by Lauren Dane
Jace wandered in, grabbed beers and left once more, pretending he hadn’t been checking on them.
“He’s so cute to pretend we don’t know he’s listening to all this,” Katie Faith told her with an eye roll.
A while back her friend had told her of how nosy and bossy and in-your-business wolves were, and the more Aimee hung around them, the better she understood what she’d meant.
But at the heart of it with Jace was his wanting to protect Katie Faith’s well-being. And as Aimee cared about that too, she gave him some leeway.
If only the same could be said of all the wolves in town. The constant tussling over power had always been part of life. But lately it had been much more personal and hateful as some old grievances had resurfaced.
The witches had been pulled into the whole mess and they’d all had it. All that negative energy would degrade the heart of power all those who lived in Diablo Lake were protected by.
That heart of power the witches had taken an oath to protect, back in the very beginning of their peculiar little town in the middle-of-nowhere Tennessee, also happened to feed their magical power. The earth fed their magic so they were being impacted on multiple levels.
The Consort, run by the elder witches in town, had called a meeting to discuss the situation the following week.
“At least it’s not before eight in the morning.” Aimee didn’t much mind getting up early. But on a Saturday when she’d had the week she had?
Katie Faith curled her lip at the very idea of getting up that early, though she’d do it if she had to. As her friend was a nightmare of a human being before she had coffee, Aimee was relieved on that front as well.
“Why don’t you stay over? You can sleep in the spare room. We can watch something scary, even.” Katie Faith’s hopeful expression made her feel so much better.
“Thank you. But I’m feeling better now. I mean, I wasn’t bummed we weren’t together and now it makes me even more glad. I just feel dirty, and not the good way. I’ll walk home.”
“No, you won’t. There are a jillion wolves here, and one of them hasn’t been doing tequila shots so they can drive you home. But you don’t have to go just yet, right? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“You got married a week ago. I’ve seen you three days this week so far. I think we’re okay.” Aimee rolled her eyes, glad to have a friend like Katie Faith.
“Being married has been pretty cool.”
“So you two still bang and stuff? Now that the thrill is gone?” Aimee teased.
“It’s a chore, but we make it work. I mean, someone has to do Jace, it may as well be me.”
“Glad you make the sacrifice.”
Don’t miss Diablo Lake: Protected, available now wherever Carina Press ebooks are sold! And watch for the next Diablo Lake book, coming soon.
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Copyright © 2017 by Lauren Dane
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GODDESS WITH A BLADE (Goddess with a Blade, book one)
BLADE TO THE KEEP (Goddess with a Blade, book two)
BLADE ON THE HUNT (Goddess with a Blade, book three)
AT BLADE’S EDGE (Goddess with a Blade, book four)
WRATH OF THE GODDESS (Goddess with a Blade, book five)
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ISBN-13: 9781488053962
Blood and Blade
Copyright © 2019 by Lauren Dane
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada.
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.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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