“If I’m correct, the leaders cannot kill someone’s chante.”

I guess he wasn’t lying when he said he read the book from cover to cover. Hearing him say “chante” was almost surreal, as if I’d make it up and now he was confirming I hadn’t. I took a moment to inventory my feelings. Did I feel different towards Adam now that we’d done the deed? I watched him as he opened the book and scanned the words inside. His chest glistened in the light and the shadows on his face highlighted his features—he was beautiful. Something resembling pride welled in my heart. I felt a little bit different, but not so much that I was a slobbery fool begging at his feet. Part of me worried that’s what I’d turn into, that’d I’d lose my independence and let my feelings for him control me. I was never happier to be proven wrong.

“Why wouldn’t they be able to kill me?” I finally asked.

Adam looked up from the book. “Because you’re my other half. They cannot kill you without killing me.” He turned the book around so I could see it. “See, it says here:

Mates said to be chantes share an everlasting bond. To lose

one is to lose the other. Their hearts are intertwined. What the great

spirit has united let no one tear asunder.

I read the text and even though we had proof, in the form of scars on our palms, I still had a hard time believing all of this was real. “And you think the leaders will abide by this?”

“Unless they want to go against our laws, they will,” Adam said with a smile. “This book is sacred to our kind. It not only holds all the rules and rituals, but also our history. To go against it would be like second guessing everything that makes us who we are.”

I frowned. “What about Eve?” How was I supposed to deal being bonded to the alpha when he was mated to another woman? The fact that I’d just slept with her man twisted my insides and caused guilt to push a current of nausea through my stomach. No matter how much I disliked her, what I’d done was wrong.

“I said we weren’t talking about her tonight,” Adam said, tugging the pillow out of my lap and raking his eyes over my body.

“But…will you two still be mated?”

Adam crawled towards me, his smile devilish and sexy. As he moved closer, the only option I had was to lie down. He lowered his head between my legs, and I grasped his hair in both hands and tugged his face up so he’d look at me. Though, at the moment, he seemed a little distracted by more primal matters.

“Adam, I need to know.”

He breathed deep. “That may be a little trickier, but we’ll get through it.” He began to dip his head between my thighs again, but I halted his attempt.

“What do you mean it’ll be trickier?” How could severing an alpha couple be more difficult than stopping a death sentence?

Adam grumbled, reaching his hand up to clasp both of my wrists so I couldn’t hold him back. “Our pairing was between my father’s pack and her father’s pack. If we wish to sever it, and I do, then it may cause problems with her original pack. No matter, it will happen, and we will get through it.” He raised an eyebrow and gave me a look that dared me to say another word on the matter. “Now, lay back and let me taste you. Today’s problems will be waiting for us tomorrow.”

I began to speak, but Adam’s tongue slipped into my sensitive flesh and made me forget what I wanted to say. Forgetting our problems all of a sudden seemed like a very smart idea.

Chapter Nineteen

My eyes fluttered open as the sun cut across the room and hit my face. I lay there for a few seconds as I finished waking up. An arm was slung over my stomach, reminding me of what happened last night. A smile spread across my lips, and I looked over my shoulder. Adam was sound asleep, his face more peaceful than I’d seen before. So many times I’d wondered what it’d be like to wake up next to him. It was amazing.

“Stop staring at me,” Adam’s raspy voice said, scaring me. He peeked through an eyelid and smiled.

“I wasn’t,” I lied. “Just seeing if you are awake.”

Adam’s arm tightened around my waist as he tugged me against his body. His lips found my nape and pressed a soft kiss to my skin. I had to be dreaming. There was no way I was this happy and comfortable with a man. The old me would never have stayed the night with a date, let alone been happy to see them in the morning. Surprisingly, my feet weren’t itching to run away. I could stay in the bed all day wrapped in Adam’s arms.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Someone pounded on the door, causing me to sit up fast and scramble to cover myself with the blankets.

“Who in the hell could that be?” I asked Adam.

“I told Joe where he could reach me if an emergency arose,” Adam responded, sitting up and pulling on his jeans. “I’m the alpha after all. It’d be irresponsible to disappear for a night without being able to be reached.” He smiled and walked across the room, opening the door. I pressed my body against the wall, hoping the shadows from the top bunk hid me.

“Sir, sorry to disturb you,” Joe said. His face was haggard and his eyes bloodshot. Something was seriously wrong. “I tried calling but you must not have service this far up.”

“What happened?” Adam asked, extending his arm to invite Joe inside.

“It’s Eve,” Joe said solemnly. “She’s missing. Her purse was found at the edge of the woods and there was…”

“What?” Adam questioned with impatience.

“It had blood on it. No one has seen her since your meeting last night.”

Adam looked over at me, his face hard and unreadable. Was he mad at me for distracting him? Or did he think I’d arranged the whole thing and had a partner kidnap her while I preoccupied him? I knew that was silly, but the look on his face caused me to question his thoughts.

Adam walked over and grabbed my clothes off the floor and tossed them on the bed. “Get dressed,” he told me.

Looks like the honeymoon is over.

“Have you tried calling her cell?” Adam asked Joe.

“She didn’t have it on her. We found it in her bag.”

While they chatted about what to do, I got dressed while holding the blanket up so Joe wouldn’t catch a peek of my nudity. With Eve missing, the leaders would try to blame me. Everyone knew she hated me, and I didn’t necessarily care for her. It didn’t look good that I shacked up with her mate last night. It wasn’t uncommon for alphas to have women on the side, but they kept it quiet. As much as Adam and I might want to keep our tryst silent for the time being, that would be hard to do with a large raised scar on our palms. If someone got a glimpse of it, they’d know not only that the myth was true, but suspect it gave me motive for wanting to take Eve out of the picture. An alpha couldn’t be mated to two different women.

Climbing out of bed, I adjusted my shirt and walked over to the two men.

“So what’s the plan?” I made a point to tuck my hands behind my back so that Joe wouldn’t accidently see my scar. Adam didn’t have the same worries. He either forgot about the mark or didn’t care who saw it, either way it made me nervous.

“Joe, I want you to head back to the main house and call an emergency meeting,” Adam said. “Have the leaders been alerted?”

“Yeah, we searched the forest around the house, but to no avail.” Joe looked like he hadn’t gotten much sleep and was about to crash where he stood.

“You’ve done good.” Adam clapped Joe on the back. “Once you alert every one of the meeting, take a couple hours to get some rest.”

Joe nodded and headed outside where he hopped in his truck and took off. I watched out of the small window as he disappeared down the mountain.

“What do you think happened?” I turned to face Adam. He bent over and picked up his shirt off of the floor, slipping it over his shoulders and working the buttons.

“I don’t know, but it isn’t sounding good.” He wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Instead, he went about the cabin straightening items and picking up what little we’d messed up.

I hugged my arms to my chest. “I’m sorry. I know this must be scary for you.” Though those words hurt to say, I knew they needed to be said. Eve was his mate after all. That hadn’t changed because we’d slept together and were marked. Nothing in life was ever that easy.

Adam stopped what he was doing and looked at me through thick eyelashes. His blond hair fell forward, casting shadows against his face. “This is probably awkward for you, huh?” Without waiting for my response, Adam crossed the room. His arms went around me as he held me against his chest. The scent of spices and forest teased my nostrils and sent a wave of calm through my body.

“I meant everything I said last night,” Adam spoke softly. “I love you, Anna.” He reached for my hand, turning it over so the scar faced upwards. With a finger, he trailed the mark and clasped our hands together so the scars met. “The earth has spoken, and you are mine, and I am yours. There’s nothing that can undo that.” Leaning down, his lips met mine ever so softly and were gone before I realized it. “Come on, I have a feeling the bad news is just beginning,” Adam said. I shuffled the book back into my messenger bag, looped it over my shoulder and we headed out.

*

Back at the house, the pack was already arriving. Elle set up a small buffet, featuring coffee, muffins and what looked like egg sandwiches with bacon. The leaders sat at the kitchen table, devouring their food. When I walked in they all looked up as if they’d choreographed the movement. I kept my hands fisted at my side so they wouldn’t see the scar just yet. We needed to find Eve, and if word got out that Adam and I were each other’s chantes, then it’d cause a plethora of questioning and excitement. I never thought I’d rather focus on Eve than me and Adam, but I was still guilty over last night. It made me sick to my stomach to think that while we were finally giving into each other, Eve was kidnapped or worse.