Moon Bound
Page 32
He let out a pent-up breath and then turned to face her. ‘Morrigan wasn’t there. It seemed she escaped again.’
Skye’s gaze darted into the dark. ‘She’s out there?’ He nodded. ‘Will we ever be rid of her?’
He folded her into the safe strength of his arms before she had a chance to take a breath. ‘I won’t let her hurt you. I won’t let her hurt River or Bron or anyone else in this pack ever again. Whatever she plans, we’ll find her and we’ll stop her.’
Skye reached up and cupped his face, staring into the eyes that had captured her soul and her heart from the first moment she’d looked into them. ‘Yes, we will.’ She pressed her lips against his and felt his love pour through her as she poured her love through him. It was always so close to the surface, but after what Bron had done tonight, it felt even more precious than it did before.
‘Tonight has changed us all,’ she said after a long moment, pulling away from the kiss but staying in the circle of his arms.
‘Yes. It has. We are stronger.’
‘I can feel that.’ She frowned.
He reached out and touched her brow. ‘What is it?’
‘What about the Darkness? The thing that was inside River?’
He looked away towards the clearing where they’d left the newly mated pair. ‘I think River and Bron are better suited to answer that question. But until we know more, let’s just concentrate on what’s before us.’
‘Morrigan.’
‘Yes. But I didn’t mean that. If I’ve learnt something from tonight, it’s that love and friendship and the bonds that have held our pack together all these years are our greatest strengths. Let’s build on that. If we do, Pack McVale will be formidable and nothing will be able to tear us apart.’
Skye smiled up at him. ‘Nothing can tear us apart.’
He sealed her vow with a kiss.
***
River lifted his head. ‘Not here,’ he whispered.
She nodded, understanding as he knew she would. As befitted a true mating, they would make love in the open, binding themselves to each other, but he couldn’t allow that to happen in a place that still screamed of death, despite the healing that had been done there tonight.
He carried her from the clearing where their battle was so recently won, away from the cows the Beast had slaughtered. Thank the Moon he hadn’t come across any more people or Were—the death of that rogue coven warlock at the hands of the Beast was enough to bear.
He pushed that thought away—the self-recrimination would keep for later. Now, he had Bronwyn in his arms and a mating to complete.
He entered a dell made up of ancient ash and elm trees. A stream trickled through a small, summer-scented clearing that was shielded from the outside world by a hedge of trees and brush that enclosed it on three sides. On the other side, the high grass of the nearby pasture created a fourth wall. He knew packmates were nearby—close enough to come if danger threatened, but far enough away to give and ensure them complete privacy. But even so, he wanted Bronwyn to be safe in the knowledge they were shielded from the world as they gave themselves to each other.
He lay his beloved mate down on the soft, warm grass beside the stream, and after removing his shredded, blood-stained jeans, removed her clothes with a gentleness he had only ever given to his plants before her. He had thought nothing could be more precious to him than his gardens—but Bronwyn was something far more special than he ever thought he deserved. As she lay there, allowing him to undress her, his work-roughened hands brushing against the silk of her skin, a tear of wonder welled in his eye. She reached up, brushed it from his cheek and then touched her own cheek where a similar tear had left a track of pale silver in the moonlight. He kissed the tear from her cheek and then taking her clothes, made a pillow of them for her head.
She looked up at him as if he were the centre of her universe. As she was the centre of his. ‘Touch me,’ she said. ‘Love me.’
He moved his knuckles down her throat in a gentle caress, his fingers splaying wide over her breasts as he continued his wondering exploration. He stopped over her ribs where only the faintest hint of pink skin showed where the mirror injury to his had been. The injury she’d dug her fingers into, using her pain to reach him.
‘It’s healed,’ he breathed, kissing her there, enjoying the sound of her moan and the way she arched up into his hand, into his lips.
‘We’re both healed.’ She pulled him down to her and pressed her lips against his in a kiss that seared him from head to toes, making his cock flex against her. She laughed, the husky sound curling straight around his heart. ‘Come inside me. Make us one.’
The scent of her warmth and her desire lifted to fill him with possessive heat. ‘You are mine,’ he said, slipping inside her with a long, steady glide.
‘As you are mine,’ she sighed, welcoming him home.
And as they joined together, light spilled out of them and over them, rivalling the glow of the golden Healer Moon. In that moment, both of them were certain they could overcome anything, as long as they were One.
Thanks for reading The Pack Bound series—Pack Bound, Moon Bound, Shifter Bound and Wolf Bound. I hope you enjoyed them.
If you’d like to know more about me, my books, or to connect with me online, you can visit my webpage leislleighton.com and sign up to my newsletter, follow me on Twitter @LeislLeighton, or like my Facebook page.
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Bestselling Titles by Escape Publishing...
Pack Bound
Pack Bound Series: Book One
Leisl Leighton
One pack, one coven, a destiny intertwined…
Five hundred years ago, facing extinction, a group of powerful witches united to create a pact with the Were to save witch-kind. The pact expelled an ancient evil, known only as the Darkness, that was blocking the Were from their wolves. With the Darkness destroyed, the Packs and their covens grew strong as they thrived beside each other in their brand-new world.
But the Darkness was not destroyed.
Skye Collins has been brought up to fear her magic and shy away from witch and Were alike. But when Jason McVale, the Alpha of Pack McVale, comes in search of her, she is intrigued and tempted. Her mistrust of magic and wariness of the intensity of passion she shares with Jason threatens her control—and if she loses control, she just might turn into the weapon the Darkness intended her to become all along.
Shifter Bound
Pack Bound Series: Book Three
Leisl Leighton
One pack, one coven, a destiny intertwined…
Five hundred years ago, facing extinction, a group of powerful witches united to create a pact with the Were to save witch-kind. The pact expelled an ancient evil, known only as the Darkness, that was blocking the Were from their wolves. With the Darkness destroyed, the Packs and their covens grew strong as they thrived beside each other in their brand-new world.
But the Darkness was not destroyed.
Shifter-Witch Eloise O’Brien has betrayed her coven and almost killed her brother to save the Were Pack she’d infiltrated as a spy. Now living with the Were she once feared and hated, she learns the truth of who she really is—the prophesied Nexus. A witch of unspeakable power, she must make a choice between the light and the dark, between Iain McShane, the Lone Wolf she is coming to love, and her once-beloved brother and coven who are now working for the Darkness.
Wolf Bound
Pack Bound Series: Book Four
Leisl Leighton
One pack, one coven, a destiny intertwined…
Five hundred years ago, facing
extinction, a group of powerful witches united to create a pact with the Were to save witch-kind. The pact expelled an ancient evil, known only as the Darkness, that was blocking the Were from their wolves. With the Darkness destroyed, the Packs and their covens grew strong as they thrived beside each other in their brand-new world.
But the Darkness was not destroyed.
Reluctant medium Shelley Conners has good reason to hate and fear the powers that connect her to the spirit world: they bring insanity. Now that the Pack’s annoying Trickster, Adam McVale, has been turned into a Shade, a creature caught between the living and dead, her powers are the only thing that might save him. Opening herself up to the world of the dead brings more danger than insanity. The Darkness needs her abilities to make its final move—taking over the covens and Packs and using them to destroy the world.
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ISBN: 9781489257710
Title: Moon Bound
Copyright © 2018 by Leisl Leighton
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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