Free Parallel Fire by Deidre Knight

against the table. “But I feel the weight of my position, my lord.” He turned in his chair, meeting Jared’s gaze soberly. “I have failed you. If you wish for my resignation, you shall have it.”
    Jared frowned, tilting his head sideways. “You have always confused me, Nevin. Your intensity, your seriousness. Now, more than ever. Anna will make a splendid lifemate for you. What is your real concern?”
    Nevin stared into his king’s eyes, and for the very first time understood his real fears about loving Anna. “I have no control with her, not even an ounce of it.”
    His queen, returning from the kitchen, began to laugh. “Nevin, you aren’t supposed to have control with your mate. That’s the whole point.”
    â€œBut it’s terrifying,” he admitted, bowing his head solemnly.
    â€œThat,” Jared agreed with a laugh of his own, “is also the point. And if I were you, I’d go to her quickly—at least based on my own experience.”
    â€œYou are certain, my lord?” Nevin searched his king’s face and saw nothing but support and genuine happiness.
    â€œWith our blessing.” Jared rose from his seat, carrying his plate with him. “But don’t blurt out the part about the babies until you’ve had the chance to truly make up. Just a piece of advice from my marital career so far.”
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    Nevin took the connecting hallways and elevator, but apparently his lifemate had taken the trail outside, heading back up to the lodge. In exasperation, he exited the lower area of the base, hit the trail and began hiking up the mountain at an aggressive rate. The remaining snow along the mountain path was packed, so there wasn’t any making out her boot prints; when he didn’t reach her, he punched at his communicator angrily. “I need the location of Lieutenant Anna Draekus,” he commanded.
    He expected her to answer, but the only reply he got was that she’d left the base around approximately fifteen minutes earlier—and this was not new intel.
    Nothing at all came over the comm from his lifemate. “I’m still her commanding officer, and I’ll be damned if she won’t answer me,” he muttered, the former glow from the whiskey morphing into irritability.
    â€œLieutenant Anna Draekus, your position please?” he called into the comm, but she didn’t answer at all.
    Damn it, all he wanted was to find his mate, to make up with her, to lay with her, to tell her the deepest secrets of his heart. And he wanted all of that—every last bit of it—right now. Not later, not another day, but now.
    Sinking to the ground, he calculated his position in regards to love; he and Anna were forever tied together by the bond that they’d formed. However, she could choose to shut him out forever—even though he had to admit it didn’t seem much like her personality. Still, the thought of never holding her again stabbed at his most primal, base instincts. He tossed back his head and howled his need for her, giving in to the dizzying lusts that kept pummeling through his body.
    No answer came from the woods, not that he expected it would. He stared upward at the moon and released a melancholy, plaintive cry for her…still no sound in return. Would she even know his call if she heard it? It was personal, intimate, memorized over time between lovers.
    Personal, like their energy, he thought, his mood instantly brightening. Oh, yes, he had a brilliant idea of how to win Anna back. Opening his palm, he allowed a glowing sphere of his power to form until it swirled beneath his two hands. Working it upward toward his lips, he leaned forward and whispered her name into the fiery orb. Over and over, he whispered “Anna… Anna…” Infusing his energy with all the love he felt for her. Then, raising his hands high, he released the energy into the night woods and