Arden’s Mate(2)
The light came calling her and she groaned, telling it to stay the fuck away. It went, but Remy didn’t know how much longer it would listen to her.
* * * *
Exhausted from the fight with the demons, Arden went to his house and crashed, sleeping like the dead.
When he woke it was to small hands shaking him. “Come now. Get out of bed and come now. If you don’t, she will be dead.” Faith was yelling at him and yanking him.
Groaning, he eased off the bed and Faith tossed a pair of jeans at him. He put them on, and she dragged him out and they ran through the forest to her house. They walked into a bedroom and the smell of orange and passion fruit hit him. He staggered back as he looked around, and his gaze fell on an almost dead woman on the bed. Drips and machines were everywhere.
“What the hell is this, Faith? What’s going on?”
“It’s your mate.”
“I know that. I figured it out as soon as her smell hit me and I saw her. Why is she like that?”
“She got in a fight with a bunch of demons. I think they might have won.” Faith broke down into gut wrenching sobs. “Oh God. She’s my best friend. Save her, Arden.”
“I can’t save her, Faith. She’s practically dead. I can hear her fighting to take each breath. She hasn’t got long.” Arden felt his world close in around him. His mate was dead. Without her in his life, he would eventually go feral and be put down. He would never have a family of his own. Never have the other half of his soul. He would never have someone to love and hold through the long days and nights.
Faith jumped up, whacking him on the head. “You idiot, she is not dead yet. You are going to mate and live happily ever after.” She grabbed him and dragged him to the side of the bed, placing his hand over the woman. “See, she’s still warm.” Faith shoved him. “Mate her now.”
He stared down at the woman, his mate. She was blonde, with hair to her chin. Her eyes were closed, so he couldn’t see what color they were. Her lips would be big and plump when she was healthy. She was small, and as he gazed down the length of her he realized she would be short, maybe even shorter than Faith. She was beautiful even in her sickly state. Now that he was closer he could see the faint pulse at her throat and her chest slowly rising and falling.
Faith shoved him again. “What are you waiting for? You can save her, all you have to do is bite her, mate her.”
Arden’s wolf came roaring to the surface, howling at him not to lose their mate. This was not how he wanted to mate his soul mate when he found her, but he never pictured her to be human or dying. Taking a deep breath of her orange and passion fruit scent, he leaned down and brushed her hair out of the way. With a prayer to the gods that this would work, he let his wolf out and felt his canines lengthen, and with a groan of frustration at the situation, he bit down on where her shoulder and neck met, breaking the skin and completing the mate bond.
* * * *
Remy screamed as pain unlike any she’d ever experienced ran through her. It felt like her body broke into a million shards of tiny glass and stabbed back into her. The white light that was always hovering on the edges, waiting for her to give in, vanished. Remy felt like she went from floating to crashing back down, and the pain that had slowly been fading as the light took over came back full force.
She tried to move, but a heavy weight was holding her down. Struggling, Remy gave her body a mental check, noticing a pulling on her shoulder. Using all her strength, she turned her head, but it didn’t go far, because a head was on her shoulder. Remy saw pitch-black hair with hooded brown eyes, light tanned skin, and a perfect, handsome jaw, lips, and chin. The man’s mouth was wrapped around her and that was when, like a lightbulb going off, she realized what he was doing. Faith had told her what shifters did to make their mate theirs.
Remy had seen how shifters acted with her friends—possessive, domineering, and all-round controlling. Trying to pull away, she cried out, “No. Don’t.”
Faith came into Remy’s line of sight. She was nibbling her lip and wringing her hands. “I’m so sorry. We had to. You almost died. We had no choice.”
With the last of her strength, Remy screamed and pushed at the man. “Get off me. Get out of here now.” The man licked her shoulder, and Remy growled, “Get the fuck off me.”
He seemed surprised and staggered back. Remy narrowed her eyes on the gorgeous specimen before her. Oh, he was definitely a shifter. He was perfection personified—over six feet tall with a body a Greek god would be jealous of, all muscular and defined. The air around him cracked with authority, power, and strength. He was alpha.