Page 10 of His Stolen Queen
Before he opened his mouth to welcome me, I blurted out, "Let's be together."
His mouth dropped open as he stared at me with wide eyes. A look of joy crossed his face. "Are you sure?"
He looked so overwhelmingly happy; I couldn't let him down. I couldn't lose him.
"Yes." I lifted my head and gave him an encouraging smile. My mouth felt stiff with the effort.
He exhaled a breath before cupping my face. The look in his eyes was so intense and heavy with love that it took everything for me not to drop my gaze.
He slowly leaned forward and covered my lips with his. My first reaction was to recoil in shock. David was kissing me: David, my best friend.
Instead, I forced myself to stand ramrod straight, my hands tightly clasped at my sides. As his mouth moved gently against mine, my body slowly relaxed. My hands unclenched, and I released the nervous breath I was holding.
I opened my mouth and felt the soft slide of his tongue against mine.
It was…nice. Pleasant. Although I was relieved when he ended it.
Still, out of all the kisses I'd had, David's was the most…tolerable. I could work with that.
David pressed his forehead against mine. "I love you, Alice."
I swallowed past the lump in my throat and took a shaky breath.
"I love you too."
***
Acheron
"Nothing?" Von inquired. His voice was calm, but I could feel the heavily implied anticipation in his tone.
I shook my head, too dejected to speak. Waves of Von's disappointment touched me, and I instantly turned my sensor off. I already felt enough failure and frustration for both of us.
Last month, I finally discovered my first clue about my bonded mate's whereabouts.
She was standing with her back to me.
Always with her back to me.
I stared at the beautiful curve of her spine, the gentle slope of her high, firm ass, and her smooth, delicate, high neck…perfect for my mark. I knew her stature like the back of my hand. I could pick her out of a crowd, even though I'd yet to see her face.
She was wearing tiny shorts, her long legs on display. Jealous rage ripped through me at the thought of other men seeing what was mine. But I tamped it down and concentrated on searching for clues.
The blond man at her graduation had disappeared as the years passed, much to my relief. My visions of her were sporadic. Sometimes I would get a vision twice a month and then nothing for a year, sometimes longer. So whenever they hit me, I scoured the scene shrewdly for any sign of familiarity.
She looked to be alone with a small backpack strapped to her shoulders. Her head was bent, observing something in her hands. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew her hair forward, and with it, the paper she held nearly flew out of her hand. But she held firm, gathering it back against her chest.
The vision faded, but that didn't matter. I had what I needed. The paper she held was a map, one of those hop-on hop-off tourist buses that frequented sightseeing hot spots. Various pictures of famous attractions were dotted around the map, but the one that caught my eye was the Piazza San Pietro.
She was in Italy. Rome, to be exact. So close to me.
I immediately reached out to King Remus for permission to enter his Territory. He was a good friend, and once he heard that my fated mate could possibly be in his Territory, he immediately granted me permission to enter for an open-ended length of time.
I turned Rome inside out, touching base with my contacts in the area and recruiting trackers. But without a physical description or a scent, it appeared futile. I could feel…something though. A lingering energy or essence, as if she were a ghost whose spirit was adrift.
After thoroughly searching four times without luck, I expanded my area to the rest of Italy. However, the longer I looked and failed, the more disheartened I became.
I couldn't determine the time lapse between my vision and when it actually occurred. She could be anywhere by now.
