Quinn
I don’t remember meeting my soulmate for the first time. In fact, I don’t even remember the first time I slept with him.
What I do remember is waking up in bed with a stranger who smelled like vomit and trees.
I opened my eyes and groaned at the headache that pounded deep in my skull. Using the wall, I pulled myself into sitting position before forcing my eyes open.
When I saw the man in my bed, I groaned again. His eyes were open and his arms were folded as he leaned up against the wall. He was fully dressed, which was odd since we were in bed together and all I was wearing was a nude lace bra and matching underwear, and he didn’t seem nearly as hungover as he should’ve been assuming he had been partying with me.
The stranger was cute with his unruly brown hair and a few days’ worth of scruff on his face. I had to give him that, but I preferred my men clean and clean-shaven, and he was the opposite.
“Who let you in here?”
I was always careful with my keys when I went out. My best friend/roommate hated alcohol so she was always the designated driver and the key-holder. No one came into our apartment without her approval, and she didn’t approve of me coming home with anyone I didn’t know before I left.
“Beth.” That was all he wanted to say, which was fine with me. I didn’t need to talk to my random hookup.
“Well get out.” I gestured to the door of my bedroom.
He got up out of the bed with no visible signs of the headache and nausea that was plaguing me, and he left the room.
“You could at least close the door.” I complained, standing up and waiting for the sound of the front door shutting. It never came.
With the walls as my crutches and my eyes only half-open, I walked slowly toward Beth’s room and opened the door. She was sitting in bed with her kindle in her hands, like I knew she would be.
“It’s 1:30.” Beth looked up from her book with a smile. I didn’t even have to ask, we knew each other so well.
“Who’s the guy?” I massaged my temples with my fingers, leaning up against the doorway for support.
When she hesitated, I knew something was up.
“I think you should ask him yourself.” She finally said.
“What’s going on?” I narrowed my eyes at her, officially suspicious.
“Just go ask him who he is. I’ll be out as soon as I finish this chapter.” She held up the kindle for a second.
I knew when she said she was going to finish the chapter that she wouldn’t be out until she finished the book. Beth could never stop in the middle.
“Fine.” I glared at her and made my way to our living room. The last thing I wanted was to have to kick my random hookup out of the apartment when Beth shouldn’t have let him in in the first place.
He was sitting on the couch with his eyes pointed up at the ceiling, but he turned to look at me when I entered the kitchen/living room area. I was still only wearing my sexy lace bra and underwear.
I didn’t say anything, heading for the fridge first. There was already a massive, cold bottle of water waiting for me on the top shelf that I’d gotten ready before I left to go to the club. I was no stranger to hangovers.
After swallowing a few ibuprofen and downing as much water as I could, I walked around the island in our kitchen and sat down on one of the barstools. Turning to face the stranger, I studied him for a few seconds.
Dark hair, dark eyes, and built more like a gorilla than a person. The scruff on his face was the same dark brown color as his hair. The black t-shirt he wore didn’t fit him as well as I would’ve expected considering the wealth level of the club I always went to.
“Why did Beth let you in?” I watched him, looking for any signs of emotion on his face.
He may as well have been a rock with all the emotions he showed.
“I’m your soulmate.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Nice try, but I don’t believe in soulmates.”
The idea of two people belonging to each other, though romantic, had always seemed ridiculous to me. I knew shifters had soulmates, the whole world knew that, but I wasn’t a shifter and had never met one before so that wasn’t a concern.
“You don’t have to believe me. Go look at your neck.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, and he got off the couch.
When he walked over, I got a good view of his larger-than-life muscles, and I couldn’t have denied that he was attractive.
Only in a mountain-man way, of course. Not the high-class, buttoned-up way I liked my men.
I stood my ground as the mountain-sized mountain-man came up close. Part of me was afraid he would grab me and pin me to the wall, while part of me felt confident this man would never hurt me.
Another part of me altogether wanted him to pin me against the wall and kiss me until I forgot I didn’t want him in my space in the first place.
Instead of grabbing me, he turned his head to the side.
The movement revealed a shimmering marking. It was a small, tattoo-like mark just under his right ear, the same dark blue color that would leak out of a broken pen. The way it shimmered was unnatural and no matter how hard dozens of companies had tried, no human could have a tattoo like that.
My lips parted.
“You’re a shifter?”
Though I’d known about shifters my whole life, I’d never met one. They had been separated from human society for most of the twenty years I’d been alive, and in the two years they’d been living like us, none of them had ever crossed my path.
He nodded.
“And you’re my soulmate.”
“Someone must’ve slipped something into my drink last night, because this,” I gestured between the mountain man and me, “is not real. I am 100% human.”
“You were, until last night.”
“Get away from me.” I got out of the chair and crossed the distance between us before I shoved him backward.
He didn’t budge.
Geez, he was huge.
“I’ll call the cops.” I threatened, pushing him again.
“Go ahead. We’re soulmates, so according to human laws, we’re married.”
“Stop saying that word.” I shoved him for the third time, and this time he let himself be pushed a little, so his back hit the kitchen island.
“Like I said, go look at your neck.”
“Will you leave if I do?” I shot back, fuming and terrified at the same time.
What if there really was something on my neck? What if he’d really turned me into a shifter?
I’d heard it was possible. There was a mega-famous actor named Logan Lush who turned into one because of some shifter chick, after all. If it happened to him, could it happen to me?
I pushed that idea away.
“If you don’t see a cotie on your neck, I’ll leave.” He agreed.
My nose wrinkled.
“A cotie?” What was I doing? I held up my hand. “No, never mind. I don’t want to know anything about your shifter crap. I’m not your soulmate.”
I crossed the kitchen, headed straight for the bathroom.
The mountain man followed me. For the first time since I’d woken up next to him, he looked slightly amused.
I won’t pretend it wasn’t a good look for him.
He leaned against the doorway as I pulled my ultra-tangled locks away from my face. As I did, the barf smell got stronger and I just about gagged.
“You puked last night.” He noticed my reaction to my own hair. “And before you ask, I didn’t take advantage of how drunk you were.”
His words threw me off balance and I turned to him with a disbelieving glare.
“We didn’t have sex?”
He met my gaze, his expression serious and intense.
“I wouldn’t make love to you for the first time while you were so drunk you wouldn’t remember it, Quinn.”
I ignored the piece of my heart that turned into a steamy puddle of romantic goo, the part of me that adored the way he respected me.
“You say that like there will be a first time.” I turned back to the mirror and tilted my head to the right. “I told you, I’m not a shifter. No mark.”
I gestured to the left side of my neck and looked back to him.
One side of his mouth quirked up in a half-smile.
“Coties are always on the right side.”
“I told you not to use your weird shifter words.” I tilted my head to the left.
The air rushed out of my lungs when I saw the small, dark blue marking behind my ear. It matched the mountain man’s.
“This can’t be happening.” I just stared at my neck for a few seconds before reaching up to touch it to make sure it was real.
I folded the skin between my fingers, and the mark moved with it.
“Like I said, we’re soulmates.” He said it casually, like my entire world wasn’t imploding.
“I,” I looked around the room for an excuse, something to get me away from the mountain man.
My soulmate.
“I need to rinse the puke out of my hair. Leave.” I gestured toward the door as I reached into the shower and twisted the handle to turn on the water.
He lifted an eyebrow.
“Fine, stay for all I care.” I snapped, reaching around my back to unclasp my bra.
He didn’t avert his eyes or react as I stripped out of my underwear before stepping into the shower, and even though my head was spinning with the soulmate revelation, his lack of response only made me more attracted to the mountain man.
My mountain man.
I started on my hair, hoping a little hot water could burn away the parts of me that were already considering what it would feel like to run my hands down his bare chest.