Soulmates

Soulmates A Fated Mates Paranormal Romance K. LeBlanc Want to always stay in the loop and hear about my new releases and sales? Make sure you sign up for my newsletter. Copyright © 2023 K. LeBlanc All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, is fictionalized or coincidental. 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 for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Cover Design: Cover Couture bookcovercouture.com Editor: Anne Victory www.victoryediting.com Contents Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Epilogue Dear Reader Acknowledgments About the Author Also by K. LeBlanc For my parents who taught me the power of unconditional love. Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. —Oscar Wilde Prologue Piper Eight Years Ago There was something liberating about leaving the house in pajama pants. They weren’t even my pajama pants. They belonged to my oldest brother. I was pretty much committing social suicide by wandering around Boston in Nacio’s flannel, but I didn’t have it in me to care. I just wanted to run away and not feel like I had to pull myself together like everyone in my family always did so well. Anyone who thought they wanted a former pop star for a father and a mother from an old-money Italian family, to live in a multimillion-dollar house and be looked up to and envied by the rest of the high school population didn’t have a clue what they were asking for. Belonging to one of Boston’s most high-profile families had more downsides than upsides as far as I could tell. My life was an endless stream of parties where I was constantly compared to my flawless parents. I couldn’t trust anyone enough to be real because, in my experience, someone always wanted something. People talked to me to get closer to my family or in hopes that I would be their ticket to popularity. I swiped at my wet cheeks, angry that I was even crying in the first place. I should be used to betrayal by now. I’d been living this stardom game we played for fifteen years. Only, I was used to the betrayals coming from the outside, not within. Not from my own family. What had I done to deserve this? I’d always tried my best to be the perfect daughter who didn’t cause trouble or bring scandal to the Amato name. “Piper?” a voice asked somewhere behind me, cutting off my internal rant before I could really get started. I glanced back without thinking, and my eyes connected with Freddie Rossi’s. “Oh shit,” I muttered under my breath. Was it really asking too much to be able to walk in a city of seven hundred thousand without running into the one person I wanted to see even less than my family? I spun back around and walked as quickly as I could without looking like I was running away, then turned in to an alley between two tall buildings. Of all the crappy luck—of course it would be Freddie. I pulled on the first door I saw and prayed it wasn’t locked or, worse, alarmed. Thank God—it swung open without resistance. I ducked into a dimly lit hallway and slammed the door shut behind me. My breaths were coming fast as I tried to convince my heart rate to slow down. So maybe going out tonight wasn’t such a good idea. But I just couldn’t stay in the house. I needed fresh air and space from my family. I squinted down the hallway, but it was too dark to see more than a few feet ahead. There wasn’t time to worry about where I was or where the hallway led. I had to keep moving before Freddie caught up to me. I was speed walking and glancing over my shoulder every couple of seconds to see if Freddie was following me when I crashed into something warm and solid. Hands caught my arms before I could fall, strong fingers gripping my biceps. I looked up into the face of my savior. Captor? I wasn’t sure yet. He was tall, probably over six feet, with dark hair that was just a little too long to be professional-looking. He didn’t look that old, but he was wearing an expensive suit, minus the tie, with the top few buttons of his shirt undone. My breath caught. His grip was unrelenting, and judging by the cold look in his dark eyes, he wasn’t happy about being crashed into. “I’m sorry,” I said, trying to pull back. He didn’t let me go. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said, his voice hard. Crap. I didn’t even know where here was. “I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I was just trying to get away from an awkward conversation. I didn’t mean to crash into you or get in your way. If you let go of me, I’ll get out of your hair.” He shook his head. “You girls really will try anything,” he muttered. “Sorry, princess, it’s not going to work.” I frowned at him. “What’s not going to work?” “You really expect me to believe that you aren’t trying to get into the back rooms?” “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I threw another glance over my shoulder, half expecting to see Freddie coming up behind me. “Please. I have to get out of here.”