Page 14 of His Whispered Witch (Witches and Shifters: Scott Pack #6)

She lay back on the bed with a laugh and spread her arms wide.

Asher dashed forward and grabbed the bowl off her lap. “Are you okay?”

“No. Yes? Everything I thought about the world was wrong? It’s kind of messing with my head.”

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s their life’s work,” she said to the ceiling. “Both of their life’s work.”

“Whose life’s work? What are you talking about?”

Penn curled up to meet his eyes. “The coven I am staying with now. It’s not a traditional family.

There wasn’t enough power in one family, so they’ve been adopting strays for years and are still trying to figure out how to join together.

Everyone else says it’s impossible, and you’ve just casually announced that there’s another bunch of witches who already did it.

Oh, and the twins want to kill every werewolf in existence, which is probably the only way they could actually get their joining. ”

He went cold. “They want to what?”

Most covens were anti-werewolf, but usually in the abstract: we stay away from you and you stay away from us, and we all live happily ever after. He had never heard of a coven actively hunting wolves.

“Why?” he asked.

“There are two huge packs in the area, and they didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire?

I mean, this is kind of prime wolf territory, you know, for the normal ones, so it’s attracted a lot of packs over the years.

I think they’ve had more run-ins than the average coven, so they’re a bit twitchier. ”

He swallowed, suddenly aware of how dangerous it had been to casually stroll into Silver Spring. “But not you?”

“No, Pennsylvania is not prime werewolf territory. I’ve never seen one until you the day of the race.”

“Am I everything you ever dreamed of?” he asked with a forced smile, all too aware of how horribly earnest he was.

“You’re nothing like anything I’ve ever dreamed,” Penn said.

That stung, but he tried to keep his face neutral.

He suddenly wished he’d invested in chairs. It felt completely awkward to tower over her, and yet sitting next to her seemed like a bridge too far.

Just as he decided he should sit down, she stood up, and he leaped to his feet. They stood together in the center of his cabin, an arm’s reach from everything else in it, yet he felt like the biggest gap in the world stretched between them.

Carefully, he reached behind him to put the bowl on the counter with a clank as the spoon fell out.

The atmosphere charged as she stared into his eyes.

Is she? he asked the wolf.

The beast ignored him.

She sighed. “And now I don’t know if I want you because I want you or because I want power like that.”

She wanted him? “And I don’t know if I want you because you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life, or because you could help my wolf.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know if I can.”

She frowned as he smiled and said, “Then I guess I just want you.”

Slowly, he reached out a hand to cup her cheek, and she leaned into it. She closed her eyes, and he took a deep breath.

“This is not a good idea,” she murmured.

He stepped closer and kissed the cheek he wasn’t cupping.

“This could be a good idea,” he murmured, his thumb caressing her cheek. It was so soft.

She turned her head and met his lips with hers, and the singing rightness rocked him.

He pulled back for a second to say, “I take it back. This is the best idea.”

She scoffed and shut him up with another, deeper kiss. She opened her lips, and he felt her tongue playing along his lips and opened his mouth to let hers dance with his. It was a breathtakingly intimate, overwhelming act.

He reveled in the taste of vanilla on her tongue and the warm, wet heat of her mouth. The scrape of her teeth against his tongue sent goose bumps from his scalp to his toes in a wave of pleasure.

“This wasn’t what I was expecting to do today,” she murmured, and he could feel the vibrations against his lips.

He laughed, thinking of the ridiculous tower of pastry. This was better. This was so much better.

Is she? he asked again.

His wolf was stunned within him, its attention fixed on the woman in his arms. Was that a good sign? A terrible sign? He put it away, not wanting to be preoccupied as she deepened the kiss again, and he lost his breath.

Suddenly, she was gone altogether, stepping out of his arms, and he fought the impulse to come after her. Had he gone too fast?

He stopped spiraling when she sat down on the bed and then lay back, propping herself on her elbows with a smile.

He followed her as if she held a leash in her hands.

He leaned over her, desperate to experience the intimacy and pleasure of their kiss again, until he was hovering on his hands and elbows and joined their lips.

He took a deep breath and stared into her eyes as he did what he’d wanted to do since the first time he met her and ran his hands over her spiky hair. It was so much softer than he ever could have imagined, and she closed her eyes with a blissful look as he petted her.

There could never be anything better than this.

He needed her to know that. “There will never be anything better than this.”

Her eyes flew open. “I can think of something.”

He swallowed, unsure if he would survive more, but unable to stop if his life depended on it. She snaked a hand around his back and pulled.

He let her draw him down to her and kissed her harder.

Suddenly, he didn’t care at all if she was a fated mate, or if they were meant to be together, or even if he would stay sane for another day. None of it mattered when he had her in his arms.