Sought by the Alphas Complete Boxed Set: A Paranormal Romance Serial

by Carina Wilder

  The day had been a typical one: he’d been strolling through one of London’s busy shopping areas during a free afternoon when a blinding flash had shot through his mind’s eye. At first a vivid image of a face came to him—green eyes with tinges of gold and other shades, drawing him in. Full lips and ivory skin.

  In the split second when his hand had reached for a nearby wall to steady him, he had known only one thing: he had to find her. She was to be his. And yet the notion of such a fate had almost made him laugh. How did a modern man walk up to a woman and announce these things? He wasn’t a caveman, after all, who might club her over the head and drag her back to his lair.

  Among other things, people liked to term his gift “clairvoyance;” a word that he’d always enjoyed for its French roots meaning “clear-seeing.” But the word wasn’t accurate, really; after all, the young woman to whom he’d been drawn had only shown herself clearly on that first day. After that she’d appeared to him only as a fuzzy sort of image: a shape, ghost-like and fluid, moving through a large, bright apartment, settling slowly into a new home in a strange city.

  Where she’d come from, he didn’t yet know. Before she’d found her way into his mind, there had been no indication that she even existed.

  Since his youth he’d displayed these gifts, this ability to see events which were occurring elsewhere in the world, often before they’d taken place. His grandmother had told him that his sight had come from his ancestors, a great tribe of Scottish lords who had moved easily between human and animal forms; “shifters,” as she’d called them. Some of these creatures, she’d said, had other powers—a second sight like his, or other abilities that could only be imagined by most humans.

  It was a myth, or so he’d always thought. A way of explaining away his strange talents. The Scots always did enjoy a good legend, after all. No doubt they thought that the Loch Ness monster itself was one of these “shifter” creatures.

  The only thing of which he was certain was that he should find the young woman who had taken up residence in his mind, or rather he should facilitate her finding him. It seemed, given the message that he was receiving in vague and frustrating bits and pieces, that she needed to realize that they were to be together.

  And that would be a tricky achievement, even for a very attractive man.

  It was only weeks after his initial vision that he was able to decipher her plan of action. The image in his mind’s eye had become clearer: she was intending to study for a while at the university. History classes.

  Interesting, he’d thought. And enticing. An inquisitive mind was admirable and desirable in a woman, particularly when coupled with a beautiful face.

  It was a perfect scenario, really. He was young and could easily enough enroll in a class or two, or, if the university rejected him, offer them money so that he might sit and observe. That way he could watch her from afar, and for weeks now he had done just that. His initial movements had been stealthy; he didn’t want her aware of him until he’d begun to figure her out a little, and the jumble of students in the classroom allowed him to blend into the crowd for a time while he observed her.

  Lilliana. He had heard the professor say it in one of his classes, calling on her as she stared out the window. As always she’d seemed to be ignoring the lecture, but was attentive in her own way, too polite to appear truly bored. She had once corrected him, saying that people called her “Lily.” It was an apt alternative to her other name. Like the flower, delicate, white.

  Lilliana was a beautiful name, and the woman who wore it was even more so; much more lovely in person than the vague shape that had taken form in the young man’s mind.

  His initial reaction to seeing her in the flesh had been that she moved like an animal, one that he couldn’t quite place. At first he’d decided that she was very like a cat, but he quickly dismissed that notion. She was more like a bird in flight, a swallow, easing her way through rooms without disturbing anything around her; even managing to go unnoticed by her classmates. For that he was grateful—it meant that she remained a solitary figure, easy for him to study.

  There was a regal air to Lilliana which separated her from all the other young female students, as well as a sort of knowing look that never left her face. She tried on occasion to conceal it when speaking to the professor, but consistently failed miserably by revealing a comical surplus of knowledge that a woman of twenty shouldn’t possess. Lilliana, for all of her obvious talents, was terrible at pretending to be anything but brilliant.

  And for all his gifts of clear sight, the man failed to delve deep into her mind as he could with so many other people; his usual talents were failing him and his subject remained an elusive mystery. He knew only, still, that he was to be with her; not why or how, or even when.

  It was during one of the final classes of the term that he decided to catch her eye. He’d given up on stealthy observation from afar and now wished for her attention; to capture her gaze and determine whether she could feel their connection. It might be his only chance to reach out to her.

  And so as the wind howled just outside the window to his right, he fixed his eyes upon her. He chewed on his pen since his lips, which were all too interested in hers, needed a distraction. Something in this woman reminded him of the scent and appearance of a delicious meal, and watching her for any length of time rendered him famished. He’d found himself often biting his lip or putting a thumb to his mouth while he watched her, as though replicating the act of eating.

  And yet he remained hungry, never satisfied, always too far away from her.

  In the instant when they finally made eye contact, he felt a surge of nervous excitement shoot through him as though he’d been plugged into an electrical socket and quickly recharged. Lilliana was now aware of him. And from the look on her face, all too aware of his attraction to her. Good.

  There was nothing in the young man that felt ashamed of his desire; it was in his blood, in his very cells, to want her. In that moment he would have stood proudly and announced it to the entire class if it hadn’t meant that he’d be kicked out immediately for disruption and certified insane by the object of his attentions. And so he would go about this the hard way.

  “Lilliana,” he thought as she turned away, satisfied if only for the moment. “My Lilliana.”

  * * *

  Buy or borrow it now: Torn

  More from Bestselling Author Carina Wilder

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  Sought by the Alphas individual books, free on Kindle Unlimited:

  Encounters

  Rituals

  Trial by Fire

  Kinship

  Dragon Queen

  Seeking Her Mates Box Set ( the follow-up to Sought by the Alphas): Complete Set (Five Books)

  Individual books:

  Torn

  Escape

  Dragon Flight

  Loyalty

  Dragon Wars

  Coming in September, 2015: Illusions (Follow-up to Seeking Her Mates)

  This is a stand-alone novel, approximately 60,000 words.

  Wolf Rock Shifters: these are individual stand-alone books:

  Winning the Alpha

  Bearing Up In Wolf Rock

  The Right to a Bear's Arms

  To Lie With Lions

  Alpha’s Hunt

  Billionaires and Curves:

  Billionaires and Curves (Taken With You) Trilogy

  Individual Books in Billionaires and Curves:

  Taken With You

  Crazy About You

  The Way to You

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  http://carinawilder.blogspot.ca

 

 

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