“It’s nice to meet you, Jade.” By some miracle she’d kept emotion out of her voice. Inside, she shook like a leaf. “Is there a Mr. Udo here?”
Her bridge partner Bernice would have asked the question. Once upon a time, she would have asked blindly as well. As far as the people of Magic knew, Elle was a married woman. She still wore her wedding ring. It constantly reminded her of what she’d lost.
“Heavens, no,” Jade replied. She didn’t appear offended by the question. “I’m having too much fun to be tied down by one man.”
Could Jeffrey had been one of many men who shared a bed with this woman? Thank goodness shifters were immune to human sexually transmitted diseases.
She didn’t have the stomach to confront the woman now. Annie had been so kind to her; she didn’t want to create a scene at her party.
Jeffrey’s mistress walked away without another word, not even to her hostess. Elle wondered if the party had been an open invitation to Magic’s residents or only select people had been invited. Based on Jade’s behavior, she guessed the former.
“Are you all right?” Annie asked. “You look like you’re going to be sick.”
Elle swallowed the small amount of bile in her mouth. She wasn’t going to run to the bathroom and vomit. After several deep breaths, she felt better.
“I’m fine,” Elle replied. Her weak delivery didn’t reflect the lie she brought forward.
“And I’m the Queen of England,” Annie muttered. She grabbed her wrist and pulled Elle forward. “Let’s find a quiet place to talk.”
“You can’t leave your guests,” Elle protested.
“You’d be amazed what I can do,” Annie replied. “I lived a solitary, safe life. I’m walking home one day and get attacked by a vampire. My life changed overnight. As far as I’m concerned, I can do anything I want. My only limitations are my own conscience and my feelings for Marc.”
Annie led them out of the house and to the home next door. In a town of supernatural beings, no one bothered to lock their doors.
After they entered, Annie switched on the lights. The back door had led them directly into the living room. She’d call the area minimal chic. Her surroundings looked like they came out of the pages of Architectural Digest.
The stylish room contained wood furniture covered with muted earth tone fabric. It felt as if they’d taken canvases of watercolor paintings and stuffed them with material. Each piece unique and breathtaking.
Elle ran her hand over the soft cushion next to her. “Who lives here?”
The owner decorated the room as she would have, if it weren’t for Jeffrey and her three children. She felt oddly at home here.
“This is Billings’s house.” Annie navigated around the sofa and sat. She patted the spot beside her, inviting Elle to join her. “He moved in shortly after Marc arrived. Marc told me Billings came over and asked his opinion on furniture he’d discovered in magazines. He’d then do the research related to how he could purchase each item.”
Last night, she researched trolls. They were known for being lazy and stupid. This room and the story Annie related reflected someone who had drive and the ability to execute on what he wanted. Things didn’t add up where Billings was concerned.
The troll shouldn’t have garnered her interest, but she’d become oddly fixated on him. She thought less and less of Jeffrey and his betrayal. Her thoughts repeatedly returned to Billings. Even when she dated her late husband, she’d never been obsessed with him like her feelings for Billings.
Feelings? Did she possess feelings for the troll? He’d been on the parameters of her life, certainly not front and center. His positioning in her mind made no sense.
Snapping fingers broke her concentration. “Earth to Elle. What’s going on with you? First, you’re rattled to the point of illness. Now, you look like a love sick fool.”
Elle fell back on the sofa, her head nestled in the cushioned back. She covered her face with her hands. “God, I wish I knew.”
Annie shifted next to her. “Let’s tackle one item at a time. What happened at the party? You’re not obligated to tell me, but you may feel better if you unload whatever caused you distress. I know we haven’t known each other long, but I hope you consider me a friend.”
She reached for her purse and pulled out her wallet. After shuffling through several photos of her children, she came to a picture of Jeffrey. The usual tug on her heart didn’t occur when she gazed at his handsome face.
“Have you seen this man before?” Elle asked.
Annie took the photo from her and examined it. If she recognized him, it wasn’t reflected on her face.
Her new friend shook her head. “Marc and I have a limited set of friends. I don’t recall ever seeing him, but I’m new to Magic and we’ve been traveling, searching for his blood brothers. Who is he?”
“He was my husband. A cheating bastard. I understand he had a long relationship with Jade.” She took a deep breath before she became dizzy. When she talked about Jeffrey, she tended to stop breathing. “That’s why I’m in Magic. I plan to confront Jade.”
A loud, long whistle came from beside her. “Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. You certainly have guts if you follow through with it.” Annie took her hand. “Who were you thinking of before I rudely interrupted just now?”
Elle bit her lower lip. How much did she want to reveal to Annie? It would sound silly admitting to having feelings for Billings after two short interludes, especially since their relationship started with a slap.
“Billings,” she blurted out.
Annie clapped her hands. “Oh, that’s rich. He’s a great guy, but I never believed anyone would have the inner-strength to look past his exterior. That’s why Beauty and The Beast is a fairy tale. Your admission says a lot about you. I don’t have many friends, but I’d like to consider you one, whether you stay in Magic or return to California.”
Elle leaned sideways and hugged the other woman. That’s what she would have done with Nancy, Samantha, or Bernice. Annie tightened the embrace. She wanted to cry. She hadn’t realized how much she needed a close companion.
“I’d be honored to be your friend,” Elle sobbed.
“Then take some advice. Deal with your past or concentrate on your future. Doing both won’t help you move on. Billings is here now and I can’t think of anyone who deserves to be loved more than that man.”
Her body heated at the thought of touching Billings again. But he’d only be someone who’d help her get over Jeffrey. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him like she’d been hurt.
She couldn’t understand why her rational mind discounted him. Her subconscious certainly focused on him. A cry escaped her while she struggled over what to do.
Chapter 8
“There you are.” Prue grabbed Elle’s hand and pulled her toward the front door. “We’re leaving.” Dreyden walked behind them, cutting off any possible escape route.
She didn’t want to leave, but Prue seemed determined. “We can’t leave without saying goodbye and thanking our hosts.”
Her mother had drilled politeness and etiquette into her mind as she grew up. She passed the same lessons onto her children. Although she’d always lived in a shifter community, human norms and practices were adopted within their households. As an adolescent, it proved challenging to live in two worlds while her hormones raged.
“I talked to Marc,” Prue replied. “He’ll share what I told him with Annie. You’re in danger and I need to get you to a safe place.”
What had Billings confessed to Prue that spooked her to this extent? She didn’t know her landlord well enough to know if she tended to overreact. Based on the stoic look on Dreyden’s face, she doubted it.
They got in Prue’s car to travel the twelve blocks to her home. Prue turned on the radio, negating her ability to ask questions over the blaring music. All sorts of ridiculous ideas popped into her mind. Only the truth would stop the crazy scenarios playing in her head.
When they got to the house, Prue ran to the front door. Since the door wasn’t locked, opening it barely slowed her down. Elle maintained a speed that kept her at the woman’s heels.
Elle’s preternatural speed allowed her to outpace Prue and cut her off before she had the ability to head up the stairs. “What has happened, Prue?” Her hand shook with anger at her landlord’s tight lipped behavior. “I have the right to know. It’s my life.”
Prue swore under her breath and moved into the living room. Dreyden positioned himself near the front door. He didn’t have to guard it; she didn’t intend to flee. Elle wanted answers.
“What did Billings tell you that has you spooked?” She couldn’t think of another word to describe the terror she saw in the mage’s eyes. Goose bumps ran up her own arms.
“Billings is under an enchantment,” Prue said. “But underneath that, I sense he possesses great power. It could exceed my own and the witches residing in Magic.”
She had no means to measure the gravity of what Prue communicated. The expression on her face would indicate the severity of the situation she found herself in.
“What has this got to do with me?”
He hadn’t been angered by the slap. There had been no animosity from him while they were at the clothing store. She didn’t have a clue what this had to do with her.
Prue released a heavy sigh. “He’s cursed to fall madly in love with unattainable women. In the past, his unwanted attentions either led to women committing suicide or he murders them in a rage. You need to leave town first thing in the morning. We’ll drive to Albuquerque. Whatever reason brought you here in the first place isn’t worth your life.”
There had to be a mistake. If anyone seemed obsessed, it would be her.
“How can you be sure I’m the object of his deranged attention?” Elle asked.
“He told me,” Prue replied. “Besides, I felt elemental magic after the two of you met.”
That response pretty much took the winds out of her sails. Prue feared for her safety, but Elle wasn’t the type to run. On the rare occasions Eclipse or one of her friends were threatened, they banded together as a community. Besides, if Billings turned out to be dangerous, she didn’t want her home threatened. Who knew what he’d do to get to her?
Before she communicated her defiance to Prue’s plan, a thought struck her. “This afternoon, for a moment, I believed I saw human flesh covering Billings’s chest. Had be been human before the enchantment?”
Prue’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth, only to close it again.
Her hostess picked up her phone and made a call. While she waited for the call to connect, Prue informed her, “We need reinforcements.”
A total of six people were contacted. The most powerful coven of witches in Magic would be there within the hour. Each of the witch’s grimoires were consulted and supplies gathered.
While they waited, Dreyden poured them each a drink. She emptied her glass in four large gulps. He refilled it before she could ask for more. Her alcohol consumption had gone up dramatically the last couple of weeks.
“Do they have alcohol where you come from?” She addressed Dreyden for the first time. He had a quiet nature, but she figured he could be lethal when the occasion called for it. Prue had told her he was some kind of cosmic policeman.
Dreyden’s smile brightened his face. She had a feeling he rarely smiled. “Most worlds have a variety of means of distilling alcohol or fermenting fruit. They’re used in religious rituals and social events. Not unlike Earth.”
His bulging muscles and focus made her relax. Only a fool would try anything with Dreyden beside her. He looked like he’d walked off the pages of the graphic novels or comic books her youngest son read.
After her second glass of wine, the coven arrived. She’d noticed a number of them were in attendance at Annie’s party. They looked like members of a bridge group, not powerful witches.
Prue’s shoulders were no longer rubbing her earlobes. With the mage now relaxed, some of the tension left her own neck. Elle wasn’t an empath, but she’d reacted to her hostess’s anxiety related to her safety.
A variety of items were placed on the dining room table. She didn’t recognize most of the goods that would be used in whatever magic that would be performed this evening. Maybe an anti-love spell?
She felt out of her depths. Her horse needed to run.
When one of the witches lit a bundle of sage on fire, the smoke caused Elle to cough.
“I need air,” she said after inhaling several breaths full of carbon and particles produced from ridding the room of bad spirits.
No one but Dreyden noticed when she moved into the kitchen and then out the backdoor. She didn’t want a bodyguard. She wanted her freedom.
What had occurred in Magic just intensified what she’d felt since finding out about Jeffrey. She craved something. A run would help clear her mind.
“I don’t need you tailing me,” she informed the alien when he followed her.
His eyes scanned her face, looking for intent. “You don’t know what you want and your behavior is reckless,” Dreyden said. He stared at her wedding ring. “Where is your husband?”
“Dead,” she replied. “If he were alive, he’d have been of no use. Jeffrey liked to graze, not run. In his human form, he read and sat in front of a computer. There wasn’t a competitive bone in his body, let alone an instinct to protect his family.”
They had never found themselves in danger where Jeffrey could prove himself. The horse shifter community valued other characteristics compared to the wolves or cats. Their alpha depended on the other breeds to protect Eclipse.
Dreyden gazed at her long legs. There was nothing sexual about how he looked at her. He assessed her as if he planned to bet on a horse race.
“And you live to gallop,” he concluded. “The jaguars run every morning in the desert. They have forged out a path. We must be true to our nature. You can catch the trail where Fifth Street dead ends to the west.”
Dreyden returned to the house. Elle removed her clothing and shifted. Eager to gallop, she headed for the desert, avoiding lit streets.
She picked up the residual scent of the jaguars. There was an essence about the scent that told her the cats had been shifters.
Her horse ran along the well-worn path. Possessing a shifter’s extraordinary night vision, she avoided the ruts along the way.
After she exhausted herself, she returned to town. Rather than head to Prue’s, she aimlessly roamed the streets of Magic. It wasn’t long before she realized her destination.
A bucket of oats sat on the side of Billings’s house not facing Marc and Annie’s home. He’d placed the feed there for her.
She dug into her meal, famished after her run. She’d barely eaten today. The grain in its raw form tasted better to her horse than the processed product her human consumed.
“You shouldn’t have come, but I’m pleased you’re here.” She hadn’t heard Billings approach. “Join me inside when you’re done. I left a robe on the patio table.”
He didn’t act like a psychotic killer. His consideration of her modesty couldn’t be overlooked. Billings wouldn’t know that shifters were not uncomfortable in their human naked form.
Her mind told her to run, her heart the opposite. She walked to the patio and she sniffed the robe. The belt was already placed on the loops, not forcing her to do it. In a blink of an eye, she transitioned into her human form.
Barefooted, she opened the sliding patio door and entered the house. A classical guitar piece played in the background. She moved through the dimly lit room. In the short period of time she’d been in the room with Annie, she’d memorized where all the furniture sat.
Billings stepped out of the shadows. He had removed the clothing he wore earlier. His naked troll form should have repulsed her. She slipped the robe off her shoulders and moved forward to meet her destiny.
Chapter 9
She moved toward him as if in
a dream. The last person he expected to appear at his rear door was Elle. Certainly not after his discussion with Prue. He’d left the oats on the patio shortly after they met in an unrealistic hope she’d come to him. His vision foretold her arrival and he knew she’d transform his life somehow. At this point, he couldn’t tell if for the better or worse.
He expected they’d have scurried her out of town. Instead, she stood naked before him. His eyes feasted on her perky, full breasts. The man he once was and the beast from within salivated at what stood before him.
Elle reached out and ran a hand down his hairy arm. She petted him, not shying away from touching him. Before he knew it, both her hands explored his chest.
Could she be the one who would break the curse? He’d given up hope long ago. If he said or did anything to influence her, the spell would transform him into something viler.
He held back from tasting her lips, fearing she’d reject him and he’d hurt her in retaliation. His gigantic erect cock should have already scared her off. Her concentration focused on examining his chest, as if it held some type of secret.
She descended to her knees and took possession of his rod. A vibration in his throat created a moan that echoed throughout the room. The sound didn’t hamper her from tightening her hold on his cock.
When her tongue licked a drop of cum from the tip of his erection, he howled in delight. The sound shook him to the core. Why would a beautiful woman desire to make love to a beast like him?
He pushed back her shoulders. “What do you want from me?” His voice trembled with emotions he dared not admit existed. It took all his inner-strength to resist the curse’s desire to drive inside her and take what was offered.
“I want to make love to a being who knows what it’s like to be wounded by another,” Elle cried. “One who would never betray me like my husband did.”
Billings stared at her in disbelief. “Didn’t Prue tell you what I’ve done? It’s only a matter of time before I won’t be able to stop myself from harming you.”
A Shifter's Yearning Page 4
