Page 22 of Emerald Flame
He shut the water off and grabbed a towel. As he slowly dried off, he turned physically toward the bedroom. He sharpened his wolf hearing. Kiara was snoring softly.
He levitated the distance to the doorway and settled his gaze on her. If a wizard was making a play for Savage, would Kiara at some point become his enemy? Could she become the means by which Savage fell? Or would she be a potential ally?
As the full weight of the situation settled into him, he sighed heavily. He would need to set some limits with Kiara. Making love to her had been extraordinary. But it was just sex, after all. Once the moment passed and reality returned, the decisions he made had to be for the Caldion Pack’s best interest. Being involved with a witch to any serious degree, and certainly long-term, was out of the question.
He moved to stand over her. She was exquisite, though. His maleness had always responded to her beauty. Her complexion was creamy but with a slight olive tone. She had strong cheekbones which he suspected would photograph well. Her lips were full and sensual. He’d enjoyed kissing her.
Sudden need for her swelled over him like a heavy ocean wave that crested then hit him hard. He’d always desired her. What man wouldn’t, she was that beautiful.
But as he stared down at her, he realized that what he felt wasn’t simple. He didn’t just want the woman. He craved her. His bones ached and threatened to shift as he looked at her. A howl formed in his throat. He arched his neck and released it but only on the softest wolf-cry.
She moved slightly on her pillow, but didn’t wake up. Did her neck arch as well, even in her sleep? Her lips parted and she bobbed her chin a couple of times. It was a very wolf-like gesture, a preparation for a responsive howl.
Awareness rained down on him, drenching him. Kiara, a witch, had alpha-mate capacity. She could bond with him and serve Caldion as the alpha female of his pack.
He took a step backward, then another.
Braden, also an alpha, had recently bonded himself to a witch, so it wasn’t unheard of. Even Fergus had taken a fae to be his bond-mate and she’d made an exemplary female alpha.
His fingers went to the left side of his face and scalp, to the deep grooved scars that had marred him almost from the beginning of his time in Five Bridges. A witch had done this to him.
Kiara’s kind couldn’t be trusted. He’d experienced it first-hand. Even if she meant no harm, her powers could do damage without her even knowing what she was doing.
In his case, the witch who had poisoned him had been his wife, Tonya. She’d only been in Elegance a week when she’d created the paste in her spellroom. She was soon diagnosed with a disease calledalterdementia. She’d lived for the past eight years in aninsane asylum in Revel, the Five Bridges Territory where faealtersresided.
He still couldn’t think about it without experiencing a painful sinking sensation in his gut. Somehow, the terrible incident had come to represent all that he hated about Elegance Territory: The deception, the ability to hide and to disguise, the use of spells to hurt others.
Yet here a witch lay, sleeping peacefully in a very wolf-like burrow. The fantasy storm he’d created had been one of the most powerful experiences of his life.
He knew as well that if he took her to bed again, he’d be able to replicate the experience.
He could sense her abilities as though they were his own. She had levels of innate power he’d never seen before which made her even more dangerous.
He knew that given her beauty and the kindness of her nature, as well as his intense craving to make her his alpha-mate, he should disengage with her, the sooner the better.
