Alivia didn't think. She snatched the wet towel from the rock, spun around, and lashed out with it. The wet fabric cracked through the air like a whip.
It stopped an inch from the intruder's face, caught in a pale, ice-cold hand.
Alivia's gaze traveled up the arm to a face that could have been carved from marble. Davion Sloan. Her second designated mate. The ice snake.
His vertical pupils, cold and devoid of emotion, scanned her from her wet hair down to her wrapped body. The disgust in his eyes was palpable, a physical chill that made the water seem warm.
Then, his nostrils flared. The lavender scent. His brow furrowed, the disgust morphing into something darker, more suspicious.
He flung the towel away like it was contaminated. "What trick are you playing now?" he demanded, his voice like cracking ice.
Alivia caught the towel, her heart hammering against her ribs, but her face remained a mask of stone. She didn't step back.
Davion stepped closer, his tall frame casting a shadow over her. "You failed to drug Kane, so you ran to the river to try and seduce me?" He looked pointedly at the fading rash on her face. "You think washing yourself and rubbing this... pungent stench on yourself... will make me touch you?"
Alivia felt a surge of fury so hot it burned away the fear. The arrogance. The sheer narcissism. She let out a cold, mocking laugh.
"Wow," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Your imagination is richer than your bloodline. Not everything is about you, snake boy."
Davion froze. The vertical pupils dilated slightly in shock. The old Alivia would have been groveling, crying, begging for his attention. She had never talked back.
Alivia slung the towel over her shoulder and crossed her thick arms over her chest. She looked at him with the kind of disgust usually reserved for a cockroach in a soup bowl. "I took a bath because I like being clean. As for you? Don't flatter yourself. You're not my type."
She deliberately stepped around him, putting distance between them. "And by the way, your cologne smells like wet dog."
Davion's eyes narrowed dangerously. He stared at her, his cold facade cracking just a fraction. The obsessive, desperate glint in her eyes was gone, replaced by a flat, icy indifference. It unsettled him.
"Best keep it that way," he said, his voice low and threatening. "If you come within ten feet of my cave, I'll break your legs."
He turned and walked away, his long strides carrying him into the brush quickly, as if he couldn't stand to breathe the same air as her for another second.
Alivia let out a shaky breath, her legs turning to jelly. She leaned against the rock, her bravado fading. That was close.
"Warning," Kai chimed in. "Davion's affection is at -90. Your attitude is detrimental to the mission."
"Shut up," Alivia retorted mentally. "Groveling to a narcissist only feeds his ego. Playing hard to get is the only way to survive him."
Her stomach growled, a loud, demanding rumble. The hunger was back with a vengeance. She looked at the stream. Fish. She saw fish darting in the shallows.
Closing her eyes, she reached for her meager Level 1 ability. She targeted a long, tough vine growing on the bank, feeding a trickle of energy into it. The vine twitched, then slithered into the water like a snake. It wrapped around a fat fish and yanked it onto the bank.
The effort cost her. Dizziness swam in her head, but she had food. She cleaned the fish with a sharp stone, started a small fire using friction and some dry moss, and soon, the smell of roasting fish filled the air.
She ate ravenously, the hot protein filling the hollow in her stomach. She had just swallowed the last bite and was about to kick dirt over the embers when a loud crack echoed from the canopy above.
