Page 49 of Castings & Curses

Even worse was knowing she’d have to resist temptation unless she wanted to chance unleashing her powers again.

Dear goddess, she didn’t know which was worse.

Wanting the wolf in the first place.

Or never getting to kiss him again.

* * *

All Corwin wanted wasto kiss his mate again, then drag her off somewhere private so they could explore each other to their heart’s content.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of clean-up to be done due to the crazed thunderstorm Natalie had sent crashing through their town.

Jared and Corwin headed for pack lands, to help clear paths in the forest and to ensure no-one was hurt.

Meanwhile, the witches headed for town to help out there.

It was late afternoon before Corwin managed to break away from his pack and track down his mate. He found her at the diner, eating with her coven.

He immediately grabbed a chair and shoved his way between Natalie and Rowan, throwing a growl and glare at the male witch for daring to sit so close to his mate.

Rowan chuckled, threw up his hands in surrender, grabbed his plate and moved around to the opposite side of the table.

“What are you doing?” Natalie demanded.

“Joining you for a meal, of course,” Corwin said.

“But why?”

Hmm. Dilemma time.

Should he admit they were mates?

Or just keep playing it by ear?

Probably best not to say anything.

“Because I’m starving and if I eat with you, we can count this as our first date. Or maybe it’s our second, on account of the earlier kiss and all. Or should it be our third? You know, in case kissing is only a second date activity, which would move our lunch yesterday up to first date status. Yeah, that makes total sense. Third date, here we are!”

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes.

“Where’s Pippa?” Tempest asked.

“She and Jared are hanging out at the den. Some of the pups were frightened by the storm, so they’re sticking close to give them the comfort of the alpha pair.”

Natalie’s right hand clenched into a fist on the table. “Damnit. I can’t believe I lost control like that.”

“Hey, it’s all good.” Corwin settled his hand on top of hers and squeezed gently. “Really. No one blames you. In fact, we’re all pretty impressed. Even though tree limbs were falling everywhere, none of them—not in the town or on pack lands—landed on property, animalsorpeople. Literally,no onewas hurt.”

“I guess.”

“The amount of control that took is off the charts,” Tempest said. “We knew there was no damage in town, but we weren’t sure about the other territories. I can’t even imagine how you kept everything controlled, Natalie. When my storms get that bad, there’snocontrolling them. They gain a life of their own and then, it’s out of my hands, you know?”

Natalie shrugged. “The staff helped. Moonbeam helped more.”

“Moonbeam?” Corwin asked.

“My familiar.”

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