punch me? I was beginning to wonder if he had a plan at all.

“I almost hit you, and you didn’t move an inch.” His voice was raised, and he acted as if he weren’t the one who’d almost taken a cheap shot.

“I thoughtIpunchedyou. You didn’t tell me we were changing things up. Next time I’ll move.” I threw my hands up. He should’ve told me the plan.

He grabbed me, whipped me around, and then had my arm yanked up behind my back.

“Ow,” I said. “Kaden, I don’t like this. You’re hurting my arm. What are you doing?” I squirmed, but he didn’t let up.

“Then make me stop.”

“I’mtellingyou to stop.” I shifted, trying to relieve the pressure, but it didn’t help. He moved with me.“You’rehurtingme.”

“And you’re strong enough to get me to stop. Sostopme.”

I might’ve had the abilities within, but that didn’t mean I could. When it came to him, there didn’t seem to be a fizzle of power flowing in his direction. Apparently I only liked hurting blood relatives.