Free Chasing Payne by Chantel Seabrook

doesn't matter now. You made a choice. She's your mate.”
    “Lion's choice, not mine!”
    “Jacob?” Lora's faint voice left Chase's angry retort hanging in the air like a pair of dirty socks.
    The pain in her eyes burned him to the core. She'd heard what he'd said, and the rejection wrapped around her like a cocoon.
    Jacob was beside her in less than a second and pulled her against his chest, but her eyes never left Chase. Her trembling fingers reached up and touched the mark on her neck. She winced, and Chase knew it wasn't from the pain.
    He needed to speak with her. Alone. Explain what he did. Why he did it. Already he could see her closing herself off.
    An unnerving need to make things right gripped him.
    “Leave us.” His demand came out sounding more like a roar. He took a deep breath to calm the animal within him. “I need to speak to my mate. Alone.”

Chapter 10
    She was his mate?
Chase's words ricocheted within her head. He had acknowledged it in the very breath that screamed he didn't want her.
Lion's choice, not mine.
    Her fingers trembled as they ran across the puncture marks on her neck.
    Her brother held her in a protective embrace, and she shook her head against Jacob's chest. “I don't understand?”
    “I'll let Chase explain everything,” Jacob said, releasing her and moving off the bed. His cool hand fluttered against her forehead, and he gave her a sympathetic smile, before standing. “I'll come back later. Call me if you need anything.”
    She looked at Austin, who stood stone still in the corner of the room. He readjusted his stance and looked away when he caught her gaze. His brown eyes filled with a strange mixture of anger and unease, before turning silently away and following Jacob out of the room.
    Biting her tongue, she fought the urge to call them back.
    Chase stood at the end of the bed watching her.
    “You marked me?” she asked shakily, rubbing the tender spot where he had bitten her. The vein pulsated and throbbed like a beacon warning of hazardous conditions ahead.
    He just stared, studying her closely. He opened his mouth to speak, then shut it. After another long minute of silence, he nodded, and looked away.
    For a brief foolish second she allowed pure freaking joy to course through her. He had marked her. Made her his. The only man she had ever loved, ever wanted, had chosen her. Well, his lion had chosen her, but that was something. Wasn't it?
    “Do you remember what happened?”
    She shook her head and tried to put the fuzzy pieces of the night back together. “We were dancing…” Oh god, she remembered now. Pain, dizziness, and then nothing. Humiliation flooded her. “I blacked out.”
    “The infection in your arm spread. You were seizing. I did what I had to do.”
    “What you had to do,” she repeated weakly, looking down at her arm. The wound was almost fully healed now.
    “I'm sorry,” he said, frowning.
    Her breath became uneven and every muscle stiffened. What was he sorry for? Saving her? Making her his mate? She was a fool for believing, even for a second, that he would want her.
    “You're sorry?”
    His frown deepened and he scratched his jaw. “We'll make it work.”
    “Right.” She tried to play it off with a fake smile, but the resentment stained her voice. “Thank you for what you did, but I don't expect you to try and make this…” She waved her hands in the air. “
Work.
”
    She pushed the covers back and swung her legs over the side of the bed.
    “What are you doing?”
    The room spun when she tried to stand, but she pushed on his chest when he grabbed her arms to steady her. “I'm leaving.”
    “Like hell you are.”
    “Let me go, Chase.”
    “Not until we figure things out.”
    “There's nothing to
figure out
,” she said, her emotions practically strangling her. She let out a deep, uneven breath and blinked back the tears that threatened to spill over her cheek. “You saved my life and I'm grateful for that. But that's all it