Even though the voice still didn’t sound like it usually did, Skye knew it was right. This man might not have the magic to bewitch her, but he was making her behave strangely, almost to the point of acting without thinking—which she never did. She could never afford to lose control—her magic had only ever brought pain. She swallowed hard, knowing that despite the fact this was a holiday and she should be able to flirt and have fun, she couldn’t do it with this man.
Taking herself in hand, she said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks. I still want to get a few runs in before I call it a day.’
‘What about a drink after? I feel I need to say sorry in some way.’
The wish to say yes was almost a pain inside her; but that in itself was reason to say no. ‘I can’t. I’ve got a prior engagement with friends.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’ He flashed a grin so charming it made her breath catch. ‘I’ll just have to hope we’ll meet another time and your answer will be different.’ He leaned forward so she could feel his astonishing warmth radiating towards her and took a deep breath, as if trying to breathe her in.
‘Okay,’ she squeaked. Unable to stand his closeness for another moment and not give in to his invitation, she pushed off with her good leg and took off down the slope. Her ankle ached. She shoved aside the pain and took a deep breath of clean clear air, hoping to get rid of the warm male scent of him.
It didn’t help. His scent seemed to have been imprinted on her senses: earthy and yet clear and fresh, like the mountain air.
A tingle started down her spine. Was he watching her? Were his eyes caressing her arse the way he said they had been before he crashed into her? She almost groaned at the memory of the way they’d come to a stop, his body spread on top of hers, chest to chest, legs tangled. Skye bit her lip as muscles well below her abdomen clenched and quivered.
It was a sensation she’d not felt for a long time—too long. Hell, she’d almost become a nun with the length of time she’d been celibate, and she’d been content with that. But coming face to face with that Adonis would make even a nun change her habits. It wasn’t so unusual that he’d had such an impact on her. She chuckled at her pun.
Not that it mattered what she felt. Lifting her face to the sun, she decided to luxuriate in the rare spring day and not worry about could-have-beens.
The sapphire blue sky was glorious. She was so thankful Shelley and Bron had agreed to change their plans to go to Noosa and had come with her to Mt Buller for the last of the season. When she was a child there’d often been good snow until the end of September. Now spring snow was a rarity, so she hadn’t expected to get any good skiing done, but she’d been looking forward to it regardless. It brought back good memories of times with her grandpa.
None of them could believe it when the day after they arrived there was a massive dump of snow, and instead of slush and only a few runs being open, they were skiing on fresh powder on over half the runs.
Swishing down the slope, with the deep, downy white snow squeaking beneath her freshly waxed skis, the fresh air a chill puff on her face, she tried to recapture the feeling she’d had before Adonis had crashed into her. But no matter how lovely the day still was or how soft and powdery the snow, she just couldn’t regain that sense of freedom being in the mountains always gave her; that feeling as if she could fly.
Her spine tingled again. Just in case Mr Too-Gorgeous-For-Sanity was watching her, she decided to show off. She jumped over a snow-encrusted boulder, catching some air. The thrill of flying ended the moment she landed and pain shot up her leg. She groaned.
‘Are you okay?’ he yelled.
She didn’t look back, only waved, hiding her red face. She hadn’t groaned that loudly. How had he known? The landing was perfect.
So much for showing off.
And why was she trying to impress him when he’d knocked her down, ruining her perfect run record?
That thought brought her up short as she joined the queue at the lift. She wasn’t a massive hothead, but being mown down by a beginner on a run they shouldn’t have been on was just the kind of thing that would normally have had her firing up and letting loose. Yet her temper had only lasted for a few seconds and then died away.
What the hell was that about?
Adonis might not be a warlock, but his combination of good looks, charm and velvety voice was just as dangerous. He’d not only made her want to change her nun-like habits, he’d made her behave like a horny teenager. He’d even made her consider, for a split second, turning her back on her obligations and the promises she’d made to her grandpa and to River.
She could never do that. Ever.
Those promises kept them all safe.
As the lift rose over the crest of the slope, she shivered. This time it wasn’t the feeling of being watched that made that strange tingle race up and down her spine; thoughts of what happened all those years ago always did this. Her magic pushed at her, fighting to get out. She swore, pushing it back down. That man’s presence had addled her brain, made her shields weak. Closing her eyes, she repeated the mantra she’d been taught.
Her magic was dangerous. To protect River and everyone she loved, it was something she could never set free.
***
‘Was that her?’
With a slide of board on snow, Adam came to a halt. Jason didn’t turn to look at his brother, his gaze still following the lithe redhead down the slope. A warmth fired through his body that was totally unexpected.
‘If that was her, why’s she running away?’ Adam clapped his brother on the shoulder. ‘Did you try your charm on her?’
Jason didn’t answer. His mind was too full of the woman: those green eyes like spring pools, glistening with hidden depths in the sun; her hair, licks of flame on her shoulders; her generous mouth full of laughter and mischief. Even that spike of temper and the funny way she’d had of swearing had been sexy.
Despite himself, he was engaged. He hadn’t expected that. And her scent—his wolf had growled at her scent. Familiar, yet there was also something strange about it.
‘Aren’t you going to follow her?’
Jason shook his head and brushed the snow off his pants. ‘No. Something’s wrong. She didn’t recognise what I am.’
‘Maybe she isn’t our Pack Witch.’
Jason clicked his boot onto the snowboard and balanced for a moment, shifting his weight back and forth. ‘I’m pretty sure she is. But there’s something …’ He shook his head. ‘She should have expelled some magic when she saw me, but she didn’t.’
Adam frowned and sniffed. ‘But I can smell that zip in the air, like the electrical build-up before lightning. Doesn’t that denote magic?’
Jason thought about the last time they’d encountered the scent of magic—the night their parents, two older brothers and their mates had been murdered in their never-ending quest to find their kidnapped Pack Witch. The scent in the air now, a scent that lingered in his nostrils like a teasing perfume, was nothing like that acrid scent. ‘It is magic. But she didn’t expel it when I came along. It’s around her all the time, like a cloak, but muted or something.’ That was definitely wrong. Yet he was sure it was her. He’d seen her in his dreams; dreams he’d always had of her; dreams that had been nebulous things until the Calling had caught up with him after his father’s murder and he’d become Alpha.
‘How can you be certain it’s her then?’
‘Because of the dreams. I saw her skiing here with her friends.’
‘You dragged us here chasing down a woman who doesn’t even smell like she has the magic of a Pack Witch all because of some dreams?’
‘They’re not just dreams. It’s the link.’
‘What link?’
‘The link between the Alpha and the Pack Witch. Dad was linked to Paul Collins—’
‘As Lydia Collins was linked to Grandpa before him.’
‘Yes.’ It was the only way the magic worked. The Pack Witch fed it into the Alpha and the p
ack syphoned it from the Alpha through the pack bond—the ultimate form of synergy.
‘But how are you linked to Paul’s daughter?’
The question was understandable. A bonding wasn’t supposed to be undertaken until a Pack Witch or Warlock was of age, after they’d imbibed the Bond Wine. But in this case …
Jason looked out at the distant mountains. The moment he’d clapped eyes on her, he’d realised that Paul Collins had linked them all those years ago—the future Alpha and the future Pack Witch. It’s why he’d had the dreams. It made sense of something that had always seemed nonsensical to him. Something he’d spent years denying because he’d been too young to understand the significance of what had been done to him. The proof was irrefutable though. The link was the reason he’d found her when nobody else could.
‘Paul linked us when Skylar was a few months old.’
‘What?’ Adam gripped his arm, his voice bitter. ‘Did you keep this from me because I’m nothing but the Trickster?’
‘No.’ Jason clasped Adam’s shoulder. ‘And don’t talk like that about yourself. From what I’ve been reading in the Pack Witch Diaries, the Trickster is far more essential to a pack than we remember. Besides, I have named you my second. I wouldn’t keep anything from you. It’s just … I’ve only now realised what Paul did.’
He remembered standing in the dark room looking down at her crib, Paul lighting candles that had smelled like jasmine and cinnamon and honey. He’d muttered words Jason hadn’t understood and in the quiet hush that followed, a sizzle had shot along Jason’s skin, sinking into his nerve ends and sparking in his brain. The baby had cried out, holding out her chubby little arms to him. Despite being a boy who thought babies were smelly, noisy things, he’d picked her up, bouncing her until she giggled. That giggle had made him feel good inside.
‘It is done. You will keep my daughter safe,’ Paul had whispered.
Jason hadn’t realised the significance. He’d just been a small boy holding a pretty baby who smelled of powder and her mother’s sweet milk.
‘Why would he do that when it goes against pack law?’
Jason was brought out of his reverie by his brother’s question. He understood the horror in Adam’s tone. The pack’s greatest duty was to look after their children. They would never do anything to hurt or place unnecessary burden on a child. But Paul had done exactly that when he’d linked Skylar to Jason.
‘He was prescient. Maybe he’d seen this future. Maybe he knew I would become Alpha and that I would have to find her.’
Adam shook his head. ‘I always thought Paul looked sad. It’s no wonder, if this is what he saw.’
Jason glanced at his brother and sighed at the look of devastation on his face. Nobody would have looked at Paul and thought him sad, yet Adam had seen beyond the facade Paul showed to the world, to the grief of a man who saw things he shouldn’t. It was remarkable sometimes, the things the Trickster saw. Things none of them had realised the significance of until it was almost too late. Now he knew that without Adam pushing fun and laughter into the pack bond, the pack would already have succumbed to the Curse. He’d maintained positivity when there was nothing to be positive about.
And it was taking a toll. As Alpha, linked to his brother in ways he’d never been linked before, Jason could feel the pressure of pack wellbeing tear at Adam. He wished he could take some of that burden, but knew he couldn’t. Not until they had their Pack Witch back safe and sound and the Curse averted. Because, more than anything, he knew that what Adam was doing for the pack was also helping to keep him from slipping into deadly insanity.
Gripping his brother’s shoulder, Jason whispered, ‘I know. I know the burden that knowledge places on you.’
Adam swallowed hard. ‘I know you do.’ He gripped Jason’s shoulder in turn. ‘That’s why you make one fucking great Alpha.’
Jason smiled and slapped his brother on the arm. Even when torn apart by a pain that wasn’t his, Adam couldn’t help but see the bright side. ‘I think you’re right in regards to Paul. He saw at least some part of the future. That’s why he linked Skylar and me at an age when it would normally be forbidden.’
‘Did Mum and Dad know?’
Jason frowned. ‘I think perhaps they did, after the fact. Why else would they have given me such freedom?’
‘Because they were sick of listening to you whinge and whine about wanting choice,’ Adam said. He managed to keep a straight face when Jason glared at him, then burst out laughing.
Jason chuckled ‘You can’t help yourself can you?’
‘Comes with the burden of being the funny one.’
‘You’re funny, all right,’ Jason said, twirling his finger beside his head.
‘You can talk. I’m not the one following strange dreams.’
‘You’re right.’ Jason sighed, all levity dying as his thoughts turned darker. ‘I just wish the link had activated properly before Mum and Dad, Seamus and Sian, and Josef and Marianne were killed.’
‘But that’s not how it works.’
‘No. Dad had to die for me to find her.’ He ground his board into the snow, fingers clenched, the wolf desperate to break through and claw at something.
‘You can’t blame yourself for that. You didn’t kill them.’
Jason’s lips curled into a snarl. ‘No. I didn’t. But I swear by the Dark Moon, I will find who did.’
He stood there for a moment, eyes tracking the lift as the woman he was certain was Skylar Collins disappeared over the rise. She was their hope of a future without madness. She was also the only hope he had of finding those responsible for causing the Curse to touch his pack, bringing them to near extinction.
‘So, if that is Skylar, why didn’t she use her magic when she saw you?’
Jason took in a deep breath of clear, cool air, trying to calm himself. ‘I don’t know. But I have no doubt that the reason why Cordelia or the old McClune Pack Witch could never scry her is at the heart of it. Whoever took her hid her by changing more than her name.’
‘So, what’s the plan?’
‘I’m going to bump into her again at the lodge and when the time’s right, I’m going to share some wine with her.’
Adam’s eyes glittered with understanding. ‘Do you think crashing into her was the best way of meeting her then? I don’t know if she’ll want to share the Bond Wine with an accident-prone idiot.’
Adam was trying to lighten his mood again. It worked. Jason’s lips split into a grin. ‘I didn’t think she’d stop short like that, but in retrospect it was a stroke of genius. Because if she heals herself, we’ll know there isn’t anything wrong with her magic. Besides, I got so close, I filled myself with her fresh scent. I can track her anywhere now.’
‘Will that be necessary?’
‘We’ll see. But at least we know she can’t disappear again. It’s taken too long to track her down. I don’t want to waste any more time.’
‘I’m with you there. I’m sick of this.’
Hearing the growl in his brother’s tone, Jason’s gaze slid to Adam’s, noting the red tinge in the amber of his eyes. The darkness Adam had banished moments ago had returned. Ultimately, breaking the Curse would cure that, but for now …
‘You need to hunt.’
‘Later. Let’s race.’
With a whoop, Adam took off down the slope, his motions balletic as he controlled the board. Jason’s smile widened into a thoroughly wolfish grin as he caught sight of the woman on the lift far below. The hunt was on. But now, he would give himself over to the thrill of the much simpler chase his brother posed.
Pushing forward, he followed Adam down the slope, catching air as he flew over the same snow-capped boulder she had. He heard Adam’s bark of laughter, a sound he copied as he came even with him then passed him in a few quick movements.
Adam might have been doing this longer, but nobody beat Jason in the chase. And Skylar Collins was about to find out that running only served to sweeten the hunt.
Chapter 2
Skye hopped off the bus with an exhausted sigh. Limping to the back, she pulled her skis out of the rack. Just as she stepped away, that same strange crawling sensation she’d felt all day crept down her spine. She’d say it was her sixth sense, except her sixth sense was blocked by the repression spell.
She glanced around, trying to find the source.
People were beginning to clear from the bus as they trudged through the snow to their lodges, but there was nothing out of the ordinary about that. Nothing to explain why she felt like she was being watched, as she had all day—except for when Adonis had knocked her off her feet. She’d forgotten all about being followed when she’d stared into his incredible blue eyes. Combined with his smoky-chocolate voice, they’d made her forget a hell of a lot for a few runs until her ankle really began to protest. She’d been making her way back to the bus stop at the village when the feeling of being watched had come over her again. But apart from a couple of young guys who were ogling all the girls, nobody was watching her. Must be her imagination.
She shuddered, wishing her imagination would just shut up.
The bus moved off with a puff of exhaust and she headed across the road. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man standing in the shadow of the trees, staring at her.
She swung around, her skis clattering together at the suddenness of the motion, and peered directly at the spot where she’d seen the figure only a second before.
Nobody was there.
What the hell? She was certain she’d seen someone standing there.
‘Where did he go?’
‘Did you say something?’
She jumped and looked up to see a man smiling down at her curiously. ‘No. Just talking to myself.’ There was something oddly familiar about him, but Skye was certain she’d never seen him before. He held a snowboard under one arm and a small set of skis over the other shoulder. A young boy, locks of sandy hair poking out from under a black helmet, hung off the man’s leg, his forest green eyes watching her with suspicion that seemed out of place for someone his age. He began to pull at the man’s leg, making him stumble sideways.
Leisl Leighton - [Pack Bound 01] Page 2