Intolerable (Bound Together Book 5) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Ttile

  Copyright

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Thank You for Reading!

  Books by LJ Baker

  Acknowledgments

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Contents

  Ttile

  Copyright

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Thank You for Reading!

  Books by LJ Baker

  Acknowledgments

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Intolerable

  Bound Together, book 5

  LJ Baker

  © 2018 LJ Baker

  All right reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  http://www.lj-baker.com/

  Cover by Pink Ink Designs

  For Roger,

  Whom I sometimes find intolerable,

  but mostly I just love.

  CHAPTER ONE

  "I don't really give a shit what you think about it, Issac. You do what you're told around here and shut your damn mouth." Chase threw the stick to the floor and it bounced on the mat. The last thing he wanted to do was teach the new vampires how to fight, but there he was, surrounded by innocent, uninterested eyes, who would rather have a day in the park, than do any real work.

  "It's just that I'm not going to be walking around with a five foot stick, so when am I going to need this training? Why can't we focus on something useful?"

  The words rang in Chase's ears, bringing his blood to a boil.

  Something Useful.

  Chase used his vampire speed to flash to Issac, and pin him into the wall by his throat, at the far end of the room. Issac swallowed hard, the lump in his throat squeezed past Chase's grip, and gurgled just loud enough to hear.

  "You will learn it because Dex says you have to. But just so you don't feel your training isn't useful, you will carry that stick everywhere with you, until I say otherwise. If I catch you without it, you will find yourself in a most unpleasant situation."

  Issac nodded, unable to speak through the tight grasp Chase had on his vocal cords. When Chase believed the boy was ready to walk away without another complaint, he released him, and let him slump to the floor with a thud.

  "You were a little hard on him, don't you think?" Willow, one of the blood witches, slunk up behind Chase and ran one sharp, red fingernail across the back of his neck. Chase shivered and spun around to face her.

  "No. I don't think I was hard on him." Though he might have thought that he was, for just a moment. Being a new vampire was hard, and Chase was only starting to get used to the wild mix of emotions that went along with it.

  Willow snorted and raised one brow. "Okay, then."

  "What do you want, witch?" Chase picked up his stick and pulled off the training gloves he was wearing.

  "It's cute how you think calling me witch is an insult. I know about you, Chase Summers. I know that not so long ago, you would have rather died than become vampire. I doubt that being a witch would have been lower on the list of things you never wanted to become than vampire."

  "Well, Willow, you are both witch and vampire, so I think that pretty much tops the list."

  Willow brought one hand up to rest on her leather-clad hip and smiled. "Why don't you teach me to fight?"

  "Because you aren't dressed for it."

  She was decked out in black leather, from head to toe, complete with thigh-high lace up boots with ridiculously high heels. Add to that her long, black hair that fell over her shoulders with a life of its own, and her pale skin stuck out in harsh contrast that made her look weak, unnourished. The last thing she looked ready for, was fighting.

  "I'm always ready for it." Willow winked at Chase and he rolled his eyes.

  "Go find someone else to bother. I have work to do."

  "I happen to know that you don't. That was your last session for the day, so why don't you teach me a few moves, vampire boy. Let's see what you have in you. Or are you afraid to fight a girl?"

  "Is that what you are?"

  Willow pushed her overflowing breasts out in his direction and flashed him a wicked smile. "Most definitely."

  The scent of fresh cut roses and blood filled Chase's senses. He held his breath to avoid picking up anymore of her.

  Chase ignored her obvious flirting and went about packing up his gear. "You shouldn't even be on the mats in those boots. And those aren't exactly fighting clothes." Chase waved a hand over her ridiculous outfit.

  "Are you trying to tell me I should take my clothes off first?"

  "Those things come off? I was pretty sure your twin just dipped you in a vat of leather and let it mold around you."

  "Why don't you come over here and find out?" Willow took a few steps toward Chase.

  He didn't immediately back away. There was a part of him that was curious about the witch. She was smoking hot, no doubt about it, and she didn't seem picky about who she fell into bed with, but Chase didn't need whatever it was she was giving away. And he had no doubt that she would give it to him.

  "I'll pass."

  "You're no fun." Willow's lips pulled together in a pout.

  "Nope. No fun at all." Chase shoved the last of his gear into his bag, slung it over his shoulder, and headed out of the gym. He might have been tempted by the female, but she was exactly the kind of trouble he didn't need in his life.

  Even if she had the body of a goddess.

  Even if she was willing to give him anything he wanted.

  Even if it had been so long that he lived in a perpetual state of blue balls.

  Chase jogged down the stairs of the training facility, taking two at a time. He had to keep his mind clear, focus on his job, training, and making a decent life for himself as a new vampire. He didn't need to get involved with females. And when he did, it wouldn't be one who threw herself at any male in sight, and had the most intolerable personality of anyone he'd ever met.

  Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. She was only somewhat insufferable.

  But damn was she hot.

  ***

  "You smell like leather and witch." Ari scrunched her nose up and tightened her grip on her blanket.

  "How the hell can you pick that up?" Chase sat down o
n the couch with his sister and pulled her legs over his lap.

  "Ugh, can't you?"

  "No. I mean, I could smell it on her, when she was right in front of me, but other than one fingernail along the back of my neck, she didn't even touch me. So how can you pick up her scent on me now?"

  "I think it's the pregnancy. It's making me hypersensitive to everything, especially scent."

  Chase looked over his sister and her round belly. She was pregnant with twins. The vampire king's spawn, though they still didn't know whether the babies would be part vampire, or dhampir, human, part nephilim like Ari, or some combination in between. He tried not to think about it when he looked at her.

  "You find out if those brats are boys or girls yet?" He motioned to her belly.

  "Brats." She snorted. "You mean the angels?"

  "Literally, quite possibly. Unless they take more after their asshole father." Chase wasn't going to pretend to like his sister's mate, even if he was the damn king. He secretly, or maybe not so secretly, hoped there was as little vampire as possible in the babies.

  Ari slapped his arm and glared. "Be nice Chase. I love him."

  "When is he going to marry you? Don't you think he should break down and follow through on one of our customs, you know, since he knocked you up and all."

  "We haven't really talked about it. There has been so much going on that it didn't seem like a priority."

  "See that's just it, sis. Something like that should be a priority. You should be his first priority, but it's always going to be this kingdom and vampire responsibility."

  "That's not true, Chase. And it's not fair. Alexander does put me first, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have to take care of his responsibilities. There has been one crisis after another since we got together. Don't you think that finding the monster mutilating and killing vampires should be a high priority?" Ari pulled her legs off of Chase and sat cross-legged facing him on the couch.

  "Yeah, of course it should, as long as it's second to you." Chase sighed. He didn't want to argue with his sister. That wasn't why he'd come over. "Look, I'm sorry. You're my twin. I love you more than anything in this world and I want to know you are being treated right."

  "I love you too, Chase." Her face softened and she tilted her head to look up at him. "But you have to stop hating Alexander. He's done nothing but love me with all of his heart. He is great to me and he absolutely puts me first, even when he shouldn't. What is all this really about?"

  Chase filled his cheeks with air and let it out slowly. "I don't know."

  "Dex told me you are doing a great job over at the newbie camp, working with the new vampires. He said they were even able to split up responsibilities between you and Jayce, so you each have your own jobs, rather than have you both do everything together."

  "Yeah. I've been doing stick fighting, archery, and knife skills. Jayce is doing more of the day to day stuff, history, social shit, and whatever. He's been vampire longer, so he's better at that."

  "Is there something you're not telling me?" She reached out and put her hand over Chase's and he felt the thumping of the babies hearts through her skin. It was a strange feeling. He had the urge to reach out and feel them through her belly, to see if they would react, but he kept his hand firmly in his lap.

  She looked him over and he knew she could hear his thoughts. Thanks to her bloodsharing with her bastard mate, combined with her nephilim abilities, she was able to hear thoughts, among a variety of other things. She told him once that she tried to stay out, but had little control over it. He wasn't sure if that was still the case, or if she had learned control, but chose not to exercise it.

  "You can touch them if you want to."

  "Stay out of my head, Ar."

  "Sorry." Her cheeks turned pink and she pulled her hand back. "I have no control over anything since I got pregnant."

  "How much longer is it going to be? Do they even know?"

  "Who knows." She shook her head. "Lily's pregnancy was right on target with a nephilim pregnancy, which is about six months. But they can't tell me if that will be the case for me. It could be more like dhampir or human, and be a couple months longer. I'm just grateful they say it won't be like full-blood vampire pregnancy, which is a whole damn year."

  "That must suck." He only half listened to her, not that he wasn't interested, but his mind couldn't stay focused. He kept drifting back to a certain leather-clad witch.

  "Are you going to talk about it?" Ari waved a hand in front of Chase's face and brought his attention back to her.

  "Huh? What?"

  "The witch. You've been thinking about her since you got here."

  "I have not. I wasn't even—"

  "Chase, come on. You know I can see it."

  Chase stood and walked over to the liquor cabinet. "Can you at least pretend to stay out of my head?" He picked up a few different bottles, sniffed each one, then poured one into a glass.

  "Sure, right after you tell me what's going on between you and Willow."

  "There is nothing going on. She is a pain in my ass and enjoys messing with me. That's it."

  "So that time Gabe walked in on her in your lap, that was nothing?"

  "That was months ago and I was drunk. And nothing happened, by the way."

  "But you like her." Ari tried to hide her smile, but she was failing.

  "I don't like her, so just stop it." Chase took a gulp of the drink in his hand and choked the burning liquid down his throat, doing his best to seem unaffected. "Besides, if there was anything between the two of us, you would have told me about our matching auras by now."

  Ari frowned. "I don't see any aura on Willow. It must be because of her witch half, or something. I don't know. Michael has one, so I don't understand it, but for whatever reason, Willow doesn't. So she could be your soul mate."

  "She is not my soul mate, sis. Just leave it alone."

  "I just want you to be happy, Chase. You deserve it."

  So why didn't he feel like he did?

  "If you want me to be happy, then drop this ridiculous nonsense. I am not into that witch and she couldn't care less about me."

  "I think you're wrong about that, but okay." Ari brought her hand up to her belly and froze.

  "You all right?" Something about her face set off alarm bells in his mind. "Should I get Lex?"

  She shook her head, but kept her eyes down. "No. I'm sure it's nothing. I see the midwife soon, so I'll mention it to her."

  "Ar, I think—"

  "Chase, it's fine. I don't need to worry Alexander for nothing. See? Already better." Ari looked up and forced a smile.

  Chase narrowed his eyes and raised a brow. "I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be in pain, and don't try to lie to me. I know that face."

  Ari cringed, gripping her belly again, and Chase left to find Lex, whether she liked it or not. As much as he disliked the bastard, he knew that Lex would do his best to take care of his sister.

  Lex was out front with Gabe and Dex discussing something he couldn't care less about.

  "Lex, you need to come in here."

  "Can't you see we are busy?" Lex said before turning around. As soon as he caught sight of Chase, he picked up on the alarm. "What's wrong?"

  "It's Ari."

  Lex zipped past him and was to Ari before Chase could say another word. He followed in his wake and returned to his sister.

  "What's going on?" Lex asked.

  "It's nothing, really. I told Chase not to bother you." Ari smiled and touched his face.

  "She's lying. She was clutching her stomach in pain. She just doesn't want to worry you, so who knows how long this has been going on."

  Ari glared at Chase and shot the word traitor into his head through her acquired ability. He didn't care. If something was wrong with her, he wasn't going to help her keep it secret. He'd already come close to losing her once and he wasn't going to take any chances with her, especially with two babies inside her.

  "What's go
ing on, love?" Lex cupped Ari's face in his hand and looked at her with the most tender look Chase could imagine. He might not like the guy, but he certainly did love his sister.

  "Really, I'm fine. It was just a little twinge. Chase overreacted." She was lying to him. Even Chase knew that. The vampire king, with his ability to see into everyone's head, had better know that she was.

  "Ariana, please tell me the truth."

  One point for the bastard king.

  Alexander turned around and shot a glare at Chase, then turned back to Ari. Her eyes settled on her belly before peering up at him through her lashes.

  "I've been having some pain. Nothing major, just here and there. But the last scan was fine and the midwife said it was all good, so I'm sure it's nothing."

  "That was two weeks ago, love. A lot could happen in two weeks."

  "The midwife will be here in a day or two now that Lily's baby was born, so I'm sure it can wait until then."

  Lily was Lex's step-mother, who just gave birth to his new half-brother. She was also Chase and Ari's long lost aunt and part nephilim just like Ari. And technically, just like Chase, but since his nephilim part was permanently made dormant, he didn't think of himself that way.

  "No. It can't. You are going to see the doctor right now. I'm not taking any chances with you, or with the babies." Lex motioned for Chase to come with him as he lifted Ari, carried her down the front steps, and deposited her into the first available vehicle. Chase jumped into the seat next to her and they headed off toward the infirmary.

  ***

  "Has she been resting, staying off her feet, like I told you?" Dr. Song glared at Alexander. There was clearly no love lost between them, but Lex remained respectful to the doc and nodded.

  "Yes, I've insisted she rest as much as possible."

  "I'm not an invalid. He won't let me do anything." Ari shivered as the doctor squeezed a dollop of gel onto her belly.

  "Good. Your only job is to cook these babies. You don't need to do anything else." Dr. Song pressed the ultrasound wand over Ari's belly and moved it around. Almost immediately, the sound of two fast heartbeats whooshed to life. Chase watched the screen, as the babies appeared in black and white. It was the most amazing sight to see two little lives growing inside of his twin.