Soul-Mate (Immortal Love 1) (20 page)

Shane held me tighter. I bit my lip harder, gulping with the overwhelming sensation of our naked bodies touching. Sadly, I could barely open my eyes and move my hands. I was exhausted. Then I felt his wrist against my mouth, opening my lips and dripping blood inside. It was sweet, and I lost my breath when I felt it go down to my stomach. Abruptly, a rush of adrenaline hit me. I opened my eyes wide and stared at Shane's sweet blue eyes. I was so hungry! My fangs came out, and I bit into his flesh. At that point, all went black, and I fell inside myself, like I had just fallen on my back into an abyss. Suddenly, my heart wanted to escape through my mouth; awful cramps took over my stomach. I think my entire body shook and my limbs went all stiff. It was scary!

Scary until I suddenly found myself inside the bar where I've first seen Shane... To my surprise, I watched myself come into the building and heard Shane's thoughts. I realized that I was inside Shane's memories of the night we first met. It was incredible! I was inside his head, his thoughts, and I could experience it all as if I was inside a movie, a three-dimensional movie, where I could hear and feel anything he heard and felt on that night. I experienced everything: his thoughts, his mesmerizing stare at me, the feelings that burst inside him, the awakening of his wolf that screamed
mate
when he sat next to me and smelled me. All that was amazing, unreal, and breathtaking! I realized that I had felt most of the things he had. I had understood that something connected us, that he was special…

Blackness hit me again when I swirled back from his thoughts and into the bathtub. I opened my eyes and saw that his wrist was no longer against my mouth. Also, Shane looked worried. I sighed and licked my lower lip with my tongue, feeling much better and stronger. Actually, I was feeling another kind of hunger.

I smirked at Shane with lust shooting across my body, tingling on my skin, and making me shiver. My fangs grew out again, my eyes shifted to purple, and my skin became paler because I was changing to my vampire form. But something was different. Shane's eyes narrowed, and he touched my hair, showing it to me. I no longer had straight black hair when I was a vampire. I had straight
white
hair, to my utter surprise.

"Side effect," Shane mumbled and then smirked. "You got some of my wolf inside you now."

"I love it," I said, touching my hair. "You let me see your memories."

"Yes, but they were good memories. Are you mad?"

I shook my head. "Can you decide what you want me to see?"

"I can try. I just have to think about it when I'm feeding you or
not
think of anything, so you don't see my thoughts. Did you see it?"

"Yes, I did."

"Good. I wanted you to understand how I knew you were my soul-mate."

"Aren't you going to ask me?" I said, feeling a bit embarrassed for bringing up the subject.

"What?" He didn’t seem to know what I was talking about.

"If my dad was a pureblood vampire."

"Well, I already knew it because of what you said in the cabin." He looked serious, maybe hurt by another secret I had been keeping from him.

"Are you mad?"

"I can partly understand why you kept it a secret. However, mates don't have secrets after they mark each other. Or, at least, they shouldn't."

I looked away, pouting and wrinkling my nose. His words were clear, I needed to come clean.

“Let’s not ruin the moment,” he whispered, kissing my cheek and drowning his head in the crook of my neck. “There’s nothing that you can say that will make me want you less. So… don’t worry, okay?”

“I don’t like to keep secrets,” I whispered in a sad voice, my heart clenching. “I just...”

"I wasn’t lecturing you. I was just trying to explain to you that it’s okay. I’m not going to pressure you anymore. We’ll have this conversation some other day. In this moment, all I need to know is if you are feeling better. Are you?"

I nodded. He smiled. “I’m feeling a
lot
stronger, and I’m no longer feeling cold.”

“Good.”

“I… drank from you, so… I sort of marked you, didn’t I?”

It was his time to nod. “Do you feel me inside your head?”

I searched inside of me for what he was saying. At first, I wasn’t feeling anything different, then I felt him. I saw the memories from the night we had met pulsing in my brain as if they were my own memories. Imprinted in me also was the happiness he felt when he realized I was his mate. It consumed me now. But I also felt his loneliness, the weight of the years he had waited for me, and the amazing feeling of love after the first fascinating impression of recognition swept along his body and soul. All that was inside me now. I almost wanted to cry, because it was overwhelming.

“Are you okay?” His voice sounded worried when he talked. He brushed his fingers on my face, leveling my head to stare at him. I didn’t answer; I simply snuggled him closer and laid my head against his shoulder. I closed my eyes and waited for the emotion to calm down. “Does it bother you?”

“What?”

“How much… I need you and love you.”

“No.”

“So why are you sad?”

“I’m not sad. I’m just… at a loss for words. There’s nothing I can say that… shows how happy I am to be your mate and how the… loneliness you had to endure makes me wish I had been born sooner.”

“I wanted you to understand,” he said, caressing my hair and rubbing my back, making my body relax, “that we are meant to be together. And you don’t need to be afraid of… Annabel, I’ll never leave you, and I’ll never hurt you.”

“Okay,” I whispered, aware that Shane’s heart was beating fast and he was feeling anxious.

“You are really special, honey. You were already special to me, but I had no idea of how much more special you were. My heart is overwhelmed by it.”

“What are you talking about?” I wondered, intrigued by his words.

“I understand why it’s so hard for you to trust people. I can’t blame you for that. I didn’t want your life to be so difficult before we met. I have to thank the gods because you’ve survived this long and… you found me. You could have been killed and then… I would have never met you. I would have never known how wonderful and amazing it is to love you.”

I smiled, tears falling down my eyes. “You need to stop talking,” I whispered, trying to conceal my shaking voice, because I wasn’t crying in pain; I was crying in love. I shivered and he wrapped me tighter, pressing our bodies until I almost couldn’t breathe. I chuckled, brushing my cheek to his. “Can someone die of excess of love?”

“I don’t know. I hope not,” he breathed, kissing my shoulder and softly nibbling my ear.

“Shane, I don’t want to ruin this moment with confusing confessions and regrets. I just want to taste you again and make love to you.”

I moaned when I felt his body get harder against mine. It was nice, especially when he tilted his head and offered his neck to me. I could hear and see his jugular pulsing under his soft skin. His hand pulled my head closer, like he knew I was doubting myself. I was afraid I would hurt him or drink too much. It was not like I was a professional on the subject. His other hand touched my breast, making my fangs come out, and I plunged them in his skin, feeling a wave of pleasure slowly unfold on my body.

Moments after, I heard him gasp for air and then moan with pleasure, as if his entire body was burning with desire. His hand went lower, sliding down my stomach to my intimacy, and making me gasp against his neck. It was really good having his fingers rubbing me and feeling his stiff shaft against my leg. I moved, lowering my own two hands and placing them on his waist, probably bruising his skin in the process. I wanted him so much! I bounced my hips against his and moaned again, leaving his throat, stopping the feeding that was making me come under his fingers. He groaned, complaining because I had stopped the feed. Then he raised my legs, wrapping them around his waist as he slowly entered me. It felt as if I was coming again, just with the first thrust of his cock inside me. I gasped for air, grabbing my hands on his shoulders, feeling the need he had that was making him move faster. My eyes should be purple or black—I didn't know the color they would be after feeding from a source, but I knew I was in my vampire form.

I bit him again on his shoulder, not feeding, just enjoying the feeling of my fangs in his skin, where I could feel the rush of his blood and the impulses of his brain. It was like I was tapping into his mind. The pleasure doubled for us both, because he got more intense and wilder. His fangs came out, and I felt his claws in my skin, though not hurting, because my skin seemed somehow harder. My own claws ran down his back, and we were moving so fast that I was finding it hard to breath and not be engulfed by the pure and raw pleasure I felt between my legs.

Then, all of a sudden, I exhaled in pleasure, feeling a burst of heat rise from my core and rush over my skin until it was released by all the cells of my body, making me moan for a long time, burning and radiating happiness. It was an intense orgasm, not different or better than we had before, but faster,
really
faster to achieve. Shane groaned after me; my orgasm had triggered his own.

I removed my fangs from his neck and looked for his mouth. We kissed hungrily, savagely, and he continued inside me, moving our hips together, breathless and needy once again. I had an urgency for him, to hold him really tight and kiss him again and again as if living depended of it. Maybe it did. Maybe I would just die of a heart attack if we stopped and didn't expend all that sexual appetite and rush of adrenaline in making love. Maybe I would lose my sanity completely if something bad happened to him. Or maybe, just maybe, the bond was having a possessive and creepy effect on me.

I came again, and this time I didn’t scream or even make a sound. My eyes rolled over, and my body felt like my soul had just left it and drifted away above all that was happening in reality. I felt the silence of the world hit me, all breath leave my lungs, and my limbs become numb.
Did I faint
? I was conscious but aware I wasn’t acting normal. It was like I’d been possessed by something, like I was out of my body, floating above consciousness and the frivolous feelings of having skin or a body. I felt like I was glowing, like all my existence was an amount of energy, white and gold energy molded into an ethereal body. Even if it felt amazing being there, I also felt scared. I think I screamed his name out loud, afraid that I might be stuck there forever.

Then, before I panicked more, a sudden pull made me drop, and I opened my eyes. I noticed how I was wrapped around Shane, my head lying on his shoulder and his hands rubbing my back. We weren’t moving, but his breathing was really heavy. He seemed unaware of what had just happened to me, because he seemed concentrated on calming down his breath and holding me with possession.

"Out of body experiences are scary," I mumbled, unsure why I’d just said that, but I needed to share it with him. I couldn’t explain it in words, but he wouldn't probably need that. Maybe he had lived it, too, and had just come down like me.

"Being unable to control my urges is scary," he answered me after a while.

I pulled back and stared at his face. He looked a bit scared, himself. I smirked at him, waiting for him to snap out of it and just smile back at me.

"I wanted to rip your flesh apart," he added, sharing his concern. I shrugged my shoulders as if it was not important, and he looked puzzled by my lack of fear and my calm face. "I could hurt you, you know?"

"It wouldn't feel like pain," I said, making him turn pale. I also felt weird saying that, but the way I was when we were having intercourse was unnatural: all my senses were on high alert and feelings were ten or twenty times stronger, making pain not seem like pain, making it all seem just pure, raw pleasure. I should have been freaking out, but I wasn't. "I don't know how other drugs work, but your blood is… like a powerful drug, a really strong and amazing drug that makes me lose all sense of reality and pulls down all kind of boundaries between us. We get wild. I like to be wild with you."

"I think you are still high," he said, amused. I stuck my tongue out, to his surprise. He wasn’t expecting that childish behavior. The look on his face was priceless. "You are babbling," he added, to make his point.

"And you are… so cute when you pout," I said, giggling.
Okay, maybe I
was
still high, but it was a nice feeling, a fuzzy and warm feeling of peace and contentment
. Suddenly, I just felt like laughing and laughing, until I couldn’t laugh anymore.

"Damn, shit, I'm high!"

And I didn't laugh; I got really serious, trying to get ahold on my emotions and acts.

"It will run out in a moment," he said, placing a warm and tender kiss on my forehead and making me relax. He was smirking, finding my reactions funny. Maybe it was amusing.

"You thought I was the most beautiful thing you'd ever seen," I said, sighing and leaning my forehead against his, closing my eyes in the process. Heaven was that: us in each other’s arms, nestled together, feeling that amazing happiness.

"When?"

"When you first saw me."

"I still think that."

That made me smile and caress his chest with my damp hand. "I thought you were dreamy beyond words."

"So, I'm
not
the most beautiful thing
you've
ever seen?" It seemed like a teasing question.

"You are the most beautiful thing I
ever
saw and could ever imagine," I said, opening my eyes over his and noticing a smile light up his face.

"Okay, you win for originality."

I sighed, thinking he was priceless, and then I stuck my tongue out at him again like a spoiled little brat who was being annoyed by another little brat. It was not a competition between us, and I still thought he was dreamy.

"Come here. I'll teach you what to do with your tongue rather than tease me and be rude," he said, holding my hands and pushing me until our mouths met. I giggled, trying to get free.