Todos los capítulos de The Mate Time Stole: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 30

SAYAI woke up with the memory of the forest already waiting for me.For a few seconds, I stayed still, staring at the ceiling as I tried to understand why I was in my own bed. I remembered everything that had happened in the forest. There were no gaps in that part, no uncertainty about what I had seen or felt. But I remembered falling, and I had no memory of what happened after that.I pushed myself upright and looked around my room. The curtains were half open, letting pale morning light spill across the floor, and everything looked exactly as it had the night before. My clothes were folded over the chair, and my boots were beside the bed.I closed my eyes, trying to reach for whatever had happened after I fell, but there was nothing. No memory of walking through the forest. No memory of leaving the clearing. Nothing that explained how I had ended up here.Then I smelled him and my breath caught in my throat. The scent was faint, almost buried beneath the familiar scent of my room,

SAYAThe first scream came from the western boundary, followed by the warning horns that cut through the afternoon noise of the training grounds. One blast sounded, then a second, and finally a third. Three blasts meant we were under attack. A warrior stumbled out of the trees, blood running down one side of his face. “Rogues! They’re inside the territory!” The training grounds erupted into chaos. “Get the younger wolves to the eastern shelter!” I ordered the nearest warrior, while across the grounds, Kellan was already herding the trainees to safety. His eyes found mine, and he hurried toward me. “Stay with the younger ones,” he called. “I’m not staying behind while they attack our territory.” I shot back. “I didn’t say you had to.” He drew his blade. “Just don’t do anything stupid.” I tightened my grip on my blade. “You first.” We ran toward the western boundary, where rogues were pouring through the broken defences in organised groups. Some attacked our warriors head-o

SAYAWe waited beside the dead rogue while the forest settled around us, the silence broken only by the occasional rustle of leaves overhead. I kept my attention on the tracks surrounding the body, trying to determine whether the man had been killed here or brought from somewhere else. The disturbed earth suggested a struggle, but there were too many overlapping footprints to establish exactly what had happened.Kellan crouched beside me, examining a set of impressions that continued toward the rocks.“We should send for Cassian,” he said. “If we follow the wrong trail, we could waste hours or walk straight into another trap.”I hated the thought of waiting when my father was somewhere in this forest, but I knew Kellan was right. We had found evidence of a struggle, and the strange markings my father had left behind suggested that there was more to this trail than we understood.I sent one of our trackers back to the boundary with instructions to find Cassian and tell him what we had

SAYAThe second arrow came through the crack before I had finished breathing.Cassian dragged me out of the crevice as another shaft struck the stone behind us. He stumbled when he reached the slope, and his grip tightened around my wrist as he fought to stay upright.“Down!”We slid through loose shale and dead roots, rocks tumbling around us until we landed hard in a narrow gully. An arrow buried itself in the dirt beside my head. Cassian rolled over me as another struck his leather harness and snapped.“Get up,” he said, his voice thin. “They’ll have both ends of the gully covered in a minute.”“You can’t keep running like this.”“I can.” He broke the exposed shaft at his side with a grunt, leaving the arrowhead lodged beneath his ribs. “Move, Saya.”We ran, though it quickly became clear that Cassian was struggling to keep pace. He stayed close behind me, one hand pressed to his side, until blood darkened the fabric around his belt. I wanted to stop and help him, but the shouts be

SAYAThe lantern guard never finished his sentence.I hit him low, and the flask spun into the mud. Elara had her knife at the second man's throat, but he twisted free and slammed an elbow into her ribs. He got half a yell out before I drove my hilt behind his ear. At the east end of the rope came two thumps and a grunt: Kellan and Joren, stood over the others.On the bank, a bowstring sang. A rogue who had turned toward the stream dropped without a cry. Cassian lowered the bow, grey as ash, and reached for another arrow.Four guards down with no alarm while the speech at the fire rolled on.I reached my father first, and my knees gave out. I dropped beside him and my arms went around his neck before I had decided anything."Easy, little tracker." His bound hands pressed against my back, and his voice cracked. "I've got you.""I thought..." I couldn't finish. "I saw them drag you off, and I couldn't...""I know. I saw you try." He drew back and looked at my face, then at the blood on