Soul-Mate (Immortal Love 1) (38 page)

“You don’t know what you are missing then,” he retorted with a cocky smile, and I almost burst into laughter.
That was a really good comeback.

Sasha faced him, measuring him from top to bottom. “I’m not impressed,” she declared.

Meanwhile, a couple of nurses passed by them and stared at Jason, giggling between themselves. Sasha’s eyes frowned as she watched them. They must have said something about Jason, because I could see irritation fill her eyes. He was a hot guy, and he would normally get that kind of attention from the opposite sex, so even if Sasha wasn’t that impressed, it didn’t mean that others wouldn’t be.

“Why don’t you go and ask one of them? They seem to be interested.” Jason had lost his smile and looked hopeless. He thought he could have every girl he wanted; I thought it was funny that Sasha wasn’t impressed by him. Being rejected would do him some good.

“I’m not interested in them,” he said with a sexy smirk. I wanted to slap my forehead and roll my eyes.
Didn’t he give up? Why was he humiliating himself?

Next, Sasha did something really weird that neither Jason nor I was expecting. She grabbed Jason’s collar and brought his lips to hers. I almost choked! Then, with super-speed, they stepped back and disappeared down the right side of the corridor.

I just hoped that crazy vampire wouldn’t hurt him or feed on him! I startled myself and sped to the end of the corridor, worried about what that lunatic could do to my cousin.

When I arrived there, Jason was pinned to the wall with Sasha in his arms in a make-out session. She was kissing him hard and harsh, and he had his eyes closed doing the same.

Seriously?

I scratched my head, trying to look away, thinking they were both weird and crazy. When I was walking away, Sasha broke the kiss and mumbled near his lips, “I’m still not impressed.”

Then she let him go and sped her way out of there, leaving Jason in some sort of trance against the wall. I walked his way, looking at him sideways. He acted as if their kiss had been something out of this world.

“Your cousin is freaking hot,” he finally said with a witty smile, like she had not just dismissed him completely and made a fool out of him.

“Are you okay?” I asked, not sure if she had damaged his head more than it already was.

“Couldn’t be better.”

I noticed the tent in his pants and blushed as I quickly looked the other way. He noticed me noticing him and just laughed at my frustration.
He lusted for her!
That was so wrong in so many possible ways!
I didn’t like Sasha. She was a conceited princess, and she had an obsession with my mate.

“Seriously? Sasha? My evil cousin? Are you nuts?”

“She wants me badly!”

“She just said no to going out with you, and besides, you didn’t impress her that much,” I reminded him, imitating the British accent of the last words she had said to him.

“She will change her mind.”

“She left!”

“I’ll find her again. It is not like you don’t know where she lives,” he reminded me.

“Oh God! I’m not going to get mixed up in your crazy flirtations with girls. I have no intention of talking to Sasha on your behalf.”

“What is going on?” Shane asked, arriving next to us.

“How is Kevin?” I asked, reminded that I had left him in the room with the rest of the family.

“He’s fine. The king and Eric are with him. They are talking. Kevin seems happy. He is a nice kid.”

“Kevin is a sweetheart,” I said, glad that my brother was accepting our newfound family.

“He still needs to recover for a few more days before he can go home with us,” Shane said.

“Home?” Jason asked, folding his arms and furrowing his eyebrows.

“To the palace. The king wants his grandson and granddaughter,” he said, throwing me a look, “closer to spend some time with them.”

“I’m going, too,” Jason said immediately. “There is no way in hell that I’m letting my cousins alone inside that vampire lair.”

“They are their family. They will not harm them. I wouldn’t let my mate near them if I thought they would harm her,” Shane reminded him, unhappy about Jason’s mistrust.

“I’m not leaving them,” Jason warned with a stubborn face.

“Fine,” I said, interrupting their macho stare contest and pulling them apart. “You can come too, Jason, and stalk Sasha,” I added meanly. He looked at me as if I had just read his mind and discovered his real intentions.

Shane had a smirk on his face when I looked at him, and then he just laughed. “She’s going to eat you alive, boy,” he joked.

Jason actually growled at him.

“Just keep your opinion to yourself, wolf!” he grumbled. Jason being jealous was like dragons: a pure myth.

“What the hell, Jason? Don’t be rude,” I complained, pulling Shane away. His wolf would not tolerate another growl from Jason, I could sense that from him.

“I still don’t trust your mate, and you are being extremely naïve in believing your family’s good intentions. After all, it was your uncle who killed your parents and is chasing you. They didn’t want your parents to be together in the first place!” Jason said, making me mad and making Shane even madder. Shane actually growled at
him
.

“Jason, everything was already explained. I trust my mate, therefore you need to suck it up and deal with it!” I told him. I saw Shane smirk at Jason out of the corner of my eye.

“I’m sorry,” Jason said, breathing out. I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Jason, we all need to be friends. We are all family now.”

“Fine,” Jason whispered, rolling his eyes up and folding his arms. “But what happens between Sasha and me is my problem, not yours.”

“Sasha is crazy. Forget about her,” Shane advised with a serious tone. I couldn’t have agreed more.

“I happen to like crazy girls, and I’m a big boy. I can handle her.”

Shane and I sighed at the same time, probably thinking the same thing, and then we looked at each other and chuckled.

“I’m the one who gets crazy around you two!” Jason exasperated.

“What?” I asked, annoyed by his behavior.

He walked away, shrugging. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone. I’m going to check on Kevin.”

I stared at Shane and a chill ran down my spine. He had a playful smile on his lips, and I couldn’t help but to fall into his arms and melt against him.

“Are you happier, now?” he asked, and I knew he was talking about Kevin waking up.

I had to confess that I’d gotten worried for a moment. I had not been sure the blood would work. A lot of blood had been necessary, more than I’d expected, and I was glad my uncle and even Sasha had contributed so selflessly.

“Everything will be just fine now, sweetie,” Shane said, sharing my thoughts. He kissed my forehead and then the tip of my nose. I blushed at what he was thinking. It was not about sex, although it
was
related. It was about our future together, about all the chubby, cute babies we could have.

I giggled, feeling happy. “We have a lot of time for that. I’m still too young!”

“I know, darling. For now, I’m just glad I have you.”

“You make me really happy,” I whispered, totally in love and made emotional by his thoughts. His eyes were shining; they were beautiful. His lips kissed me softly.

“So now let’s talk about the fact that we need to tell your family that we—”

“No, no. We won’t say anything to anyone yet,” I said, letting him go and walking down the corridor toward Kevin’s room.

“We need to tell them. Your family is old fashioned like that. The king–”

“Shane,
you
are old fashioned like that! Don’t blame my family,” I said, and he grabbed me by the waist and made me stop. We stood in the middle of the corridor.

“Honey, you said yes, so why can’t we tell them?”

“Kevin just woke up. Let’s wait a bit longer.”

“Okay, but the thing is that the king—and your uncle—are expecting us to get married. He asked me yesterday when the wedding would take place.”

“What?” I asked, annoyed by everybody’s insistence.
Didn’t they have anything else better to do than interfere in my private life?

“I told you, he is old fashioned like that. Making the vows is one of the oldest traditions between mates. It is taking the responsibility of spending our lives together. He is expecting us to do it, so our union will be blessed by the gods.”

“
Huh
,” I muttered as I furrowed my brow. Then I just pouted. “I still don’t think we should rush things.”

“Why not? We are meant to be together. We are not rushing, just putting it on paper.”

“You just want to do that because you are afraid that I won’t stay with you,” I grumbled.

“For God’s sake, Anna, marking was far more important than a ceremony. We are bonded. Besides, you’ve already said that you would never leave me and that you love me. I’m not worried about that.”

“
Huh.
” I thought carefully about his words. “
Grrr
,” I growled at him, really annoyed when I heard his thoughts about Sasha wanting to marry him back in the days when they were a couple. I could so slap him for being such an annoying mate and trying to make me feel even more jealous with that information. As if that would be enough to convince me to marry him right away! The nerve he had!

“I love it so much when you get all jealous if Sasha’s around us,” he mumbled in my ear, tickling me while I tried to get away from him. “Stop, honey. I was just teasing you. I didn’t want to be so pushy.”

“It is just too soon. It is not that I don’t want to marry you. I do.”

“Good,” Shane whispered. “Then we wait one year.”

I looked at him sideways.
He was really insistent! I could just bite him!
He smiled, certainly reading my mind and liking it.

“That would be so wrong to do in a hospital,” he said with a wicked smile that made me laugh. His thoughts went to all the biting and the sex that the bite would bring. A hospital was
not
a good place to think about that.

“Stop it,” I demanded, caught inside his daydream fantasies. He kissed me possessively and caressed my lower lip with his tongue, making me breathless.

“It’s not like you weren’t thinking the same,” he whispered huskily in my ear, making me shiver.
He was so shamelessly right!
Still, it didn’t mean it was what we were going to do.

“I’m just going to remind you of something. Supernatural hospital and super hearing everywhere.” I smiled as he realized what I meant.

It was a bad idea, and I was glad he agreed. I would die of shame if we got caught or someone heard us. And I realized I was just afraid of getting caught, nothing more and nothing less. I was almost tempted to go with him to find a place to make out. It was appealing, and I sure was missing him! We had been there for several days with no privacy.

“Yes, that would be wrong of us, making everybody horny around here with the delicious moans you make.” Then he ran, because he knew he was in serious trouble if I caught him.
He was so going to pay for saying something like that! How dare he?
I was not the only one to moan during our intercourse! And it was not like screamed out loud when we were doing it.
At least… I mean… I didn’t think I did. Did I?

Shane ran to my brother’s room where my grandfather and uncle stared at me and signaled me to be quiet, pointing to the
Quiet Please
sign on the wall. I
would
catch Shane and I
would
make him pay, regardless. I would make him pay a lot of times! I was getting perverted again. I needed to go home and have some time alone with him.

Shane sat down on the empty chair, trying to swallow his laughter, while I sat next to him. “Just wait until we get home,” I menaced and then looked away to make my point firmly.

“We can go home right now,” he said in a hopeful voice. I laughed, winning a new hush from my grandfather.

I couldn’t stay mad at him. He was—adorable! I could just eat him up. He frowned, knowing exactly what I was thinking. He got annoyed when I thought he was adorable and cute, but I knew he liked to hear it. He was just playing hard to get.

“I’m not hard to get,” he whispered, making me roll my eyes. “You need some rest.”

“How would that be resting?” I wondered, and he offered me a sexy, wicked smirk.

Let’s just go home, and I promise I’ll let you rest
, he conveyed through our mind link, trying to convince me.
I will run you a hot bath and you can feed. It’s been too long since you last fed properly. And I can even make you pancakes. Sweet and hot pancakes with delicious black chocolate filling and caramel topping.
”

Gosh
! That was such an unfair proposal!

I should have put the ring inside a pancake and covered it with chocolate
, he joked, tuned to my thoughts. I smiled, amused by his idea. That would have been original: a ring in a pancake and then my having to go to the hospital to take it out of my stomach!

He laughed at my thoughts. I mentally rolled my eyes in front of his face as he smiled and shrugged. He had his hand inside his pocket. He was playing with the box, and I was starting to feel my cheeks burning. It was a really beautiful ring.

“Let me put it on your finger,” he requested, next to my ear.

“When we get home. Then we can tell everybody with a family dinner.”

“That’s a really good idea,” he said. “Are you happy?”

“Yes.”

“Kevin is awake, we can go home,” he whispered, using his warm, sweet voice. His eyes were shining like the blue sky on a summer day. I could spend my whole day staring at his eyes. “You need to rest and eat,” he insisted, and I brushed his face with my fingertips.

I was happy because he cared so much about me. I was happy to be his soul-mate. I was just happy for his existence, but I couldn’t go home just so he would be less worried.

“I… can’t. I can’t leave him alone.” I sighed, and Shane nodded in understanding.

I couldn’t leave Kevin, not yet. I had to keep him company and make him feel safe and loved. I was all he had. Well, I used to be; currently we had a lot more family.