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I kept walking, and for the first time in my life, I just took my time and enjoyed the act. I wasn’t hurrying somewhere. I wasn’t trying to reach some final destination. I was just… here. Walking.

And loving it.

I could do this every morning.

I couldn’t, obviously. Because I didn’t live here.

I had no reason to stay.

Tenn’s face flashed in my mind. The feel of his hands on my waist, his mouth moving over mine, echoed forcefully in my body.

I shoved it all aside. There was no point in ruminating on all the ways I’d allowed myself to get too close to Tenn. I wasn’t a bride in this world. He wasn’t my fiancé or my husband. He was the warden. I was the liaison. And in less than a month, I’d be leaving.

Besides, he had no interest in marriage. He’d only wanted it when he was young. Even then, he hadn’t been thinking of love.

Love. Oh, God.

Was I falling in love with Tenn?

Jesus take the fucking wheel.

Unfortunately, I remained in control of the wheel – or my feet – and while having my internal mental breakdown, the toe of my boot got hooked under the gnarly root of a tree. My arms windmilled wildly as I attempted not to fall forward. But I overcorrected, and I did fall, more sideways, and then backwards.

“Ow!” I hissed. It wasn’t just the impact on my legs and ass that hurt. It was the scrape and poke of what felt like a hundred tiny little teeth.

I’d fallen right into an alien bush. A brambly one, by the look and feel of it. Luckily, it appeared that my pyjamas weren’t snagged anywhere.

Thank goodness for small kindnesses.

I leaned forward in an attempt to stand. And felt about a dozen places on my scalp pinch painfully.

Oh, hell no. My pyjamas hadn’t gotten caught anywhere.

But my hair had.

It was down this morning after getting washed last night. I hadn’t tried to detangle it yet, and those knots only made it all the easier for my hair to snag…

And get stuck.

OK. Forget all those nice things I was thinking about walking around here a minute ago. This forest sucks.

I tried to twist my head to get a better look at what I was dealing with, but that only made things worse, pulling existing knots tight and getting new brambles caught in the loose strands.

I was trapped. By a fucking bramble bush.

And now, I had a decision to make. Was it better for Tenn to realize I’d been gone too long and come looking for me?

Or to suck it up and call for help?

I never got the chance to make my choice. Because that very moment, I heard the authoritative boom of Tenn’s voice in the morning air.

“Tasha?”

I couldn’t lean out of this bushy area, so I couldn’t see him until he was almost directly in front of me. He paused in the clear path I’d been walking in. His ears twitched.

Then, he spun to face me. Surprise registered on his hard face when he saw me on the ground, my hair spread across the brambles and branches like tangled streamers. He hitched up his pants and left his hands on his hips, cocking his head.

“What the blazes have you managed to do to yourself?”