Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 185(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 185(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
He snorted, then closed and locked the door. “I had to make sure I wasn’t being followed.”
They sat down on the foot of the bed, and he handed her a brown paper bag. It was warm and the scents made her mouth water and her stomach growl.
“Sorry I took so long,” he said.
She opened the bag and saw several wrapped packages. Leah was starving. She unwrapped a burger and after only three bites, it was gone. Using magic always made her hungry. Killian hadn’t asked, but she had put another protection spell around their room while he was gone. Also, to help him not be tracked, she had hidden his scent, even masked it. No one would be able to detect him. She glanced over at him, watching as he ate his burgers.
“Can I ask you a question?” Right now, she hated Lucinda. Her pesky friend and guide, always meddling, always making her curious.
“Can I stop you?”
“No, I would ask anyway.”
“Fine,” Killian said.
“If I wasn’t a witch, would you have rejected me?”
Killian held a fry poised to his lips, but he didn’t eat it.
She waited.
He turned his gaze toward her.
“It’s a perfectly reasonable question. Would you have still rejected me if I had been … a vampire? A wolf? A human?”
He ate the fry but she saw that he was chewing it slowly.
“The answer doesn’t matter.”
“Actually, it matters to me. I had to deal with your very public rejection in front of your whole pack. I was just wondering if it’s my witchyness that puts you off.” She gave a shrug. She was not going to cry.
“Yes,” Killian said.
“To what? My witchyness? Or me being something else?”
“Your witchyness puts me off. If you had been a wolf or a human, then I would not have rejected you. You would have been mine by the end of the night.”
Okay, that didn’t sting. No, it fucking hurt.
Her appetite faded. She wasn’t hungry anymore.
“Oh. You would have rejected me if I’d been a vampire?” she asked.
“Vampires and wolves do not get on well. It would have been a recipe for disaster.”
She nodded, staring straight ahead.
“You know, I’m quite full and seeing as I’ve not washed in over two days, seeing as we took that nice, long dive into the lake or river, or whatever, I’m going to take a shower.”
“Leah?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Leah said.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I know, and I’d rather know the truth anyway.”
She stepped into the bathroom, closed, and locked the door. Turning on the water, Leah closed her eyes and clenched her hands into fists as she heard the first loud rumble of thunder.
It’s fine. I’m fine. It’s fine. Come on, Leah, get a grip. It’s fine. He was being honest and that’s what you wanted to hear. Complete and total honesty.
That had come with a price. She felt like she had been kicked in the guts. No, she felt like he had taken out her heart and repeatedly stomped on it.
“If you had been a wolf or a human, then I would not have rejected you. You would have been mine by the end of the night.”
That was cruel. She wasn’t good enough to mate with. Her witchyness put him off.
Another howl of thunder, and through the bathroom, she saw the lightning. There was no way she was controlling that. She was fine. Her emotions were under control.
She stripped out of her clothes, pretty sure they were crawling from the stench.
Stepping into the shower, she heard the patter of rain. That was not her.
****
“You have to go to her!”
Killian threw his food out of his hands, startled as he saw Lucinda appear in the corner.
“What the ever-loving fuck? I have told you not to do that.”
“And I don’t listen to you. Not when you have hurt one of the nicest, kindest, and sweetest women I know. Leah does not deserve to be mated to you.”
Another growl of thunder, along with lightning, could be heard and seen, even through the curtains. He heard the rain as it fell.
Lucinda groaned. “You have to go and fix it!”
“Why?”
“Leah is causing the weather.”
Killian shook his head. “No, that’s not possible.”
“Damn it, Killian, what did you say to her?”
He told Lucinda, reluctantly, what Leah had asked him. His old friend looked like he wanted to murder him.
“Have you forgotten everything I’ve ever told you?” Lucinda asked. “Leah feels pain, she feels anger, and we at the coven realized that it affects the elements around her. The weather changes. She is so attuned to nature that we feel she can call on her for help so easily. Leah is hurting. Your honesty has hurt her. If you don’t go in and help her, soothe her, then this will get worse.”
Another crackle of lightning, immediately followed by thunder.
“Leah feels with her whole soul. I know you don’t understand what that means. She has not been around someone like you, and she’s young. She only knows what she feels and while you continue to reject her, a part of her will want to be around you. That is the point of the mating bond.”