Soulhated Read online

  “Who’s Em?” Quinn tried to look like she didn’t care as she walked gingerly out of the bathroom. I could tell she was still feeling the effects of the outrageous amount of alcohol she’d consumed the night before, but even her hangover couldn’t have hidden the jealousy written all over face.

  It was cute that she was jealous.

  Since we didn’t know each other at that point, the jealousy would be coming from the wolf in her. Her wolf knew I was her mate and that I belonged to her and her alone.

  “My sister, Emma.”

  I bit back a grin when her tight expression relaxed.

  “I have to go into the office for a few hours, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tag along like some possessive animal.” She strode toward the door of her bedroom, and I fought a smile.

  I liked that she was so straightforward and that she knew what she wanted, even if it was going to make it harder to convince her that I was the guy for her.

  “I need to go on a run anyway. As long as you’re not planning on hooking up with anyone in your office, I think I can manage letting you out of my sight for an hour or two.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “I hardly think a meeting with my dad can be considered a booty-call.”

  With that she shut the door to her bedroom, effectively blocking me out. I could get in easily— my twin brother Tanner and I had broken down plenty of doors in our lives—but I wasn’t going to bother her.

  She needed her space, and I needed to read the invitation on the fridge so I knew exactly what I was walking into when I weaseled my way into her party. Growing up in the little shifter-filled town called Mount Edge, where dirt was expected and being human was not, I wasn’t exactly prepared for a party filled with rich people.

  But if that’s what it took to win over my soulmate, I would adapt, and I’d be the best-looking shifter at that party.

  After my soulmate, who would probably be wearing something that would make it hard to focus on anything but her soft skin and curves.

  Quinn

  I couldn’t think straight with my mountain-man in the apartment. I would’ve kicked him out if I didn’t suspect that Beth had already given him a key. She was obviously on his side since she’d been the one who let him in in the first place.

  He was leaned up against the counter with a bowl in his hand. I would’ve walked straight back into my room if the sight of him looking so comfortable in my kitchen hadn’t been such a turn-on.

  I fluffed my towel-dried hair and ran my hands over the short black pencil skirt I’d paired with a silky green v-neck top that swooped precariously low and wrapped around my middle. It was the beginning of May, so the weather was nice enough that I wouldn’t need my coat.

  “Looks like you’ve made yourself at home.” I snapped, more frustrated at my reaction to him than I was at the man himself.

  “I’m living wherever you’re living, so I might as well.” He sounded pretty convinced about that, and continued speaking before I could respond. “Here, you need to eat.” He brought me the bowl.

  When I didn’t take it, he waited.

  “I’m not hungry.” I tried to step around him, but he cut me off with his body.

  “I don’t care.”

  I glared at him.

  “Who do you think you are?”

  “The man the Creator made to love and take care of you.” The look in his eyes dared me to disagree.

  “You’re not a man, remember? You’re a wolf.” I had no problem facing off against him.

  “You think I’m not enough of a man?” he dropped the bowl on the counter and folded his arms, taking a step closer. The sheer hugeness of his body reminded me exactly why I’d been calling him ‘mountain-man’.

  His muscles just about made him into a mountain, and he was all man.

  “The men in that club last night were touching just about every part of you while you were too drunk to stop them. If that’s your definition of manly, I’d rather be a wolf.” His words were flat and unapologetic.

  And I mean, he was right. I knew he was right. A real man would respect me even if I wasn’t wearing anything at all, which was exactly what my mountain-man had done. I only went to the club to get away from the uncertainty that seemed to be swallowing me whole most days.

  But that didn’t mean I was about to tell him he was right.

  “I prefer my men clean-cut and well-dressed.” I shot back. “And for the record, I like to feel desired and attractive.”

  When his eyes narrowed, I saw something in them change and I wanted to run for the hills.

  Or rip his clothes off, but well, I wasn’t about to do that.

  Instead I held my ground, even as he stepped up so close to me that our chests were nearly touching. My breath picked up a little, and I cursed myself for my reaction to him.

  “You want to feel desired?” his voice growled, low and deep, and I tried to tell myself that I hated how animalistic it was.

  He lifted his hand to my waist and ran it slowly down the curve of my hip, continuing down the side of the pencil skirt that was practically molded to my skin.

  When his hand left the fabric of the skirt and hit my skin, he stepped forward so our chests were smashed together, one of his hands gripping the back of my thigh while the other hand pressed tightly to my back, holding me against him.

  I fought to stop myself from throwing my legs around his waist and kissing him until our clothes were in a pile on the floor.

  “Do you think it was easy for me to spend the night in bed with you without touching you, Quinn?” His words came out sounding gravelly and rough. I’d never found that attractive until I heard it from him.

  The way his fingers dug into the back of my thigh was shooting flames through my entire body, and standing straight as a rod was all I could do not to respond to that attraction.

  “Do you think I didn’t notice the way you looked in that sexy underwear? Or the way your body moves with this skirt stuck to you like you’re not wearing anything at all?” He released my thigh long enough to play with the hem of my skirt, the movement sending fireworks through my stomach.

  I bit back a moan as I arched my body into him, failing at my attempt not to respond to his advances.

  “I noticed.” He was still growling the words, and that just turned me on more. “I noticed all of it.” His hand lifted from my thigh to my lower back, and then his fingers brushed against my sides as he slowly stepped away from me. “Eat this.”

  The sudden absence of his body snapped me out of it like a wave of ice-water.

  I flipped him off with my left hand and grabbed my purse off a hook on the wall before I stomped out of the apartment, swearing under my breath.

  Whether I wanted to believe it or not, there was obviously some sort of connection between us. I hadn’t ever reacted to a man like that before. No one had ever made me feel so respected, or so desired, or so out of control.

  We hadn’t even kissed, but I knew that when we did, there would be no going back.

  I’d been with a lot of guys, more than I wanted to admit, and sleeping with them had never made me feel the way my mountain man made me feel just by touching my leg.

  Cody

  If Quinn had done anything besides flipping me off after I stepped away from her, I would’ve lost it. I would’ve yanked her into my arms and kissed her and I wouldn’t have been able to stop.

  With the way she reacted to me, she clearly wasn’t going to be stopping us from getting too physical too fast, so I was going to have to do that myself. That meant I was going to have to try harder to keep my hands off of her sexy curves, which definitely wasn’t going to be easy.

  I grinned when I remembered the way she had groaned uncontrollably at my touch, the way she had melted into me, the way she’d squeezed the muscles on my arms as she moved in response to my fingers. She was just as attracted to me as I was to her, and that made me feel like a success both as a wolf and a soulmate.


  I headed out to shift and go for a run, and then remembered that we were in the middle of the city, and that I’d left my truck at that club when Beth and I brought Quinn home.

  Plus, I smelled like puke.

  A quick change of plans led me to the bathroom, which of course, reminded me of the memory of Quinn’s naked body before she’d gotten into the shower.

  I groaned and shook my head.

  It had only been a few hours since we’d met and the image of my soulmate’s body was already burned into my mind. Keeping things PG-13 between us wasn’t going to be easy.

  After I pulled on the jeans and T-shirt that only sort of smelled like barf, I stopped in the open doorway of Beth’s and Garrett’s room. I’d heard him come in while I was in the shower, so I wanted to stop in and say hi so he didn’t think I was invading his apartment or whatever.

  Garrett was on the bed, watching a baseball game with more focus than I’d ever seen anyone watch a sport.

  When he didn’t notice me, I knocked on the door.

  He turned, and paused the game when he saw me.

  “Hey, you must be Cody.”

  He got out of bed and crossed the room, offering me his hand. I shook it.

  “I’m Garrett. I play for WWU’s baseball team, so I was just doing some research.” He gestured to the screen.

  I nodded like I knew what university he was talking about. Garrett was tall and lean, with short, messy hair. Despite the intensity he’d watched the baseball game with, he seemed pretty chill when we talked.

  “Sorry to bug you, but would you be up for driving me over to the club from last night? My truck is there. No worries if you can’t, I can always call an Uber. ”

  I’d been keeping a backpack of clothes and toiletries in my truck since I turned eighteen so I’d be prepared when I went after my soulmate. Plus, my wallet was in there, which I’d need when I went to buy a tux or whatever I was supposed to wear to the party that night.

  “Sure, man.” Garrett glanced over his shoulder at the screen. “Are you okay to go now?”

  I nodded, and we headed out toward his truck. I grabbed the invitation off the fridge on my way out, a plan forming in my mind.

  After Garrett dropped me off at my truck, I quickly changed my clothes in the cab of the truck and then headed toward what Google Maps said was the closest Walmart.

  There, I grabbed an electric razor and a few more pairs of clothes. The pair of jeans and t-shirt I’d had packed was helpful, but it seemed apparent that Quinn wasn’t going to be up for going back to Mount Edge with me any time soon. If that was the case, I needed some more clothes.

  After I left Walmart, I unpackaged the electric razor and popped in some batteries I’d had rolling around in the back of my truck. My chin had gotten pretty hairy since I’d left home to chase Quinn, and I remembered very clearly the way she’d told me she liked her men clean-cut.

  The well-dressed thing I probably wouldn’t ever have down, but clean-cut I could manage.

  I shaved the beard I’d been accidentally growing on my way to the hair place, and after a twenty-minute haircut, I was on my way to the men’s clothing store that I knew sold suits and stuff.

  I’d assumed that the guys who worked there would know what to wear to the kind of party I was going to that night, and I’d assumed correctly.

  I handed them the invitation from Quinn’s fridge when I got there, and left two hours later with a perfectly-tailored tuxedo and a pair of fancy shoes.

  When I drove off toward Quinn, who hadn’t left my mind for a second since she’d flipped me off and walked out the front door, there was a grin on my face that wasn’t going to budge an inch.

  At least, it wouldn’t budge until I watched some other man ogle my soulmate. Then I’d be fighting back my wolf.

  Quinn

  I focused on taking deep breaths as I walked into my dad’s office. I’d put on makeup and chugged a large bottle of water like it was going out of style during the Uber ride, but I knew it wasn’t doing much to hide my feelings.

  The hangover headache was finally fading, but my flustered red face? Not even my $300 foundation could hide that.

  I pulled my top away from my skin and tried to mentally will myself to stop sweating as I breezed past my dad’s secretary and into his large office, which had walls made of floor-to-ceiling windows.

  “How is my beautiful daughter today?” My dad smiled and held his arms open for a hug, which I stepped into.

  “Not well.” I grimaced.

  “Long night last night?” His smile disappeared, and guilt flooded through me. I’d always hated letting him down, and it seemed like I always did.

  “Not for the reasons you think.” He knew I’d gotten into partying, and I knew he disapproved. “We have a big problem.”

  “What happened?” My dad took a seat at his desk, and I sat down in the chair in front of it.

  “A man showed up at my door last night.” He didn’t need to know the whole story, right?

  My dad’s upper body went rigid, and more guilt filled me. Was it okay to pin everything on my mountain man? It wasn’t like he’d chosen me for his soulmate, but he was a shifter. Who else was there to blame? God?

  “He’s a shifter, a wolf shifter, and well…” I hesitated. Not only did the truth sound crazy, but I also kind of wanted to keep my mountain man to myself. I didn’t want to have to share him.

  Or deal with my dad’s disapproval more than I already did.

  “He says we’re soulmates. I think it’s true.” I pulled my hair to the side and tilted my head to the right, showing my dad my neck.

  “What am I supposed to be looking at?”

  My face flushed when he asked, and I reached up to the left side of my neck, which I’d showed him.

  “Sorry, um,” I pulled my hair to the other side, feeling like the biggest idiot in the world. How had I forgotten which side the shifter mate marking was on twice?

  This time, my dad didn’t say anything.

  When I dropped my hair and looked at him, his face was pale.

  “Are you sure that’s not just a tattoo?”

  Was I sure?

  When he asked me that, confidence filled me. I was more than sure that the mate mark was real, I would’ve bet everything I had that it was. My mountain man was my soulmate.

  “I’m positive.”

  My dad didn’t move.

  “What’s his name?”

  Well. That was a good question, actually. One I didn’t know how to answer.

  I bit my lip.

  “I didn’t ask.” I admitted. “I was kind of panicking.”

  My dad closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. As he often reminded me, every gray hair on his head was because of me and my “antics”. Not asking for my soulmate’s name was just another nail in the coffin of my shame.

  “You’re soulmates with a shifter and you didn’t think to ask his name? How am I supposed to get rid of him if I don’t know his name, Quintessa?”

  When he used my full name, the entire ugly thing, I knew he was upset.

  “I’m sorry. I can go back to my apartment and ask.”

  Exactly what he had said hit me as I finished offering to go after him.

  “Wait, you want to get rid of him?” For some reason, the idea of me losing my mountain man terrified me. “He’s my soulmate.”

  “And you’re going to be engaged to Travis Childers by the end of the year.” My dad’s voice was hard. I’d known about the political marriage for months, but I’d figured my being soulmates with my mountain man would put more than just a dent in that plan.

  “You can’t marry someone else when you’re soulmates with a shifter, it’s against the-”

  “I’m a lawyer, Quinn. You don’t have to remind me what the law is.” He dared me to disagree with his eyes. “I’ll find a way around the animal.”

  “How are you going to get rid of the magical tattoo?” I gestured to the right side of my head.
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  “Put a non-magical one over it.”

  “And the fact that he can find me wherever I go?” I folded my arms.

  “Why does it seem like you’re okay with this, Quintessa Armelle?”

  There it was, the entire ugly thing along with the entire ugly middle name. Maybe the name would sound good on someone else, but it had never fit me.

  “I’m not okay with it, dad, but there’s nothing I can do. I’m trying to wrap my mind around it.” I protested. I didn’t want him to think I was betraying him or something, but well, I was starting to accept that I had a soulmate.

  “There’s always something you can do. I’ve taught you that since you were three years old, and you’d do well to remember it now.” He stood from his thousand-dollar desk chair and folded his arms. “You’re a Longhorn, Quinn. Seven generations of Longhorns have fought hard to keep our name untarnished by the filth of this world. Do you think sleeping with an animal is worth throwing all of that history away?”

  Once again, guilt filled me. I may as well have been a big old guilt balloon, I was so full of it.

  “No, sir.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and fought to stop my body from shaking. I’d spent my entire life trying to make the man in front of me proud, and I wasn’t about to stop. Not even for my mountain man.

  “I’m going to figure out a way to separate you two legally, but while I do it, I expect you to figure out how to make sure he doesn’t come after you when it’s all said and done.” My dad looked at me with his graying hair—that I’d caused—and his steely blue eyes, and I said exactly what he wanted to hear.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes to get rid of him.”

  I might have been a disappointment of a daughter and a failed pre-Olympic gymnast and a college dropout, but if there was one thing I had never been, it was a liar.

  “Good. Now, you’d better go fill in your mother. She needs to be prepared for when the press finds out.”

  “Alright.” I stood up as my dad sat back down. “I’m sorry, dad.”

  He met my eyes with a frustrated stare, and I knew I wasn’t going to get any tiny bit of compassion or understanding from him. As far as my dad was concerned, me being soulmates with my mountain man was my fault.