Read Online Tiger’s Destiny by Colleen Houck - Free Book Online

he had regained his memory. I needed him to be at peace with both Kishan and me.
    I found Ren sitting at his desk, staring out the window at the pool. Papers and notes were strewn across the floor and a small bookshelf lay in a heap as if it had just folded in on itself. I stooped to gather the pages and realized they were poems.
    “What do you want, Kelsey?” he asked in a quiet voice without turning around.
    “I’m here to see what all the commotion is about. Were you trying to take down an elk?”
    “What I do in my own room is my business.”
    I sighed. “You make it our business when you’re that loud.”
    “ Fine . The next time that my life is destroyed, I’ll try to express my distress in a quieter fashion, far away from your tender sensibilities.”
    “You do have a gift for exaggeration.”
    Ren spun around and stared at me incredulously. “The only exaggeration is that you are in possession of tender sensibilities. Obviously that is not the case. A tender woman would admit she is wrong. A tender woman would listen to her heart. A tender woman wouldn’t spurn the man she loves. Do you realize I almost lost you forever? Don’t you have any idea how that affected me? The thought of Lokesh hurting you was more than I could bear.
    “Did you know that I could feel you? Your fear, your terror became mine. I haven’t slept in a week and my every agonized wakeful thought was spent wondering if you were hurt and suffering. The hope that I might get you back, to hold you, finally, in my arms and know that you were safe was the only thing that kept me sane.”
    “Ren—”
    He interrupted, “Then you come home and what do you do? You go traipsing back over to Kishan. I’m allowed to offer you comfort but not love. Kelsey , how can you still deny what you feel for me?”
    “You always wax poetic when you’re angry.” I picked up a book and ran my hands over the leather cover. “I prayed for you to come. I knew that the two of you would move heaven and earth to find me if you could. I’m not denying that I love you. I’ve admitted as much to you, in fact.”
    “Then explain it to me again. How can you love me and choose Kishan?”
    “If you don’t think I love Kishan, you’re mistaken.” I sat on Ren’s bed and sighed, tossing the book onto the nightstand. “Do you believe he’s a good man? That he loves me, will watch over me, protect me, and keep me safe?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then, in your mind, there is nothing wrong with my choice, except that he’s not you.”
    “And there’s also the fact that you’re not in love with him,” he said dryly.
    “Kishan’s good and kind and brave and wonderful, just like his brother. Isn’t it enough that he makes me happy?”
    “No.”
    “Then there’s nothing more for me to say.” I smoothed the stack of poems and left them in a neat pile on his desk.
    Ren’s eyes burned holes in my back as I quietly left the room.
    Downstairs, while Kishan and I watched a James Bond film, I thought only of Ren. He was the person I’d always confessed everything to. He was my friend, and he also knew me well enough to see I was holding back. He knew there was something more to my choice, and like a tenacious hound with a juicy bone, he was not going to let it go. I sighed, snuggled closer to Kishan, and lay my head on his chest.

6
    vaishno devi shrine
    T he next day we started the long journey to a temple of Durga. The temple Mr. Kadam chose was actually located in Katra, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. We were going into the Himalayan Mountains and about as far north as you could go and still be in India. Katra was four hundred miles away, not far from the border of Pakistan.
    Even with Mr. Kadam driving faster than would be legal in the United States, we were stuck in the car all day. The only breaks we got were a few quick stops for gas. After I was told our destination was Katra, I tried to explain how Spock’s “katra” ended up in Dr. McCoy’s