Fate Mate

Chapter 54

When sleep finally took me that night, my body had been completely and thoroughly exhausted.

After our first bout on the king sized bed, Nolan carried me to the ensuite bathroom. We soaked in a bath of lavender scented bubbles for roughly ten minutes before our frenzied want got the better of us. Water covered the tiled floor by the time we'd finished the second round...

The night continued in that way– our two bodies twined together, making up for the time that we'd wasted apart. Just as I began to worry that my body might not be able to take any more, Nolan suggested that we get some rest and resume the following morning. I agreed, and my mate pulled me to his side, his arms wrapped around my frame like he was worried that I might slip away in the night.

Nolan started snoring almost as soon as his head landed on the pillow, but I took a few more moments to bask in the sensation of my mate's warm body beneath mine. To cement the memory of that night in my mind forever...

I awoke with a start, yanked from a tantalizingly wonderful dream and plunged into the darkness of our bedroom once more. There was no light streaming through the windows, and I squinted at the clock on Nolan's nightstand. It read 3:07 AM.

I groaned to myself, internally cursing my own body for forcing me awake at such an ungodly hour, and glanced at Nolan. His lips were cracked open, but, otherwise, it looked like he hadn't stirred since we'd gone to bed hours ago. I grabbed the edge of the bedsheet, pulling it up to properly cover my mate's bare chest once more.

With a small smile, I shifted in bed, preparing to snuggle into his side once more, but, before I could, a strange, phantom breeze swept across the bed. My chestnut curls rustled in the wind, and every hair on my arms stood erect.

My gaze snapped to the windows, but the glass panels were closed, and there was no way in hell that the air conditioning vent from across the room had caused the gust of air. I stilled, evaluating the darkness that cloaked the room. There was no one. Nothing visible, at least.

I forced myself to take a breath, and my eyes shifted to Nolan's sleeping form once more. For a moment, I considered waking him and asking him to check the house for anything suspicious. But, for all I knew, this was just my mind playing tricks on me. I shouldn't wake up my mate for no reason, and yet, I knew that I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep if I didn't quickly check the rest of the cottage.

I slipped out of bed, careful not to wake Nolan, and snagged a thin quilt that had been crumpled at the foot of the bed sometime during our escapades that evening. I wrapped the blanket around my bare shoulders and padded toward the door.

I silently turned the doorknob and slipped into the living room, where I ensured that the front door remained locked and every window closed. When I'd sufficiently checked the entire cottage for anything out of place, I released a long breath. Tension dissipated from my muscles, and I turned to head back to the bedroom. Before I could take a step toward the door, however, the shimmering, translucent form appeared to descend upon the room.

I staggered backward, nearly dropping the quilt that covered my naked body as my back collided with the side of a sofa. I opened my mouth to shout for Nolan, but the shape continued to pour into the room, like liquid smoke that whirled into a confined space. Finally, I realized that the tendrils of smoke were taking the form of a human– a woman.

I blinked, taking in the old woman that now smiled in front of me. Just like Sophia's ghost, the elder was just barely translucent now that she'd taken her full shape. She had short, coiled black curls that spiraled away from her scalp. Despite her age, evident by the wrinkles lining her cocoa skin, the woman's dark brown eyes were full of life.