A Shift In The Air
Patricia D. Eddy
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2015 Patricia D. Eddy
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Liam O’Sullivan lost his love, Caitlin Brannigan, when she killed herself by jumping off the Cliffs of Moher. Liam aches for a way to keep her memory alive. Will a witch provide the answer?
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When Cade bowman moves to Bellingham after the death of his father, he’s taken in by a new pack. The pack’s beta, Liam O’Sullivan has his secrets, but the two find a common ground in their grief.
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Nineteen Years Ago
The girl dangled her legs over the edge of the cliff. Below, the waves crashed against jutting rocks, a bit of spray tickling her bare calves. Stretching towards the horizon, the water gleamed like jewels in the intense, summer sun.
“Come see!” she yelled to the boy.
His shy smile gave her a thrill. He was older by almost two years and fascinated with her element. Years of sneaking off alone after their daily lessons, stealing moments among the ruins of the old castle at the edge of town, had cemented their bond. Each tried to outdo the other’s childish charms—he with earth and she with air.
When he dropped down next to her and took her hand, she leaned over and pecked his cheek. Her mother watched from a hundred yards away, working air charms and making rocks and blades of grass dance. A hint of disapproval tightened her mother’s lips, and the girl turned and sat up straighter, staring out over the glittering sea. At fifteen, she’d earned the right to make her own decisions, hadn’t she? The winds took on a life of their own on the Cliffs of Moher, swirling and snapping like an animal caught in a snare.
“Ye’re the prettiest girl in all of Ireland.” The boy—his teenage stubble darkening his jaw, hinting at the man he would soon become—squeezed her hand.
She blushed. “I’m not.” She was too thin, though her mother insisted she hadn’t grown into her body yet. At least her eyes shone with a pretty sky blue, and her full lips held a gentle pout.
“I can’t live without ya,” the boy whispered. “The two years I spent with my da in Scotland were awful. I thought about ya every day. Letters weren’t enough. I couldn’t wait to get home and see ya again.”
“Really?” A wide smile broke out over her face, and she hid it in her cupped hands, hoping he wouldn’t think her foolish for being so…girly. She’d cried bitter tears when he’d left and many nights since. His return the previous week had brought sunlight back to her world, after what had felt like an endless night. Her mother had tried to console her and then convince her she’d find another boy to love, but the girl only wanted him. And now they were together again.
“I missed ya too. No one else understands me. I love my mum, but she wants me to stay in Doolin forever. There’s a whole world out there.” She flung her arm out, sweeping over the restless waters. “We could go anywhere, yeah?”
“Anywhere ya want. London’s nice. So’s Glasgow.”
“Somewhere new. Exciting. There are elementals in Rome, yeah?”
The young man beamed. “Si. I’ll take ya there. And Paris. Barcelona. Even America.”
The tethers of her mother’s apron strings unraveled at his words. Outside of Doolin, she’d be able to fly, her element unchecked by the harsh restrictions the local community imposed: no charms in view of humans and no interacting with werewolves or practitioners. “When can we go?”
His warm breath tickled her cheek as he leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Soon. My mum told me about a special charm before she died. We could be part of one another. Never alone. It’s more than love. It’s sharing a piece of who we are. Mum was too afraid. Not with my da. He isn’t a good man. But ye’re mine. And we could make this work. Ya love me, don’t ya? Ya want to stay with me?”
“Yeah.” She blushed and nodded. Something about the boy with the spiky black hair and dark hazel eyes intrigued her. He was different. His earth element thrummed with strength, and he always used his charms to make her laugh or keep her safe. She didn’t fear being at the edge of the cliff because between his earth and her air, she’d never fall.
“Then let’s do it. I’d have part of your element. The charm will keep us linked together, closer than two people have ever been. I’d be stronger, and I’d protect you. Forever.”
“And would I have part of yours too?”
A shadow passed across his face as a bird soared high overhead. The girl looked up and tracked the flight, waiting for the boy’s answer.
“No.”
Chapter One
Eleven Years Ago
Caitlin Brannigan stepped off the curb, her dark brown hair blowing in the breeze. Liam grabbed her around the waist, pulling her back against him. “Careful, luv. Dublin’s a wee bit busy at rush hour, yeah?” A bus rumbled by, the double-decker yellow-and-blue monstrosity careening through the space Caitlin had occupied seconds before.
“Feckin’ buses.” She took the opportunity to snake an arm around him. “Though this is nice.” Pain edged her voice. The near miss? Desperation tinged her embrace, and she rested her head against his chest.
Something stirred inside of him. She smelled like fresh air, spring rain, and fig blossoms. He could lose himself in her scent. Not for the first time, he wondered…was she his mate? She wasn’t a wolf, but he wanted her all the same. The ache of the mating call tensed his muscles, calling from deep within his bones. Only a week separated him and the full moon, when the call would become a siren song. Werewolf mating was as much physical as emotional, and his parents had once described the experience to him as a pull so strong, you felt the angst with every breath. He hadn’t believed them until now. But Caitlin was human. He’d not thought such things possible.
His parents were pureblood werewolves and had mated in their early twenties. They’d offered to send him to college in Dublin, but he’d longed for the excitement of the States. So he’d left—with their blessing, but not their financial support—and had picked up a job in construction to pay his way. Four years spent at the University of Washington, and then he’d moved up to Bellingham to join a pack there and taken a job at the pack’s small construction company. Now, three years later, he was the foreman—one step from owning the whole outfit. He’d just hired a new electrician, another young wolf in his pack, and taken his first extended vacation in years. Though his parents had visited him often in the States, he’d always found an excuse not to return to the land of his birth. The weeklong trip to Ireland had turned into two weeks, and now three, because of the woman in his arms.
Two weeks ago, he’d rushed to Caitlin’s rescue in a popular Temple Bar pub—not that she’d needed him to. With a sharp right hook, she’d flattened a drunken suitor, a fine retribution for the beer spilled down her blouse after she’d rebuffed his advances. Liam had hauled the drunk up and propelled him towards the door, and the pale, freckled young woman with hair the color of the finest Irish coffee had looked up at him with such fire in her sky-blue eyes that he’d immediately asked her name.
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Now those eyes peered up at him, shining with tears born of the biting wind that howled through the streets and flapped his military-style jacket around his hips.
He pressed a kiss to her temple. “It’s gettin’ cold. Would ya like coffee? Or shall we head to the pub?”
“The pub. I’m peckish.” They’d scarcely taken two steps when Caitlin shuddered and then clapped her hand over her mouth. “Shite. No.” The horror in her voice riled his beast. She stumbled, bracing a hand against the wall.
“What is it, luv?” He tried to support her, but she flinched and pulled away.
“I can’t go with ya, Liam.” Caitlin took another two steps back, and when she looked up, her eyes clouded, and silver flecks tangled with the blue. “I can’t stay.”
“What? We’ve had such a grand time. I thought…ya were planning on staying with me. I want ya to stay with me.” In the two weeks they’d spent together, he’d found himself well on his way towards loving Caitlin. The previous night, they’d kissed on Ha’penny Bridge as the stars glittered on water as still as glass. The gentle caress of her fingers along his cheek and the raw desire glinting in her eyes…had he mistaken it?
“I can’t. I’m sorry. This was a mistake.”
His eyes narrowed. “A mistake?” Frustration bristled along his spine. The visceral need to claim her and to keep her safe sang with the arrival of the full moon only days away. She cringed as a growl rasped from his throat. She left a swirling eddy of air in her wake as she darted back, and his keen nose inhaled her delicious scent.
“Please, Liam. Don’t be mad with me. I can explain. Quickly. And then I have to go.”
“Luv, are ya scared of me?” The way she’d recoiled had given him pause. Liam towered over her. Construction was an active job, and Liam didn’t hold with making his men do all of the work, even if they answered to him now. Add in the sparring he did with some of the members of his pack on off-days, and he could easily be mistaken for a prizefighter in a dark alley. His six-foot-four-inch frame held barely a lick of fat, and he’d been told his long reddish-blond hair revealed his wolf long before he ever shifted. He embraced it; he’d always preferred his locks free, loose, untethered. Much like how the wind ruffled his fur when he ran in the woods. Of course, the fact that his eyes were an unnatural green mixed with the gold of his wolf didn’t detract from his wild appearance, and he secretly enjoyed that perhaps a bit more than he should. But he hadn’t counted on Caitlin spooking—not with how she’d shrugged off his assistance that first day and met his gaze with such raw confidence.
A shake of her head belied the tremble in her hands. “Not of you. No.”
“That’s not an answer. Ye’re scared of something. Scared enough to throw away what we have without even telling me why. Ya don’t do that to someone ya…” he caught his lip in his teeth before “love” slipped out, “…care about.”
Caitlin glanced up and down the street, shivering in the frigid winter air. “Not here.”
“Bewley’s?”
She nodded and allowed him to take her arm, walking her to a quiet coffee shop a few blocks off the main road. While he ordered cappuccinos, Caitlin took a seat at a corner table, facing the street. She darted glances between him and the door, and he wondered, not for the first time, what had happened to her.
Caitlin was a nervous woman. Had been their entire two weeks together. But the panic in her eyes moments before had been more than mild nerves. He hoped to God she wasn’t a victim of a crime. She’d been in Dublin for three years and finished her degree only a few weeks ago, but that was all he’d gotten out of her. Her childhood, her parents, even her hometown were all a mystery to him. Anger chafed again, and the mirror behind the bar revealed amber, bright and feral, flashing in his eyes. He blinked hard, took a couple of deep breaths, and prayed. He hadn’t told her what he was, and given her earlier fright, he didn’t want her to find out now.
Coffees in his hands, he slid one cup in front of her and then took a seat. “I’m listening.”
“Ya won’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
“Do ya know what an elemental is?” She took a sip of her coffee, hiding behind the mug.
“I’ve heard of them. Never met one.”
Caitlin ripped into a sugar packet and dumped the granules into her palm. She met his gaze as silver streaks glowed around her irises. Cupping her hands together, she took a deep breath. A tiny tornado swirled before her, lifting the sugar in a delicate spiral before streaming into her cup.
Shock tightened his throat, and he cast a gaze around the shop, hoping no one noticed. He found his voice, gritty and low. “Can all elementals do that?” He intended no malice, curiosity quelling his frustration.
“No. My element is air, so I can bring about wind. Sometimes I can even influence thoughts, compel actions. Ya only get one element”—she took a shuddering breath—“except in rare cases.”
“Rare cases?”
“Centuries ago, a child was born of two powerful practitioners. Witches,” she clarified, when he raised his brows. “No one knows what power they wielded to ‘create’ the baby, but she carried all four elements within her. The power drove the woman mad as she grew up, and she murdered dozens before the local townspeople kidnapped her children, used them to secure her surrender. They killed her.”
“Like in Salem, then?” Liam took a sip of his cappuccino and licked a bit of foam from his upper lip. Caitlin squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and swallowed hard.
“I suppose. Her daughters each held sway over two elements. One earth and fire; the other, air and water. Practitioners attempted to bind their powers, but the twins were strong enough to escape, and they fled—no one knows where.” Caitlin glanced towards the door again and set down her coffee cup. Fiddling with her purse strap, she blew out a breath. “Since then, it’s rare—almost unheard of—to be born with more than one element. Unless ya...take another’s element by force.”
“How is that even possible? It’s part of who ya are, yeah?”
She twisted the leather strap, and her breath hitched. “Bollocks. I’m making a feckin’ mess of this, and I don’t have more time to explain. I’ve had such a grand two weeks with ya. Truly. I’d stay forever if I could.” Caitlin eased his hand from the mug and turned his palm up. Tracing the lines, stroking up to his wrist, she sighed. “I love your hands, Liam. I won’t forget…any of this…you…never.”
“Ye’re talking like I’m never going to see ya again.” He tightened his grip as the wolf raged inside.
“You’re at risk if I stay. I’m…bound to another.”
Liam saw red and yanked his hand away. He wasn’t an asshole—he’d never have pursued another man’s woman. “Fuck me.”
“Luv—”
“Am I? Your love? Ya had another man this whole time. Why would ya do that to me?”
“I didn’t! I thought—” She collapsed against her seat, the blue depths of her eyes swirling with silver until she clutched the table and groaned. “I don’t have much time left to explain. But he disappeared. Dead, I hoped. Lost to the sea after…”
“After what?” A tear streaked down her cheek, and he fought not to wipe the trail away. Man and beast wrestled for control—the beast aching to steal her away and protect her, and the man slain by her betrayal.
“Your eyes. They’re…glowing.” Caution widened her gaze. “Ye’re not going to shift, are ya?”
“Ya knew.” He forced the words out through his shock, gripping the table hard enough he feared it would crack.
At her nod, he leaned forward, inhaling the unique scent of fig blossoms that was Caitlin—his Caitlin—and dropping his voice so only she could hear. “No. I won’t shift. How long have ya known?”
“Since I met ya. Your wolf is so much a part of ya, Liam. I saw him in your eyes that first night—that’s what drew me to ya. Werewolves and elementals, we’ve a long history.” Her eyelids fluttered, and she leaned back in her seat.
“I should have told you from the start. But I can’t change the past. If I could…none of this would have happened. Please forgive me.”
“I can’t—not without knowing why. I’ll be alpha one day. We don’t do casual relationships. We mate for life. So when ya tell me ye’re bound to another, that there’s a man out there with a claim to ya…”
“I don’t love him, Liam. I did once. Many years ago. But he destroyed that love. When I said bound, I meant it—by our elements. Or mine, anyway. We’re always linked, and I can’t get away. He can find me, and he’s convinced we’re meant to be together forever.”
“If ya wanted to leave him, ya could. No man’s that powerful. And I’d protect ya.” His wolf asserted his claim, the overwhelming need to touch her forcing him closer, his fingers covering hers.
She clutched his hand with a desperate strength, and her short nails dug into his palm. “You don’t know Fergus. He’s a dangerous man, and I couldn’t live with myself if ya got hurt.”
Anger suffocated him, and the ache in his chest threatened to obscure all but the wolf clawing his way to the surface. No one hurt the woman he loved. “Where is this fuckin’ tosser?”
“Close. I thought—I’d convinced myself he was dead. But deep down, I knew he’d come for me one day. I don’t know how he found me. It’s not important now. He’s somewhere in Dublin, and he’s called to me. If I don’t go to him…he’ll hurt me.”
“I won’t let him hurt you.” By her sharp intake of breath, she’d noticed the wolf in his eyes again. He didn’t care. He wanted the beast to show. The strength of a pureblood werewolf could match any creature on earth—even a vampire. Liam tossed back the last of his cappuccino. “I’ll drive ya to him myself. One of the advantages of being what I am, luv. Only a proper idiot’ll stand up to a werewolf.”
“Fergus will. Every time I’ve tried to leave him, he’s found me. Once he puts his mind to finding me, he won’t stop. Whatever luck allowed me these past three years, it’s gone now. And I have to accept my fate. I’m his, and I always will be.”
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