by Camryn Rhys
Heart of Stone
Witches of Whitewood, Book One
Camryn Rhys
Contents
About Heart of Stone
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Other Moonbound World Books
Who’s Your Alpha?
About the Author
About Heart of Stone
Not every runaway wants to be found…
Mattie Banfield has been running for years. Casting spells to protect her young son from people who want him dead. The final spell, cast to cover their home, resulted in a horrific accident, killing Mattie’s best friend and her mate, and her own mother in the process. That spell made the White Wood—the only place Mattie Banfield is truly safe.
But it came at a horrible cost.
She lost not only her best friend and her only remaining family, but she left behind her Kindred, all to protect her son’s life.
When William Walker finds Mattie one morning, she does the only thing she can think of…she casts a spell. Will is a dangerous connection to her old life, and could put their child’s life in danger again.
Mattie will not risk Brady’s life again. Not even for the man who calls out her magick…
Prologue
Bucking Horse Dude Ranch
near Springfield, Colorado
Two years ago
“Matilda Banfield.” The voice was deep, scolding, parental. “We talked about this.”
Mattie froze, gripping the granite pestle like a weapon in case she had to defend herself.
Her prep kitchen echoed with silence, like her name had made some kind of ripple in the air. But it was the voice, not the name.
She turned to find Caleb Gallagher, pack alpha and longtime friend, standing with his Patagonia-jacketed arms crossed, filling the open side door of her kitchen, and staring with dark, clouded eyes.
“Remind me,” she said, with a sweet twist in her tone. Mattie dropped the pestle into the rock mortar bowl and wiped her hands on her apron. “It’s been forever since you were in my kitchen and we’ve talked about many things over the years.”
Caleb pulled his lips to one side and shook his head. “Gretchen was on rounds and ran by our niece’s apartment. She saw your son’s truck in the driveway.”
The frigid feeling crept back into her limbs. “It’s three in the morning.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“Does that mean they’re—”
“They’d better not be.”
Mattie crossed the kitchen and fumbled around for her purse. She dragged out her phone and texted Paul.
Can you come home right now?
“Maybe it’s just a one-time thing.” Her fingers closed around the phone and she tried not to squeeze too hard.
“It’d better be a no-time thing. Mattie.” The alpha took a step into the kitchen. “You promised me.”
“I know.” She glanced at the phone, but it was still dark.
“Paul and Jamie can’t be involved with my pack.”
“I know.” She leaned against the counter, trying to catch her breath while thoughts whirled around in her head. “He’s had such a hard time since the accident.”
A flash of concern darkened Caleb’s features and he uncrossed his arms, at last. The man had a stern presence on his best of days, and on the worst of days, he could be downright menacing. But Mattie felt all her bones relaxing.
“He’s been around my sons and daughters since they were all babies, and this has never been a problem before.” He shook his head, flipping his eyes up toward the ceiling. “I knew that our families being in proximity would turn into an issue for us.”
“You want me to…” She swallowed, a flutter passing through her whole body. “You want us to move?”
“No.” There was an upturn at the tail end of that word, though, and Mattie couldn’t be sure if he really meant it. “But I do want you to encourage Paul to find another job. I’ll tell Sean to let him go. I’ll handle my neice.”
“But he’s always been in the rodeo. He’ll always be a cowboy at heart.”
“Then find a way to use him here. I’m sure Brady won’t mind the help, now that he’s taking over.” Caleb gestured around the room like he was taking in the entire operation at the Bucking Horse Dude Ranch. “Our agreement hinges on Paul and Jamie staying away from pack business.”
She held her tongue, looking back at the silent phone. Paul still hadn’t texted back yet. He was a grown man, and he didn’t have to do what she told him anymore, but getting involved with a Gallagher could be disasterous. She couldn’t leave the white woods. Her family was only safe in the white woods.
“I promise you, Caleb, I’ll fix this.”
“You’d better.” He leveled her with a dark glare that, no doubt, had some alpha magick behind it.
Pressure built behind Mattie’s sternum. Her children were all that mattered to her. She’d have to give the three of them a stake in the ranch. Make them stay behind the protective cover of the white woods. The hidden spell.
Or none of them would be safe.
Chapter One
Springfield, Colorado
Two years later
“Of all the grocery stores in all the world…” The old clerk at the Sac’n’Pac trailed off as Mattie brought her hand basket around the end of the checkout lane.
She gave him her typical shy smile—the one that she reserved for men who wouldn’t stop hitting on her, which was a rarer and rarer occurrence as she’d passed the age of forty.
Be kind, but firm, her mother had said when they first came to Springfield.
“Now, Roy. You know this is the closest store to our house,” she said, with a low laugh.
“Every time.” The gray-haired man covered his heart with his hand and pretended she’d shot him.
“I know.” She unpacked the groceries onto the short conveyer belt. “But I keep coming back.”
“You’re giving me hope, Matilda.”
Mom hips didn’t seem to deter him, and the oversized clothing apparently wasn’t hiding whatever it was he wanted from her. Of course, she’d only given birth once, so maybe it would’ve sold the look more if she’d had to recover from three pregnancies. The physical work at the ranch didn’t help.
“I could stop coming in.”
“Now, now.” Roy slid the green-topped carrots into her cloth bags, shaking his head. “You’ll take away the highlight of my Saturday mornings.”
An odd sort of energy slid through her body, like Brady was hovering somewhere around, doing a spell. But…not exactly like her son. No. It was…so hard to place.
Mattie grabbed her purse and clutched it to her side, feeling the outline of the handgun she always carried. It made her feel secure to know, even if she couldn’t do magick in public, she had some means of protection.
She fished her wallet out and handed over the usual amount of cash. She hadn’t had a credit card in her entire life, and a part of her would never understand why cash wasn’t good enough for everyone.
Mattie had paid cash for the ranch. And for the truck she still drove once a week. And for their first horses. It hadn’t been until Brady took over that there’d even been a credit card on the Bucking Horse Dude Ranch. “Keep the change, Roy.” She closed his hand over the bills and change, pushing it toward him.
“Come
on, now, Mattie.” He looked up at her through light-colored lashes. Roy was attractive enough—maybe ten years or so older than she was, with kind blue eyes and strong cheek bones.
He’d been after her to go out with him for more years than she could count, and she laughed at his one-liners, but… She wasn’t that woman anymore.
“See you next Saturday.” Mattie gathered the two bags of produce, cheese, and spices that would complement the fresh beef she planned to roast for dinner that night.
“You don’t have to tip cashiers,” Roy called after her.
“Take the sting off the rejection,” she threw back with a laugh, and walked through the narrow exit door, which someone was holding open for her.
“You can reject me anytime for free,” said the genial cashier, his voice trailing off as she passed out into the warm June morning.
The air was crisp and refreshing in the little mountain town, and no matter how many times she walked into it, Mattie had a moment of gratitude that she’d found Springfield, Colorado. There was nothing quite like it.
Shadowy and dark, a man leaned against the adjacent vehicle and she pulled the sweatshirt hood up over the back of her head. She opened the creaky passenger door of her beat-up old Ford F-100 and slid the canvas bags onto the leather bench seat. Steeling herself with a breath, she came around the front of the truck, looking up to meet the stranger’s eyes with a quick nod.
A bright green shimmer made her breath stop.
In the depths of his eyes, a familiar sheen, almost like a cat’s reflecting in direct light. There was only one person on earth whose eyes would shimmer like that. Her Kindred. And she couldn’t bring herself to stop her focus from sliding across the sharp planes of his face.
With a few more wrinkles and a thick Viking beard, he had grown past the boyish good looks into an angular, dark-lined, hard-knocks hunk of man flesh.
Such a long-ago memory.
William Walker.
He was older, sure. But still so…so…delicious. The long cut of his legs in those jeans. Still-broad shoulders tapered into muscled arms under a black t-shirt, and long, black-and-white graphic tattoos rippled down the bicep closest to her.
The familiar dimples.
Mattie’s knees were going weak.
She still couldn’t breathe, and her steps had slowed so much, she had to lean against the front side of the truck just to make sure she wouldn’t fall over from shock.
“That was a pretty lame line, Lee.” He used her old nickname. From her old name.
It really is Will Walker.
No way to hide from him. Just like she’d seen his eyes glimmer, he would’ve seen hers, cat-eye green magick overtaking the blue. No doubt he wouldn’t have approached her if he wasn’t sure it was her, anyway. Mattie couldn’t pretend not to know him. Even as long as it had been.
“Of all the grocery stores in all the world,” he repeated, flipping his gaze upward with a hard laugh. “I’m curious. Are you saying no every week because you’re already married?”
“Will…” she tried to put a little warning under her words, but the rest of them wouldn’t come out. She couldn’t think of what to say to him. There’d been no contingency plan for Will showing up out of the blue. Not for twenty-some years.
“No, I want to know, Lianne.” He pushed off the truck and the tattoo rippled as he flexed his arms.
Sexual energy surged through her. She never could resist Will Walker, and her son was the living, walking, spell-casting proof of that fact.
Not to mention, it’d been…years…since she’d been with a man.
“Not here.” Mattie looked around the parking lot of the little grocery store, hoping there was no one paying attention. Not everyone in Springfield knew her, but the odds were, someone would remember Mattie Banfield’s name wasn’t Lianne. She had to get Will out of the public eye.
Think.
She whispered two lines in Gaelic and took a step toward him. His brows went up as she approached, and she could’ve sworn she saw the same arousal flash across his features that was singing in her veins.
Before he could say another word, she finished the spell and Will’s eyes closed. He slumped back against his own vehicle and she caught him, holding him upright while the dead weight of his body dragged her down.
Mattie pulled open the door to her truck and pushed him inside. The earthy, leathery scent of his skin stuck in her memory and brought the past flashing back fast and hard.
It took her a moment to catch her breath and move around to the driver side. She moved the grocery bags to the floor and pulled Will’s body across the seat, pushing him as much into a sitting position as she could manage.
A quick look inside made her heart slow down a little. No one watched her, and if they’d seen anything, they didn’t appear to react. She never knew what the town would do with gossip like this—it was unpredictable in how it treated the objects of rumors—but she couldn’t afford to be talked about. Period.
She started the truck and pulled out into the sparse traffic, trying to ignore the fear that gripped her heart the farther she got away from Will’s vehicle.
There couldn’t possibly be any other reason for him to be in this tiny town in Colorado. There was nothing touristy in Springfield. No one here was connected to anyone in Boston—not directly, anyway—except the new Gallagher enforcer, and the wolves didn’t count. They knew who she was. Why she needed to hide. Or, at least, Caleb knew.
Will had come looking for her, and Mattie had no idea who he’d told, who was with him, and who knew he was there. She couldn’t afford to take any chances. She had to take him to the ranch.
To her home.
If she didn’t, he’d eventually ask around and find her the old fashioned way, if he hadn’t already. She couldn’t afford to let him ruin the good things she’d worked so hard to preserve here.
No clue what I’m going to do with him when I get him out there. But home is the only place I can take him.
Into the white woods.
Mattie pulled her pickup around the back of the big ranch house nestled on a hill in the aspen forest. An old, weathered fence stretched around the far side of the driveway, separating the green pastured hillside from the manicured lawn that circled the house. It was early enough, her children might still be asleep.
She still hadn’t decided what to do with Will. He’d stayed unconscious the entire drive up into the hills that would turn into mountains just beyond the edge of her property. Where the Banfield ranch began and the Gallagher ranch ended.
Calling Caleb wasn’t an option, either. She’d been vague enough about where she’d come from, for so many years. If he knew there were humans like Will who knew about witches and wolves and magick…
There was no telling what he would do. The stern alpha was serious about secrecy. Understandably so.
She left the engine running and slipped into the garage. Some of Brady’s climbing gear sat on one of the tables. Long ropes, bungee cords, caribeeners. Mattie took one of the short bungees and went back to the truck, her heart racing.
Breath kept coming fast, like someone chased her, and her flight-or-fight mechanism was kicking in. Old habits.
The truck’s door creaked as she opened it and she found herself sighing, looking at Will one more time. The last time she’d seen him, he hadn’t had the kind of raw power he had now, with muscles and a beard and tattoos. But he almost looked the same.
Mattie tied his hands, her skin singing at the warmth of contact with her Kindred again. Soul mates, her mother had called them. She’d missed this. Touching him.
Walking around the truck again, her mind was going a thousand clicks at once. Can’t take him inside. Can’t leave him in the truck.
Her children would be awake soon, somewhere in the ranch house, if they weren’t already up. Brady might be out with the horses, even at this hour.
Paul was probably… Well, who knew where Paul was, anymore. Since Caleb had broken up
the relationship that’d been developing between her son and his niece, Mattie had watched her son go downhill. He was so lost these days.
The groceries on the floor of her truck had been her attempt to get some magick in his stomach. Get him back on his course again.
Jamie would be in the office if she was awake. Getting ready for her first round of tourists to show up next week.
There was nowhere to hold a prisoner.
She slid behind the wheel and backed out onto the ranch road. Backwards, it would take her to the barn, the corrals, the staff quarters. Forwards, it would take her to the pastures. Out into the ranch.
A tiny bubble of relief settled across her chest.
The pasture cabins.
She could take Will out there. One of them had to be habitable. The locations flipped through her mind, and their relative hiddenness. The north cabin was too close to the Gallaghers. The west cabin was too close to the main road.
Goldilocks had nothing on Mattie Banfield.
South it is.
Chapter Two
Will Walker’s head pounded like it was sitting on an anvil. His body felt heavy, like his eyelids. Time was fuzzy, blurring the edges of the events he’d just experienced.
Lianne. Lee.
The clerk at the little store had called her Matilda, and Mattie. Shouldn’t have surprised him. She had a thing for middle names, and had been Mattie when he first met her. He should’ve known.
If he’d thought to look for Mattie Banfield, instead of Lianne Banfield, would he have caught her sooner?
Caught.
He tried to force his eyes open, but they wouldn’t quite move. He opened his mouth to make words, but those wouldn’t come, either.
“Don’t try to talk yet,” said Lianne. Mattie. His Mattie. “You’ll make yourself sick, fighting that spell, William.”
