Marked by Fate: Soulmate Series, #2

By Anna Santos

Continue Annabel and Shane's love story by reading the second installment in the Soulmate Series.

 

Annabel is conflicted about her growing feelings for Shane. She's thinking about cutting her losses before her heart is irremediably broken.

But she has no idea that Shane is her fated mate.

 

Will she continue their relationship once she knows they are meant to be together…forever?

 

Meanwhile, a foe is eager to remove Annabel from Shane's life. To protect his mate, Shane does something that might destroy her trust in him.

 

As the sexy shifter uncovers Annabel's real identity, can their happily ever become a reality?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anna Santos
• Release date: Jun 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223120124

Anna Santos

Anna Santos is a Bestselling Author with her paranormal romance story: "Soul-Mate". Meanwhile, she has authored and published another standalone paranormal romance named "Punishing Her Vampire Master".  She likes to write steamy and happily ever after romances with magical and complex characters. All her books feature clever, witty, and strong heroines and dominant males who either get what they want or get what they deserve. She's currently in the process of editing the second book in the series of the Immortal Love so it can be published in 2016. She's also in the middle of writing the third book in the same series.  You can find her at: Website: http://annesaint90.wix.com/annasantosauthor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnaSantosAuthor Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneSaint90 Instagram: https://instagram.com/annasantosauthor Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/23301866-anna-santos

Book preview

Anna Santos

Marked by Fate

Soulmate Series, Book 2

First published by Crystal Palace Publishing 2023

Copyright © 2023 by Anna Santos

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Anna Santos asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Anna Santos has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

Inquiries about additional permissions should be directed to:[e-mail].

First edition

Cover art by Cristal Designs

Editing by Nancy Zee

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

Find out more at reedsy.com

Contents

1. What’s wrong with my mate?

2. I’ve been waiting two hundred years for you

3. The meaning of a soulmate

4. The feeling of belonging

5. Romantic Dinner

6. Happiness…

7. Suspicion

8. Dark alley

9. Ice cream and pie

10. Alpha’s instinct

11. He wants me to feed from him

12. You’re my home

13. Bite

14. Marked

15. Shared thoughts

16. The prince of Affinity

17. Jason’s visit

18. Mates

19. Meeting at Sam’s bar

20. Do I genuinely know Shane?

About the Author

Also by Anna Santos

One

What’s wrong with my mate?

Chapter Separator

SHANE

ANNABEL’S ATTITUDE HAD CHANGED for the past week. She had been aloof and more brooding than usual. Something was going on, and it hurt me that she didn’t want to share what was troubling her with me.

Perhaps, I was overzealous after what had happened in front of the school. Yet, somehow, I sensed that she was trying to push me away and guarding herself against what we felt for one another.

That night, I offered to cook dinner. Anna claimed she was not hungry. I offered to massage her neck. She declined and evaded any attempt of closeness between us. I had to handle it with care, but I couldn’t pretend that nothing was wrong. I mused about what I could do for her to open up with me and stop looking as if the world was about to end. Maybe a direct approach worked best.

What’s wrong with you tonight? I knelt next to her and pressed her hands to my lips. She was on the couch, staring at the TV with absent eyes.

Recoiling in her seat, she mumbled, Nothing.

You look sad. Did I do anything to make you unhappy? One can never know.

No.

Was it at school? Did something bad happen, or did someone say something that upset you?

No. School is fine.

I took a seat by her side and inhaled sharply. Are you homesick?

Homesick? My heart tightened inside my chest with the look she offered me. I don’t have a home to be homesick for.

Her words resonated inside my head. I’d hoped that she embraced the idea that her home could be here with me. My home was with her, no doubt about it. She had become my whole world. Wasn’t I her whole world too?

I took her hand in mine. You could have a home.

I hadn’t talked to her about moving in since the night I’d almost blown it all with my impatience and had made her think I was a psychopath. Nevertheless, we spent all our free time together. We only needed to get all her belongings from the motel to make it official. Anna already slept there at night and ate with me. I loved smelling her in my place and seeing her books, clothes, and beauty products scattered around.

I think― She paused and sighed as she removed her hand from mine. All this is a huge mistake.

I stopped breathing momentarily. Her words felt like a punch in my guts since I believed everything was fine between us. More than fine, actually.

I was head over heels for her. If she intended to kill me with pain, she simply had to say that she didn’t want me anymore, and that would be it. Living without her wasn’t an option. Not when I’d spent two hundred years waiting to meet her, and I’d almost lost my faith in finding her or believing she existed. My mate had only existed for twenty-three years. She was a human and didn’t understand what a mate was. She couldn’t recognize me as hers and only hers for all eternity. Maybe it was about time I explained to her that we were meant to be and tell her that whatever was bothering her, we could talk about and fix it.

With furrowed eyebrows, I questioned her, What’s a mistake?

Us, she whispered as if she was afraid to say it out loud.

She avoided my eyes and moved uncomfortably on the couch. My heart by then had stopped beating.

Why?

It’s getting too intense, she explained.

I blinked a few times. And why is that a problem?

She was so complicated! I could almost see all her walls become reinforced with concrete or maybe adamantium. Yes, I was a Wolverine fan. Not important right now. What was important was that it was hard to make Anna trust me and open up. It was challenging to understand what she felt for me. Her words were killing me.

Is she already sick and tired of me?

Was I not letting her breathe, not giving her the space she needed to feel happy? I knew she was reluctant about letting someone in her life, but I couldn’t help being a hopeless romantic around her.

She was mine.

I could feel my wolf howl inside my head from the pain. I needed to shut him up, so I could listen to what she was saying.

We should just―break up, she said with a serious face, no trace of feelings for my alarm. She didn’t answer my question and simply confessed what was crossing her mind.

For a moment, I was speechless while panicking that she wanted to break up. I only wanted to hold her until she would promise to never leave me. I had to tell her how I felt and understand why she thought we should break up. I had to. Before my wolf went all mad and got self-destructive. We loved her.

I don’t want that. I love you! I almost felt my voice disappearing. Being rejected by my mate was excruciatingly painful.

She fluttered her eyelashes at me as if trying to make sense of my words. What did you say?

Licking my lips, I repeated, I love you.

You… love me? She gulped and closed her eyes momentarily. Her hands shook as she held them tighter. Panic grew in her gaze, and I realized it was probably too soon to confess.

But isn’t that what a woman typically wants to hear from a man? I couldn’t let her leave me. If she was feeling insecure all of a sudden about my feelings, I had to fix that. However, I didn’t expect her to react with panic to my confession. I couldn’t understand what made her want to break up with me. We were happy. I made her happy. I was sure of that. So why did she want to leave me?

You heard me. I love you, I asserted.

The harm was done. I’d wanted to tell her every time we made love. Every time she’d smiled at me.

That’s not funny, she claimed with an upset expression, folding her arms in front of her chest.

It’s not supposed to be funny. I’m not kidding, I attested, matching her serious tone and adding a bit of annoyance. I should’ve been the one feeling offended for being rejected.

Shit!

I opened my mouth in surprise. Okay, that wasn’t the kind of expression I expected to hear from her in reaction to ‘I love you.’ I was upset now. "I say I love you, and all you have to say is shit?"

Yes. The world is all messed up!

Care to explain that?

Since when do men say that without being threatened or forced by a woman? And you tell me that out of the blue? As if I needed that burden on my shoulders!

I jumped to my feet. Burden? My love is a burden to you? So, we can have sex, but I can’t love you? Is that the fucked-up idea you have of a relationship?

I was furious. Not just that, I was feeling used, and my heart hurt due to her lack of feelings for me. My heart seemed to want to burst out of my chest or explode. How could my soulmate say something like that to me? Didn’t she feel anything for me? Was I a hobby?

Of course not, she replied with a sad voice and shining eyes. She was holding back the tears, to my surprise.

I sat back on the couch. My rage was gone because she seemed miserable.

Her voice came out broken. It’s just that―I realized something and I don’t―I didn’t―I never thought you could say that to me. And even if you say it, she continued, wiping the tears from her eyes and facing me, we cannot be together.

I placed my hand on her shoulder, leaning my head to watch her. Why not, Anna? I was trying to understand what would make her say something like that while tears ran down her cheeks.

Shane… She sounded desperate. This is a hobby for you, us as a couple. You don’t believe we have a future together. I’ve had a good time with you, but I have to put a stop to this before I get hurt.

I’d never hurt you. I love you, Annabel.

She shoved my hand away. Stop saying that!

It was as if my sweet tone and new confession had upset her. As if my confession had hurt her instead of making her happy. That made no sense at all. Was she insane? Just my damn luck, finding another crazy woman in my life!

I love you! And I felt like cursing by adding a ‘fucking’ in the middle of the words ‘I’ and ‘love.’

I was trying not to be mad, but I was trembling. I was losing it. Why in the hell wouldn’t she believe me? It was not like I was going around telling every woman I saw that I loved her. I had never said that to anyone before. Only my mate would receive those words. It felt wonderful to finally say them.

Anna got angrier as she got up. You don’t even know me! You don’t understand half of me! You don’t know anything about my life, my pain, fears, and wishes! So, don’t you dare tell me you love me!

I straightened up and faced her, frustrated. "I don’t need to know anything about your past to love you. And you aren’t inside my head, so you don’t know what I know about you, what I feel about you. Don’t you dare tell me I don’t know you! I know you. I care for you! I listen to everything you say to me about yourself, anything you think is safe to tell me. I hold you tight when you sleep to make your bad dreams go away. I love