(AMARI'S POV)
The words echoed in my head like a bell that would not stop ringing.
Mated.
Fated.
I felt dazed but somehow I was still rooted to the ground. I wasn't sure if it was Kaelen's dark eyes still grounding me or his hand that kept a hold on me.
"What?" I repeated weakly.
"Absolute nonsense!" Someone yelled angrily.
One of the chiefs.
I finally got the courage to look up at them directly and an icy, heavy knot of nausea twisted in the pit of my stomach, threatening to surface.
The chiefs looked powerful and displeased in five different ways. And it didn't make it easy to be standing right before them like I was awaiting judgment.
"Absolute nonsense I say! I don't believe that." The angry chief who was standing said.
He was not exactly tall for a man who was probably in his fifties but he was clearly muscular and he had very short dark hair that matched the dark shirt he was wearing.
