Fated Mate

by Juniper Hart

But Hayden shook his head.

  “No, Betty, I don’t think you understand,” he said slowly, and his tone filled Betty with dread. “He is going to need full time professional care. This is not something that you can provide yourself.”

  A wave of dizziness washed through her, but she fought to maintain a stoic expression on her face, even as Lacy broke into small sobs.

  “I understand,” she said dully. “Thank you, doctor.”

  She turned away.

  “Betty,” Hayden called. but she started toward the exit, knowing that she was about to explode into a sea of tears. She rushed to the door, her pulse racing wildly in her throat.

  Everything she had worked toward, the school, the jobs, the sense of normalcy… all gone with the words of a handsome doctor. She had to stay and work for Charlie’s hospital bills, hopefully even put some money away for Lacy’s school. And the worst part of it was losing her father. Would he ever be normal again?

  One of us has to succeed and get us out of the swamp, she thought. It has to be Lacy. It was too late for Tom, and it was about to be too late for her. The least she could do was help Lacy do what she could not.

  Betty closed her eyes and allowed the tears to make their way down her cheeks, falling back against the wall to let the sorrow overwhelm her.

  When she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, she was not surprised. Somehow, she had known Hayden would follow her.

  Despite the fact that he was a stranger, his presence calmed her greatly, and she was again overcome by the feeling that she had known him in a previous life, even though she did not believe such stupidities.

  “I’m sorry,” Betty mumbled. “I just needed a minute.”

  “That’s understandable,” Hayden replied. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m here if you need me.”

  She hastily wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and stared at him. “What are you doing here? I just left you at the beach.”

  “Maybe it’s fate,” Hayden answered with a wry smile, pushing a strand of hair away from her wet cheek. He offered his hand to her, and Betty took it, allowing him to lead her outside toward an empty ambulance that sat in the emergency bay.

  “I got called in specifically for your father’s case,” Hayden explained as Betty took a seat in the back of the vehicle. He climbed in after her and studied her face. “I’m a neurologist, and your father suffered quite a bit of brain damage. This is not his first stroke, Betty. He is not likely to come out of his vegetative state now.”

  Each word was like another stab wound to her heart, and Betty could only keep her eyes on him, though she felt like she was actually lost in thought, unable to see anything in front of her.

  Hayden stared at her with his compassionate grey eyes.

  “I know this is a lot to process,” he told her quietly. “But I can help you. Trust me. All is not hopeless.”

  Betty swallowed miserably.

  “There is nothing you can do,” she whispered, lowering her bloodshot eyes and sniffling.

  “You might be surprised,” he said, his fingers tenderly trailing along her cheek.

  Betty turned her head up to stare at him hopefully. A look of naked desire was in his eyes—there was nothing etched in the depths of his grey irises but sheer lust for her.

  Staring into his eyes, Betty was overcome with an irresistible urge to kiss his full, parted lips. Slowly, she leaned forward, a hand on either side of his face as she drew him toward herself, half expecting that he might resist.

  Hayden, however, did not resist her, and when their mouths met, a spark of electricity slid through both of them.

  Even the feeling of kissing him was familiar, and Betty was sure she had felt his slightly scruffy cheek beneath her fingertips before. She didn’t question the comfort of his mouth against hers as her grip grew firmer and his own hands slipped up into her hair, gently tugging at the silken strands. The motion sent a rush of warmth through her body, her neck tipping back against his pull to expose the skin of her throat.

  Hayden’s mouth trailed along her flesh, each breath causing her to shiver with pleasure, her fingers tightening in his dark tresses. He fell onto her, pressing her to the floor of the ambulance, and Betty felt herself melt against the firm, defined lines of his body through his lab coat.

  Betty raised her legs, encircling his waist with her smooth thighs as Hayden pulled her tank top and bikini top from her body. One hand caressed her right breast, his tongue teasing at the tight skin of her left nipple, and a flush of wetness soaked her bikini bottoms as she arched her body upward.

  “There’s something about you,” he murmured, his mouth falling lower, his hands following to touch the prickled skin of her stomach.

  Hayden sat back, pulling her shorts off to cast them aside. Then he sighed deeply, licking his lips and peering into her face.

  “You’re beautiful,” he told her, the sincerity in his voice causing another wave of heat to flow through Betty.

  His mouth found her center, and with long, sweet licks, he began to bring her toward the climax she sought.

  None of it seemed strange or unnatural, as if they had been together many times before, and Betty’s thighs clenched as he brought her to her first release, moaning loudly with each one of his expert strokes.

  Still trembling, Hayden raised himself to level his body against hers, and Betty was ready for him, bucking her hips upward to urge him inside.

  She was not prepared for the size of his shaft, and she cried out as he filled to her to the point of shock. Her nails gripping his back, she gaped at him with hazy green eyes until he lowered his lips to hers once more, and they fell into a uniformity of passion.

  Each thrust brought forth more excitement that only intensified with each movement. Above her, Hayden grunted, perforating his rhythm with kisses to her face and neck until Betty felt him tense, his muscles rippling with the effort to hold back.

  “Once more,” he begged her. “Betty, once more—”

  Betty could not refuse him, allowing herself to release against his prodding unit.

  Gasping, Hayden clenched at her shoulders, filling her with his seed, and Betty trembled as waves of pleasure pulsated through her body over and over. Her ankles locked about his buttocks, and she clung to him almost desperately as his heart pounded against hers.

  Silently, they lay on the floor of the ambulance, collecting themselves. Slowly, Hayden propped himself up and stared into Betty’s face, as if memorizing her features.

  “I want to show you something,” he told her after studying her face for a long moment.

  She smiled warily. “You do?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “I want to show you why you don’t have anything to worry about.”

  Betty swallowed, disappointed that he had spoken and forced her back to reality with his words.

  It doesn’t matter what you show me, she thought bitterly. It will not change the fact that my life is about to change horribly.

  “I can’t really go anywhere,” she said. “My sister—”

  “Your sister and brother will be fine until we get back,” he assured her, tossing Betty’s shirt at her. “I will meet you outside.”

  He slipped out of the still open doors of the ambulance and disappeared from eye view.

  Why not? Betty thought miserably, sighing to herself. I may as well cling to whatever time I have with this guy. He’s likely going to be the last bit of happiness I have for a long time.

  She dressed quickly and stepped out of the ambulance, but to her surprise, Hayden was not there. Slowly whirling around, she scanned her surroundings, but she didn’t see him anywhere.

  She instantly felt foolish and then angry with herself. How could she have even started to believe that a stranger she had talked to for a couple of minutes would magically make her situation any better?

  As Betty turned to walk back into the hospital, a sound caught her attention, and she glanced behind her shoulder. Something was flying j
ust above the building, but Betty couldn’t reconcile what it was—at least, not logically.

  As if in a trance, she stepped toward the form, a mass of wings and a long, teal tail.

  Is that a…?

  She gasped as the creature swooped down, his face level with hers, and Betty stepped back, startled.

  The beast’s eyes were a smoky grey, and they were unmistakably the same as ones she had just been peering into on the floor of the emergency vehicle.

  “Hayden?” she whispered.

  The beast blinked and lowered his head. Somehow, Betty understood she needed to mount his back, and she glanced around, looking for some witness to the bizarre occurrence. Of course, though, no one was to be seen.

  Gulping, she climbed atop the dragon’s back and squealed slightly as he soared back into the air, disappearing into the clouds.

  “Where are we going?” she whispered, but she received no response.

  As they flew, Betty wondered if she was dreaming. She had never felt more alive, more conscious, than when the fluffy white clouds parted and Hayden swept lower toward an imposing castle below.

  Where are we? she wondered in awe as he gracefully landed in a courtyard. She slid off his back, shivering in anticipation as she watched him transform back into the gorgeous doctor with whom she had just had sex.

  “What is happening?” she gasped, but Hayden only smiled, taking her hand.

  “I have something to show you, remember?” he said, leading the way into the stone walls. “This is my castle.”

  Again, the words made little sense to Betty, but she could do nothing except allow herself to be brought into the dank, cold walls, her pulse racing. She stared warily at Hayden, certain she was imagining everything she was seeing, even though she had little recourse or desire to end the fantasy she had concocted.

  Grief and stress have gotten the best of me, she realized. When they stopped walking once they had reached a foyer, however, Betty’s breath was knocked from her chest.

  She gazed up at the portraits hanging on the foyer’s wall and then back at Hayden. Her green eyes locked onto the painting of a regal-looking redhead in a stunning jade dress, standing beside a man who looked remarkably like Hayden.

  But it can’t be, she thought. These portraits must be hundreds of years old, right?

  “Do you recognize them?” Hayden asked quietly, watching her face.

  “No way!” she gasped. “It’s just an uncanny resemblance.”

  But her mind went to the magical, strange ride she had just taken, and it suddenly didn’t look like just an uncanny resemblance between the couple in the painting and herself and Hayden.

  “She is you, and he is me,” Hayden told her softly. “This portrait was painted two hundred years ago.”

  Betty gaped uncomprehendingly at him. “That doesn’t make any sense…”

  He smiled sadly. “That is only because you don’t remember. But you will. Now that we have found one another again.”

  Betty bit on her lip, and suddenly, flashes of memories began to swim through her mind, but they were gone before she could capture them fully.

  “You are my mate,” Hayden said, as if the answer was obvious. “And I am yours.”

  An explosion of relief rocked Betty’s body, but she could not say why. It was as if she inherently understood that everything was not hopeless, and that all Hayden had said was the truth.

  “But my family—”

  “Will be taken care of,” he assured her. “Your father will receive the finest medical care that money can buy. Your sister and brother will be moved into a lovely home in Gulfport.”

  Betty did not claim to know why this was happening, but that didn’t stop her from being consumed with gratitude and comfort.

  She averted her eyes and looked at her hands.

  “And me?” she whispered. “What about me?”

  Hayden’s grin widened broadly. “You will finish your school without having to work three jobs at the same time.”

  She stared up at him hopefully. “And you?”

  “I will wait for you like I always have,” Hayden responded, pulling her into his arms. “And then we will be together, as we should have been from the very beginning.”

  Betty lowered her head into his chest and listened to the constant thud of his strong heartbeat.

  And suddenly the memories of a past life she hadn’t believed in rushed back to her.

  Whipping her head back, she gaped at Hayden, her mouth parting in shock.

  “You remember now, don’t you?” he asked, and she nodded, tears of happiness filling her eyes. Memories her soul had buried deep within her flooded her mind, flashes of her past lives screening through her mind like a movie.

  It was not a dream, nor was it a mere fantasy—past lives did exist.

  Hayden was her soul mate, just as he had claimed.

  I am in love with a dragon, Betty thought, the idea incredulous, even though that didn’t make it any less true.

  For the first time in her life, she was filled with realization that everything was going to be all right not only for her family, but for herself, too.

  THE END

  Click Here to Read the Entire Shifter Pursuit Series

  2

  Shifter Pursuit: Deep in the Woods

  “No.”

  The word was singular and flat, with no room for argument, but that didn’t stop Tara from pressing the issue.

  “What do you mean, ‘no’?” Tara demanded. “It’s Penelope’s birthday and she’s been planning this for months! Everyone is going to be there!”

  “This is the first I’m hearing about it,” Ali countered. “So it can’t be that big of a deal.”

  Tara scoffed. “She knew you’d say that,” she argued. “That’s why I’m telling you last minute—so you can’t back out. You have to come tomorrow night!”

  “She can have a party like a normal human being,” Ali replied. “There is no way in hell I am going camping, and you cannot make me. It’s not happening.”

  “What are you going to say to her?” Tara challenged, eyeing the stunning brunette with annoyance. “That you don’t want to break your nails?”

  Ali scowled at the assessment and narrowed her blue eyes dangerously. “Tara, do I ever ask you to go to karaoke?” she asked, her voice low.

  “Of course not! I hate karaoke,” Tara answered, and Ali nodded at her.

  “Now think about how much you hate karaoke and multiply that by about fifty,” she said, “and you will maybe be in the ballpark of how much I loathe camping. I am not going!”

  Tara grunted and threw her hands up in exasperation.

  “All right!” she retorted. “You can tell Penelope yourself. You can break her heart and miss the event of the century.”

  Tara spun to leave her friend on the sidewalk, storming off in anger.

  Ali watched her walk away, groaning inwardly.

  The event of the century, she thought bitterly. It’s a death sentence weekend, is what it is.

  She tried to see the virtues of such an affair, but she could not see past the idea of being away from the sanctuary of her room at the sorority house.

  Whatever happened to celebrating our twenty-first birthdays with limos, bar hopping, and then blackout drinking? she thought mournfully. Suddenly everything has to be so much more complicated than it needs to be. Damn you, Penelope, and your outdoorsy shit!

  Despite what she had told Tara, Ali knew she was going on the trip. The backlash from not going would be far too great.

  I will never hear the end of it. They are on my case about enough crap as it is. I have to go.

  Gritting her perfect white teeth, she made her way down Folsom Street toward the Kappa Pi Mu house on Pine Street.

  It was a beautiful summer day, and Ali had been looking forward to relaxing on the picturesque campus with a good book, but her mood was shattered by the unexpected appearance of Tara and her wretched camping announcement.


  Her long legs were glowingly tan beneath a pair of white capris, and her dark hair fluttered in the slight Colorado breeze. Ali, though, could see no beauty in any of it.

  I guess I’m going camping this weekend, she thought miserably.

  There must have been fifty people at the campgrounds when Ali arrived with Tara and Christine.

  Tents had been haphazardly pitched, and even though it was not quite noon, bonfires had already been started.

  “It’s like Coachella out here,” Ali grumbled, and both of her friends laughed.

  “It’s going to be huge,” Tara agreed. “There are going to be twice as many people here by nightfall, you’ll see.”

  Great, Ali thought, annoyed. Too many people, sleeping on the cold, hard ground, and freezing to death. Sounds like a party to me. Not to mention the mosquitos. There’s always mosquitos.

  She wisely held her tongue as they unloaded the trunk.

  “I’ve got beer!” Christine announced, and Ali’s hand shot out to be the first in line.

  “I thought you might want this,” Tara chuckled, handing her a can from the cooler.

  In spite of her resolve to be grumpy, Ali had to admit that the charged energy of her surroundings was infectious: people milled about, joking and talking. She supposed this wouldn’t be all that bad.

  She knew a great deal of the people there, but she couldn’t see Penelope anywhere.

  Taking a swig of her can, she pulled a duffel bag over her shoulder.

  “Where should we set up?” she asked, and Christine pointed toward a clearing where there seemed to be less people. “Works for me,” Ali said agreeably, although if what Tara had mentioned was true, their somewhat secluded spot would be overrun by nightfall anyway.

  I must look for peace where I can find it, she vowed.

  Men and women called out to them in greeting as they trekked toward the far side of the field, lugging their tent and cooler along.

  Out of nowhere, a mass of energy thrust itself onto Ali’s lean frame, almost toppling her to the ground.

  “You came!”

  Barely catching her footing, Ali grabbed onto Penelope and balanced herself upright, grinning at the over-the-top greeting.