Page 26 of Accidental Mate

All of this thinking was giving him a headache. It brought him back around to how he had ended up here. An unintentionally overheard conversation between two scientists about a failed project in Seattle. When he really considered what had been said, it could have been completely innocent, but Carson hadn’t believed it then nor did he believe it now. No, NLGP was up to no good. He could feel it in his bones, and he began to wonder if Mason hadn’t had more tangible information to back up his repeated warnings.

Seattle wasn’t all that far from Bellingham. It didn’t take a very long leap of the imagination to believe that whatever Amelia had been carrying had something to do with that failed operation, nor that someone had tried to stop the package from reaching its intended recipient by sabotaging Amelia’s plane. Carson felt rage begin to simmer in his belly. Whoever had tried to harm his mate would pay for what they’d done.

Damn it, Mason. What have we gotten ourselves into this time?

For the first time in his life, Carson had something, or rather someone, that was more important to him than his twin. He would do whatever it took to keep his fated mate safe—not just because she was his fated mate, but because one of the things that had become crystal clear to him was that he loved her. Not because of destiny or some genetic link, but because she was brave, beautiful, and intelligent. He would ask nothing more of this life than they be happy together for a very long time.

CHAPTER15

AMELIA

Amelia had tried the radio again with no results. No one had answered and she wasn’t sure if anyone had heard her or was even monitoring the frequency.Damn it, Carson. He’d promised he would be with her. That promise hadn’t even been good for twelve hours. There had been no note—nothing to indicate where he’d gone, for what purpose, or if and when he intended to return. That was what bothered her most. Had she surrendered herself into his keeping and followed her libidinous inclinations for nothing? Was she now some kind of mutant left to fend for herself? As far as she knew, snow leopards didn’t mate for life. In fact, they only came together to breed and then the females were left to deal with the consequences. Not unlike some human relationships she knew.

She could hear someone moving around outside the cabin. She ran to the window. It would seem Carson had returned. He wasn’t very far from the cabin and appeared to be digging away at something. She tried reaching out to him down the link but could feel nothing from his end. Last night she had experienced being able to feel his thoughts and emotions even when he was asleep. There had been something exquisitely intimate about it, but now there was nothing.

Watching him move, she realized there were slight differences from the man she had come to know over the past few days. Had it really been that short a time? And if so, why did the thought of his having left her hurt so much? Because she had believed him when he’d spun her his stories about fated mates and how they lived through each lifetime together or bereft of a mate. She had actually begun to believe in love and that she might be falling in love with the enigmatic geneticist.

The more she thought Carson had returned, she tried to reach out to him on the other end of the link. Combined with the absolute silence on the other end—Carson had said it did have some proximity limitations—the more she began to believe that it wasn’t Carson at all. His brother Mason had returned. He, too, had a lot of explaining to do. Remembering there had been a shotgun in the little communications room, Amelia retrieved it, made sure it was loaded and positioned herself so that she was facing both the front and kitchen doors.

She didn’t have long to wait, the door opened, letting in frigid air as Mason stomped the snow off his boots on the front porch. He looked up to find himself confronted by a shotgun aimed at his middle.

“Who the fuck are you?” he growled.

“Were you born in a fucking barn? Come in and close the damn door. Who are you?”

Recognizing he was at a decided disadvantage, Mason did as he was told. “Mind answering my question?”

“How about you answer mine first?”

“Why should I? This is my cabin.”

“And I’m the one holding the loaded gun.”

“Point taken. Where’s Carson?”

“Uh-huh. My questions first. Where have you been?”

Mason reached up slowly to push the hood of his parka off his head before removing the ski hat and hanging it on the peg to his right. He did the same with the anorak he had on. “I’ve been doing my job. Mind pointing that thing elsewhere?”

Her snow leopard growled quietly in the recesses of her mind. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

He eyed her up and down, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth as he scented the air. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say you know my baby brother.”

“I do.”

“Is he close by, or have you been playing Goldilocks all by yourself?”

“To tell you the truth, after promising me he’d always be with me and that we were fated mates, I woke to find myself alone.”

Up until that precise moment, she had been able to hold it together. Now she felt her lower lip trembling and had to focus on keeping the shotgun aimed at Mason.

“Look—what is your name?” Mason asked in a far gentler tone.

“Amelia.”

“Okay, Amelia. If you know my brother at all, you have to know he’s never broken a promise in his life. It isn’t in him. I’m not sure what brought either of you to the cabin, but given the message I just got from Carson, he’s spooked. Still, he wouldn’t have left you. If he says you’re his fated mate, you are. That isn’t something he’d just toss around without knowing it to be true. He must have thought there was something he needed to get…”

Amelia stomped her foot and lowered the shotgun. “Damn him! Sorry, I know he’s your twin brother.”

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