Authors: Kellie McAllen
Tags: #Teen Paranormal Romance
Soulsearch (Teen Paranormal Romance Series) (The Soulmate Series: Teen Paranormal Romance Book 2)
Copyright © 2015 Kellie McAllen
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review.
Trademarked names appear throughout this book. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, names are used in an editorial fashion, with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
about
Soulsearch
Just because you’re soulmates doesn’t mean you’re meant to be together.
Life has not been easy for Paige Donovan, Rachel and Rider’s best friend and confidante and the only person who knows their secret.
Of course she's thrilled with their fairytale love story, but when is it her turn to be the princess?
When Rider decides to go searching for answers, Paige is happy to help, especially when the quest involves hunky Zach Pasquetti.
He seems like her knight in shining armor, but is Zach the villain or is he the prince?
Cover art by Melody Pond
http://melodyypond.weebly.com/
chapter one
Rachel and Rider lay on Rachel’s bed, their arms, legs and lips intwined and their school books scattered on the floor below them where they had fallen minutes after the pair had stacked them on the bed with the intention of studying.
Like they usually did after school, the two had gone to Rachel’s house to do their homework and spend the evening hanging out, watching their favorite TV shows and telling each other every little detail about their day.
Since they now lived separate lives, not knowing what the other was doing every moment was practically unbearable.
Rachel and Rider were soulmates.
Not just two people who fell in love and knew they were meant to be together — their souls had cohabited in Rachel’s body for 16 years, from before birth until a near-death experience ripped Rider’s soul from Rachel’s body.
Miraculously, Rachel’s broken body was revived and Rider’s soul took residence in another form, as Cameron Wilson, a teenage boy whose lifeless body had become an empty shell, kept alive only by machines, since his soul had already passed on.
The incredible tragedy had become their greatest gift, however, allowing Rachel and Rider’s relationship to blossom from inseparable friendship into all-consuming love.
Although it was maddening for them to be apart from each other, the opportunity to love each other this new way was worth all the pain of their separation.
Their passion for each other felt as new and fresh as the thrill of first love, but as strong and committed as lifelong partners.
The chance to touch each other, hold each other, and kiss like lovers was an overwhelming pleasure they had never imagined they could experience and the newness did not seem to be wearing off.
Every minute apart was pure torture, but every moment together was ecstasy.
It was easy to see why their brief moments of privacy were always spent in each other’s arms.
Those precious few hours between school and Rachel’s parents’ return from work were a tiny window of opportunity to be alone together and had become a little taste of heaven.
The school work could wait till the bustle of family time invaded their fantasy world.
For now, Rachel marveled in the feel of Rider’s hands on her skin, his soft lips on her mouth, his warm breath on her cheek.
She ached to join her body completely with his, to be held so close their bodies fused, their skin melting into one flesh.
So strange, to feel that way about the person who had until recently been just that, one with her body.
But this was better, she thought, holding him impossibly closer.
The intense desire to absorb him into herself and the intoxicating feel of his flesh pressed tightly against hers.
Rachel could hardly breath for wanting him so badly.
Their intimacy was interrupted by the sound of Rachel’s cell phone, blaring out the “Best Friend” by Harry Nilsson ringtone that indicated a call from Paige Donovan, Rachel’s BFF since kindergarten and the only person in the world who knew and believed the real story of Rider/Cameron.
“Let me guess, you two losers are snogging in your bedroom right about now, aren’t you?”
Paige said, in lieu of hello.
“Snogging?” Rachel replied, untangling herself from Rider and putting the phone on speaker so she could straighten her clothes and hair.
Rider took the opportunity to tidy their school books and the bed covers so it would not be immediately obvious when Rachel’s mom arrived that they had indeed been “snogging” instead of studying.
“It’s British slang for kissing, duh!” Paige explained with mock condescension.
“And you know this because…..you’ve been reading way too many online gossip articles about the One Direction boys?” Rachel retorted.
“Ha ha.
Very funny.
You’re the one with the hots for Louis Tomlinson, aren’t you?”
Rachel did have a bit of a crush on the oldest One Direction band member, but only because his shaggy brown hair and blue eyes reminded her of Rider.
A little thrill coursed through her when she realized she didn’t know what Cameron’s singing voice sounded like.
Having spent every moment of the first 16 years of their life together, Rachel knew everything about Rider, but Cameron was a stranger to her.
It was hard at first to accept that this body now belonged to Rider.
Rider’s voice had sounded different in her head and the face she pictured when she thought of him was nothing like the face he now wore.
This one was better, actually.
Cameron had a boyish handsomeness that made Rachel weak at the knees, but unlike most of the other good-looking boys she had met, Rider was too humble to recognize his own attractiveness.
He had an adorable habit of dropping his head when he talked to her and peeking out from under the hair that fell over his eyes.
He also had a tendency to gaze longingly at her, caressing every inch of her body with his eyes in a way that made her feel like the most desirable girl on the face of the earth.
“Only cuz he looks like my super hot boyfriend, who I was passionately KISSING when you so rudely interrupted,” Rachel teased.
“Snogging sounds disgusting, by the way.”
“I don’t care what you call it, I’d just like to do it,” Paige admitted pathetically, pulling on a strand of her curly black hair.
Life had not been easy for Paige as Rachel’s best friend.
Rachel had tried to convince her classmates of the existence of Rider years before and Paige had stood up for her.
Consequently, they both had earned a reputation as weird and crazy and had been ostracized from their peers ever since.
When Rachel moved 250 miles from Allendale, Michigan to Indianapolis, Indiana several months ago, Paige had been left all alone.
“I didn’t call to complain about my love life, though, I called to invite you two to my birthday party!” Paige quickly reverted to her normal happy-go-lucky self.
“Name the time and the place and we’ll be there,” Rachel promised, feeling confident to speak for Rider, too.
Rachel had revealed the truth about Rider to Paige when they were only five years old, and with childlike faith Paige had accepted him, sight unseen.
Rider appreciated Paige because she talked to him — not just to Rachel, but directly to him, including him in the relationship like there was no doubt he was real.
It never seemed to bother her that she couldn’t see his face or hear his voice.
Rachel spoke his thoughts aloud to Paige when they were together, and Paige had come to know Rider’s personality as well as she knew Rachel’s.
Paige and Rider had a similar tendency towards sass and sarcasm and they played off each other hilariously.
“Next weekend,” Paige replied excitedly.
“Come down Friday after school if you want and stay the whole weekend.
My parents are cool with it.
Do you think Cameron’s will be, Rider?”
Rider wasn’t sure about that.
Taking over someone else’s body had come with a unique set of complications.
Outwardly, he was Cameron Wilson and he lived with Cameron’s family and pretended to be the son they knew and loved.
Cameron’s memory vanished when his soul departed, though, and Rider knew very little about the person he was pretending to be.
His parents believed he had amnesia as a result of his accident, so they tried to be understanding, but he knew they mourned the loss of their son even though they didn’t realize he was truly gone.
Rider was constantly surprising them with his un-Cameron-like behavior, and their family dynamic was so different from Rachel’s that Rider never quite knew what to expect from them.
“I will use my charm and wit to persuade them,” Rider promised hopefully.
He really was eager to see Paige again.
The three chatted for a few more minutes before Rachel sensed that something was on Rider’s mind.
“Okay, spill it, Rider.
I can tell you’re stewing about something.”
Rider looked earnestly at Rachel hoping she would understand as he began describing the idea he had been contemplating for several weeks.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened to me, and I’ve been trying to figure out why it happened,” Rider began, his excitement growing with each sentence.
“I didn’t have a clue before, why we were the way we were.
I guess I just assumed we were supposed to be twins or something and I just never grew my own body.
But after the accident, I wondered.”
Rider’s face lit up as he explained his current theory.
“I think I left your body when your heart stopped on the operating table, and I believe I entered Cameron’s body because his soul was already gone, but his body was still alive.
It was all about the timing.
And proximity.
He was in the same place at the same time.
So I started wondering, maybe I was in a different body first, maybe my own body, but it died, and somehow I jumped into yours before you were born!”