by Bianca D'Arc
Evie looked deep into Bettina’s serious eyes. “I’ll do all in my power to do so and to help the rest of the family do the same. We’re all connected now,” Evie reminded the High Priestess. “I’ll do my best by your blood as I would my own.”
“That’s all I can ask, and more than I’d hoped for,” Bettina replied, smiling softly as she put her hands on Evie’s shoulders, as if in benediction.
Ray had been occupied during this conversation, talking with Duncan, who stood at his side. Bettina left Evie a few moments later and made the rounds, talking to everyone for a minute or two before she quietly left, heading back to the stone circle. When she ported out of Pennsylvania, nobody noticed, except maybe those who already missed her comforting presence.
It was a few hours later when Ray and Evie were sitting together, under the stars. Neither of them were affected that badly by the cold, and the night was crisp and clear. Millions of stars twinkled down on them, and most of the wolf Pack had claimed comfy spots around the backyard. A few of the Deena’s younger relatives had built a fire in the barbeque pit and were toasting marshmallows and telling stories.
The party was winding down a bit for the moment, though the wolves would be running over the fields later that night, for sure. Josh and Evie would be running with them while Ray and Deena held down the fort—or, rather, the farm.
For now, though, everyone was enjoying a few quiet moments after eating the huge meal Deena’s mother and aunt had organized. The food had been plentiful and delicious, and the sister priestesses were heaped with praise for their part in a lovely evening.
Seeing how happy Josh and Deena were together was a blessing. Evie couldn’t help smiling every time she caught them gazing at each other with that tender expression on both their faces. Young love was beautiful to behold.
More seasoned love wasn’t bad either, she thought, feeling Ray’s arms come around her as he shifted to sit behind her on the blanket he’d spread over the grass for her comfort. Then again, she felt a bit like a newlywed. They hadn’t seen each other for twenty years, and before that, they’d only been together as mates for a few months. So, maybe they were getting a second chance at a honeymoon.
“When do you want to start looking at houses?” Evie asked Ray out of the blue.
He didn’t miss a beat. “How about tomorrow afternoon? I picked up a newspaper during one of the shopping runs and circled a few likely ads for real estate agents.”
She turned to smile up at him. “I love that about you. Always thinking a few steps ahead.”
“I have to if I’m going to keep up with my quick-witted, sexy werewolf mate.” He leaned in and nipped her ear playfully. “Are you sure you don’t mind moving?”
“I love you, Ray. And I want to build a home with you, wherever makes the most sense to be. Right now, that seems to be here, near Josh and Deena. My wolf likes being near enough to keep an eye on them. The maternal instinct doesn’t go away just because your baby grows up.”
“I’ll have to work on my paternal instincts,” Ray confided. “I never got to see Josh as a boy, so I’m starting fresh here with the young man he’s become.”
“I’m glad you got the chance,” she told him, stroking his arm with gentle fingers. “And I’m glad you came back to me. I missed you.” She couldn’t say any more without sobbing, so she stopped there.
But Ray seemed to sense her mood, and he snuggled closer. His head bent down next to hers as he spoke near her ear. These words were just for the two of them.
“Each minute away from you was agony. I will never voluntarily leave your side again, my love. This is our time. For as long as we have together, I will cherish each moment, each breath, each sigh. You are my beloved and my one and only. Tonight, we start again. We’ve been wed in front of your people and mine. We have a new beginning.”
Each of his words fell on her heart like a promise. The strength of his arms around her gave her strength of will and clarity of vision. How she loved this man. This fey. This Knight.
Tears fell from her lashes, but they were tears of joy as she made a promise to him with her words. “You’re right. We’ve been given a great gift—to start all over again. Let’s make the most of it.”
They kissed, and if magic swirled around them, it was easily contained by all the other mages present who had their backs. This moment was too significant to worry about anything other than the two of them. Together. Now…and forever.
EPILOGUE
“So, what about it?” Gabe sidled up to the pretty young werewolf woman, hoping she’d thawed a bit toward him. He couldn’t help himself. Something about Margo spoke to him on a very basic level.
“What about what?” The look she gave him would have scorched ice.
So…she was going to make it difficult for him. Good. Gabe always liked a challenge.
“What about teaming up to find Bolivar?” he asked, reminding her about the conversation they’d had before the wedding where Ray had suggested they would make a good team.
“You think you can keep up with me?” Oh, yes. This little wolf woman was pressing all his buttons, probably hoping for a reaction.
She’d get one. Eventually. But it might not be the kind she expected. Gabe wondered what she’d think if he pulled her into his arms and kissed the challenging smile right off her face. The tantalizing idea almost made him try it, but he held back. He had to take things slow with this skittish creature.
Gabe allowed a tiny spark of his inner power to form a flame between his thumb and forefinger. Not enough magic use to draw unwanted attention from anyone who might be watching them a little too closely, but definitely enough of a showy display to make Margo’s pretty brown eyes widen in surprise. Good. She looked intrigued.
“I can hold my own,” he told her, casually snuffing out the magical flame in his hands. “And I like challenges.”
He wondered if she realized he meant not only the challenge of tracking down a bad guy with unknown magical abilities, but also the challenge of getting into Margo’s good graces—and her bed. Probably not. Not yet, anyway.
“All right.” She faced him squarely. “Let’s talk particulars tomorrow. I’m not saying I’ll take you on just yet, but if I can get time off from my job, I’d like to do as Sir Rayburne suggested and go after Bolivar with just a small team.”
“Two sounds like the perfect number to me,” Gabe said, realizing he was pushing, but as with everything where this woman was concerned, he couldn’t seem to help himself.
She eyed him through a skeptical squint. “We’ll see about that.”
*
Thanks for reading Snow Magic. If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review. The next book in the series is Midnight Kiss. Scroll down for a sneak peek.
A complete list of all of my books, separated by series, follows the excerpt. You can also check out my website at WWW.BIANCADARC.COM. Or you can sign up for my new release list to be alerted when new books are released.
EXCERPT FROM MIDNIGHT KISS
©2017 Bianca D’Arc. All Rights Reserved.
Prologue
Margo Mahigan surveyed the campground in rural Pennsylvania that most of her Pack had taken over for the past week with amusement. The kids were having a ball trying to catch fish in the little stream that separated the campground—which had been closed for the season before her family descended—and the cow pasture on the other side. The adults had created conversation areas in various parts of the campground, and at night, if there were an abnormally large number of huge “dogs” on the loose, nobody said anything.
The owners of the property were being paid handsomely for the exclusive off-season rental. They weren’t on site at night, so the campers could do as they wished. That nearly the entire Pack had chosen to travel to the United States from Canada at this time of year to welcome back two lost members said a lot about their desire for unity and reunion.
The Pack had nearly fallen completely apart twenty years ag
o when the leadership had come under the magical influence of a human named Mathias Bolivar. That Bolivar had since been discovered to have magical powers wasn’t entirely surprising to Margo. Only a mage could have influenced the Alpha pair so greatly that they lost complete contact with their only daughter.
Evie had run away, believing her family had disowned her for daring to mate with a fey warrior. In truth, they had begun looking for her the moment she left, but her trail had been magically fouled. Even the Alpha wolf could not pick up Evie’s scent.
For twenty years, Evie had been lost to her family and the wider Pack. Her disappearance had been a wound that had never healed. From time to time, various members of the Pack would try to pick up the trail, to no avail. Margo had first been drawn to detective work because she had participated in several of the efforts to try to find Evie in the human world.
Margo had turned her interest into a career. She hadn’t been the one to find Evie, much to her chagrin, but she had helped many other families in similar circumstances since becoming an agent of the foremost shifter detective agency in North America. In fact, she had just been promoted to head up the Canadian operations of Collin Hastings’ agency. It was a great honor, and a great responsibility.
She had taken a little time off, though, once word of Evie’s reappearance—with her grown son, Joshua—had spread. The fact that Josh was getting married was cause for celebration, and the entire Pack had wanted to come, to show their support and re-forge ties that should never have been broken. Not everybody could take off at a moment’s notice, at those who could had packed up and driven close to a thousand miles from Canada to southeastern Pennsylvania, to be there for Josh’s big day.
The ceremony had taken place on the winter solstice. It had been a beautiful, romantic ritual, shared among family from both sides. The bride was a powerful priestess, from a long line of holy women with fey blood, and magical men who passed muster to join such a lineage. The ceremony itself had been presided over by the High Priestess, Bettina, who was called simply grandmother by everyone in the bride’s family.
Josh had been raised as a lone wolf by his mother, Evie. His father hadn’t been in the picture In fact, his sire, Sir Rayburne, had only recently been reunited with his mate, Evie. He’d spent the last twenty years as a prisoner in the fey realm.
Margo still couldn’t really imagine going it alone for all those years. She had a lot of respect for Evie and she was really beginning to like her cousin, Josh. He was a steadfast sort of guy, with a deep core of goodness about him. And his mate, Deena, was a little spooky, but also a lot of fun.
Her family though… They were all very nice but her younger brother was… Margo wasn’t sure how, exactly, to describe Gabriel Llewellyn. Infuriating? No. He wasn’t that bad. Intriguing? Definitely. Sexy as all get out? Hmm. Yeah. If she was being honest with herself, she was very attracted to the rogue.
But he was a mage. Born of a union between a priestess and a mage. That combination confused Margo’s inner wolf, who was a bit of a monster. Margo had been born with more than her fair share of Alpha tendencies, which made her a great detective who wouldn’t let anything stand in the way of finding what she was looking for or protecting those who needed her help, but it also made her wolf a little unmanageable at times. Like when it didn’t really understand where someone stood in the hierarchy of the Pack.
Gabe was not Pack. He might be related by marriage now, but he wasn’t a shifter. Her inner wolf didn’t know what to do with that. How strong was he considered among his fellow mages? Was he a power to be reckoned with? Was he the equivalent of an Alpha? Until her wolf could get a bead on exactly where he fit into the social structure, she would feel uncomfortable around him. As if someone was stroking her fur the wrong way. Not entirely unpleasant, but definitely a little off.
“Auntie Margo! Come look what we caught!” The plaintive little voice piped up from somewhere around Margo’s knee.
She looked down to find her brother’s youngest boy had snuck up on her again. Little Angus was going to be one hell of a tracker when his time came. Margo reached down to scoop the child up in her arms and walked him down to the bank of the creek where the rest of his siblings were playing with makeshift fishing poles, plastic buckets bought at the dollar store and making a huge, muddy mess. Looked like fun.
Gabriel watched his woman from afar. He was visiting the campground in order to finalize plans for the big New Year’s Eve party. He was helping to arrange some surprises for the newlyweds on the farm where the party was going to be held. In order to have any chance at maintaining secrecy until the big day, he’d been granted special permission to enter the Pack’s temporary territory at the campground.
What he saw made him smile as Margo—the delectable Margo—bent down to pick up a muddy child with a heartbreakingly tender expression on her beautiful face. She was going to be a great mother herself, someday, and Gabe had big plans to make sure that any children she had would be theirs—together.
He wanted Margo for his mate. It was just as simple as that. He’d taken one look at her and fallen hard. Something about her spoke to him on a basic level and he knew she was the only one for him. Now all he had to do was get her to see it too.
To read more, get your copy of Midnight Kiss by Bianca D’Arc.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bianca D’Arc has run a laboratory, climbed the corporate ladder in the shark-infested streets of lower Manhattan, studied and taught martial arts, and earned the right to put a whole bunch of letters after her name, but she’s always enjoyed writing more than any of her other pursuits. She grew up and still lives on Long Island, where she keeps busy with an extensive garden, several aquariums full of very demanding fish, and writing her favorite genres of paranormal, fantasy and sci-fi romance.
Bianca loves to hear from readers and can be reached through Twitter (@BiancaDArc), Facebook (BiancaDArcAuthor) or through the various links on her website.
OTHER BOOKS BY BIANCA D’ARC
Paranormal Romance
Brotherhood of Blood
One & Only
Rare Vintage
Phantom Desires
Sweeter Than Wine
Forever Valentine
Wolf Hills*
Wolf Quest
Tales of the Were
Lords of the Were
Inferno
Tales of the Were ~ The Others
Rocky
Slade
Tales of the Were ~ String of Fate
Cat’s Cradle
King’s Throne
Jacob’s Ladder
Her Warriors
Tales of the Were ~ Redstone Clan
The Purrfect Stranger
Grif
Red
Magnus
Bobcat
Matt
Tales of the Were ~ Grizzly Cove
All About the Bear
Mating Dance
Night Shift
Alpha Bear
Saving Grace
Bearliest Catch
The Bear’s Healing Touch
The Luck of the Shifters
Badass Bear
Tales of the Were ~ Were-Fey Romance
Lone Wolf
Snow Magic
Midnight Kiss
Tales of the Were ~ Jaguar Island (Howls Romance)
The Jaguar Tycoon
The Jaguar Bodyguard
Guardians of the Dark
Half Past Dead
Once Bitten, Twice Dead
A Darker Shade of Dead
The Beast Within
Dead Alert
Gemini Project
Tag Team
Doubling Down
Gifts of the Ancients: Warrior’s Heart
Epic Fantasy Erotic Romance
Dragon Knights
Maiden Flight*
The Dragon Healer
Border Lair
Master at Arms
The Ice Dragon**
Princ
e of Spies***
Wings of Change
FireDrake
Dragon Storm
Keeper of the Flame
Hidden Dragons
The Sea Captain’s Daughter Trilogy
Book 1: Sea Dragon
Book 2: Dragon Fire
Book 3: Dragon Mates
Science Fiction Romance
StarLords
Hidden Talent
Talent For Trouble
Shy Talent
Jit’Suku Chronicles ~ Arcana
King of Swords
King of Cups
King of Clubs
King of Stars
End of the Line
Diva
Jit’Suku Chronicles ~ Sons of Amber
Angel in the Badlands
Master of Her Heart
Futuristic Erotic Romance
Resonance Mates
Hara’s Legacy**
Davin’s Quest
Jaci’s Experiment
Grady’s Awakening
Harry’s Sacrifice
* RT Book Reviews Awards Nominee
** EPPIE Award Winner
*** CAPA Award Winner