Moon Kissed (BBW witch and shifter romance) (Shifting Magick Trilogy Book 2) (3 page)

Breaking the kiss, he drew back to stare at her. “You do want to mate with me, right?”

She slapped at his chest. “Yes. It hurt that you didn’t chase me. I mean, at the time I didn’t want you to. Olivia was right that I wanted some space, but at the same time I kept expecting you to show up. When you didn’t…”

Her chest tightened again. Before she could twist out of his embrace, he hugged her closer. “Never think that I don’t want you. It killed me, and on several occasions I almost disobeyed a direct order from my Alpha.”

The sadness she’d felt over the weeks melted into regret at being angry with him. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t go against a direct order without abandoning his Pack. She knew that much about Pack life from Olivia.

“Hey,” Lucian whispered and lifted her chin. “Even though she wanted me to wait, your sister now thinks the curse might have broken already, just not as obviously as it did with her.”

Frowning, Audrey searched through her thoughts and emotions she’d gone through since meeting Lucian. The flood of intense desire when he was near, his electrifying touch, and the longing when he wasn’t there were all signs of finding a mate. All signs she’d ignored because she was afraid to open her heart.

Hope bloomed in her belly and spread through her. Could Olivia be right about the curse?

Lucian stepped closer and caressed her cheek. “You’re thinking too much. Follow your heart and just let it happen.”

Follow her heart…

Every time she and her sisters discussed the curses in front of their grandmother, the old woman would ramble on about true love and how it conquered all.

“Not even the darkest of curses can stand in the way of true love. Once the heart opens, love spills out and purifies the soul,” Grams rattled off while Audrey and her sisters rolled their eyes and continued to look through the Book of Shadows.

The memory dissolved, replaced by Lucian’s handsomely concerned face. The words Grams had spoken so many times sank in. “Stupid. I knew the answer all along. Grams had told us almost every day of our lives.”

“Told you what?” Lucian’s brows bunched.

Audrey laughed and shook her head. “Sorry. My crazy grandmother had said nothing could stand between us and true love. An open heart is a pure heart. I thought she was just rattling off craziness. Hell, we all did.”

“I’ve met your grandmother. I could see why you would think that.”

She cut him a narrowed-eyed glare, and he laughed and pulled her into his arms. She cupped his face and lowered the walls around her heart. He was her mate. “I’ve been so afraid, confused, and wrapped up in trying to break the curse that I never saw what was in front of me.”

She stood on her toes and pressed her lips to his. Warmth spread from everywhere he touched her, seeping into her skin and making her hypersensitive to him and the wolf within. The magick he possessed in his soul that married him to his animal half called to her. She opened her senses and allowed her own magick free.

Iridescent waves of energy flowed around them and through them as their mouths moved against each other and their tongues tangled. She broke the kiss and stared into his gold eyes. A sudden knowledge snapped into place and her heart swelled. “I want to be with you for the rest of our existence. Curse be damned. I’m falling in love with you already, and have been since first seeing you two weeks ago at the den. We’re Fated to be together and I don’t want to fight it.”

A spark lit up inside her and she gasped as awareness like nothing she’d experienced before spread through her. Lucian’s emotions flowed into her like a lifeline.

Lucian dipped his head and kissed her lips lightly. “It’s the mating bond.”

Glee bubbled up. “I accepted it.” Tears spilled over her eyes. “We’re mated.”

He wiped the tears away with his thumb before he scooped her up and walked toward her bedroom. “I love you, Audrey Kelly, with all of me. Forever.”

“I love you, too.” She kissed him as he laid her on the bed.

A wicked grin formed on Lucian’s lips. “First thing in the morning, we’ll pack up your things and move you to the den.”

“Anything you wish, my mate.”

Epilogue

Two months later

“So, are you going to spill the reason why you are practically glowing joy?” Audrey was ready to burst. If her sister didn’t tell everyone of her news, she wouldn’t be responsible for her actions and would spill everything.

Olivia glanced across the yard to where Terrence, one of Sawyer’s Sentinels, walked toward them, an annoyed gleam in his eye. Behind him was a determined Diana.

Lucian laughed, his chest rumbling into Audrey’s back. “Looks like a witch chasing a wolf.”

“Yes. Diana can be persistent.” Audrey giggled.

Sawyer nodded. “I see that. You two leave her alone. It’d do Terrence some good to be chased.”

When the couple reached them, Diana glanced from Audrey to Olivia. “What’s up?”

“Have a seat.” Olivia gestured to the patio chair next to her.

Sawyer gave Terrence a nod, which Audrey took as a request to stay because the wolf crossed his arms and stood on the opposite side of the group from Diana. Interesting.

Olivia cleared her throat. Once everyone turned to her, she said. “I’m pregnant.”

A rain of congrats and a few howls from the wolves surrounded them. Lucian nipped Audrey on her ear before whispering, “When can we share our news?”

“Later. When I’m past the first trimester.” She was thrilled to be a mother, but didn’t want to share the news just yet. So much could happen in the first few months. However, with the wolves’ sensitive noses, she couldn’t wait much past the third month. She had two more months to keep it between just Lucian and her.

“I suck at secrets, you know.”

“Yeah, but you’ll keep this one.”

He raised a brow. “How are you so sure?”

She kissed him. “Because, you hold on to the same fears I do. Plus, you like keeping this to ourselves.”

“The only thing left to do is get your baby sister mated before her birthday next month.”

Audrey smiled and glanced at Diana. “I think she’s already working on it.”

“Ah, yes. It will be fun to watch Terrence run.”

Yes, it would. Audrey just hoped the wolf didn’t run for long. Lucian hugged her tight. “Don’t worry, we’ll give him a little push or a kick in the ass if he doesn’t come to his senses soon.”

“I have the best mate.”

He kissed her temple. “So do I.”

The End

Other Books by Lia Davis

Paranormals

Ashwood Falls Series

Winter Eve

A Tiger’s Claim

A Mating Dance

Surrendering to the Alpha

A Rebel’s Heart

Divided Loyalties

Touch of Desire

Ashwood World

An Alpha’s Fate

Bears of Blackrock

Bear Essentials

Sons of War Series

War’s Passion

Ashes of War

Artemis’s Hunt

Vampire Lords

It’s A Vampire Christmas

Contemporaries

Pleasures of the Heart Series

Business Pleasures

Single Titles

His Guarded Heart

About the Author

Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and three equally special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, and a lover of romance. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it's her home and she loves it!

An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very active imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she imagined. Writing is stress reliever that allows her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life where it belongs.

Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.

Find out more about Lia Davis Here:

Website:
http://www.authorliadavis.com

Newsletter:
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Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lia.davis.52

Facebook Fan Club:
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Twitter: @novelbylia

If you liked Moon Kissed, try the magical world of Greek gods and dragons in Lia Davis’s Sons of War series.

Excerpt from War’s Passion (Sons of War #1)

Chapter One

A cold sensation rolled down Gwen’s spine like an icy finger as she stepped out onto the back porch of her parents’ Florida home. She focused her senses out into the cool evening, and inhaled the fragrance of night jasmine lingering on the breeze. The moonless, star-filled sky didn’t chase away the feeling of menace lurking in the shadows, waiting. The awareness had clung to her since she’d woken that morning and she wished she could feel the creatures of the night like her best friend and adopted sister, Elle, could. Although Gwen descended from the gods themselves, sensing monsters wasn’t her gift. As the great-granddaughter of Nyx, goddess of the night, Elle could see into the darkness and all her secrets.

Descended from the goddess of love, Gwen held the power of persuasion, and she could sway people, especially men, to bend to her will. The gift came from her father’s side of the family—Tom Preston was one of Aphrodite’s earthborn sons.

She loved nights like this as well as the calm that blanketed the small town of Perry. It was a few minutes before midnight and everyone slept. Elle had left early that morning to show her latest paintings and sculptures at a gallery in Jacksonville. It was the first time the girls had been apart since becoming friends in the third grade.

The sound of glass breaking behind her made Gwen’s heart hammer and her stomach clenched. Spinning, she saw three large men charge into her home through what used to be the front door.  Splintered wood lay half in the kitchen, half in the living room, and the long rectangular windows on either side of the entrance were destroyed. Glass littered the living room floor.

Fear rushed through her like wildfire and she darted to the side to hide behind the curtain of the sliding glass door. Helplessness consumed her as she watched one of the men open drawers to her father’s desk, dumping the contents on the floor. Another searched the living room, then stepped into the kitchen. Her heart sank as the third man turned toward the hallway.

Mom, Dad
.

Without another thought for her own safety, she rushed after the man that went down the hall. Before she could make it, another man crashed into her, slamming her to the ground. Sharp, stabbing pain shot from her hip down her leg. Gwen screamed, hoping to wake her parents, as she clawed at the man’s face, aiming for his eyes.

A loud thump followed by her mother’s cry reached Gwen’s ears. Terror filled her, cold and crippling. Tears ran down her cheeks. A moment later the man that went towards her parents’ room flew backwards through the living room, and further until he crashed into the kitchen island. Then her father stood at the hallway entrance, hands fisted by his side.

“Let her go.”

Gwen stared at her father in disbelief. His body glowed with power.

“You think to use mortal magic on me?” The man holding her laughed, then released Gwen and rose to his feet.

A bright flash of black and gold light filled the room, leaving a large black dragon where the man had been. Disbelief and horror twined through her veins as she stared at the creature. Smoke rolled out its long snout and the eyes almost glowed red. Shaking, she managed to scramble backwards to keep from being trampled by the beast—which was way too big for the house.

Her father held his hands out from his body, palms facing the dragon. A soft white light beamed from the center of his hands, then brightened and grew into a ball of bright white energy the size of cantaloupe before her father thrust it at the dragon.

Gwen screamed again, not knowing what she could do. There was a freaking dragon inside her home and her father…well, she didn’t know what he threw at the beast because he’d never used his magic to that extent before. The ball of light didn’t do anything, but drive the dragon back a step and whip his tail around to hit Gwen. The blow knocked her out the back door. Landing on the deck, she watched in horror as the dragon breathed fire toward her father.

Tears streaming down her face, she shouted for her father to get out, but too late. Flames covered him and he stumbled forward, igniting the carpet with each step and the couch as he fell. The dragon let out a roar that rocked the house. The men that came with him rushed outside right before the beast blew out another blast of fire and swiveled his head around the room. The whole house engulfed in flames within seconds.

Agony ripped through Gwen’s heart and she sobbed, but no one heard her.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Epilogue

About the Author