Soul-Mate (Immortal Love 1) (9 page)

“Shane, do you understand how crazy you sound just now?” I asked, deeply confused by his words. He was giving too much importance to our affair. It was true, we were good together. He was amazing; I had lots of fun and good memories. I could even spend more time with him—eventually. But, all that talk about bonding—it sounded deranged. It sounded like…

“I told you, Annabel. I won’t let you run from me,” he added, killing my line of thought.

What the hell was he saying?

“Seriously? Are you crazy? Do you normally stalk every girl you sleep with?”

“No! Of course not! I didn’t want it to sound like that!”

“
How the hell did you want it to sound then?”
I shouted.

“Romantic,” he whispered, making me shut up. “Did I frighten you?”

I was still trying to understand if I was really in the middle of a conversation like that one. I just shook my head, even if I didn’t know if it had frightened me or not. For the moment, it just made me feel weird and confused. Was he obsessed by me?

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to sound like a psychopath,” he said, still looking at me to see if I was relaxing and believing him. I was blaming myself for letting my guard down.

“I think I should leave,” I mumbled, but I didn’t move. It was as if my body was stuck and didn’t want to obey. I knew I should run the hell out of there.
So why was I not doing it?
The word he used, “psychopath,” was surely one that could describe him by the previous speech of wanting me to move in with him and not letting me run from him. The problem was that he was the most gorgeous psychopath I knew. He had such dreamy eyes, and he made me shiver each time we touched. I almost wanted him to be obsessed by me.

Okay, fine, that was not too sane of me, either
.
Not proud of it!
But at least we would be perfect for one another, both loony. But let’s face it, in my line of work—the killing of evil supernatural beings stuff—it was not hard to meet psychos. However, they didn’t act like Shane or were never as nice as he.

Analyzing my reactions, it seemed that my vampire side wanted to be adopted by him. Which was quite ironic, since wolves and vampires don’t have the best of relationships. My panther side didn’t really care; it was too busy wanting to run the hell out of there so it wouldn’t be caught in a relationship. But me, I, Annabel was scared like hell of what I was beginning to feel for Shane.

“Please stay,” he pleaded, putting his hands over mine. “I just wanted to explain to you, in all that random weird speech, that I want to keep seeing you. But you seem too eager to get rid of me.”

I looked at our hands. That made sense. “Dating?”

“Yes. Dating you. Don’t you want to date me?”

“I don’t have much free time...” I said, trying not to look in his eyes as I sucked on my lower lip.

I also tried hard to breathe and not to cry my heart out. I was getting emotional.
Why was I getting emotional?
My heart was beating fast.
I didn’t want to say no to him.
That was why I was feeling like that. I was getting emotional, because I wanted to hear that from him, I wanted to see him again, to date him. Holy crazy bunch of gods that are worthless and don’t do anything right! I didn’t date werewolves or vampires or any other supernatural beings, as a matter of fact.
They
have a freaking soul-mate!
Hybrids
don’t! Hybrids are incomplete and inferior to them, because
we
are abnormalities. We weren’t created by the gods. They didn’t give us a soul-mate. We are doomed to stay lonely forever.

It was supposed to be a one-night stand! Now he wanted to date me and I… wanted to date him. I could just slap myself and call myself stupid a bunch of times. I was getting myself into a mess, knowingly and willingly.

“Don’t you want to see me again?” he asked with a heartbreaking voice. I looked up at him and swallowed hard. I felt so much like cursing. Puppy eyes were like cheating at cards.
So unfair!
I nodded. “Not just for sex, Anna.” I looked at him sideways.

“You didn’t complain before,” I muttered.
Did he think I was that shallow
? I blushed, realizing that I had jumped into that with an expiration date. But he couldn’t blame me if he knew that I knew that he had a soul-mate, that he was just too irresistible and I was just human, sort of, that I had… needs.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, curious about the blank stare on my face.

“You are extremely clingy for a…” He furrowed his eyebrows with curiosity about how I was going to end my sentence. “For a guy,” I specified before making the mistake of ending with “werewolf.”

“Guys have feelings, too,” he declared, like he had the truth on his side.

“Sure. Let’s just agree to disagree.”

“You are doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“Using sarcasm to shut me out and… conceal your fears.”

I frowned and folded my arms.

“Please take me seriously,” he whispered, coming closer and caressing my face. “What does it take for you to tell me yes?”

I seriously pondered his question, heart beating fast and body trembling. He unfolded my arms, kissing my temples and making me close my eyes.

“I’m not going to stay for long,” I whispered, trying to make him realize that sooner or later I would leave. I couldn’t stay. He shouldn’t make plans.
Why was he making plans?

“Then you have nothing to lose in giving us a try,” he reasoned, and I knew he was trying to manipulate me into accepting him.

The amount of kisses he was leaving on my face was another way of trying to convince me. I had to give him credit: he was persevering.
I must please him a lot.
It was actually flattering, having him wanting to date me. He was captivating and breathtaking; surely there must be a lot of women who wouldn’t have had a second thought about dating him.
If only my life was simple enough to date and have fun, without any other care in the world
! The last thing I needed, though, was a controlling and possessive werewolf boyfriend. He would drive me insane. But damn, I was
so
into him! And he didn’t seem to be a controlling jerk. If anything, he was sweet and romantic, nicely protective and extremely passionate in bed. Outside it, too. He made me happy. He made me feel safe, and he made me laugh. He was too perfect to be true!

“If I say yes,” I whispered, “I don’t want to talk about my past.”

It seemed like a condition. I felt like it was a condition that I needed to fully be
with
Shane and not have to lie to him. I didn’t like to lie. I was good at it, but I didn’t like to invent things about my past, especially to someone I actually liked. Because I
did
like him. I liked him. But I would eventually disappear from his life, and he would never see me again. However, I still had a couple of months there. I could take some time off and actually just teach and date and be happy, like a normal person.

We didn’t have any future together. I knew that; he would know that, too
. So why not just risk it?
The passion would eventually fade away, and I would eventually be annoyed by him and his habits. I was sure of that. I was really good at finding flaws in others. He would eventually get tired of me, too. I could be annoying and weird. I liked my space and my silent moments. Besides, we were not meant to be, so what could go wrong, right? For the moment, I could just enjoy what we were feeling for one another. I could just have fun and have sex. However, as I stared deep in his eyes, I felt weirdly caught in them and unnaturally anxious.
Could I fall for him?

“We don’t need to talk about our pasts if you don’t want to,” he agreed. “Is that what it takes for you to date me?”

“Yes,” I whispered, noticing his lips closer to mine.

“Good… But I have to warn you,” he said before putting his lips over mine. I stared at him, annoyed that he was still talking. His next words made me giggle against his chest, baffled by his nerve. “If you keep dating me, you will most probably be the one to stalk me. That is how addictive I am.”

I HAD TONS
of delayed school papers to grade. While missing a literature teacher, the department had assigned an essay about a book that the students had read, and the end result was a stack of papers scattered across the tippy round table of my motel room.

I had already gone for a run, taken a bath, and eaten something I’d stored in the small fridge. I was preparing myself to face a long, late night. At least I could take solace in the fact that I didn’t have classes in the morning, so I could sleep in. Besides, I was a nocturnal person by nature; my real job included long, sleepless nights.

The problem with my good intentions to get some work done was that my mind was too occupied with Shane. I’d thought about him all day ever since leaving his home that morning to face my first day at school. What was supposed to be a one-night stand became a whole weekend. I had to confess that it had been an amazing weekend, an unforgettable weekend with Shane. Just thinking about it made me feel lonely and terribly aroused overall, when I recalled his kisses, his adventurous hands, and my mouth trailing across his skin.

I couldn’t concentrate, and I couldn’t get any work done. I missed him. I wanted to go to him. We hadn’t spoken since that morning. He had said he would call, but he hadn’t, and I was going out of my mind.

I needed to do something to get my mind off of him. Since hunting was out of the question, I thought that maybe I could go to a bar. Well, the only bar in town was the one where Shane was probably hanging out at that moment. He was probably picking up some other naïve girl. I started to feel incredibly stupid.
How could I be such an idiot
? It was just an affair. Besides, I couldn’t
have
an actual boyfriend.
Was I going crazy
? He was the sheriff of that supernatural town; I was a hunter and a nomad. I couldn’t trust anyone with the secret of who I truly was, and I would eventually have to leave. But he had said we were dating, and that he wanted to keep seeing me.
Why hadn’t he called or texted?

I had to face the hard truth. He had fooled me. All his talk about trusting him and his witty charm had made me fall for him. I should have left Saturday morning and forgotten all about him.

I should just go to his place and see what he is doing
.
I should ask him why he didn’t call.
Maybe I was just being paranoid; maybe he was too busy to call.

Someone knocked on my door, interrupting my obsessed thoughts. I wasn’t expecting anyone. I opened the door with caution and stared at Shane’s gorgeous smile. I didn’t know how to react.
Should I be happy or should I be mad?
But then I just settled on suspicious.
What was he doing there at that time of the night?

“Good evening,” he said, trying to get some response from me. I realized I was just standing there with inquisitive eyes, the doorknob clenched in my hand.

“Hi,” I managed to say.

“Can I come in?”

I stepped back and let him in before I realized I shouldn’t have given in so easily. He would probably see that as an invitation to spend the rest of the night with me, because
what else would he be doing there? He hadn’t called all day!
I wasn’t going to let that slide so easily.

“Hi,” he greeted, stepping closer to me. I looked up at his eyes, shivering at his sweet tone. He reached forward and grabbed me under my arms and gave me a long, sweet kiss that made my bad mood entirely disappear like magic. My body melted in his arms, and my lips fainted under his.
I couldn’t possibly give in to him so easily!
My body, however, had little to no intention of rejecting him. I wanted him inside me again, and I didn’t need foreplay. I was aroused and wet. But―that was a really long and tender kiss, and he seemed to have no intentions of taking my clothes off and throwing me on the bed.

“Why haven’t you replied to my text-messages and picked up the phone?” he asked, pulling away after nibbling my lip as if he was punishing me. He leaned his forehead against mine, and I opened my eyes. He was staring at me, waiting for an answer. I blinked, confused.

“What text-messages?” I asked.
I had nothing.
“I’ve checked my phone all day, hoping for something.”

“I know you had a busy day, but have you checked your phone today?”

“Yes. What number did I give you?” I wondered, understanding what was going on.
I was so silly! I could just slap myself!
I’d never checked my
other
phone, my real phone, the one whose number I shouldn’t have given to him. I left his arms and looked around.
Where did I put it? Oh, damn! It was in my bag, my slayer bag. The one Shane should never see.

“How many numbers have you got?” Shane asked.

“Two.”

“Why?”

“One for work and the other for personal life.”

“Which one did you give me?” he asked. He seemed troubled by this, as if I wasn’t taking him seriously. But the problem was that I
was
taking him seriously. So seriously that I had given him my real, permanent phone number.

“My personal one. I had my work phone with me all day,” I answered, feeling guilty. “I think I left it in the car.”

“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” he said, coming closer and caressing my hair that was still wet from the bath. “I was worried sick about you!”

“I’m fine. I just had a lot of things to do.”

“I’ve missed you,” he mumbled, making my heart beat faster. He was so undeniably sweet and up front. I liked that. It was refreshing.

“I’ve missed you, too.” I clenched my hand in his shirt, feeling silly because I realized that I was becoming sentimental and foolish
. I shouldn’t expose my feelings so openly
. But it was almost worth it, just to see the smile he gave me with that mellow statement.
Was he for real?