Chosen Mate

by L. J. Red

  Chapter 22

  Someone was calling his name. Neal ran through vast, smoky ruins of his memories, searching, desperate, the familiar paths of the dream closing around him. Except, wait, he wasn’t running through sheets of flame, but ice and snow, and around him billowed, not smoke, but a bitterly cold wind that snatched at his clothes and ran icy fingers through his hair.

  He could still hear someone calling his name, but the sound was faint, and every moment it grew fainter still. He strained, reaching for it, and like the blaze of the sun dawning across the land, he realized who the voice belonged to.

  “May,” he screamed, fighting his way to consciousness.

  He spun, tumbled over and thumped against the ground. He was on the floor in the cabin, the couch cushions scattered around him.

  He scrambled upright. He had been sleeping on the couch, unable to bear the thought of lying in the bed alone. It had reminded him too much of May, her scent all over the sheets. He swung his gaze around the cabin. “May?” he called again, but no. She wasn’t there, of course she wasn’t there. She had wanted to get away from him.

  Neal growled, and the sound echoed off the wooden walls. He’d had enough. These past few days had been torture. He was going to find her and tell her exactly what she was to him. His soulmate, his bonded mate, the other half of his soul, his one and only love. Then he would convince her to tell him what was really wrong. The real reason she didn’t want to be with him. He knew she hadn’t given him the full story, and he couldn’t stand it anymore. He needed her by his side.

  Neal kicked the cushions out of the way and strode towards the kitchenette. Coffee still worked on vampires; he wasn’t going back to that dream tonight. Then he halted, the sense of urgency he felt in the dream had followed him out of his sleep. He could still feel May’s need for him, not in the dream, but through their soulmate bond. He tensed, electrified with fear for her. What could have happened? Why did she feel so afraid, so weak, so cold?

  Neal sprinted out of the cabin, flinching back when he realized it was still daytime, but the sun was weak. The wind threw handfuls of snow against him, scraping his skin raw. The weather was so much worse than it had been the whole time they were here. This had the makings of a true white-out, even the near cabins masked from his sight.

  Neal let his eyes fall half shut, opening his other senses wide, relying on sound and scent to track his way to the vassals’ cabin. He battled his way through the elements and bashed the door wide open. “May,” he bellowed. Vassals sprang out of their beds as he searched, but he couldn’t see her. More, he couldn’t feel her presence through the bond. She wasn’t there. His rage and terror screamed through him and across the Bloodline bond he felt Talon and Rune wake. He grabbed the nearest vassal. “Where is she?” he growled, “Where is May?” The vassal just shook his head, trembling in Neal’s grip.

  “They’re gone,” another voice piped up from behind him.

  “Gone?” Neal snarled, “gone where?

  “They went for a walk,” the vassal said, her thin fingers clutching at the door frame.

  “In this?” Neal roared and pulled back one of the curtains to show the blistering storm outside.

  “Oh, shit,” the vassal turned her wide eyes on Neal. “They went to a lake I think, it’s near here. One of them had a map, but I don’t think any of them knew about this.” She gestured out the window. “They weren’t prepared for conditions like that.”

  “The lake,” he said, “where is it?”

  The vassal shrugged. “I don’t know, they took the map with them.”

  Neal snarled and strode past her. There had to be a way to find where they had gone. He searched his memory of the layout of this area. There was a lake, he remembered seeing it on the map. A big one, and… suddenly he remembered his rage from a few days ago, the tree had sliced to pieces in his anger. There had been a lake near him, he remembered now.

  He stormed outside and met Talon and Rune waiting for him. They were both hunched against the wind and snow. He could feel the achy presence of the sun pressing down on him, even through the thick clouds, but he shook it off. Pain meant nothing. He had to find May before it was too late.

  “What’s happening?” asked Talon.

  “May is out there, in this. I have to find her.” Talon and Rune fell into step beside him. “There are others,” Neal added. “Move quickly.”

  They stormed through the forest, the blizzard rising. Neal could feel increasingly May’s fear and desperation both getting closer as he got closer to her, but also somehow fainter as if she was losing energy. He imagined her out there on her own in the ice and the snow, and his heart chilled with terror. She was only human. She would never be able to survive in elements like this for long. He had been a fool to let her go. He should have insisted she stayed with him. He would have convinced her not to go on an expedition in this, or at least, he would have gone with her. He should have been by her side. He remonstrated with himself as his long strides covered the ground at speed.

  The sun sapped his energy, its harsh presence reaching for him despite the clouds. But he could feel it fading. The short days here were part of the reason the Conclave had chosen this place. Good for vampires. Bad for humans. In the dark and the cold, this storm they were in would be even more disorienting. They could lose each other, stumble into even greater danger, and all the while the temperatures would drop further.

  The thought of May in danger shattered through him, and he put on a further burst of speed, straining his muscles to a breaking point, covering the ground so fast he barely left an impression in the snow.

  He left Rune and Talon far behind him, outpacing them in his urgency to reach May. Finally, he arrived on the site of the icy lake, barely able to make it out through the whirling wind and snow. The blizzard raged around him, stealing his sight, coating everything with the roar of the wind.

  “May,” he screamed, “May, where are you?” Straining his ears, he caught the faint sound of a voice. He sprinted towards it through the snow, but when he finally got there, it was not May, but her friend, the redheaded vassal. She wasn’t alone. Two other vassals gripped tightly to each other, the three of them huddled against the wind.

  “Oh, thank God,” she cried when she saw him.

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know,” the vassal cried, knowing exactly who Neal meant. “We lost each other in the storm. The others went running in different directions. May and I tried to stop them, but we got separated.” There were tear tracks frozen on her face, but Neal had no time to reassure her. His own concern for May far outstripped hers. He sent a pulse through the Bloodline bond marking his location, and he felt Talon and Rune angle themselves towards him. “Help is coming,” he told her, then he turned and faced the snow.

  He needed to find her through this, and he opened his senses wide, scenting through the tumbling air. He could scent another human further away. Neal ran towards the scent, hearing shouts as he got closer. He saw a person standing, and at their feet, a dark shape on the ground, and for a second his muscles locked in horror. It wasn’t moving.

  He sprinted towards them. Not May, not May, please don’t let it be May, he thought. He ran to the collapsed person and turned them over. It wasn’t May. He felt relief shudder through him.

  “We were trying to get back.” The vassal who was standing said, his teeth chattering. “But it just got cold, and then she wanted to sit for a while,” he gestured towards the vassal on the ground. “I didn’t know what to do.”

  Neal rested his hand on the woman’s cheek. She was ice cold and shivering violently. He sent another pulse towards the Shadows and he felt Talon and Rune split.

  “Stay here,” he told the vassal and straightened back up. He needed to keep moving, needed to find May.

  The sky had fully darkened now. The icy wind merged into a howling, powerful darkness. Out of the storm, Talon suddenly appeared, his eyes glowing with an inner fire, all Neal
’s urgency reflected in them. For once the wildness he usually felt from Talon was banked, a surge of protective fury coming down the bond. “Go,” he shouted at Neal, “I’ve got them.”

  Neal needed no further prompting. He ran through the ice and snow, calling and calling May’s name, feeling like he was in a nightmare that he would never find his way out of. Finally, when he had almost given up hope, he caught sight of a speck of color. Color in this dark hell of snow and ice? How could that be? He ran towards it. Green. It was green. Not the dark green of pine, but a bright, artificial eye-sore of neon. Thank God. It was May’s coat. He ran towards it so fast it was as if he teleported the distance. One moment seeing the speck on the ground. The next moment right there in front of her. May was hunched against a fallen tree, snow piled up around her in makeshift walls. She had built the beginning of the snow shelter around her but her efforts had been quickly outpaced by the severity of the storm and she was lying on the ground, barely moving, her eyes closed and her face pale.

  “May,” he bellowed and crashed to his knees next to her. She opened her eyes slowly.

  “Neal,” she whispered. Her presence in the bond was so faint he could barely sense her. “You found me.” He gathered her close to him and she curled in towards his chest. “I wanted you to be here. I called for you.”

  “I heard you,” he growled, sending a short message to Talon and Rune that he was returning to the cabin. He felt their acceptance and he sprinted away towards the cabin, towards warmth, May’s cold body clutched to his chest.

  Chapter 23

  May was cold. She was freezing cold. She could barely think through the ice in her veins. All around her was darkness, the bite of snow, the roar of the wind. She had lost her way in the blizzard, lost everyone and all that had kept her going was clutching tight to her sense of Neal, the bond between them—strength and heat and fierce, protective love.

  The bond throbbed in her mind, a deep, warm pulse, and gradually the cold faded away and was replaced by the warmth, faint at first, then growing and growing into a glorious sense of safety and protection. She left the cold behind, feeling returning to her limbs. She stretched, reached out into her body, and opened her eyes.

  She was warm, gloriously, deliciously warm. She was no longer in the storm, but in the cabin, sat square in the deep tub, surrounded with deliciously hot water. And she wasn’t alone. Her awareness came slamming into her body as she realized Neal was pressed against the line of her back, his entire body radiating heat through her and through the bond, thawing her from the inside out. She shifted against him, water lapping at her body and his grip on her tightened for a moment. “Neal,” she said, turning her head up to look at him.

  Steam had darkened his hair, it lay, thick and wet, curling across his brow. His deep green eyes held such a wealth of feeling she had to look away. Those eyes, they seemed to see right through into her heart, made her whole body vibrate like a plucked string.

  “I’ve got you, lass,” he said, his voice a soothing purr. May relaxed into the sound and into his hold on her. She was safe. She was home. Neal had found her. “I was so cold,” May said, “so cold and I couldn’t see—” her voice began to climb, but Neal interrupted her, smoothing his palms up her arms.

  “It’s okay, I’ve got you,” Neal said, “you’re safe now.”

  “I was such an idiot to go out there. I saw the clouds. We should have left it for another day.”

  Neal growled softly. “I’m the fool,” Neal said, “I should have been there . I should have gone with you.”

  “But,” May turned her head to face him again, “the daylight,”

  “I dinnae care about the damn sun.” He shifted her so that his green eyes could once more capture hers. “May, I dinnae want you to leave again.” His accent was rough, and his voice sounded shredded and raw. God, she’d hurt him by leaving, she had never wanted that.

  “I won’t,” May promised. “I’m not going anywhere.” She sagged back against him. Her thoughts were still sluggish. She was exhausted by everything that happened in the cold, and the heat permeating through her was so inviting, the water lapping against her body lulling her deeper. She knew there would be problems to deal with later, and she would need to find a way to deal with the rumors. But none of it mattered. She needed to be here, needed to be with Neal.

  She shifted again, and the slick slide of skin against skin reminded her that she was lying in the tub. That she was lying in the tub completely naked. The warmth within her slowly began to turn into a different kind of heat.

  “What happened to my clothes?” she asked.

  “I took them off you,” Neal growled. “You needed the body heat.”

  “Oh,” May said, her voice dropping low and shivery, “right. Body heat.” She chanced a look at Neal. His eyes had darkened with lust and he moved deliberately underneath her, undulating so that his body rolled against hers. She caught her lip at the feel of him, thick and hard with nothing but water in between them.

  “Oh, God,” she finally gave into the heat, arching into him.

  He groaned. “Ach, don’t tempt me, May. You need to recover.”

  May looked up at him through her eyelashes. “I need to get warmed up,” she said deliberately, “and I think this would get me warm. Not just warm,” she grinned, “hot.”

  Neal growled and leaned forward, capturing her mouth. His hands on her skin felt like brands, caressing, exploring every inch. All over her body, her senses awoke. She felt like she was being brought back to life under his touch. Indescribable heat at every touch, every caress, and beneath her bones, desire began to burn. Hotter and hotter. Exactly what she needed after the cold darkness outside.

  The nearness of him was wonderful. The bond opened between them. She could feel his emotions, his terror at losing her fading, replaced with the slick heat of desire, and intertwined with it a glowing, shining emotion, the intensity of it shocked her but she didn’t want to draw away, she wanted to roll in it, drown in it.

  She felt Neal realize, pull back in the bond, and she gripped his arm. “No,” she said, “I want to feel it. I want to feel you. This between us, I know, I know what it is.” She caught his eyes. “A soulmate bond.”

  “Oh, May,” he purred, and she melted under his touch as he kissed her again. The soulmate bond roared between them.

  He moved again with deliberate intent, hands lifting her, angling her over him. Her knees fell on either side of his thick thighs, plenty of space in the large tub for them to fit over each other. For a moment she was suspended above him, then moving slowly, she lowered herself. Catching her breath at the delicious burn, the stretch, the desperate ache to be filled finally met. Neal rocked into her and she gripped tight to him, their slippery, wet skin sliding against each other as they moved together, water sloshing over the edges of the bath. Every touch overloaded her senses, not just arousal, but something deeper, brighter. He moved against her reverently, like he was worshipping every inch of her skin. Like every touch was precious. She had come so close to losing this, losing him. She never wanted to risk that again. Never wanted to leave him. He moved within her, and she gripped tightly to him, riding wave after wave of pure sensation until finally, she lost track of her thoughts, everything wiped away by a wave of onrushing pleasure, incandescent in its fury that dragged its heavy fingers through her body, leaving violent after-shocks of delight. She shook from the force of them, sinking back into the water against Neal and lay on his chest, panting from the exertion.

  “Now I am worn out,” she said when she finally got her breath back. Neal laughed, low and liquid, then his voice turned serious. “I thought I lost you,” he said. “I never want to feel that again, May, promise me you’ll be safe.”

  May looked up at him. “I will,” she said, but a spark of worry turned low in her gut. How could she promise never to be in danger? The world of vampires was full of threats.

  Neal seemed satisfied, however, and he dragged her heavy limbs
upright and they stumbled to the shower, standing under the water until they were clean.

  May slept deeply beside Neal for the first time in many nights and when she woke, she resolved that she would stay with him. She wasn’t going to stay in the vassals’ cabin any longer. She would return here to Neal every dawn and stay beside him every day. She felt the bed shift as Neal pulled free from the covers and she yawned widely, pushing herself up on to her elbows.

  “Stay,” he said, seeing her rise.

  “No—” a second yawn caught her mid-word. “No, no, I’ll get up with you.” She ran her hand through her hair, it was sticking up in all directions, she must look a wreck, but when she looked back at Neal, there was a warm caress in his eyes that made her blush.

  She broke his gaze, a heavy warmth in her chest. She climbed out of bed, searching for her clothes. She did still feel a little fragile but not enough to take the night off. “No, I need to get back out there,” she insisted. “And I need to keep busy… I feel like such an idiot for going out in a snow-storm.”

  “You didn’t know the weather would turn,” he said.

  “No, but I should have known enough to bring someone experienced along with us. I should have asked you. I just…”

  “Next time,” Neal said, his brow furrowing, “ask me.”

  “I know, I will.” Though she suspected she would not be going out in the cold any more than she had to from now on. “It was foolish, I just…” she hesitated. “I didn’t want it to seem like I was taking up all of your time.” Like I was distracting you, she didn’t say. But in the end, it turned out much, much worse. He’d had to come running to rescue her. What were people going to say? She needed to face those rumors head on. She couldn’t stay in wrapped up warm and safe in the cabin, no matter how inviting the bed might look. She just wanted Neal in there with her, her thoughts turned wicked, memories of last night licking through her, but she caught them before anything could escape down the bond, flicking a wary glance at Neal’s back as he pulled on his jacket. She firmed her spine, ignoring the flicker of chill she felt at the thought of going back out into the snow or forcing her tired body through the night’s work. She would be fine. But oh—she looked at the bed then back at Neal as he turned towards her, the worn leather of his jacket hugging his broad shoulders and a heavy thrum of desire moving under her skin—the night couldn’t end fast enough.