Page 22 of A Touch of Flame
“Ridiculous?” she offered.
He chuckled. “No. I guess I was trying to be clever. I knew it wasn’t magic. I felt like I was talking to a friend. Much good it did. She urged me to go back to Savage, to pick up my life. But I couldn’t. Though Warren keeps pushing me to get my furry ass back to my pack, I can’t leave Elegance. I’m committed to finding out what happened to Laura, how she died that night.”
He considered her for a moment. He hadn’t told her earlier about her alpha-mate capacity, but if they were going to work together, she needed to know. Even as he watched her, his mating drive kept opening up. He’d shut it down several times already, but he wasn’t sure how easy it would be to control if they were going to spend a lot of time together in close proximity. “I have something I need to tell you.”
“What’s that?”
Well, she was a no-nonsense woman, so he said it flat out. “You’re alpha-mate material, even though you’re witch.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Kiara said something earlier about that. I told her I could smell your Madagascar scent. She said she’d heard that kind of scenting could indicate I might be able to bond with an alpha. Though I should say it makes no sense. I’m a witch. What would I have to offer a wolf pack?”
Okay, he liked this woman. “I don’t know. But Alpha Fergus recently bonded with a fae.”
“Right. But she’s a veterinarian. She could offer a bunch of wolves her surgical services, if nothing else.”
He chuckled. There was so much more to being the alpha female of a pack, but he didn’t go into that. He didn’t see the point. The last thing Maeve would want was to move to Savage and join a wolf pack. He’d heard her views on the violence of wolves enough times to know she’d be miserable in Savage Territory. “Mary’s a good, strong woman. Big-hearted and she’s changed Fergus’s life for the better. The pack will benefit from her leadership.”
He decided to switch subjects. “So, we’re agreed then that we’ll work together to get Kiara out of Veyda’s compound.”
She nodded and rose to her feet. “Yes, but we’ll need to understand the level of each other’s power and abilities. For instance, I have a few spell-tricks that would stop you in your tracks before you even got started.”
“And I’d have you flat on your back before you could blink.”
She tilted her head. “Do I smell a challenge, Officer?”
One thing he knew about Maeve, she meant what she said. But if he gave her free rein, she might set him on fire if her killing power suddenly lit up. She was a young witch and had resisted developing her powers the entire time he’d known her. The fact she’d killed a couple of witches while in a rage, made him wary about what she was capable of. “All right. Let’s take this down a notch. How about you show me what your witchy spells or you kill power can do without destroying me or your apartment.”
She smiled then laughed. “It’s probably best I take it easy, especially in my own home where I care about keeping everything safe. But I am competitive.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
“All right, go to the bottom step of the stairs, like you’ve just arrived then come at me as though you mean to do me harm. But come fast. Use all your wolfness.”
Braden pivoted then levitated swiftly. The moment he reached the stairs, he didn’t give her time to even think. He swung back her direction in a blur of wolf speed.
He’d intended to grab her up in his arms and levitate her in a circle. Instead, he found himself on his back and on the stone floor. “What the hell?” For a moment, he wasn’t sure where he was.
He blinked a few times. His recollection of what happened came back to him. He’d reached the bottom step then shot in her direction. She’d smiled as she’d waggled her fingers at him.
Her left hand.
Her killing hand.
A wave of energy had hit him and knocked him to the floor. Only ‘knocked’ wasn’t the right word. More like pressed him there. He hadn’t felt the impact of his body connecting with the stone at all.
“Can you sit up?”
He tried, but found it almost as difficult as when he’d first awakened from his coma. But it wasn’t physical weakness. This time, he could feel the spell on him.
He struggled and eventually came to a sitting position. She sat on the side of her sturdy coffee table, her knees crossed at the ankles.
He looked up at her. She wasn’t gloating in triumph.
“I always had the impression your abilities were undeveloped, but you’ve had some training, haven’t you?”
“A little. Kiara worked with me as much as she could. But before she was abducted, she was really busy. She’d be gone for days at a time.”
“Doing what?”
