His Beloved Bride (Wedded to the Sheikh Book 3)

by Holly Rayner

  Yet, now, here he was. In a way, he had come full circle. He had begun by caring a little bit, and now, he cared a great deal.

  The change had been so gradual, perhaps, that he had failed to notice it. It had taken his fiancée choosing to storm off and face a jungle of unknown dangers for him to see the light.

  And now, what had this come to? Alyssa was lost in the jungle with help days away. How long would she be able to survive out there?

  Panic rose in Ali’s chest. No. He couldn’t think that way. He would find Alyssa because he had to.

  A mess of vines blocked his way, and Ali stepped to the side, having to go down a hill a bit. Perhaps he should have stayed near the creek. Would it not have been easier to keep track of his path that way?

  Ali cupped his hands around his mouth. “Alyssa!”

  His throat was hoarse, but he called again. “Alyssa!”

  “Ali,” came a voice so faint that he wondered if he'd imagined it answered.

  Ali froze.

  “I’m here!” Alyssa’s voice echoed through the jungle, making it impossible to tell which direction it came from.

  But wait…

  “Alyssa!” He closed his eyes and listened for the response.

  “I’m here! Ali!”

  His eyes popped open. This time, he'd caught a direction. Alyssa’s call came from the direction he had just come.

  “Alyssa!” He pushed his way back, through the mess of vines. “Stay where you are!”

  Ali’s heart thumped in his throat, and his shoes slipped on the rocky ground. He righted himself before falling and kept pushing forward.

  The incline became steeper, and Ali grabbed hold of roots to hoist himself upward.

  “Ali!”

  He was closer; Alyssa’s voice was clearer. Scrambling on top of a rock face, he wiped the sweat from his brow and looked around.

  “Ali.”

  Suddenly, she was there, emerging from between two thick tree trunks.

  Relief like nothing Ali had ever known washed through him. He rushed forward, and Alyssa collapsed against his chest. His arms tightened around her and he buried his face in her tangled hair. Alyssa let out a shuddering breath.

  For a long time, they stood as they were, neither of them speaking or moving.

  Finally, Alyssa said something against his shoulder, but her words were muffled.

  Ali loosened his hold. “What was that?”

  “How did you find me?” Alyssa’s eyes were wet and puffy.

  “I…” Ali’s gaze trailed down the hill. They stood on top of a rock face that was about six feet tall, and below that, thick shrubbery covered the hill. Because of the tall trees all around, he could not see more than a few yards.

  “There wasn’t much of a method to it,” he admitted.

  Alyssa shook her head in despair. “I'm so sorry. I was only going to the creek. There’s this little waterfall there, and I was just gonna cool down in it for a few minutes, but somehow, I got lost. I climbed up here because I thought if I could get to higher ground, I could look down and see the plane, and I'd know which way to go. I don't think we're even close to the top, though. God…”

  “How could you get lost?” Ali asked, not expecting the irritation her story caused.

  “Excuse me?” she snapped. “I was taking a time out from you. If anything, this is your fault.”

  Ali snorted in disbelief. “I just came into this jungle and found you.”

  Alyssa covered her eyes and sighed. “I’m freaking out. Let's just get out of here.”

  “It’s okay.” Ali rested a soothing hand on her shoulder. “We’ll be out of here in a hot minute.”

  Alyssa smiled wryly, his use of the Americanism breaking the tension. “It really is a nice waterfall.”

  “It really is, my love.”

  Alyssa laced her fingers through his. “We should go. It's getting dark.”

  “Right this way.” Ali pointed.

  Carefully, they went down back along the rock. It was nearly impossible to see, now, thanks to the dark, but Ali found his way to the swath of vines. And then…

  Then, what?

  Standing by the vines, he squinted his eyes at the darkness. He had come up from the right, he thought.

  But…no. The trees were so thick there. That didn’t seem right.

  “Ali?”

  He swallowed hard. “Just trying to remember which way to go next.” He paused, then pointed left. “This way. Yes.”

  They walked for a minute, but something was still not right. It was too rocky. There hadn’t been so many rocks before he came across the vines. Again, Ali stopped.

  Alyssa squeezed his hand. “Ali, do you know where we are?”

  He looked at her face. Her eyes were barely visible in the dusk, but he did not need to see them to know they contained fear.

  “I…” Ali swallowed, loath to admit his failings.

  “It’s okay,” Alyssa said. “Tell me.”

  “I’m…not sure which way to go from here.”

  “Then that’s it,” Alyssa said, her voice quiet. “We’re lost.”

  Chapter 11

  Alyssa

  Lost. Yet again.

  Lost in regards to civilization. Lost in regards to their location on this island. Lost when it came to their relationship.

  Alyssa stared at her fiancé in the twilight. “What now?” she asked.

  Ali let go of her hand and ran his palms over his head. “I don’t know.”

  Panic fluttered in Alyssa’s chest. “We’re stuck out here. Even if Steven does come back with a rescue team, they won’t find us. They’ll search and search, and then, they'll just give up.” Alyssa's voice rose along with her terror. “They'll have to. They'll have to assume we tried to swim out to the plane and we drowned, or that we got eaten by a wild animal—which, let's be honest, is probably going to happen—”

  “Alyssa,” Ali hissed. “Be quiet.”

  Alyssa's jaw clenched. “Don't tell me to be quiet. This is all your fault.”

  “Yes,” he answered tartly. “We have already established you feel that way.”

  “You don't care,” Alyssa snapped. “You don't care about me and Rashid. Or else you just would have listened to me!”

  “Is this about our personal issues?” Ali asked. “Or is it about getting out of this jungle?”

  Alyssa bit the inside of her cheek. She had never felt fear like this, and it caused her to feel a new kind of anger, as well. She closed her eyes and did her best to calm her breathing. Her heart still beat fast, but at least she had a little more control of her thoughts.

  “It's about both,” she admitted eventually. “But right now, we just need to get out of this jungle.”

  “At least we’re in agreement on one topic,” Ali said.

  Alyssa didn’t bother to respond to that. She pressed her fingers against her lips and thought hard.

  “Okay,” she said. “So, at camp, I remember learning that, in the northern hemisphere, moss mostly grows on the north side of trees.”

  “You’re sure about that?” Ali asked.

  Alyssa scowled at him. Not that it mattered. He probably couldn’t make out her face in the dim light.

  “Yes,” she snapped. “I’m sure.”

  “Steven said we landed on the south end of the island,” Ali said. “So all we need to do is figure out which side of the trees have the most moss, and walk in the opposite direction.”

  “Yeah,” Alyssa agreed. She tried to sound confident, but she had never been lost in the woods before. All of the skills she’d learned at camp years ago had never exactly been put to practice while picnicking in Central Park.

  She went to the closest tree and walked around it. “Okay, so this side obviously has the most moss,” she said, pointing.

  Nearby, Ali inspected another tree. “It is the same on this one,” he said.

  Alyssa's heart jumped in excitement. “So far, so good. Let's go this way.”

>   They walked about a yard and inspected more trees. Like before, most of the moss was on one side. This was good news, because Alyssa hadn’t been one hundred percent sure she remembered the tip correctly.

  They picked their way through the jungle for a while in quiet. Alyssa found that there was no way of telling how far she had walked, as when she’d come up this way, she'd been in a panic.

  Her stomach rumbled, and her mouth was parched. She couldn’t even think of stopping and looking for water, though. The need to get back to the beach was stronger than anything.

  “Do you hear that?” Ali asked.

  Alyssa stopped walking. “What?”

  She couldn’t see his face, but she could nearly feel the change in his mood.

  “It sounds like waves breaking against the shore,” Ali said.

  Alyssa’s breath hitched in excitement. “Hallelujah.”

  They entered a section thick with low-growing bushes. It reminded Alyssa of the area around the waterfall. Ali pushed ahead, leading the way, and they both picked up the pace, the prospect of finally breaking free of the jungle giving them new energy.

  The trees thinned, and Alyssa saw it: the last of the light dying over the ocean. Her sneakers hit sand, and she let out the most relieved exhale of her life.

  They had made it. They were alive.

  Well, for now anyway. They were still on a deserted island, with no clue what would happen next.

  And this part of the beach she didn't recognize.

  “Which way should we go?” she asked.

  Ali stepped closer to the water and looked up and down the beach, though she couldn't imagine he saw much.

  “There,” he pointed.

  Alyssa got right next to him to look. Far down the beach, light glinted off something in the water. The plane!

  They’d made it to the beach just in time. A few minutes later, and it would have been too dark to see the jet.

  They strode for their camp, sweat pouring down their faces. About halfway there, Alyssa took off her shoes and socks and walked in the spot where the water met the shore. The ocean kissed her feet and cooled her from the bottom up. Inside, though, she was still a swirling mess of anger.

  She looked down at her feet, splashing through the dark water. What would happen once they got off this island? The stress of the plane crash had made all sorts of things come out of her mouth. Compared to her, Ali had been cool and collected, but no way could he continue to be that way. Things would be different once they arrived home.

  “Are we still going to the resort?” Alyssa asked.

  A long time went by before he answered. “You sound more optimistic than you did two hours ago.”

  Alyssa huffed lightly. She didn't want to respond to that.

  “Do you want to go to the resort?” The tired way Ali asked it made it seem like he didn’t want to go. Like he had given up.

  On her?

  Alyssa’s throat burned. Were they facing the beginning of the end, here? Had the conflict over the wedding and now the island unearthed the truth that was there all along, only waiting to be discovered—that the two them were inherently different?

  “I want to go home,” Alyssa admitted. “I want to see Rashid. That’s all that matters.”

  Ali was quiet. Alyssa clutched her shoes and walked on.

  “Then that is what we’ll do,” Ali said.

  Alyssa sucked in her bottom lip, glad he could not see her face. One glance would have told him that she was in the middle of falling apart. She needed to keep it together. She might have been emotional, but she also had some pride.

  She and Ali were from different worlds. Alyssa had known that from the beginning. The thing was, she had tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter…but maybe it was time to admit that it actually did.

  Chapter 12

  Alyssa

  It wasn't easy finding their little hut in the dark. They scrambled around for a bit, peering into the night. Once found, though, Alyssa sank down, collapsing onto the sand.

  She didn't know how long she had been out in the jungle, but one thing was certain: this had been the longest day of her life.

  Her muscles aching, and her head hurting even worse, she rolled back and lay down. The bright stars twinkled high above her, many more than she had ever seen. Not even camping in the mountains compared to this.

  Ali was nearby, messing around in their supplies. Abruptly, he got up and walked for the water. A sharp curse made Alyssa sit up.

  “What is it?” she asked in fear, imagining the glowing eyes of some kind of vicious beast emerging from the dark.

  She didn't know what kind of beasts lived on this island, but she didn't need to. Just being surrounded by the unknown was enough to scare her to the core.

  “I left some of the supplies over here,” Ali said. “And now they are gone.”

  Alyssa's heart did a somersault. “Gone?” she asked. “Like, someone took them?”

  “The tide,” Ali said.

  Alyssa sighed in relief. The ocean was a lot less scary than the beast she had been imagining.

  “What's missing?” Alyssa asked.

  “Our water bottles. And some other food.”

  “The water? Why did you leave it over there?”

  “Because I was upset,” Ali snapped. “When I arrived from the jet and found you were not here, all I could think about was finding you. Happy?”

  “You went to the jet?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I went to fetch more supplies.”

  Alyssa was almost impressed by his going out to the plane, but the attitude he was taking with her made her more aggravated than anything else.

  “Of course I'm not happy,” she said. “I don't think I've ever been thirstier in my life.”

  “At least we have the creek,” Ali pointed out.

  “Yeah, but how are we going to find it in the night?”

  “I’ll go,” Ali said.

  Alyssa guffawed. “You'll get lost. No way can you find your way out there in the dark.”

  Then, a thought occurred to her. “Our phones,” she said.

  Alyssa reached for her purse, which she had put inside the shelter. She had barely thought of her phone since realizing there were no bars on this island, but they could use the flashlight app on it. That way, they would be able to find their way to the creek.

  Alyssa pulled her phone from her purse and attempted to turn it on…but it wouldn't.

  “It died,” she said in despair. “What about yours?”

  “It, uh…I forgot it was in my pocket when we arrived.”

  “What are you saying?” Alyssa asked, although she already knew exactly where he was going with this.

  “It broke,” Ali said.

  “Of course it did.” Alyssa dropped her phone back into her purse. “And mine is dead, so even if we did suddenly have cell service, it's not like that would make a difference.”

  “I can feel for notches in the trees,” Ali said.

  Alyssa didn't even bother trying to hide her laugh. “No, you can't.”

  “Fine,” Ali snapped. “Then we’ll have to wait till morning.”

  Alyssa swallowed. She was so thirsty, and it was rapidly becoming all she could think about. How long could a person go without water? It was supposed to be three days, right? As dehydrated as she was, Alyssa would have sworn she wouldn’t last another twelve hours.

  “Unless…” Ali began.

  “Yeah?” Alyssa croaked.

  “I noticed some of the trees here on the beach are coconut trees,” Ali said.

  Alyssa twisted her lips. “I saw that too. The coconuts are so high up, though. How could we get to them?”

  In the moonlight, she saw Ali take off his shirt. She assumed he did it because of the heat, until he went over to a tree and wrapped the shirt around the base of it. With his hands on either side of the shirt, he began using it to hoist himself up the tree.

  Laughing, Alyssa stood. “How about rock
s?” she asked. “Maybe we can toss those up at the coconuts.”

  “Not enough force,” Ali grunted. He scooted up a few more feet.

  Alyssa clasped her hands in worry. She’d thought Ali wouldn’t make it more than six feet before he gave up and slid back down, but it seemed the higher he went, the faster he became.

  “Be careful,” Alyssa breathed, feeling simultaneously like she couldn’t look, and that she couldn’t look away.

  Ali was over halfway now, and Alyssa pressed her palm to her mouth, hardly daring to breathe.

  There was some rustling, some knocking, and then, something hit the sand with a thunk.

  “Look out,” Ali said. “I’m sending another one down.”

  A second coconut joined the first, and then there was the rough, sliding noise of Ali coming back down.

  His feet hit the sand, and he tossed the shirt over his shoulder. “I think they’re ripe,” he said.

  Alyssa worked her tongue around, finding it hard to answer. She knew Ali was fit. He spent time in the gym at least four days a week, and he had nicely toned abs and biceps. But Alyssa had always considered his physique as just for show. She didn't know he could actually do something like scale a tree.

  “Where did you learn to do that?” she asked.

  Ali wiped his sweaty face with his shirt. “I read a lot of survivalist stories when I was a kid,” he said.

  “Still…” Alyssa paused. “That was impressive.”

  “You think so?”

  She couldn’t be sure, due to the faint moonlight, but Alyssa thought he smiled.

  “Now, let’s crack these open,” Ali said.

  They scoured the area for small rocks. Finding one, Ali got down on his knees and banged on the first coconut.

  Alyssa cringed as she watched, afraid he would make a mistake and hit a finger. Momentarily, though, he gave a yelp of joy.

  “Success,” Ali said triumphantly, handing Alyssa the first coconut.

  Tilting her head back, she shook the coconut and downed its water.

  Alyssa had had coconut water from cartons before, but that didn't even bear a passing resemblance to this. Alyssa didn't know if it was because the coconut was fresh or because she had never been so thirsty, but there was no way that anything on Earth could taste half as good.