When a wolf is hot for a witch, the sparks can be downright dangerous.
Heart’s Desire, Book 2
Zachary Beckett has finally done something right. He saved his brother’s life, and his reward is a ticket to Cleveland to train as a witch. Except every spell he casts wreaks havoc—until he’s banished to the children’s classroom.
At least his teacher is easy on the eyes. It isn't long before the heat is rising, and it has nothing to do with a bubbling cauldron.
Jo has never met a walking Karma bomb like Zachary. His blue eyes haunt her, his body is made for sin, and his magic? The less said about that the better. But Jo is determined to help him, even if she has to fight their mutual attraction, tooth and nail.
When Zach discovers he’s been operating under a hex, he and Jo come together in a blazing-hot ritual to break its hold and reveal Zach’s destiny to fight evil. But the old enemy who cast the spell won’t give up until every Beckett male is stripped of his mate. Which could leave Zach to howl in agony forever—and doom Jo to a fate worse than death.
Product Warnings: This novel contains explicit sex, graphic language, a sexy, awkward, blue-eyed wolf-witch and a woman who can make his dreams come true.
Prologue
Lana grabbed him. “Stop thinking like a wizard and start thinking like a witch!”
Zach turned to her, his eyes blank from shock. “Think like a witch.” He blinked, his eyes refocusing, his gaze centering on the shield. His expression became cold and certain. “No. Not wizard, not witch.” He stepped back and raised his arms. Power arched between his hands, glowing above him, clean and pure, a powerful counterpoint to the rancid energies behind the barrier. “Me.”
Pure white light blasted into the barrier separating him from his brother and the warlock intent on killing him. He could sense the demon rising through the foul circle, knew what Cole Godwin intended to do to Christopher.
He couldn’t stand by and do nothing while his brother died.
The protections around the dueling circle were strong. It would take him time, time he didn’t have, to wear them down.
He couldn’t stop. He had to save Christopher. He had to get to Cole and take him down before he hurt anyone else.
But something happened, something that shocked him to the core. Christopher threw something into the pit that had opened at his feet, and Zach knew Cole was doomed. Pulling back the power he’d been sending into the shields around the dueling circle hurt, but he knew what was coming and needed to be prepared to move.
Cole looked up from the circle, horrified. “No. What have you done?”
He watched as something snaked out of the pit and pulled the warlock’s soul out of his body.
Cole was dead, but the threat wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. He saw Davis Godwin rush through the suddenly open circle, pick up his son’s wand and point it at Christopher. “You killed my son!” Hideous green power poured from the tip of the wand, blasting into Christopher.
It was a spell meant to burn the soul itself, scarring it, eating away at it until nothing was left but a husk of a man.
Zach stepped forward and pointed his finger at Davis. “Back the fuck off, warlock.” He flicked his finger and the man flew backward, landing with a hard thud against the side of the building. He fell in a graceless heap and didn’t get back up.
Zach bent over Christopher, the glow still surrounding him. “You okay, bro?”
Christopher tried to stand but couldn’t. He hissed in pain, and Zach wanted to whimper. He was too late. He could see the vicious green glow in the wound, wondered how long Chris had. “No.”
Lana pushed him over, ignoring Chris’s indrawn scream. She bent and examined his new wound. “It’s bad, Zach.”
Zach looked down at the blackened flesh, the blisters already broken and wet. Lana bent over her mate, tears in those pretty eyes of hers.
He could see Christopher was struggling to respond. “Hey.”
She sniffled. “Hey yourself, wolfman.”
“Don’t go.”
She sobbed. “Not going anywhere. You hear me? Chris? Chris?” His brother’s golden eyes closed. His breathing was shallow and uneven. Blood was beginning to puddle beneath him. If he bled too much more it would take a miracle to save him.
Zach knew what he had to do. He’d prepared for it, but he’d thought it would be Lana in Chris’s place.
How wrong he had been.
If he fucked this up he would lose both of them.
He held out one hand to Lana. “Help me.” His other hand pressed into the wound in Chris’s side. Tears filled his eyes. “One hand in mine, one on the ground. Please, Lana. Trust me. Complete the circle.”
Without hesitation she took out the amulet he’d prepared the day before and held it in her hand, placing it between Zach’s palm and her own. She slapped the other against the earth and opened herself up to Zach’s magic and Chris’s life force.
Zach closed his eyes and began to chant, the words lilting and strange. He wasn’t certain what he was saying. It was almost as if someone, or something, had taken him over, giving him the power to save his brother’s soul and life.
Zach pulled the darkness from Chris’s wound into his own body, channeled it through Lana. He took the brunt of it, trying his best to spare her as much as possible, but he couldn’t shield her from it all.
Lord and Lady, it hurt. He’d never felt anything that hurt like this. Agony blossomed through him, growing and growing with each beat of his heart until the only thing he could see or hear was pain.
And still he chanted.
Lana began to scream.
Still he chanted.
The amulet began to burn, heating his flesh, branding him with his failure.
When Lana passed out, Zach took on what she hadn’t been able to finish, purifying the horror through his own soul.
And still, he knew it wouldn’t be enough.
Chris was going to die, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Behind him, in the glow of a fire that shouldn’t have been there, Davis Godwin laughed.
