Alpha Magic

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

ONE YEAR LATER.

Ruby

My day job at the local florist certainly wasn’t glamorous, but it passed the time all the same.

“Have a nice day,” I said to the human woman who’d bought a bunch of roses for her sick mother. I waved her out the door. What I really should have done was tuck in a spell for her mother’s flu, but we weren’t allowed to do magic around the humans in town.

I let out a huge sigh and looked around the large shop filled with buckets of brightly colored flowers and potted plants. What was I doing here again?

Making yourself useful until you work out what you want to do with your life, my mother’s voice sounded in my head.

The witches in my family were healers, fortune tellers, teachers. But unlike all those women who had come before me, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life at this point.

I’d graduated high school with good grades, gone to community college, then... nothing.

I was adrift, and that wasn’t my personality generally. I wasn’t a flake. But unlike so many of the witching community who were addicted to the coven lifestyle, I just... wasn’t.

I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to hang around this town forever. Travel sounded more interesting to me, seeing the world. If only I could convince Bella and Tiffany to come.

“Ruby, I’m just heading to the bank. Do you want me to grab anything for your lunch?” Andrea, my boss, smiled at me as she picked up her handbag from behind the counter and headed to the front door.

“No. I’m all good today. Thanks, Andrea.” I waved at her as she left.

Such a lovely woman, especially for a human.

When my mother had realized I couldn’t make up my mind on what I wanted to do with my life, she’d forced me to get a job with a non-magical person. To learn, to expand my horizons. To be “of use to the community”.

Which, at the time, I’d thought was a horrible idea. But as it turned out, there were a lot of nice humans here.

The school I’d attended had been mostly for witches, and I’d kept my head down at college and mostly associated with those I knew. Again, mostly witches.

Now, it was kind of nice to be able to weave between the different communities, not that the humans knew what I was, of course.

I turned back to the flowers I’d been arranging when my last customer had come in. A phone order had come through for a large bunch of lilies and violets. Simple, but lovely.

I was so tempted to use my magic to make them bright, bigger, more beautiful. But there were severe consequences for revealing magic to the non-magicals.

So, instead, I practiced my hand skills. I arranged them in a nice bunch, wrapping paper and plastic around the stems, then tying it off with an orange ribbon to contrast the vivid purple color of the violets.

The bell above the door tinkled as a new customer pushed it open.

“With you in a moment,” I called over my shoulder toward the front door, and a tingle of awareness shot up my spine.

I shivered, not with cold but with impending change. My breath caught in my throat as I twisted around to see who had set off such a drastic shift in the world around me.

A huge man stood in the shop, staring at me with quiet intensity.

His rugged beauty struck me like a slap to the face. Soulful, dark blue eyes. Brown hair falling to his shoulders. Features so stunning it made me want to crawl over the counter and jump into his arms.

The only thing that stopped me from doing exactly that was the fact that the person standing before me staring at me like he’d never seen a woman before, wasn’t just a man. I took a deep breath through my nose and shivered at the gruff, animalistic notes.

He was so much more than just a shifter. He was a wolf. Not just any wolf, an Alpha.

I’d come across one once by accident when I was a child in the forest. The scent of an Alpha was like barely leashed power, earthy sweat and strong animal. I’d never forgotten how I’d felt that day, and now I was standing before another one. This time, in human form.

I placed my hands on the counter in front of me, digging my nails into the wood so that I didn’t squeal or scream or any of those immensely embarrassing female reactions that finding your one true love was bound to bring out in even the calmest of women.

I cleared my throat with a cough and forced myself to look up at him. “Can I help you?”

He had the brightest, sharpest blue eyes. The darkest hair. And if he wasn’t six feet six, I’d bite my own bum.

“You’re a witch,” he said, no inflection in his voice indicating it was a question.

“Shh...” I said, hushing him. “You’re lucky my boss has gone to the bank.”

He frowned. “She doesn’t know?”

“We don’t tell humans what we are. You know that.” I crossed my arms over my chest and raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you go around shouting to the humans that you’re an Alpha wolf shifter?”

His eyes went wide, and he stared at me with his mouth open. He looked as if I’d hit him over the head with a frying pan.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?” I asked, grinning at him for long moments.

Damn, he’s beautiful. So beautiful.

Though that was probably the wrong word for his appearance. His jaw was darkened with the beginnings of a new beard and the muscles bulging under the gray hoodie he wore hinted at an incredibly lethal body.

Hot... he was damn HOT.

“What are you?” he asked, almost as an accusation.

“What do you mean, what am I?” I repeated and frowned at him. He knew I was a witch. What more did he want? “I’m Ruby. Why? What’s wrong?”

“How did you know that about me?” he asked. “I’m not the Alpha... not yet, anyway.”

“But it’s in your blood, isn’t it?” I asked, second-guessing myself now. I couldn’t be wrong about that, could I? The other Alpha I’d met was in wolf form.

He took a few steps forward, his intense blue gaze staying focused on me. “Yes, it is. So, answer my question. How’d you know that?”

My breath caught in my throat the closer he moved, the scent of him so familiar, like a long-forgotten memory. But how was that possible? I’d never met him before. I was sure of it.

“I...” I swallowed and dropped my arms, grabbing for the counter again as my knees threatened to buckle beneath me. “I met an Alpha wolf when I was child. He smelled the same as you.”

The Alpha crept closer until he stood right in front of the counter I was leaning on for support.

I had to tilt my head up to look into his eyes, and when I did, a noise came out of my mouth that I couldn’t decipher.

A moan? A prayer? A curse?

What is this?

I gripped the counter as my trembling legs finally gave way. This was going to hurt if I didn’t save myself.

I muttered a spell word and conjured a chair beneath me. I fell into it, feeling as intoxicated as I assumed drunk felt.

Witches had a great resistance to alcohol, like most paranormals, so I’d never felt what being tipsy was like, let alone been fully intoxicated. But I had to assume it felt like this strange, hot, tingly feeling that pulsed through my veins, making me weak, weepy, and strangely aroused.

Damn, that’s what this is! Arousal. Heat pulsated from my core, radiating through my belly and down my legs.

I forced myself to look up at him, and he was staring at me as though he were waiting for something. “Um...” My brain had gone all stupid and blank. “Did you ask me another question?”

He shook his head and growled a little, swallowing and coughing as though he suddenly couldn’t speak.

What was going on?

The bell tinkled again over the front door and Andrea strolled back in.

I jumped to my feet and made my chair disappear before she saw it.

“Welcome back,” I greeted her, putting on my cheeriest smile and happiest voice, though inside my head, my world was spinning.

This guy... this wolf shifter... he had to be my soul mate. The one I’d called for on Halloween last year. Didn’t he? Nothing else made sense.

He was so much hotter, bigger... older than I’d imagined.

But I’d never expected a wolf shifter. Damn. How was my mom gonna take this news?

Andrea placed her black handbag on the counter and frowned at the Alpha wolf in front of me. “Can I help you?”

I was surprised by her non-welcoming response, especially for one of the friendliest women I’d ever met. Didn’t she feel his strength, his power? How wasn’t she affected by his beauty?

Then something my mother had once told me swam up into my subconscious. Humans don’t like shifters. Wolves, especially. They could feel the danger in them, which to us, was an aphrodisiac. However, for a human, it only smelled like trouble.

And boy, am I in trouble...

The guy nodded at Andrea and pushed a piece of paper across the desk at us.

I glanced down at it. An order of lilies and violets.

“Oh, these are for you, sir!” I squawked in my nervousness to diffuse the situation. I didn’t want Andrea to be angry at him. He wasn’t doing anything wrong.

I twisted around, grabbed the flowers I’d just been arranging, and turned back to him in a hurry. I leaned over the counter and offered them to the huge man I was pretty certain was meant to be mine.

“Thank you,” he managed to say, though he sounded garbled and his teeth were unusually pointed as he forced the words out.

Almost... wolf-like. His teeth hadn’t looked like that when he’d come into the shop.

He pulled out a credit card from his wallet and I glanced down at the name before sliding it through the sensor on the side of the register monitor. I couldn’t help myself.

Jackson Davis.

Oh, I liked the sound of that. But where did he live? Where was he from? Was he just passing through town or did he belong to a pack in the area?

I have to find out!

I processed his payment and handed back the plastic.

He plucked the card from my hand with his fingertips, careful not to touch me as he took it. A flush of disappointment washed over me. I ached to touch him, to see if I could feel something tangible and physical between us.

I was early in my training as a witch, but all my teachers said I had a natural affinity for scrying. Future predictions. And my instincts were always on target.

And every instinct, every vibe, every ounce of my witchy genes, was telling me that Jackson and I would be seeing a lot more of each other in the future.

“Thank you,” he mumbled again as he backed away, though he barely opened his mouth to speak this time.

I c****d my head at him and watched as he began to retreat. What was with the talking thing? Or more precisely, the lack of talking thing?

Was he fighting the urge to shift? Did he feel the attraction between us that radiated like the sun? I wanted to know so badly what was going on inside his head.

“Oh, ah...” I tried to call out to him as he left, but he practically ran for the door, the bells clanging as he threw himself outside.

I stared at him through the window as he hopped into his truck and squealed out of his parking spot in front of the shop before I even had time to walk around the counter.

Andrea shook her head and tsked loudly as she opened the cash register and began unloading the change she’d gotten from the bank. “He sounded like such a nice man on the phone. I’m sorry you had to wait on him while I was out. I’m sure he scared you.”

“Scared me?” I repeated, moving away from Andrea to arrange some nearby roses. Idle hands... devil’s work, and all that.

“Oh, yes,” Andrea said, shuddering. “Didn’t he bother you? The size of him... the feel of him. Ugh.” She shuddered again.

I clenched my jaw. Why didn’t she understand that there was nothing wrong with him but instead, something wrong with her?

But I swallowed down my anger. It was for the good of the humans that they were afraid of the shifters. It was natural. And I shouldn’t be offended.

Even though my face was flushed with heat, and rage bubbled inside me.

It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing. Don’t get mad.

I faced the roses I was toying with so she couldn’t see my red face and forced myself to continue with normal conversation. “Who were the flowers for? His wife? Did he say?”

There hadn’t been a card ordered so I was left hoping someone hadn’t snagged him before I could.

“His grandmother, I think,” Andrea said as she went into the back to check stock and I was left staring out the window.

Was this the man I was meant to love? The one that our Halloween spell had called upon? Everything in me said yes.

But none of us three, not Tiffany, not Bella, not me, had even had a single date since that fateful night exactly twelve months ago.

But from the feel of Jackson Davis and the prickling of the hairs at the nape of my neck, I was pretty sure I’d just met my one. My only. My soulmate.

And he was a wolf shifter.

Damn. I hope the coven doesn’t mind!