9781618854704HolidayGemBeckNC (2 page)

The sound of a plane’s
engine broke through Gemma’s thoughts. She watched as a sleek Lear jet landed
just a few feet from the hangar in which she stood. After the plane taxied into
position, the door opened and a Valendite Breed male stepped out. Gemma
recognized him from her sisters’ Pronouncements but couldn’t remember which he
was. All Valendites had a presence about them that overwhelmed Gemma and she’d
stayed away from them. Yet she couldn't ignore the pull she now felt to be near
them. Gemma was greedy for a better view of this magnificent man. Power exuded
from him as he stepped down the stairs and walked with a long stride towards
her.

His white shirt tugged
across his chest under his leather bomber jacket when he reached into his back
pocket for something Gemma couldn’t see. When he brought it to his ear, she
realized he was talking on a cell phone. Gemma stood waiting as he stood near
her now–his eyes fixated on her own-as he finished the call. She didn’t know whom
he was talking to but she did understand the mission didn’t go as expected.
After a whole lot of swearing, he closed his phone with a frustrated breath.

His glassy green eyes
continued to take her in. Gemma wanted to hide somehow. She was all too aware
of her inadequacies when a man like him looked at her. Despite desperation to
run her fingers between the buttons of his shirt and feel his skin, Gemma
wasn’t good with small talk, or well, any kind of conversation. She was so used
to being alone in her research, she found people quite perplexing.

“You’re Gemma?” the man
asked as he reached down for her duffle bag on the ground next to her.

“Yes. Sorry. I was
waiting for you to get off the phone,” Gemma stretched out her hand to shake
his.

He didn’t seem to
notice as he continued speaking, “Change of plans. We need to hold up here
another few days. I’ve got something to take care of before I can fly us back,”
he explained.

“Wait. I need to be
with my family for Winter Solstice.” Adrenaline was coursing through her blood.
Gemma didn’t like changes in her plans. Plus, she’d never been away from her
family at Winter Solstice. She felt her breath become labored. The
overwhelming, crushing feeling in her lungs grew stronger and she tried to
reach for her duffle. She needed her inhaler. However, he was walking too
quickly for her to keep up. And she didn’t know his name to call for him to
stop. Gemma’s head began spinning and then the ringing in her ears started. She
stopped walking, bent at the waist and attempted to take deep breaths but her
emotions were tilting the scale. There was no way she’d win this battle. Her
panic attack was in full go mode. She went to her knees and a strangled sound
escaped as she tried to call out to him.

* * * *

“What the fuck?” Seamus turned to see Gemma sink to the ground. Using
his Breed speed, he quickly moved to her and determined she was breathing. He
had no idea what happened and without Donovan, he was on his own.

This entire day had gone to hell starting with the botched extraction.
They’d been set up somehow-Seamus still didn’t know how-and they needed to get
back to the site a.s.a.p. Madden was sending a team as back-up and until then,
Seamus was put on babysitting duty. Now it seemed his charge was going to cause
issues too. Nothing had gone right today.

Seamus knew something was off when he landed on the secluded airstrip
and their Serbian contact hadn’t met them. He’d wanted to abort the mission
right then but Donovan insisted on moving forward. They batted the risks around
and determined they were minor. Then Donovan moved out and Seamus had waited
over three hours for Donovan to return. Three hours was one full hour longer
than the mission had required. Protocol dictated he call in to TEU.

“Seamus, talk to me,” Caedon answered the phone at the TEU Comm Center.

“Something is off. Our contact wasn’t at the airstrip. We decided
Donovan would move ahead but we’re pushing
an hour
overtime.” Seamus reported the situation in a calm voice despite the pacing he
was doing up and down the aisle in the plane.

“Okay. Hold on, Seam. I’m patching Madden in.”

Seamus could hear the line open and Madden’s quiet curse before he
spoke, “Seamus, what do you know?”

“Only what I told Caedon. Our contact wasn’t here. We determined the
risk was minimal. Donovan moved forward with the extraction. He’s one hour late
on the return.” Seamus recounted everything he knew, which was jack shit. His
nerves were fried. Donovan and he had been on hundreds of missions together but
they’d never returned from one without the other. He wasn’t going to start now.

“Caedon is pulling up satellite of the compound Donovan would’ve
infiltrated. You need to get out of there in case he was tracked. Get in the
sky.”

“I can’t leave him, Madden,” Seamus implored Madden to reconsider. His
response was as close to a
no
as
Seamus had ever dared give Madden.

“I will not lose two men. Let’s get you safe and then we’ll figure out
how the hell we get to Donovan.” Madden’s voice turned icy. There was no
argument to be had. And fuck if he didn’t know Madden was right anyway. He sent
out a prayer to the Goddess that Donovan could hold on until Seamus got back to
him.

Now he had to call Madden for the second time today to tell him another
thing had been fucked up. This was so not his day. Lifting his phone to his ear
while holding this woman in his arms, Seamus pushed a single button and waited.

“Seamus, talk to me,” Caedon answered the phone at the TEU Comm Center
as he always did.

“I’ve got Gemma. When I told her we needed to lie low here for a while,
she flipped out on me. Now she’s collapsed. Her breaths are shallow as if she’s
having trouble breathing. She seems nearly catatonic. I don’t think she even
sees me. I don’t have a frickin’ clue what to do here, man.”

“Hold up, Seam,” Caedon put Seamus on hold. The line went quiet and
Seamus looked down at the woman he held in his arms.

Gemma was beautiful; a redheaded Snow White with the most perfect
porcelain skin he’d ever seen. She had none of the freckles either of her other
sisters he’d gotten to know had. Her lips were heart-shaped, perfectly formed
and a deep shade of red. Suddenly he wanted to touch them and know how they
would feel against him. He’d had hundreds of women and none had ever spoken to
him the way she did. Of course, he’d made certain none of the women he’d taken
were from the
Circle of Magdalena
.

Maybe that’s what was different about Gemma. She was one of the holy
ones, one of the women his parents had taught him to cherish as angels above
all other beings. Certainly, it was how his own father treated his mother. The
Circle of Magdalena
sustained the
Valendite Breed. They were a treasure. Clearly, that’s what had him so shaken.

Caedon came back on the line, “Seam, Tomas is on the line. He’s medic
trained. And I’ve located Eloise to see if she could help.”

“Okay. What do they know?”

Tomas spoke this time. “According to Eloise, Gemma has panic attacks. When
anything surprises her or something throws off her routine. All this makes
sense given the situation she’s in now.”

“Why the fuck wasn’t this in the file on her?” Seamus demanded.

“It was a light report. She wasn’t the main objective in the mission so
we gave you base info. Shit, we didn’t even have this in our files here. It was
Eloise who filled us in,” Caedon explained.

“So what do I do?” Seamus focused on the fix. He needed to make her
better and get moving.

“Place your palm on her chest and describe her breathing to me,” Tomas
instructed.

Seamus looked down at Gemma and took a deep breath before he placed his
hand on her chest to feel her breaths. Her body was cool to the touch, which
was alarming since
his own
body temperature should be
lower than hers.

“She’s cold, bro,” Seamus told Tomas.

“Not good. Is she responsive?

“She’s breathing but otherwise she’s limp, almost relaxed,” Seamus reported.
He felt her heartbeat below his palm and blew out the breath he’d been holding.
“Her breathing is steady but shallow. It’s almost as if she’s wheezing.”

“Okay. Here’s my guess…”

Seamus cut Tomas off, “What the fuck?
Your guess?
Let’s not guess here. I need to make sure she’s okay and get the hell out of
here to a secure location.” He nearly shouted in frustration at Tomas. He
turned his eyes to the heavens and said a prayer to the Goddess as his mother
had taught him to do as a child.

“Okay, bro, wrong word. What I meant to say was her powers likely put
her into a state of rest when the attack overloaded her system.”

“Good. That’s good, right?” Seamus asked before he looked down at Gemma
again. Her eyes were open. Glimmering back at him were the most remarkable
cinnamon brown eyes he’d ever seen. “Fuck.”

“What’s wrong, Seamus?” Caedon’s voice rang over the line in full alert.

“Sh-she’s my mate.” Seamus stared at Gemma but he could tell she wasn’t
really seeing him despite her eyes opening. His heart clenched. It was more
imperative than ever that he make her well.

“Seamus? Seamus? Damn it, Seamus, answer me,” Caedon’s voice echoed over
the line. He wanted them to go away now. He wanted to be with his mate. Fuck,
he had a mate.
His own woman to cherish.
His own angel.
His mate.

“Seamus, we need you to move. She’ll be fine. Eloise contacted Chiara,
their mother, who said this is how Gemma has learned to cope with her episodes.
Do you hear me? Dammit. He’s not responding.” Seamus heard Tomas’s voice but
couldn’t respond. His throat was clogged with emotion. He was holding his mate
in his arms.

“Seamus, now this is an order. Talk to me right now.” Madden spoke and
Seamus immediately responded to the order.

“Madden, she’s my mate.”

“It’s a terrifying feeling, I know. There has to be a lot going on in
that mind of yours but here’s what I want you to do. Tomas says she can travel.
She’ll come out of this on her own in time. It’s a coping mechanism, that’s
all,” Madden’s voice softened.

 
“Her soul sin is greed. According
to Eloise, her greed has manifested itself in a need for knowledge,” Caedon
jumped in to explain, “This is good for her as a researcher. It’s not so good
in everyday life when she can’t always have knowledge of foresight. Chiara’s
sheltered her a bit hoping to minimize her panic attacks but sometimes they
happen.”

“She’s taught herself to cope using her powers. She’s pulled inward
which is why she seems unresponsive. You just keep her warm and relaxed and
she’ll come around,” Tomas added.

“Okay. You need to move. You’ll be secure at the Sinster home until
Nicolaus and Gage get there. They’ve already headed out.
You
good, bro?”
Madden’s focus on the task helped pull Seamus out of his
shock.

“Got it.
ETA to the Sinster home is fifteen minutes. Once I’ve got her secure,
I’ll check in,” Seamus reported before disconnecting the call. Never again
would he think nothing more could happen to an already fucked-up day. This was
not how he imagined first holding his mate in his arms.

Chapter Two

Seamus picked Gemma up
from the back seat and carried her up the front steps to her parents’ home.
Surrounded by acres of vineyards with only the long-time workers anywhere close
by, this was the safest place for them as they awaited further instruction. Now
that he realized she was his mate, the stakes had just been raised.

Wondering if she would
respond to him now, Seamus asked Gemma, “Where can I put you that you’ll be
most comfortable while I look around?”

“On the sofa please.” Gemma
was still getting her bearings. Her senses must be dulled because he didn’t
think she was noticing the connection. Yet every time Seamus touched her, his
skin was nearly electric. He needed to ease her from the fog after that panic
attack. Shit, this wasn’t something at which he was good. Now, jokes he could
handle but this-this taking care of someone crap-was so Donovan. It’s why
sharing women had been their thing. It was the only way Seamus could deal with
intimacy. Donovan filtered the emotion. Only now, Seamus realized they hadn’t
considered once they found a mate, and what that would mean for their
arrangement.

Seamus thought about
what Donovan would do. He would start by talking to her. He’d get to know her
and put her at ease. Right, Seamus could do that. “So I bet you didn’t think
you’d be back here so soon?”

Gemma looked up from
where she sat on the sofa. Her eyes were hidden by the long bangs that fringed
her porcelain face. Now that he’d seen those cinnamon eyes though, he couldn’t
get enough. She was his mate except, for whatever
reason,
Gemma didn’t seem to know it.