by Alisa Woods
But that didn’t mean Daniel wasn’t still nervous as hell having her around—if only because of the way his body reacted to her, all nervous and intense and sparking up with pleasure. What in the heck was that thing that happened when they touched? He didn’t know… but if he were smart, he’d avoid that like the dangerous magic it was. And if there was one thing Daniel Wilding tried to be, it was smart.
But he could already feel the urge to join them, to linger in the field, watching, just to have another taste of that flirtatious gaze pointed his way. Instead, very deliberately, he turned his back on them and headed toward the main house. The only place he could safely have electric encounters with Skylar Starling would be in his dreams… and even then, he wasn’t certain they wouldn’t turn into nightmares.
Skyler ran through the forest like the devil himself was chasing her.
It was so early in the morning that the sun was barely rising over the mountains. The rosy light filtered through the trees, but most of the forest was still shrouded in darkness. She had conjured some firefly lights to buzz around and light the way like a magical pixie-dust trail through the forest—maybe that would keep her from tripping and breaking her leg out here in the middle of nowhere. The other witches in her coven would be laughing at her if they saw her running like an average human in her Nike tennis shoes and yoga pants, but she loved the adrenaline. And it was glorious out here in the early-morning forest—nothing in the city could match it. Besides, her coven sisters would be surprised at much more than her running if they knew the truth about her.
She had to trade in three favors and make two casual threats of magical retaliation in order to end up here, helping Kaden with his secret pack of magical wolves. Ever since Grace Krepky, the first openly shifter person to run for Congress, had revealed herself as a white wolf, the witching community had been on fire about what it meant. The white wolf was a magical beast that hearkened back to the time when witches and wolves were not separate species. There was a reason why female wolves and male witches were rare. Witches and wolves were really two halves of the same original magical beast—one who shifted as well as wielded magical powers. Long ago, they had divided into females expressing the predominantly feminine magical arts, while males expressed the predominantly masculine aspect in becoming shifters. Wolves weren’t the only shifters, of course, but they were inherently communal, gathering in packs and generally exposing themselves to the public more frequently by their close association.
Skyler ducked under a low branch, then used a little magical boost to clear a fallen log and land in the ferns beyond. She kept running, her breath misting in the early morning dawn. She sucked in great gulps of fresh mountain air, with all its glorious scents of living things—the small creatures, the towering evergreens, and even the faint mustiness of the decaying leaves was wondrous to her. This was a part of her that her coven sisters would never understand—in fact, she would be an outright target if they knew what she really was.
Skyler skittered to a halt and waved away the pixie trail of lights ahead of her, leaving her in the shadows of the mighty pine trees that rose above her. She had no idea where she was. But finding a way home was as simple as conjuring a seeking spell, so that didn’t concern her. The important thing was getting far enough out that no one would find her while she indulged in the one thing she had been hoping to do since she signed up to help these magical white wolves.
Because she was more like them than they knew.
Than anyone knew, really. It was her closely guarded secret—she’d never even shared it with her mother, the high-ranking, pureblood witch who ran their coven. Or her father, another purebred witch, a rare male drawn in by her powerful mother. If her coven discovered her secret, bringing shame to her family wouldn’t be her only problem. Some dark witch would surely find her oddity far too magically valuable to let her live.
Because Skylar was a wolf.
A female wolf. And there were witches who hunted wolves for the magic in their hearts, with the females being especially high-prized. Add in that she was a witch herself… and it was trouble.
Although beyond being a witch who was also a wolf, there wasn’t anything terribly special about her. She wasn’t a majestic white wolf like the men she had been training last night. Her wolf was a simple, even scrawny, black wolf. She had discovered it in the first blush of adolescence when most witches got their powers. Of course, she had learned all the basic spells long before then—rudimentary magic that any witch, even a partial-blooded witch, could perform. A witch’s true power only came into its full blossom when she started to become a woman. Thankfully, she was in the privacy of her own bedroom when she discovered she could shift.
Skyler’s heavy breathing from the run had calmed enough to listen for anyone in the area who might stumble across her. She rarely had a chance to shift. In fact, she’d only shifted twice since she was a girl on the cusp of womanhood.
The first time was when she had been startled by some magical interplay with her friends. She’d quickly shifted back, terrified that someone would discover her, but she’d gotten away with it, thank the goddess! The second time had been on a solo trip she’d taken to the mountains. The forest had been calling to her—some deep, primal need for connection with the outdoors that she simply couldn’t deny. She had run for two glorious days as a wolf, only to realize that the ache inside her wasn’t simply a longing for running through the trees—it was her inner wolf calling for a pack.
A mate. And that aching loneliness had been so deep, she could hardly believe it was real. It wasn’t like she didn’t have friends—she had plenty. Lovers, too, although they had always been human, except for that one male witch who had slept his way through her coven. Everyone wanted to experience the perks of lovemaking with a pureblood for themselves, but he’d quickly moved on, not finding the match he wanted. But none of that was even close to the aching she felt for this wolf version—a mate.
But that was something she would never have.
Even taking a trip to the woods to let her wolf loose had been a disaster. When she returned, the questioning had been intense and highly suspicious. Witches who went off on their own were suspect to the coven. Had she been making alliances? What drew her to the mountains?
No normal witch wants to spend that much time alone… unless they are hatching plans.
That was the warning, and not an unkind one, from her mother.
After that, Skyler restricted her odd behavior to the quirky but not threatening runs in her Nike sneakers along Seattle’s waterfront and through the parks of the city. Witches were a suspicious bunch, but they were allowed to their oddities, as long as they remained within the cool embrace of the coven.
Skyler pulled in another glorious draught of mountain air. Playing with shifter wolves, tossing around magical fire… this was like heaven to her. Her heart skipped a beat just thinking about another round of practice today. And she had so quickly won the wolves’ trust—they didn’t hate her or assume the worst about her. Not that she could reveal she was one of them, but her inner wolf hummed with their nearness. Just being among them was satisfying something deep in her soul.
And then along came Daniel Wilding.
He was suspicious of her right from the jump—and to make things worse, he was deliciously hot. With that tight, regal bearing that came from his army upbringing, his tousled dark hair, and those piercing blue eyes, he brought out every flirtatious impulse she’d ever possessed. It was so sudden and hot, she couldn’t stop herself from going over and actually touching the man—which had quickly freaked him out. And rightly so.
It was a stupid move on her part. He was the leader of the group, even if he wasn’t a white witch-wolf himself. Maybe. According to his brother, there was some potential there. Either way, the last thing she could afford to do was piss off Daniel Wilding and have him send her away. She seemed to have averted that catastrophe last night, but just in case he awoke with a renewed determina
tion to kick her little witchy butt out of their mountain retreat and off their secret white-wolf team, she had gotten up before the birds were even singing to grab a run… just in case it was her last.
Skyler stood for one more long moment listening to the sweet sounds of nature talking to her inner wolf. Her breath was quiet enough she could even hear small animals wrestling under the carpet of leaves.
It was time.
She should be far enough from the estate, deep into the River family’s vast property, that she could risk it. And her inner wolf was prancing around inside her, itching to get out—if she didn’t give her some relief soon, with all this time training the white wolves, she was afraid she might accidentally shift. Better to open the release valve now, when no one was looking.
With a deep breath, she shifted, leaving her exercise clothes in a pile next to a small boulder. She landed on all fours, paws deep into the ferns. Her senses sharpened like they always did when she was in wolf form—she’d only experienced it a few times, and the last was so long ago, but everything came flooding back. The heightened sense of smell, now easily able to pick out the mouse under the log to her right and the blue jay in the tree to her left. The sharpened hearing that sensed every small tremble of leaves as a separate song. And the urgent need to bound through the forest and use all of her long-neglected shifter muscles.
She took off like a shot, dashing away with reckless abandon, vaulting over rocks and then logs and even a fallen tree that made a sort of bridge over a tiny stream. Even without a magical boost, her speed was astonishing. Her wolf tore through the forest like each pounding under her paws was a reward for all the times she kept quiet about what she truly was.
She ran and ran and ran… she felt like she could do this all day. Each passing minute just made her lungs open up more, and an unnatural calm settle into her mind. This was home. Not quite pack, but that was an empty place inside her that could never be filled. And then a flash of Daniel Wilding’s face surged up in her mind, bringing her to a complete halt.
Mate, her wolf said.
Are you nuts? she answered. She wasn’t used to her wolf making her thoughts known so clearly. Yes, Daniel was a wolf, and an alpha for sure—but a mate was something she would never have. A partner, yes. Perhaps even a male witch, given her mother’s status in the coven—Skyler already had attracted several esteemed witchy suitors, but she had never indulged except that one time, stubbornly insisting she was nowhere near ready to settle down. It was a witch’s prerogative to play the field long and hard before even considering something like pairing for life—and, for a witch, that was quite a long time.
But a mate… that was something different.
Skyler had done her homework—she knew wolves mated for life with a magical bond that integrated them into the pack and formed the nexus for it. It was unlike anything in the witching world, and it was a missing hole in her heart that would never be filled, even when she finally decided to partner.
These thoughts were ruining her run.
She stared at the tumble of leaves under her paws and the misty trail of heated breath leaking from her muzzle and realized… this was all she would ever have. Snatches of freedom when no one was looking. She should use it for all it was worth and not pine away for things that could never be. She was about to bound off in another direction when suddenly a noise—
She froze.
There was a scent… a new scent… a wolf scent…
Panic rippled through her body. She whipped her head around, looking in all directions, searching for the source of the scent, but it wasn’t in her direct line of sight. Not yet. But she could hear him coming—and her mind was sorting that scent into a category.
Daniel Wilding.
The panic surged higher. She quickly sent out a seeking spell for both him and her clothes that she left lying in the forest. She had recently touched both of those, so she didn’t need the normal powders to conjure the spell—he was closing fast, and there was no way she would make it back. She dropped the spell and shifted human just before he came been bounding in his wolf form around a copse of oak trees that still had their leaves and had been obscuring her view.
She was naked.
Buck naked. Standing tall and proud—or at least as tall as she got—in the forest with no clothes. And far, far away from anywhere she should be. She could tell precisely when Daniel caught sight of her by the way he skittered to a stop, clumsily, almost like he couldn’t stop himself fast enough. He ended up only a dozen feet away, staring at her with those big blue eyes, his jaw hanging slack and his tongue lolling out, panting from the run.
She knew it was just the way wolves looked, but she couldn’t help the flush of heat that his open-mouth stare at her naked body roused up in her.
She balled up her fists and put on all the bravado she possessed—and she was a member of one of the most powerful covens in the city. Bravado was one thing she had an excess of. She held her chin high and thrust her small breasts into the air, daring him to look.
He responded by having his eyes go just a little wider and settling roughly on his rump, still staring at her.
“I was just going for a run!” she declared, planting her hands on her hips—her very naked hips—and daring him to challenge her on that story.
He just blinked.
Why wasn’t he answering?
She stomped closer to him, her bare feet making the crackling of the leaves even more pronounced. “You have a problem with that?”
He just held his ground, eyes growing wider as she approached.
“What? Have you never seen someone run naked before? Witches do all kinds of things naked.” Good goddess, she was rambling now. She had to get out of there, fast.
But why wasn’t he saying anything?
Then she internally smacked herself on the head. He was still in wolf form! And if he shifted, he would be just as naked as she was. But without shifting, he couldn’t speak to her.
That he was stubbornly refusing to shift told her that he was more afraid of being naked with her in the forest than he was curious about why she was here. That realization made her whole body relax, and her confidence flooded back.
“Well,” she said peering down at him. “I can see I’m not the only one who likes to take an early morning run.” Then she sauntered closer, making sure to sway her hips—his eyes dropped to that motion then bounced back up.
She smirked. Then she bent down and reached a hand out to pet the fur on top of his head. He jerked back out of her reach, a whimpering sound deep in his chest.
Oh shit. She yanked her hand back. “I, um… was just wondering what your fur felt like.”
Oh, goddess help her. She needed to shut her mouth and turn around now.
“Anyway,” she said way too brightly, “I’ll be heading back now. Nice running into you, Daniel.”
She turned her back on him and intentionally swayed her hips as she tromped through the forest, putting distance between them. She didn’t look back and prayed to the goddess that inspired divine witchy magic that he wouldn’t decide she was too unstable or crazy or just flat out dangerous and send her away.
It wasn’t until she reached her clothes and started to pull them back on that she realized… she had called him by name.
She’d never seen him in his proud black wolf form before. There’s no way she should’ve known his name. She only recognized him by his scent… which no witch should have been able to do.
Crap.
She furiously tugged on her boots and marched back toward the estate. She may have blown this entire thing. She would just have to make up some excuse—some bizarre witchy power—for how she knew who he was even when he was in wolf form. Better yet, she wouldn’t mention it at all, unless he brought it up.
With any luck, he would still let her stay.
Holy shit, she’s a beautiful woman.
That was pretty much the entirety of the thoughts running through Daniel’s brain
all morning. He took the other white wolves on their typical morning run through the forest, bringing Troy along as well. Daniel grilled him about his intentions with Zoe, but Troy seemed an all-around standup guy. Then the mayor made an appearance, looking for Zoe, which raised Daniel’s alarm bells, but the man had been decent as far as humans went and had been helping out another white wolf, Grace Krepky, since she declared her intent to run for Congress. Then Daniel had to check in with the Joint Base where he was technically stationed—he was on leave, but he had to keep the wheels on in his absence. When he finally made it back up the mountain to the estate, it was late afternoon, and time for another round of training with the white wolves.
But through all of that, ever-present in his mind was an image of Skylar’s perky little body, nipples stiff in the morning air, standing boldly naked in front of him.
Witches do all kinds of things naked.
Jesus H. Christ. He’d spent half the morning fighting a raging hard-on. He rubbed his hand across his face as he pulled into the estate’s parking lot, trying to wipe away that thought before it gave him another one. It wasn’t just her insanely hot body that got under his skin, though—it was that smart mouth and those emerald-green, flirtatious eyes. He thought for a moment this morning that he’d caught her off guard when he’d been out for his early-morning solo-run. What in the world was she doing naked in the forest, anyway? Then she’d strutted over and tried to touch him again—which both thrilled his wolf for some crazy reason and terrified him for much more sane ones. Daniel had done a couple of tours overseas, but in Afghanistan, only a bullet or bomb could kill you—witches were a whole new level of threat.
And yet… he was lusting after her like she was the hottest wolf he’d ever seen.
Daniel climbed out of his car, slammed the door shut, and leaned against it for a moment, getting his bearings before tromping out to the field again. She would be there. He had to have his head on straight. He mentally ticked off all the reasons why lusting after Skylar-the-Witch was a really, really bad idea.
