To Find a Mate: Somewhere, TX Saga (VonBrandt Family Book 4)

by Krystal Shannan

  He gripped her tighter and she relaxed against him, leaning her head back against his chest.

  “Are these your horses?” she asked.

  “They belong to my family.”

  “They’re beautiful.” A long sigh escaped her, like years of tired had finally caught up to her. “I’ve always wanted a horse.”

  You have a horse, he wanted to say. But it wasn’t important.

  “I have horses, too,” he said instead.

  She seemed to relax even a little more. “You do?”

  “I think you’d like them. They’re beautiful.”

  Paige turned in his arms and a twinge of desire stabbed at him. Her body was pressed so flush against his, and her lazy gaze encouraged him. Bedroom eyes.

  Something stopped him dead in that thought. Bedroom. Would she ever be able to trust him enough to really be his wife? His partner? If he had to re-introduce himself to her every half an hour for the rest of their lives, would they ever be able to live together? Have a family?

  Her hand snaked into his vision and the warmth of her touch on his cheek almost jolted him. She stroked his face.

  “What’s wrong?” Paige asked. “You looked so sad, just now.”

  Adam leaned against her hand. The feel of her skin on his was intoxicating. With the magick swirling around them, drawing them together, warming them, he could almost believe that she’d just continue to know him forever.

  “I was just remembering someone I lost,” he said.

  “I’m sorry.” She met his eyes and a sheen of tears formed in her eyes. “Was she very important to you?”

  He blinked back his own tears and nodded. “The most important person I’ve ever known. I just wish I’d seen it sooner, so…” Adam couldn’t keep saying the words, even though they resonated deep in his heart.

  If he had seen it sooner, he could’ve saved her from this. Mated her in a proper way and protected her from this spell. This was entirely his fault.

  Her thumb passed across his cheek. “Don’t be sad. Please.” Her voice was such a low whisper, it almost felt like the real Paige, touched by his emotion.

  Real Paige?

  This was the real Paige.

  He closed his eyes and took a breath, tamping down the rising tide. This was the real, forever Paige and he still loved her.

  “Adam!” Aaron’s voice was suddenly behind him.

  In his arms, Paige froze. He tried to will some kind of security in to her, to calm her, but he couldn’t.

  She began to squirm. “Who’s that?” she whispered.

  “It’s just my brother.” Adam steeled himself for Aaron’s presence. They were going to have to talk about the situation, but he wasn’t going to leave Paige alone again.

  He hoped and prayed that this was still the Paige who had been unfazed by animals and men shifting in front of her.

  “What are you both doing out here half-naked?” Aaron practically growled. “Get back inside.”

  Adam narrowed his eyes. “She doesn’t want to go back inside.”

  Paige nearly crawled around his body to get away from Aaron, and Adam had to turn with her to keep her from escaping.

  Please, he willed, please take my calm.

  She finally froze when Aaron stopped moving, and Adam nearly picked her up in his arms just to make her feel safe. Instead, he moved her around his body so he could stand between her and his brother.

  “You’re both going to freeze out here.” Aaron looked up at the sky. “This cold snap has been a little longer than we expected.”

  “Paige wants to stay out here with the horses.” He tried to put his eyebrows together and be as demanding as he could, but he didn’t want to scare her, either. “We’ll be fine.”

  “I need to talk to you about this mate bond.” His brother glanced down at Adam’s side, and apparently, whatever he saw there drove him on. “You are certain that you’ve found your mate?”

  “I have.” He hugged Paige closer to his side. “I am certain.”

  “Then we’re going to have to perform the bond spell.”

  Adam waited for her to bolt, but she had focused her gaze back on the horses and seemed not to be paying much attention to what either of them said.

  Was she losing herself again already? How long had it been?

  “I can’t do that to her,” Adam said, his voice tight. He couldn’t force her to do something like that.

  “Before…” Aaron stopped, nodding down at her. “Before, did you get any indication that she knew you were Fated?”

  He chewed on his lip. He could remember so clearly the moment that morning when Paige had begged him not to take her memories because she just wanted to know him. She’d been willing to have him leave her if she could keep the memories. She loved him—he knew it. “I think she did, yes.”

  “Then you have to do the spell.” Aaron crossed his arms. “As your Alpha, I’m going to order you to do the spell.”

  Adam glanced down at Paige, who was still mesmerized by the horses. He couldn’t imagine his life without her. But, he couldn’t imagine forcing her into a life with him, not the way she was. “She doesn’t know me,” he whispered, the emotion threatening him. “I can’t ask her to give me her life when she can’t really say yes.”

  “I’m not going to lie to you, Adam, this won’t be easy.” Concern etched across Aaron’s face. “She’s never going to know you. But the alternative is, Miles and Lee take her to a facility where she can be cared for by strangers for the rest of her life.”

  His breath stopped and he tried to swallow. “But I’m a stranger to her.”

  “But this way, you have all the advantages of the mate bond. You can always find her without having to shift, you’ll be able to push emotions to her so if she’s feeling afraid, you can calm her without having to speak a word.” A long breath made the pronouncements land on Adam’s heart.

  He’d be able to protect her. Able to find her always. He may never be able to have her in his bed or by his side, but he’d at least be able to make up for the fact that he’d failed her. Adam would give her his life so she could have hers.

  Adam moved Paige to stand beside him and she finally focused up on Aaron with a tentative smile. He took her hands and looked at his brother. “I want you to say the spell.”

  Aaron’s surprise made Paige spook just a bit, but Adam tightened his hands and she looked at him instead. He gazed into her eyes and smiled at her.

  She tipped her head to one side and smiled back, unknowing.

  “You don’t want to say it yourself?” Aaron asked.

  He shrugged. “I never learned it. Never thought I’d need it.”

  “What are we doing?” Paige asked, gazing up at him. “Wait. Who are you?”

  “Say the spell.” Adam swallowed, tightening his grip. “I need to be able to protect her. Say the spell.”

  Aaron took a deep breath and put one hand on each of their shoulders. When he spoke the Gaelic words of the ancient spell, a cord of magick seemed to wrap around Adam’s body and pull him toward Paige.

  Warmth spread across his wrists and a set of green tattoos wound their way around his wrists at the same time they did hers. A matching set.

  Her eyes widened and for a moment, Adam thought she was going to bolt.

  “Shhhh,” he cooed at her like a horse. “It’s going to be okay, I promise. I’m going to take care of you.”

  Her surprise continued to grow as the tattoos finished writing themselves across her skin. She stared down at them and shook her head.

  All kinds of new sensations rattled around inside Adam. He could feel the pressure of Aaron’s hand on his shoulder, but also sense it on Paige’s.

  He could feel the tightening of her stomach and a deep, warm burning starting in her chest and radiating out to every extremity of her body.

  She shook her head and tried to drop his hands.

  Even if she ran, he’d be able to find her. He would bring her back. And whenever she w
as hurt, she could be healed. And Adam would be able to make her feel safe now.

  Forever.

  “Wait,” she sputtered, stepping back. “What just…what was…” Paige’s eyes met his, a sparkling, deep green. “Adam? What just happened to me?”

  * * *

  “It’s called bonding. Now I can always take care—wait, you called me Adam.” His face blanched and his mouth fell open.

  “I remember everything. What they did to me. What you just did for me.” She leapt at him and threw her arms around his neck. Paige couldn’t quite reach, but it only took him a second to connect the dots and swallow her up in his arms.

  “Paige?” His voice was filled with disbelief.

  Tears poured down her cheeks wetting his neck and his chest. “You would’ve spent your life with me even when I couldn’t remember you?”

  “You’re my mate. I couldn’t bear to be separated from you.” Adam grabbed her arms and pulled her off his neck. He tilted her face up to meet his blue gaze. His thumbs traced her cheeks and then her lips. He tried to speak, but his eyes were glazed with tears. “Is it really you?”

  She nodded and the words came pouring out. “It’s me. I remember the two thugs grabbing me in the kitchen. Then I was out. I remember kinda waking up and being scared and wondering if the cookies were burning. I was sure you would smell them and come looking for me.”

  “I did come looking. I just…I couldn’t find you.”

  “I knew you would.” She smiled beneath his fingers. “There were people around me. Those two men and then…women. I recognized Katherine and Siobhan Banfield from town. Was I dreaming? Why were they there?”

  “It’s—”

  “Then I couldn’t remember anything. Again and again. I remember forgetting over and over again. My memories are there…they were there. It was like they were on a shelf just out of reach. I knew they were there. I knew I was missing information, but I couldn’t get it. It was so frustrating. And then I tried to escape and there was a wolf and then a naked man…You were there—” She took a deep breath. “Well, your wolf was there first. And then you were. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to seeing that.” She glanced at her arms and shivered—shimmering green lines wrapped around her wrists forming two distinct shimmering Celtic bracelet tattoos. She rubbed the fresh mark. Her skin tickled, and was warm where the lines had appeared, but there was no discomfort.

  “I’m sorry I made this choice without asking you first.”

  Paige looked up from her wrists into his blue eyes again. “No. You knew I wanted this. I love you. You did what was best for me, and I can’t thank you enough. You could’ve let them take me away. It would’ve been easier than taking care of a woman who couldn’t remember past twenty minutes.”

  “No, it wouldn’t.”

  She smiled and stretched to caress his face. His face was covered in sexy scratchy stubble, and she wanted nothing more than to rub her cheek against his, hell, she’d like to have his face rub over her entire body. Heat crept up Paige’s cheeks and she looked down at the ground.

  Instead of embarrassment over her feelings, she felt a distinct sense of her desires mirrored from him. How? How could she know what he was feeling?

  Suddenly her whole mind was flooded with Adam’s relief, his joy, fear, and pure devoted love.

  A telepathic highway had opened between them and everything she was feeling rushed toward him, while his emotions filled her as well, crashing into her being like a tidal wave.

  “Adam…”

  “Please don’t be afraid. You’re safe now. Forever.”

  She cupped his face, amazed by the pleasant sensations that spread through her. Paige could literally feel his pleasure at her touch. She tugged his head down to her level. “I could never be afraid when I’m with you. I’ve always loved you, and I will always love you. Even when I wasn’t me, I still loved you. There was this feeling I had when I was near you. Even then, I was yours.”

  He smiled—that drop-dead-adorable smile she’d fallen in love with six years ago. Warmth filled her and the energy she’d come to expect when she was close to him crackled excitedly in the air between them. She’d always sensed something when she was around him, but now… Now she knew what it was.

  Magick.

  A low cough startled her out of the haze of Adam, and all their shared swirling emotions. She’d completely forgotten his brother Aaron was standing a mere few feet away from them.

  Adam straightened and slipped an arm around her waist, tucking her tightly against his warm body, still-half-naked body. The sensation of feeling his embrace twice was heady, and would take some getting used to.

  “Paige, I’m Aaron VonBrandt. As alpha of the family. I’d like to formally welcome you as well as apologize for the gross mistreatment of your person. I assure you the two men responsible will receive consequences for their rash and unauthorized actions.”

  Adam’s anger frightened Paige as he started to growl. “I’m going to—”

  “Please,” she whispered, cutting off the rage she could feel boiling under his bluster. “Let your brother handle it as he sees fit. What matters is that we’re together.”

  A deep sigh slipped from Adam.

  Aaron chuckled. “I like her immensely already.” He waved his hand toward the house. “If you will both come back inside. I’d like to introduce you to the rest of the family so you can have some time alone to…let the bond settle.” He winked.

  Paige’s cheeks warmed at the implied innuendo. It was completely true, though. Once she got Adam alone again, the only thing settling would be the bed sheets on the floor.

  Adam squeezed her a little tighter and snuck a quick kiss onto her lips before leading her along behind his brother. His desire had flared with her intimate thought. And now she was doubly aroused. How would she ever get anything done again, if she could always feel Adam’s hunger?

  They entered through a side door into the VonBrandt’s massive kitchen. Stone floors, counters, and natural wood cabinets and accents made the place seem like a lodge in the mountains. Still, even with the massive wooden rafters and beams, the décor made the enormous room seem warm and inviting.

  The tall auburn-haired woman behind the counter looked up and smiled.

  She slowly approached Aaron, and he embraced her, whispering something in her ear. The woman’s face lit up and tears trailed down her porcelain cheeks.

  “Fate has been kind today.” She stepped up to Paige and reached forward, pulling her into an embrace. “Welcome to the family, Paige. I’m Tonya. If you need anything or ever want to talk, I’m always here.” Tonya turned to her husband. “Miles and Lee came in through the back door. They’re waiting in the study.”

  Miles and Lee. These men had nearly stolen her entire life from her. Well…they had stolen it. If not for the unexplainable magickal bond-spell-thing that Aaron said over her and Adam, she’d still be living in a fog of unexplainable torment, unable to access any long-term memory but still feeling its loss.

  Adam squeezed her hand. “They won’t hurt you again. I promise.”

  “Are you always going to be able to feel everything that runs through my mind?”

  “Until you both learn to turn the volume down, yes he will,” Tonya answered, opening the door of the study as they approached. “It took me several weeks to learn to control the bridge. You’ll get the hang of it.”

  Paige nodded. Good to know.

  She was safe. Those men didn’t wish to take her away from Adam any longer, but the second she laid eyes on them it all came rushing back.

  The fear she’d felt in the kitchen. The absolute terror when she’d realized they were going to take her memory of Adam away.

  He pulled her tight against his chest and kissed the top of her head. A wash of reassurance and security filled her mind. She breathed deeply, letting the anxiety dissipate in the warmth that was her mate.

  Her mate.

  That sounded so surreal. But it was the tru
th. She, Paige Lewis, was mated with a magickal werewolf.

  It was like being part of a true-to-life fairytale.

  Chapter Twelve

  He was never letting Paige out of his sight again. Ever. Adam slid his arm around her as they walked in to Aaron’s study, behind his brother and alpha, and trying not to hold his breath.

  Miles and Lee were his friends, but they had made a major misstep. His anger was nothing compared with Aaron’s.

  The alpha hated being disobeyed.

  The brothers sat in high-backed chairs in front of Aaron’s heavy desk. Lee’s legs were bouncing at light speed with nerves.

  Adam tried to summon up some compassion for him, but this was a major-league fuck-up.

  Aaron turned around behind his desk and spread his hands out on the wood. “I’m glad you boys turned up. Saves me sending Andrea out to look for you.”

  Miles ducked his head. “Aaron, look. We saw her outside, watching those Oklahoma wolves shift.”

  “I don’t care if you were physically in her presence when you shifted in front of her.” The alpha pounded the desk with every other word. “You always check with me first. Always.”

  “Why?” Miles stood, matching Aaron’s intensity. “She saw a wolf shift. She’s a human. We do damage control.”

  “Did you see Adam take her?” Aaron leaned in.

  Miles shook his head and Adam’s insides tightened.

  He gripped Paige closer to him. He hadn’t known at the time that she was his mate. Fate had been so quiet, and he’d had to step up. He’d been moving slowly toward her for years, but he had to choose.

  If only he’d been faster… if only he’d moved faster.

  The Trent brothers exchanged dark glances. Miles shook his head and backed into his chair. “We didn’t see him at the time—we didn’t have a chance to rewind the footage until later. It was such a split-sec—”

  “It was my fault.” Lee’s voice was low and he hung his head over clasped hands. “I was the one who saw the shift. I ran in after the run to watch back some tape, but didn’t watch far enough to see Adam take her.”

  Aaron grunted and sat down. “And you just took off?”