Page 30 of Castings & Curses

Still, knowing she was powerful and seeing it were two different things.

Watching her now, he could feel the rising power of the spell she was weaving with elegance and grace.

He couldn't look away.

Even more disturbing was how riveted his wolf was. Almost as if—

“No fucking way!” His voice shattered the evening air as his wolf finally let slip the truth it had known from the moment they met Natalie for the very first time.

This crazy, powerhouse of a witch, the one who drove him mad with her superior attitude and abundance of arrogance, was hismate.

* * *

An hour later,Natalie was still seething.

Was it too much to ask that the wolf respect their rituals and ceremonies? After all, her coven had been perfectly respectful at the wolves’ den two weekends before when they were celebrating their alpha’s mating wolf-style.

Sure, the witches could have done their ceremony at that time, but waiting gave the ceremony more power, as did holding it on their own lands, for they were imbued with the power of the entire coven and all of Natalie’s line.

“Aw, come on, Natalie, cut the poor wolf a break,” Tempest said. “He apologized, didn’t he?”

Natalie scowled. “Not the point.”

“He said it had nothing to do with the ceremony, he just got an unexpected text, that’s all.”

“He didn’t even have his phone out at the time.”

“You were busy casting the blessing,” Tempest said. “You might have missed it.”

“I didn’t miss anything. He’s a jerk. In fact—” Natalie leaned over and scooped up the cat she’d named Moonbeam. “Sweet love,” she murmured in her ear, “maybe you can go have a little bit of fun with the wolf. You know… vengeful fun.” She set the cat back down and, with a huge grin on her face, watched her dart away.

“Seriously?” Tempest demanded. “Was that really necessary?”

“Hell, yes,” Natalie said. “And you’d think so too if it was one of your father’s minions—or worse, that chameleon who’s been trying to charm you.”

Tempest scowled. “Don’t remind me.”

“Then don’t judge me for seeking a bit of vengeance on the wolf.”

“I’m just saying since Pippa seems to have forgiven him, maybe you should too.”

“When pigs fly.”

* * *

“Man,that witch ispissedat you,” Rocco said.

Corwin winced.

Yeah, he’d seriously fucked everything up and he had no idea how to fix it.

“What the hell’s wrong with you anyway?” Sal demanded. “You’ve been in a terrible mood for more than a month and now you’re cursing in the middle of our alpha’s mate-blessing, witch-thingy?”

Rocco snickered. “Witch-thingy?”

Sal shrugged. “Well, what would you call it?”

Rocco thought about that for a moment, then said, “I guess witch-thingy will do.”

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