Page 3 of The Bookseller and the Alpha (Witch Twins #1)

Luc

My phone rang, my brother’s name flashing on the screen.

I held a hand up in apology to two of my team members, Sam and Billy, sitting on the other side of my desk.

They nodded. Calls from my brother were always given the highest priority.

I checked the clock on the wall. He was in Europe, and the time difference meant that it was still the middle of the night for him. My gut tightened. Something was wrong.

“I need you to look into something for me,” he said, without preamble. “Electra’s sister runs a shop that was broken into overnight.”

I sighed. Standard crime wasn’t my jurisdiction. “Give me a moment.” I logged into our secure database, bringing up the day’s reports. “It’s been called in as possibly magic related. Someone will be over later to check it out.”

“Can you please do it, Luc? I know you’re busy finalising security arrangements for the Summit, but Elie senses that her sister is in danger. Can you do it as a favour for me?” There was a muffled female sob from the other end of the phone line and I heard him murmur, “Shh Elie, it’s okay.”

Elie? Electra? “Is that Electra?” Electra was a Witch and one of my brother’s bodyguards.

She had strong pre-cog abilities, as well as being a telekinetic.

She was gorgeous, but she had a diamond-hard exterior.

My mind was momentarily sidetracked by the fact that my brother had a nickname for his bodyguard.

That was sort of cute. Weird but cute. She’d probably kill me…

slowly… if I tried to call her Elie. Then I processed that she was crying.

Electra. Crying. I’d never seen her composure crack.

Not once. They didn’t call her the Ice Queen for nothing.

Adrenaline hit my system. “What’s wrong? Are you all right?”

Electra answered instead. She spoke directly into the phone, and I pictured her grabbing it from my brother. “I need you to get to my sister. She’s in trouble. In danger .”

I promised Electra that I would get there as soon as I could, but it still took some time to get to the location, even with Sam breaking the traffic rules as he drove.

With Billy sitting in the front seat beside Sam, I used the drive time to find out about Calypso.

I’d pulled her files, both Council and mundane police.

I already knew that she was a human female, Electra’s twin (age thirty), but now I knew her education history (impressive), her personal life (lived alone, no boyfriend) her medical history (broken arm as a child) and her police check (two traffic infringements).

The photo on her file showed her as a softer version of Electra; same raven hair and green eyes, but without her sister’s harder edges.

Somewhere, deep inside my psyche, my Beast rolled over, half waking from his enforced slumber. Mmm pretty.

Sleep . I pushed him back down. I agreed with him though.

I studied her photo. How had she reached thirty without some lucky bastard putting a ring on her finger?

I checked her file again: gender orientation female, straight.

Were all the men she knew idiots? Even with her Null rating, she had magic in her blood, which would make her an attractive choice for supes and mundane men alike.

I sighed. It must have been hard for her; growing up in Electra’s shadow.

Talent was unpredictable. Sometimes the magic skipped generations or manifested in some children in a family but not others.

Despite generations of Witches giving genetic samples for study at universities and research institutions around the world, no one had identified the genetic markers that turned on for magic abilities.

Perhaps it was just as well. If we found a way to identify which babies had talent before they were born, someone would surely abuse the system.

Idly, my finger stroked the photograph on the file.

In the photo, labelled as her university graduation, Calypso was smiling, awkwardly balancing on high heels in a graduation gown and cap, standing next to her sister and mother.

She looked young and hopeful. Her eyes drew me in.

Even in the photograph they were mesmerising.

Electra’s eyes were like emerald chips; brilliant but hard.

Calypso’s eyes were the green of the sea, hinting of undercurrents and secret depths.

***

Caly’s bookshop was in a pedestrian-only arcade, so Sam parked the car in a nearby parking garage. Hit by a feeling of urgency, I barely waited for the engine to turn off before I was out of the vehicle. Sam and Billy would catch up with me.

As I stepped out of the car, Beast sat up under my skin.

He pushed power towards me. Everything was immediately brighter, sharper.

I was hit by the stench of gasoline, sweat and concrete.

But there was something else. My nostrils flared as I inhaled deeply.

There was the faint trace of a different scent in the air.

Tantalizingly sweet. Suddenly there was a prickling sensation all over my body, my skin was too tight and my cock swelled and hardened.

I couldn’t get enough air. Beast stirred again, sniffing the air with me.

Searching for the source of the delectable scent.

Distracted, I didn’t push him back to sleep.

I needed more of the scent. I set off towards the arcade at a near run, Beast lending me stamina, as I scanned my surroundings, looking for…

her. The woman nearby who smelled like no other.

The arcade sat on the fringe of the Magic Quarter, straddling the boundaries of magic and mundane, and the shops were upmarket and well maintained.

The eclectic mix of businesses catered to all customers.

A chocolate café rubbed shoulders with a clothing store selling office wear.

Opposite the café was a tea shop, with a display of fanciful teapots and what looked like handmade tea cosies in the window.

A small sign in the corner advertised the availability of spell components.

I caught another whiff of the scent as I passed a café with outdoor tables.

Slowing, I scanned the customers sitting at the tables.

Given that it was a weekday morning in winter the outdoor area wasn’t busy.

An older couple, a woman with a toddler in a pram and a dog.

My gaze travelled over her and she looked up at the same time.

Her eyes widened, but I was already looking away.

No, not her. Thank fuck. There was wedding ring on her finger and I would never make a move on a married woman.

Sam and Billy caught up to me, breathing heavily. “Boss, is there a problem?” asked Billy.

“Just keeping you on your toes.” Yes, there’s a problem. I’ve lost the scent. Fuck .

“Which shop are we going to?”

I gripped the back of my neck in frustration. I needed to focus on work and not on recovering the scent trail. Get it together. No-one wants a Shifter who doesn’t shift. A Shifter with a feral Beast inside him. A Beast I can never let out.

“She runs a bookshop.” I scanned the remaining shops in the arcade.

A second-hand furniture store catered to anyone with tastes that ran to dark teak or walnut-stained wood and the hippie-style store selling bright dresses and fringed shawls, crystals—and from the smell that choked the walkway, incense— also sold Council-certified crystal balls for scrying.

At the end of the arcade, I spotted a florist and… the bookshop.

“Billy, go round the back. Sam and I will take the front.”

He nodded and turned away.

By the time Sam and I reached the bookshop, there was no chance I’d find the scent again. The florist had an outdoor display of flowers for sale, and their perfume pervaded the entire arcade.

Fuck my life .

I stopped outside the florist shop, pretending to look at the window display. The reflection showed me the bookshop. The lights in the bookshop were on but a sign on the dark wood of the door said ‘Closed’. I dialled Billy.

“All clear, boss,” he said, not bothering with a greeting.

“Back door wards are on, and no sign of forced entry.” I turned and crossed the arcade.

Two more steps put me in front of the closed door.

I could smell the magic in the wards but I wanted to know if the intruder had triggered them.

Leaning forward until my nose almost touched the wood, I sniffed.

The telltale smell of burnt orange peel that indicated when wards had activated was absent.

Instead, I got a tantalising, distracting, whiff of that scent.

Much stronger than before. She was here.

“Sam, you and Billy can interview the other business owners. See if they saw anything.” I didn’t even listen for his reply. I was being rude, but I couldn’t help myself. I needed to follow the scent.

I straightened and moved my hand to the doorknob, which was whisked out of my reach as the door was opened from the inside.

Framed in the doorway, gentle light making a halo of her hair, stood Calypso.

Green eyes, raven hair, luscious kissable lips.

Curves in all the right places hinted at full breasts and hips.

Mine. Lust punched me so hard in the gut that my knees buckled, and only my hand on the wall beside me kept me from collapsing at the woman’s feet.