Bound by Song (Cauld Ane Series) Read online

  “I like your family, sweetheart. You’re very lucky.”

  She nodded. “I am, I agree. On many levels.”

  He kissed her once more before the rest of the group returned with coffee. And as soon as he was able, he stole Grace away for the conversation he was both dreading and looking forward to.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  GRACE SAT DOWN on one of the sofas in Max’s hotel suite. Her heart raced with anticipation as he handed her a glass of wine and sat facing her. He looked petrified, and that made Grace a little more nervous than she would have liked. “Okay, so what’s the big secret?” she asked.

  He raised an eyebrow. “First, did anything strange happen last night?”

  “What do you mean? You were with me.”

  Max shook his head. “No. After you went to sleep.”

  She shifted in her seat, not sure how much to share.

  “Tell me, love. It’s okay.”

  “Well, I had some really vivid dreams.” She cleared her throat and shook her head as flashes of the more sexy parts came to her mind.

  Max took her wine glass from her and set it next to his so he could grasp both her hands. “You and I riding in a meadow and then making love by the water?”

  She gasped and pulled her hands from his. “Yes. How did you know?”

  “Because I gave you those visions.”

  “What?” Grace let out a nervous giggle. “What do you mean?”

  “In the dream, do you remember sitting by the water and looking down at your hand?”

  She nodded.

  “Was there something on your finger?”

  “Yes. A really expensive-looking ring. It had really cool filigree or something on it.”

  “This one?” he asked as he pulled out a velvet box and opened the lid. Nestled in the deep blue velvet sat an intricate ring of woven white and yellow gold with a diamond the size of Grace’s head. It was the ring she’d dreamed of the night before in vivid detail. She let out a squeak and rose to her feet.

  “Six carats is not quite as big as your head, love.”

  She gasped. “How did you know what I was thinking? And how did you know about the ring?”

  “Because I can read your mind and I can speak into your mind…and I gave you the dream.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  I can speak into your mind.

  “You cannot.”

  I am right now.

  “How are you doing that? Why aren’t your lips moving?” she asked.

  He smiled. Because I can speak to you telepathically.

  “No you can’t.”

  He chuckled. “Yes, I can.”

  She shook her head and stepped away from him when he stood. “This is impossible.”

  “Don’t freak out on me, love,” he begged. “Take it a moment at a time, okay? You can ask me anything you like.”

  “What am I thinking right now?”

  He smiled. “Nothing.”

  “Give me a second,” she groaned.

  Unicorn farts.

  He chuckled. “Unicorn farts?”

  “Lucky guess.”

  “Right. Because unicorn farts is so normal to think of.”

  She frowned. “None of this falls under the category of normal, Max.”

  “Sorry, baby.”

  She turned away from him. Four score and seven years ago…um…inalienable rights? Dang it, I should have paid more attention in history class.

  “Four score and seven years ago,” he repeated. “Yes, you should have paid more attention. Even I know the rest of the Gettysburg Address, and inalienable rights wasn’t in that speech.”

  Grace gasped and faced him again. “How are you doing that?”

  “I know this is a lot to take in,” Max said. “But will you come and sit down so I can at least try to explain?”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. “No.”

  “Give me some time, love. All will be revealed.”

  “You’re scaring me,” she admitted, finally looking at him again.

  He closed the distance between them and took her hands. “I know, baby, but just stick with me and we’ll sort it out.”

  She calmed at his touch and felt like her heart was beating differently. What she couldn’t understand was why.

  “Your heartbeat is slowing to match mine,” he explained.

  “What?”

  “Your body is so in tune with mine that your heartbeat is slowing to match mine. It’s how it works.”

  She groaned in frustration. “How what works?”

  He pulled her onto the sofa, making sure they stayed connected. “I am from an ancient people. One that has clans scattered over a few select parts of the world, but our origins are Icelandic, with one or two of the older clans from Scotland.”

  “Okay,” she said, slowly. “I don’t know what any of that means. What are you, exactly?”

  “We are Cauld Ane, which loosely translates to ‘cold one.’ We are of Viking heritage and we live much, much longer than humans and can do things humans can’t.”

  “I feel like you’re reading from a script.”

  “Sorry,” Max said. “Pepper thought it would help if I gave you some back story.”

  “Who’s Pepper?”

  “She’s Connall’s ma—ah, wife. Con’s my closest friend. Pepper’s American and used to be human.”

  “Used to—what?”

  Max grimaced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to blurt that out.”

  “What do you mean, ‘used to be human’?” Grace tried to pull her hands away. “Are you saying you’re not human?”

  “Don’t pull away, love. I need you to know I’m telling you the truth.”

  Grace stared at him. She knew he wasn’t lying. She could feel it in her bones, even though she didn’t know how that was possible.

  “It’s because we’re connected.”

  “Stop doing that!” she snapped.

  “Sorry.” He smiled. “Does it help to know you can read my mind?”

  “No.” She wrinkled her nose. “Mostly because I don’t think I want to read your mind.”

  Max chuckled. “Fair enough.”

  “Are you…um…trying to tell me that you’re like a vampire or a witch or something like that?”

  He shook his head. “Not even close. We are of a different race, just not human.”

  “Can you read everyone’s minds? Talk to everyone…telepathically?”

  “No. Just our mates.”

  “Mates?”

  “You’re my mate, Grace. The one and only person created just for me.”

  She tried to pull away again, but he held fast. “Please, Max. I need to think.”

  He let her go, but she could tell he wasn’t happy about it.

  Grace crossed her arms, rubbing them for warmth. “How am…ah…how was I created just for you?”

  “That’s something I can’t explain. When we turn twenty-five, we have reached our ár mökunar, ah, mating year, and our mate is known to us…well, they are if we are on the same continent. I can only assume the universe chooses them for us.”

  “Or God,” she countered.

  Max smiled. “Yes, sweetheart, perhaps it is God.”

  “So, how long have you known that I was your mate?”

  “From the moment I saw you.”

  “But you didn’t know I was your mate until then? You didn’t meet someone else you thought might be your mate before now?”

  He shook his head. “Until they invented airplanes, I didn’t travel outside of Scotland, so I always wondered who you’d be. I’ve waited a very long time for you.”

  “So, you knew I was your mate in Scotland—wait, what? What does the invention of airplanes have to do with anything?” she asked.

  “I don’t sail well, so until then, I didn’t get out much.”

  “But planes were invented in the early nineteen hundreds. Are you trying to tell me you were around when the airplane was invented?”

&nb
sp; “Well—”

  “You can’t be much older than me, right?” she interrupted. “Maybe thirty?” She asked the question, but knew in her gut she wasn’t going to like the answer.

  “I’m older than thirty.”

  “Thirty-five?”

  “No, Grace, I’m not thirty-five.”

  “But you said you didn’t form the band in the eighties,” she continued.

  “Baby, I see you trying to spin this in your mind, and I want to give you time to process, I really do, but you need to know the truth. All of it.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know if I want to know the truth.”

  Max cocked his head. “You’re either going to hear it from me, or you’ll read it in my mind when you’re not prepared for it. Which would be easier for you?”

  She wrinkled her nose again. “Neither.”

  Max gave her a gentle smile. “I was born in 1415—”

  Grace raised her hands. “Stop.”

  He reached his hand out. “If you touch me, you’ll know that I’m telling you the truth.”

  She shook her head as she stood, trying for distance.

  “Grace,” he said, his voice sounding annoyed. “You are not this person.”

  “What person?”

  “The person who hides behind ignorance.”

  “You don’t know,” she grumbled.

  “I do know.” He waved his hand. “Come here, love. Let’s hash this out.”

  She blinked back tears, overwhelmed with the information, even though she knew it wasn’t all of it.

  Max sighed and rose to his feet. “Baby, come on. I’m here. Don’t be frightened. I’ve got you,” he whispered, and wrapped his arms around her.

  Grace nodded into his chest. “I don’t know why I’m fighting this. You know…you. Your story. Us. I believe you. But that’s stupid. I shouldn’t believe you, because people don’t live to be six-hundred-some-odd years old, right? And certainly not people who look in their twenties. You should be shriveled up like a prune and near death.”

  Max chuckled as he rubbed her back. “You have an extreme streak of logic, sweetheart, which makes it difficult for you to see something illogical, but it also makes you able to call bullshit, bullshit, so it’s a double-edged sword. This is why I want you to be able to feel me. You need to know I’m telling you the truth.”

  “When you say feel me, what do you mean?”

  Max pulled her back onto the sofa. “I don’t know if I can explain it. It’s like a vibration. A “knowing” of sorts. Like Niall. He can feel his mate, knows she’s here somewhere. In the States, or perhaps Canada. North America, basically. Because we’re on the same continent, our hearts reach for each other.”

  “Like magnets?” she asked.

  “Actually, yes, that’s probably a great analogy. Once magnets are close enough to one another, they connect.”

  “Okay, so if you were here ten years ago, why didn’t you feel me?” she asked.

  He sighed. “It wasn’t quite ten years ago, actually. We were in the US the second week of January, 2005. I can’t explain why I didn’t feel you. You would have been about sixteen or seventeen?”

  “I can explain it,” Grace said.

  “Oh?”

  She nodded. “I bet that was when Charlotte and I went with a group from church to Thailand to help with the relief from a tsunami.”

  Max scowled. “And your parents allowed you to go somewhere so dangerous?”

  “Yes. It was fine, Max. People needed help and we were perfectly safe.” She rolled her eyes. “I remember it was right after New Year’s when we left, because Chuck complained about it the entire time we were gone.”

  “Why did she complain?”

  “A couple of days before we left, she saw some film about an Egyptian plane that had crashed into the ocean, killing everybody on board—I don’t remember how many, but it was a lot. They were coming up on the first anniversary of the accident so they’d made a documentary of it. She managed to get on the plane with me, but said she’d tempted fate and wasn’t going to do it again. No more flying over oceans. So much for our grand plans to see the world together.”

  Max chuckled. “Perhaps she should meet Niall.”

  “Why? Niall doesn’t like to fly either?”

  “He hates to travel, period.”

  “Is that why you don’t tour much?”

  Max nodded. “Aye. He’s offered to quit and help us find another drummer, but he’s always been the drummer for Fallen Crown, and it just wouldn’t seem right without him.”

  “I totally get it.” She glanced up at him. “Did you really give me that dream?”

  He nodded.

  Grace rolled her eyes. “Was it necessary to go into so much detail, Max?”

  He grinned. “Well, no, probably not. I got a little carried away. I wanted to show you how much I loved you and how I plan to love you, mostly because I can’t wait to bind you—”

  “Bind me?”

  “Aye,” he said. “When we find our mates, we go through a binding ritual. It’s similar to your human wedding service. Vows are spoken and then our ceremony is consummated, but what happens between mates is both a physical and a spiritual transformation. We are connected forever, and only part of the bond is broken with death.”

  “Which part?”

  “The part that makes us only able to be with the other person sexually and—”

  “Wait. Meaning you can’t cheat on me?”

  He nodded. “Aye. It’s impossible.”

  She let out a snort. “Oh, I bet that’s what you tell all the girls.”

  “Damn it, Grace.” Max stood and dragged his hands down his face. “You’re determined to make sure this fails, aren’t you?”

  Grace squeezed her eyes shut. Was that what she was doing? She bit her lip and blinked back tears as she analyzed her motives. He was right..

  “I know I’m right,” he snapped. “And I’d very much appreciate it if you’d stop trying to disbelieve everything.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You have to admit, this all kind of far-fetched. I mean, outside of the physical attraction, we have nothing in common. We aren’t equally yoked, so-to-speak.”

  “I disagree. We both love horses and music, singing—”

  “Okay, okay. I get it.”

  He sat beside her again. “I know your faith is the biggest hurdle between us.” She started to say something, but he squeezed her hand. “Let me finish before you interrupt.”

  She widened her eyes and then nodded. “Sorry.”

  He smiled. “If you really look at this, you’ll see that the truth is we have more in common than you think, but our biggest roadblock is the faith thing.”

  “But the faith thing is huge, Max. And please don’t call it a roadblock, that implies it’s something negative.”

  “I’m sorry. You’re right. All I’m saying is that I know it’s important, which is why I’m figuring out exactly what I believe.”

  “You are?”

  “Aye, love. I am. I have been since I found out you were a ‘good girl’ as you put it.” He stroked her cheek. “With a little translation help from Pepper, I now know what that means.”

  “Oh, really? What do you think it means?” she challenged. “Outside of the obvious.”

  He chuckled. “I know that it means you have strong convictions and you’re not easily swayed from the ‘right’ path.”

  “It doesn’t mean I always do the right thing, Max.”

  “I know it doesn’t. Like right now, you’re trying to find a way for this to not be true.”

  She gave him a reluctant smile. “You are not that smart, Maximilian.”

  He grinned. “Yes I am.”

  “I don’t want you to believe what I believe just to get me to marry you, Max.”

  “I know, love. Which is why I’m doing it without you, so I have to truly know why I believe what I believe, for myself. I will always tell you the truth, Gr
ace. If I’m struggling with something, I won’t hide it from you…well, regarding faith.”