The Price They Paid: Imprinted Mates Series

the throne from Seuss.”
Everything about his tone and the words let me know that he could be trusted. Having someone so loyal to him that they’d give their life firmed my decision.
“Just show me what to do.” I said. If Seuss really was my mate I wanted to save him and his position on the throne. It all felt and seemed so surreal, but waking up as a wolf put things into perspective quickly.
“Eat up. You’ll need all of your strength for tomorrow,” Alice encouraged.
I picked up the first piece of meat from the plate symbolizing the initial steps to solving this messed up dilemma.

Justice
“What am I to do first?” I asked.
The man Alice claimed to be my “mate” lay in bed unconscious. He was covered in six or more blankets, but his skin was pale as if he couldn’t get warm enough. He appeared cold and ashen.
“You don’t feel anything, Justice?” she asked.
What did she expect me to feel? “No. Alice, you’re the nurse. You know more than I do.”
“I’m not a nurse. I’m a healer, and none of my powers have worked to heal him. I’ve kept him from the brink of death but that’s all.” Alice walked over to me and reached for my hand.
If it was true that Seuss gave his life for mine, the least I could do was try whatever she thought it was that would work. I rested my hand in hers, and we walked closer to the bed. I could feel the cold radiating from his body. It made my skin crawl as if it were running toward warmth. Being so close to whatever ailed him made me feel sick, too.
“I can heal you, but I can’t heal him.” Warmth moved over my body like the first sip of hot cocoa on a teeth chattering day. I exhaled. She could heal me. “You’ll have to wait until this is over, though, before I can do that again.”
I took a moment before I nodded. That feeling wasn’t something you wanted to ever know. Whatever she’d been doing stopped, and the horrid feelings rushed back in. Alice placed my hand on his, and his eyes opened briefly. He looked into my eyes, and for a moment I knew what it felt like to be whole. It was warm and cozy, different than anything I’d ever felt. My pulse quickened. I sniffed the air, and the aroma of cognac and amber mixed with earth heightened the atmosphere. It was him. He had that scent that I craved. I leaned closer needing to inhale more of it.
A rope I couldn’t comprehend to be real, but a figment of my imagination slowly began to wind around my arm. The rope’s end slid across my hand into his, escalating the rhythm of my heart. Warmth spread over my skin where the rope wound. I felt like a predator about to pounce Seuss. I wanted him so badly that my soul ached. The moment that the rope began to wrap along his arm the tension lessened, and I could feel the essence of Seuss as it entered my body. He invaded my mind first, and I closed my eyes momentarily to revel in the sensations. Satisfaction on a completely different level washed over me until suddenly Seuss jerked the rope, pulling it from my grasp, burning my wrist and palm.
I screamed, and Alice pulled my hand from Seuss. I blinked to see him still asleep, no signs of rope, yet the burn was angrily visible on my skin. Alice rushed to wash the wound with cool water before she mended the skin with a balm.
“It will only heal the outer skin, the rest will have to be cured by your body. You were burned by magic.”
“What happened?!” I exclaimed. It hurt like the dickens, and the only response she had was that it was magic. Why in the hell did Seuss purposely burn me?
“It was a binding spell to bind your souls the way that a mating would. You could cure him faster that way. Seuss just rejected that idea.”
The flinch must’ve been noticeable because sympathy stared back at me. How can my mate, someone that is destined for me, reject me? Pain from the rejection stung more than the damn burn did. He could rot in that bed for all I cared.
Alice began wrapping my wound. As soon as she was finished I was headed home. Alpha or not, I wasn’t dealing with his foolery.
“I need a taxi to take me home,” I explained. I’d had enough of this whatever it was. It was time to go home where the people were normal and not wolves and witches.
“If you need to lay down there are plenty of places here that you can rest. This land is yours. You’re his mate.”
“No! News flash! In case you just missed that scenario, he clearly doesn’t want to be mated to me. Who can blame him? We don’t even know each other.”
“Your souls do. Your hearts. Justice, he needs you,” Alice pleaded.
“And while he gets the little wife and his strength back, what do I get? What does this mean for me?” I yelled all my frustrations directing them at her. Seuss wasn’t around to take the ass chewing.
“Whatever you want it to mean. Justice, you can lay down and take whatever is thrown at you, or you can make this an opportunity.”
“Did it work?”
Startled, Alice and I turned to see a tall man approaching us from the hall. Maddox was big like Seuss, but his steps were quiet and careful. His hair was long and swept his broad shoulders as he moved. His jeans were worn and dusty like his soiled work boots. The sleeveless black t-shirt on his back wasn’t much better. The hopeful expression on his face made me look back at the resting Seuss.
“No. He rejected the bond again,” Alice said.
“Again?!” I shouted. “When was the first time?”
Maddox closed the door behind him and walked