Soul-Mate (Immortal Love 1) (26 page)

“What?” James asked, confused by his accusations.

I was also confused about what the files could possibly say that was related to me.
Why was my name even in the middle of that story?

“Don’t play innocent. I know it was you!”

“I—didn’t—do it,” he said, voice trembling as Shane held him tighter, not letting him move. He was strong! He had an old vampire in his hands and the guy was not even able to make Shane move an inch. He could probably snap James’s neck whenever he wanted but was delaying in order to gather information.

My thoughts were interrupted by someone shaking the door, trying to break it down. Because the door was reinforced, it would take a lot of strength and probably two or three strong vampires or wolves to crack it open. Taking a good look at the room, I shrugged at how really tacky and sleazy it was! Like James had seen some weird version of a Playboy mansion bedroom and copied so his bedroom looked like a sexy lair to lure his victims and do whatever he was doing to them when we’d arrived.

However, he was also obsessed with security. The room had no windows despite all of its red drapes and the velvet hanging around the walls. There was a lot of red and white silk plus velvet cushions scattered around the bed and on the black velvet loveseats. The only thing nice about the room was the cute loveseats, which had diamond tufting and posh crystal bottoms in the backrest. Even the bed looked sleazy, at least to me—I was just disgusted to think about what he had done there with girls.

The room smelled like sex, alcohol, and weed. If the situation weren’t so bad between James and Shane, I would have been laughing at his painfully bad taste. However, someone was still trying to break in. I really missed my swords at that moment.

“I swear, Shane. I didn’t do what you think I did. I’ve been here all night. Ask anyone,” James said. I noticed that Shane seemed tempted to believe him. James’s eyes were black and his fangs were out, while his mouth still had blood dripping from the feeding we’d interrupted. “We are friends. I would never betray you.”

“Not even to Sasha?” Shane asked, as the banging on the door got louder. I guessed there were probably two strong ones bouncing against the door at that moment.

“I have nothing to do with that whore anymore,” he groaned, really upset as though Shane had just offended him.

I rolled my eyes at his choice of words, because it was sexist of him, especially since he was also a man-whore himself. However, the mention of Sasha’s name did make me curious. I had already forgotten about that stuck-up vampire who thought Shane was still her property.

However, Shane seemed to believe him, because he let him go and, to my surprise, James didn’t react and jump on Shane’s neck. I was ready to catch him if he did.

James just cleared his throat, arranged his clothes, and yelled, “Everything is fine. Go away!”

The noise stopped, and the door stayed still.

“What the hell, Shane!” James cursed, sounding hurt and upset. “We are like brothers. I would never betray you and your soul-mate.”

“You were the only one besides Eric who knew about Anna! And Eric wouldn’t need to steal the files!” Shane shouted, defending himself.

“Well, someone else must have known or found out about your little investigation!”

“What the hell is going on?” I asked, noticing that Shane still had a panicked look on his face, and it all seemed to lead back to me. “What the hell is in those files that were stolen from your office?”

Shane didn’t answer me, he just stared with guilt in his eyes. James, on the other hand, smirked in an evil way and fixed his blond hair.

“Things about you, darling. You’ve been a naughty girl,” he said with a dirty voice that made me turn pale.
Shane had a file on me.
As soon as I realized this, I felt my stomach cramp and my heart hurt as if it had been stabbed. “Shane has been poking around your past,” James clarified, as if it wasn’t already obvious.

My head spun, and the sky fell over me. I looked at Shane after catching my breath, noticing how guilty and ashamed he looked. I felt betrayed, and I just wanted to run out of there.
He had a file on me. He was investigating my life behind my back. How could I be so stupid and trust him?

“I guess he does have a thing for princesses,” James added, giggling like a fool.

I stared at him, intrigued. His words were meant to be some sort of joke that I didn’t get. Shane’s head snapped in James’s direction, and he looked pissed. He snarled loudly, his fangs coming out and his eyes turning amber. I thought he was going to jump on him again.

“Nice doggy, nice doggy.” James gesticulated, stepping back as though scared by what Shane could do to him. However, calling him “doggy” was not the best way to calm him down. It would just make Shane’s wolf angrier! And I wanted him to talk more, so I got between them and held Shane back from jumping on James. They both looked surprised. I had to put one hand against his chest to make Shane immobile, even if he was still snarling at James.

“What do you mean by Shane having a thing for princesses?” I asked James, my face serious, a deadly look in my eyes. “And you better answer me with the truth, because I will not be as nice as Shane. I’ve been dying to slap that stupid smile off your face.” James lost his grin, and I could hear Shane start to laugh, amused. “And you better have a good excuse, because I’m not happy with you either,” I snarled at Shane. His smile quickly slipped from his face. “Shut up,” I ordered before he could open his mouth. “It is not your time to talk.” I turned to James, who looked guilty for ruining Shane’s secret. “Start talking.”

“Your father never told you?” he asked, amazed. I blinked, surprised at his mentioning my father. He clearly seemed to know who my father was. “Seriously, you didn’t know who your father was? Who
you
are?” At that moment, he looked shocked and, at the same time, exulted in my ignorance.

“Shut up,” Shane commanded James.

I looked at Shane. My hand on his chest was barely touching him; I was losing my strength, because my body was freaking out about the awareness that Shane had been hiding secrets about my own life and my parents. That Shane was investigating my life when he had said he trusted me and would wait for me to tell him everything.

When I looked at James, he had heeded Shane’s warning to keep quiet. He put his hand on his throat, clearly remembering Shane’s hard grasp.

“I will leave you two lovebirds alone to talk,” James said, exiting the room before I could stop him.

Meanwhile, Shane held me by the wrist, not allowing me to leave, and James closed the door behind him. I barely heard him go, because I was too busy shuddering under Shane’s touch. I wanted him to let me go and not touch me. The last thing I wanted was for him to touch me. I was mad and felt betrayed by him. So, I released my wrist from his hand and stepped back, not wanting him to get near.

I didn’t know why I didn’t leave with James. I guess I was expecting Shane to have a really good explanation. I hoped he did, because if he didn’t, my heart would melt into the most excruciating pain I’d ever felt. I was already feeling sick with disappointment and disillusion. My mouth was dry; my body felt weak and sick. My thoughts were running wild and crazy. Millions of questions were overloading my brain.

But there was only one I couldn’t stop from escaping. “Was everything a lie?” I asked, feeling overwhelmed by my feelings. I was almost in tears, which was illogical, because I should have been angry. Plus, I was not the crying type.

I was beginning to question all the words, all the things that had happened between Shane and me. My cousin’s words couldn’t be washed from my mind. I was becoming my former paranoid self, the person that doubted even her own shadow.

I wanted to look at Shane, but I felt scared about what I might see in his eyes.
Would I see his true self for the first time? Was all this just a trap to catch me? Why?

I didn’t have time to catch my breath, because the next thing I felt was his hands grabbing me under my arms, lifting me off the ground. I wasn’t able to scream, because I was stiff as a board and totally out of breath.

SHANE CAUGHT ME IN HIS ARMS
and pressed me against the wall. For a moment, I thought he was going to hurt me, but he just stared at me with the saddest eyes, making my heart hurt inside my chest.

“What was a lie?” he asked, almost out breath. He looked as if I had just punched him in the gut and marched over his heart. “You can’t possibly think that I lied about us being soul-mates, about my love for you!” Disappointment and pain floated through his once sexy, deep voice. “Why don’t you just rip my heart out of my chest?”

His words made me feel extremely guilty. The uncontrollable need to cry still stung my eyes. I felt my body tremble again, and my limbs hurt, but it wasn’t because of Shane. It was like a secondary effect of the nerves and pain I was feeling. I was still mad at him, however. “I trusted you. How could you go behind my back and have a file on me?”

“Annabel.” He sighed deeply, pulling me closer to his chest, maybe because I was so close to bursting into tears. His hand caressed my right cheek, and he looked deep into my eyes. I swallowed hard, losing my breath when he kissed me and I let him. It was illogical. It was a hard, possessive kiss. We were arguing: he shouldn’t kiss me, and I shouldn’t let him, not when he had just broken my heart.
So why didn’t I push him away and start screaming at him?

He broke the kiss and stared at me. “I love you. I couldn’t ever hurt you. Mates don’t do that to each other. So, even if for a moment you still believe that I lied to you about us being soul-mates, then just pull away, hit me or kill me. I really don’t care. If you leave me and stop trusting me, I will eventually die of heartbreak and sadness.”

He waited for me to speak, but I couldn’t. My throat was obstructed, and the words couldn’t get out. What he said made me sad, because I didn’t want to hurt him. I just wanted to know why he had a file on me and if he planned to use it to hurt my friends. Maybe he couldn’t hurt me or didn’t want to me to get hurt because we were connected. However, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t hurt my friends and make their actions public.

“Anna, do you want to hurt me?” he asked, brushing his lips on my ear, making my body react and my thoughts come back to earth.

I swallowed hard, trying to figure out if I actually knew him. The thought troubled me:
was he going to hurt my friends?

“Are you going to make me want to hurt you?” I asked with a hoarse voice, plucking up the courage to face him and make him realize that maybe we were soul-mates, maybe we were meant to be, but I would
never
be with him if he did something to hurt my only family, my only friends.

He furrowed his brow at my question. He was not expecting to hear that, it seemed. Or maybe he was. His finger caressed my lower lip, and he sighed. “I would never do anything to hurt you. My loyalty is with you. I’ve already told you that. I’ve already told you that I would go with you to hell and back, if you asked me to. Would you hurt me?”

“I couldn’t stay with you if you hurt my family and friends,” I answered honestly.

“No one will do anything to you or your friends. That is the last thing we want.”

“So why do you have a file on me?” I asked, intrigued by his use of the word “we.”
Who was we? Someone else knew? Oh, yes, the prince knew
.
I remembered him telling that to James. And James also knew. It was a conspiracy, apparently.

Tears ran down my face, which I only noticed when I felt Shane’s lips catching them. “Stop using physical attraction to make me feel weak like this,” I said, annoyed.

“I’m sorry. It isn’t intentional. I’m afraid you will run away and I can’t—I don’t want to be away from you, either. I need you to listen to what I have to say to you.”

“So explain yourself,” I demanded, bothered by the delay.

“Unblock me. Stop blocking my thoughts. It will be so much easier if you let me show you.”

“Why would I let you come inside my mind again? Don’t you know everything you needed to know about me? Don’t you have a
file
on me?”

“Don’t be like that, Anna,” he pleaded, hurt by my sarcasm.

“Did you know who I was when you first saw me?” I asked, realizing something. He could have always known who I was. He could have used me to find out things about my organization. My paranoid self was returning in full force, together with my sarcasm and disillusion.

“Don’t be silly, honey. You are being paranoid. Everything will make perfect sense after you let me explain. Besides, I could ask you the same. Did you know who I was? Was that why you became closer with me?”

“Of course not,” I said, annoyed. “I didn’t even want to meet you, remember?”

“So, why did you come here, specifically?”

“Do not turn the table and make this an interrogation about me. I was the one who was deceived by you. I trusted you, and you went and put a file together about me behind my back. You and I have nothing to do with my organization or my job. I stayed here because of you, nothing more. Because I fell in love with you.”

I was mad, and he was smiling. Mate bond or not, I wanted to slap him right then and there.

“Well, if it makes you happier, I didn’t know that the file I had gathered all these years was about you.”

Those words were all but understandable. “What do you mean?”

“Actually, there were two files. Two files on two people who became the same person. I had a file about your organization and their members, the leader included. And I had a file of someone else really important to my king, who turned out to be you.”

I understood even less by the minute. Shane must have read that on my face.

“It’s hard to explain. But you have to know that we don’t want to harm you or your friends. My king is not against what your organization does. In fact, we are doing the same thing here. We eradicate the ones that disobey our rules or come here to destroy our peace. We are on the same side. No one here hates hybrids or tries to kill them. You know that. You have seen that.”