by Elle Thorne
She turned her head to look at him, surprised. “This was so much more than I ever thought it could be. Than anything could be.”
He kissed the tip of her nose, drinking in the way her flushed skin glowed. “You’re beautiful. You’re mine.”
His bear roared agreement.
She blushed and looked away.
He tipped her chin so she’d have to look at him. “I mean it.”
“Sean, I never thought I’d have something like this. I didn’t think this existed.
“I know. Same.” He covered one of her hands with his. “Beyond perfection.”
Epilogue
Eden and Sean took a long leisurely tour of Europe, one that lasted three plus weeks, and now they’d finally reached the end of the tour, and were outside of a nondescript and unassuming cottage at the base of the Carpathian Mountains.
There they’d secured a ride to a monastery that the Order had control of so Eden could speak to the monks. She had so many questions.
They’d be leaving in the morning, but for now, had been given a private cottage in the back of the property and Eden was pacing the room.
“You’re here. It’s time to relax. Now you’ll get the answers you’ve been looking for.”
She smiled at him. “I know. Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
“I know that if it’s like my love for you, it can’t be measured.” He pulled her closer until she was pressed against the hardness between his legs.
Just the feel of it took her breath away, and their kiss deepened.
His fingers worked at the buttons of her top while she worked at his. Nothing in the entire world mattered as much as getting their clothes off and being together, then and there.
She pulled her arms from the sleeves and wrapped them around him again once she had him down to his T-shirt. With his arms still around her, he stood and took her with him.
He pushed her back against the wall and she gasped, his mouth still moving over hers.
He took both of her wrists in one of his big hands, then used the other to trace a path down the inside of her bare arm.
When he pinned her wrists above her head, she shivered in anticipation.
* * *
“When did you want to tell me?” Sean tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.
“Tell you?”
“You don’t know?”
“Sean!” She squealed, half in frustration. “Stop playing games.”
His expression grew somber. “About the baby.”
Eden did a doubletake. “No way.”
He looked at her, a confused expression on his face.
“One of the monks I talked to yesterday said that I shouldn’t be worried about Piria or my role with the Order or anything else for now. He said I’d be busy in a few months.” She gasped, then began to jump around as realization hit her. “Oh my God! I’m pregnant! We’re pregnant! We’re having a baby!”
He grabbed her in a hug. “Settle down. You don’t want the monks to come by to tell us to keep it down. Who knows what they might be thinking this ruckus is about.”
She slapped him on the arm. “Sean! Behave! They’re not going to think that.” She paused. “Are they?”
He shrugged playfully. “Have they told you your assignment, game plan, or anything?”
They’d been with the Order’s monks for almost two weeks, and though Sean always waited for her patiently on the grounds, exploring, she spent her time talking to the monks that had worked with her all those years ago.
“They mentioned that I could serve as a liaison and a historian, since I don’t have an elemental anymore. That I could offer guidance and counsel. And then one mentioned… well, I guess he was talking about the baby. How’d you know we’re expecting.”
“Have you not heard it?”
“Heard what?”
He put his head on her abdomen. “A heartbeat.”
“I, well, I wasn’t sure if I was hearing things.”
“It’s a fast heartbeat. Could be a girl.”
“Would that be okay with you?” She bit on her lip, worrying it, hoping he wasn’t the kind of guy that got hung up on that kind of thing. She didn’t think he was, but realized that she could be surprised.
“It’d be great. Are you open to suggestions for names?”
She tipped her head closer to his. “What name were you thinking?”
“Piria.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. “She will be so honored.”
He kissed her lips. “We owe her. We owe her us.”
* * *
Later that evening, Eden called the family on her laptop to chat with them on the webcam. “Don’t tell them about the baby,” she cautioned Sean. “I want to surprise them.
“Deal.”
When Circe accepted her call, and they appeared on Camden’s screen, the mansion’s conference room was in the background, making her more homesick than she’d ever been.
God, the last couple months have been a whirlwind.
“So, when can we see you,” Circe asked.
“Missing me already?” Eden laughed.
“You look better, sis,” Marco said.
“I feel better.” And she did. Eden had a certain permanent peace about Piria’s decision. Knowing that she was having a baby didn’t hurt.
“Everyone’s here.” Marco swiveled the webcam.
Jenner and Cedric waved. Next the screen showed Linc, Dina, Trista, Tessa, Camden, and Tyler.
So, Jenner and Cedric decided to visit the Order’s Denver headquarters. Interesting that they’d be there.
“So, what have I missed?”
“Nothing,” Camden said with a happy air. “It’s slow here. No cases, unless you count those of us that are already here.”
Eden knew she meant Trista and Tessa.
“Uncle Marco’s going on vacation,” Dina announced from off-screen.
Eden studied Marco’s face. “That’s a first for you. You never get away.”
He nodded. “Jenner and Cedric invited me to hang with them.”
“You’re going with witches?”
A couple of male snorts came from offscreen.
Marco shook his head. “I think they prefer to be called sorcerers.”
“Sorry…” Eden singsonged her apology. “Where are you going?”
He shrugged, then laughed. “Somewhere far away from temperamental elementals and the complications of shifters and hybrids.”
“Hey!” Eden teased. “I resemble that remark.”
“Not anymore.” Circe’s lips moved with the words, but Eden recognized Piria’s voice.
Eden sobered.
“I’m playing.” Piria’s voice again. “Really. “You’re happy?”
“I am,” Eden confessed. “You?”
Circe’s head moved in a nod.
“So, when are you coming back then?”
“A week. Will you all be there?” Eden asked Circe.
“Except Marco.”
“Where will he be?” She looked at Marco. “Where are you going?”
“Jenner wants to go to the Bahamas. Cedric’s pushing for the Alps.”
Eden smiled at her big brother. “So, ski bunnies or beach bunnies. Those are the two options?”
He scowled at her. “Don’t be in such a rush to hook me up, little sis. Just because the three of you aren’t single anymore.”
“It’s not that bad.” Eden looked toward Sean. “Is it?”
Sean joined her in front of the camera. “It’s not bad at all, Marco. You should give it a shot.”
“You’ve lost it, man,” Marco said with a wink. “That love stuff is downright perilous.”
Perilous
Marco Brazos, the only male sibling of a quartet of shifter elementals has a problem. Actually, make that two.
His first problem, the elemental that resides within him has gone silent. Total and complete silence.
Second problem? A beautiful witch named Sym
one who lives on an island that’s off the grid. She’s not just any witch. She’s the witch that runs the southern hemisphere Circle of Witches.
She has no use for shifters but tolerates them. As for elementals, she hates them, with a passion—for good reason.
Marco’s on her island courtesy of an invitation from her brothers, Jenner and Cedric. He just wants to chill and get in touch with his elemental. He doesn’t need the drama that Symone’s cousin Brigitte brings. He doesn’t need to save an entire community of people. These are not Marco’s problems.
Except, they are. Wish Marco some luck. This gorgeous hunk of an elemental shifter’s going to need all the help he can get.
Prologue
Marco, sitting on a log separate from the rest of the group in the backyard at Grant Waters’s place in Bear Canyon Valley, studied his sisters. All of them content, each with a mate and a happy future.
He exhaled.
“That bad?” Cedric was one of the wizards that had come to Bear Canyon Valley to help resolve the matter of the twin toddlers hunted by witches and elementals.
Marco shook his head. “Not bad.”
“Let me guess.” This came from Jenner, Cedric’s identical twin. “You’re finally not responsible for your sisters.”
He plucked at the bark on the log, then glanced up at Jenner. “How’d you know?”
Cedric smirked. “We have sisters.”
Jenner nodded. “Drama.”
“Yours, too?” Marco asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Jenner continued. “And now that several of them are situated in their happily-ever-afters, we get a bit of a break.”
“True,” Cedric agreed. “Witches are not much different than shifters or elementals, it seems. Drama.” Cedric crossed his arms over his chest. “And damned strong women. Why can’t they be meek little wallflowers?”
Marco laughed. “Right.” He looked at his siblings. Circe, notoriously strong and hardheaded, always determined, never deterred. No, he couldn’t imagine Circe as a meek thing. Then he glanced at the twins. Camden and Eden. Not quite as alpha as Circe, but very far from timid, shy women.
“Wait,” he held up a hand, “what do you mean by several of your sisters… how many do you have?”
Cedric and Jenner laughed in unison. “Between all of us—some are half-sisters—eleven.”
Marco slapped his forehead. “Damn. And I thought I had it bad with three.”
Cedric gave him a crooked grin. “You should get away.”
Jenner clapped Cedric on the back. “Just what I was thinking.” He looked at Marco. “Come to our island. Have a vacation. You’ve earned it, no doubt.”
“No doubt.” Marco forced a smile to his face.
Except that not only did Marco need a vacation, but he also needed to ruminate over the last conversation he’d had with his inner elemental, Jaron, before Jaron had switched over to radio silence for some damned reason.
Chapter One
Marco glanced around the empty chartered plane, compliments of the Circle of Witches, according to Jenner and Cedric. As it turned out, the island that Cedric and Jenner had been talking about was their home, an island near Trinidad. They had sent him information about the chartered plane, and he’d packed a bag with just enough essentials for a couple weeks of beach time.
“Anytime you’d like to come back and talk to me, buddy,” he muttered under his breath, glad he was alone, because others might think he was nuts—talking to himself like that.
Nothing from Jaron. Fantastic. Not.
His mind went back to Circe, and the day before, when she’d come to him.
“Marco? What about your report?” Circe had asked him while he packed his bags.
“I’ll get to it when I get back from my vacation.”
Circe had frowned. “You know that’s not how we usually do things. What if—what if anything should happen while you are gone? And we need to work on the case you just wrapped up. You should consider filling that out, you know, so that we can be up to date on stuff. On any anomalies that might come up.”
Anomaly. That was a hell of a way to put it. And he had a zinger of an anomaly come up when he’d been on that case, just at the tail end of it, when he’d wrapped it all up and was at the airport, heading home.
His elemental had dropped a little bomb on Marco. Said that he wanted to retire. But when Marco pressed him for more, Jaron had gone quiet. Had not resurfaced. Had not responded to Marco’s demands to explain himself.
Marco brought himself back to the present and stretched his legs.
Circe, who was what Marco would have called his best friend, if he were one to use those terms, had hugged him when she’d dropped him off at the airport. “I’m glad you’re taking this time for yourself.” She’d squeezed him fiercely, her countenance the picture of contentment. He’d never seen her so happy.
“Tell Linc to keep you in line.”
She’d smacked his shoulder. “Right. As if.” And planted a kiss on his cheek. That had been a few short hours ago.
He glanced out of the window of the plane the Circle had provided.
The Circle. An organization he wasn’t really familiar with. It seemed the Witches’ Circle was as private as the Order of the Elementals.
No problem, he could respect privacy and boundaries. Anyway, he wasn’t here to work. He was here for some much-needed rest and relaxation, and some estrogen-free time.
Not totally estrogen-free. He wouldn’t mind meeting a drama-free hottie with no paranormal ties. No shifter genetics. No elemental tendencies. None of that.
He grabbed the lager in front of him and took a long swig, then handed it to the attractive plane attendant with a smile.
She’d do nicely for some company, clearly a hottie, clearly no paranormal vibes coming from her. Except that she worked for the Circle, and he wasn’t interested in burning any bridges with the ones who’d been gracious enough to lend him their plane by taking flirting with her too far.
“Ever been to the islands before?” Her dark eyes gleamed with mischief, a clear invitation in their mahogany depths.
He shook his head. “Never had the pleasure.”
“You will love it.”
He glanced out the window at the gleaming ocean and the vivid greenery of the island. “I have no doubt.” He fastened his seatbelt then leaned back in his seat.
Chapter Two
“A shifter?” Symone stared at her younger brothers. Half-brothers, really. Twins, the two of them, a product of her father’s second wife. Second of four. Her father it seemed had a wandering eye. At least, he’d waited to separate from one mate before taking a new woman, she’d often thought. Though that really hadn’t been much consolation. The last thing she’d want would be to meet a man like her father.
No, not her. She wanted a man who wanted one woman. For the rest of his life. Forever.
Good luck with that.
She’d never had much luck with men. Seemed a handsome face might have been her downfall more than once. And why was it that so often, handsome faces were attached to the types she should keep at arms’ length?
She had enough on her mind with Brigitte coming to visit. Brigitte. A third cousin that Symone would just as soon not consider a cousin. One from the northern hemisphere.
She glared at her brothers, furious about Brigitte, and now, not happy about this shifter thing.
“He’s not so bad.” Jenner gave her his crooked half-smile, teeth gleaming. That very smile had charmed females since he’d been a toddler. All females, except his older sister Symone.
She frowned at him, raised a brow in question. “Not so bad?”
“What he means,” Cedric stepped forward, ever the peacemaker between the two of them, “is that Marco and his family have been very instrumental in helping with some of our…” he paused as if mulling over the appropriate words, “some of our situations.”
“I see.” She nodded, though she didn’t at all. She didn’t intera
ct with the same individuals her brothers did. Typically, they assisted in the matters of the Circle that were north of the equator. Symone dealt with matters in the southern hemisphere. “Why is it that we—” we being those in the southern part of the globe “—manage to resolve matters without the assistance of shifters?” She raised her head from the hammock she was relaxing in under the shade of the home she maintained separately from the Circle’s villa higher on the mountain. She preferred being lower, closer to the beach, and isolated from all the siblings—other witches, naturally—that stayed in the villa.
Her brothers had stopped in to mention that they’d have a visitor. They’d wanted to clear it with her, but evidently not before the fact as the plane was landing that very day. They didn’t need her permission, but since she ran the southern half of the Circle, it seemed polite to inform her.
Not that they’ve given me even a day’s notice.
And then she remembered. “Oh, and not just shifters, but elementals?”
Jenner nodded. “It’s incredible what these elemental types can do. They summon nature’s forces and—”
Cedric’s hand on his shoulder brought Jenner’s excited outpouring to an immediate stop. “This one isn’t elemental.” He scrubbed his handsome face, rubbing at the frown on his forehead.
Jenner gave Cedric a sidelong glance.
Cedric’s smile was tight. “He’s coming for vacation. He’s not coming on a case; he’s not going to be here to create problems. No elementals. Okay? No worries.”
“Vacation,” she echoed. “But you’re leaving town today. You’re not going to be his tour guide.”
“He doesn’t need one. He’s grown. We have to go. The Circle needs us in Switzerland.”
“And he’s here on vacation. That’s it? No elementals?” She wanted reassurance.
“Yes.” His nod was emphatic. “No problems. He’s going to enjoy the sunshine, the sand, the water, that’s it. Two weeks. What could possibly happen, Moni?” Moni, her siblings’ nickname for her, usually when they were trying super hard. A nickname she was quite accustomed to hearing whenever her siblings tried to get her agreement.
