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  Wild Magic (Wilding Pack Wolves 6)

  Copyright © 2016 by Alisa Woods

  July 2016 Edition

  All rights reserved.

  Sworn Secrets Publishing

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author. For information visit:

  Alisa Woods

  Cover by Steven Novak

  Wild Magic (Wilding Pack Wolves 6)—New Adult Paranormal Romance—an "after story" novella

  He's training an elite team of wolves. She's a witch with a dangerous secret. The magic they make together is WILD.

  Daniel Wilding’s family is being meticulously stalked by the Wolf Hunter. Daniel takes a leave from the Army to fight back by assembling a team of white wolves—shifters who can tap into an ancient witchy magic. The only problem? The sexy witch brought in to train them is stirring up the wild magic inside him—magic he’d rather keep buried. But when he finds the hot little witch has a secret of her own, his wolf won’t rest until he uncovers it… only what he finds might let loose the wildest magic of all.

  Daniel Wilding was surrounded by darkness—and not just the literal kind.

  He gripped the steering wheel and curved right, slicing his headlights through the darkened forest, but it wasn’t the midnight hour that made the darkness foreboding. It was the vile hatred of the Wolf Hunter, striking once again at the Wilding pack—this time, his target was Zoe Wilding, Daniel’s cousin, who had miraculously survived the firebombing of her lab at the University just an hour ago. Daniel had been trying to convince her father, Billy Wilding, that the Wolf Hunter would go after them sooner or later—just like he had the other four branches of the Wilding pack—and their genetics lab simply didn’t have adequate security. But the Wolf Hunter had made Daniel’s point for him—with an incendiary device that nearly killed Zoe and successfully destroyed her lab.

  Daniel glanced in the rear-view mirror—Zoe’s car was still behind him, following him up the mountains outside Seattle to the River pack estate. It was the safest place for her now, with a whole contingent of the most powerful wolves protecting Mama River and the others at the estate. He was glad Zoe didn’t fight him on the relocation. The guy who had just saved her life—Troy Hartman, Seattle Fire Department and also a shifter—was in the car behind him, driving Zoe up the mountain to help get her settled. Troy seemed eager to join the cause of stopping the Wolf Hunter as well, and at this point, Daniel would take all the help he could get.

  The Army still had Daniel listed as active-duty, but he’d taken an extended leave to help Riverwise—the security team headed by the River pack brothers—protect his family and track down the Wolf Hunter. All the bomb threats and hate videos had done more than just expose his family’s names and addresses and threatened their lives—the attacks had brought out the darkest Wilding family secret.

  The wolf that broke up the Wilding pack long ago in his grandfather’s generation wasn’t a wolf at all… but a witch. There had always been rumors, but when his brother, Noah, had revealed he was a white wolf—a hybrid witch/wolf with amazing powers—that had pretty much nailed it down. Daniel had no love for witches before he knew one was responsible for breaking up his family—wolves and witches were simply natural enemies. But knowing that he was descended from one… and Noah was already expressing some insane witchy powers… well, Daniel was still getting used to the idea. But that wouldn’t stop him from using his brother’s abilities, as well as the powers of the other white wolves who had been discovered, to stop the Wolf Hunter.

  He would do whatever it took.

  Daniel pulled his car into the gravel parking lot in front of the rambling, two-story Riverwise estate and waited for Zoe and Troy to park alongside. The house was spilling light into the darkened forest that surrounded it, highlighting some of the construction Mama River had undertaken to expand the place—the estate was already large, with horses out back as well as several private cabins, but she was taking a stand against the Wolf Hunter’s threats and making room for more wolves, like Troy and Zoe, to find a safe haven here.

  Lights danced off to the side of the house, sending an eerie white-blue glow to the tips of the trees. It was crazy late, but Noah and the others must still be practicing, trying to master their powers. The white wolves were a kind of elite, special forces team Daniel was pulling together, something that wasn’t widely known in either the Wilding or River packs, much less the public.

  As soon as Zoe and Troy got out of their car, Daniel waved them over, beckoning them toward the field. “Troy, I thought you might want to see what we’ve got going on here.” He gave his cousin a small smile. “And Zoe, I don’t think you’ve seen this in action before.”

  They had to be exhausted, but he figured Zoe might sleep a little easier, knowing the kind of firepower they had up here at the estate. She and Troy followed him out to the practice field on the side of the main house. All three of the white wolves were out in the middle of the low-cut grass. His brother, Noah, was tossing blue orbs of magical energy back and forth with Kaden, their cousin Terra’s new mate, who was also formerly with the Seattle Police Department. The third white wolf—Owen Harding—was ex-Army and had served with Noah before they were both captured and experimented on by the government they served. Those experiments had triggered the white wolf in both of them, and while Daniel had been subjected to some of the same serums, he’d only gotten a single dose—Noah had been in the cages for weeks, and Owen nearly a year. That, combined with the knowledge that a white wolf/witch hybrid lurked in Daniel’s ancestry, made the whole thing feel like a ticking bomb. On the one hand, having another elite wolf to command brilliant balls of magical blue energy might help with the fight; on the other hand, Daniel had zero desire to be a witch. Or in any way similar to the grandfather who broke up his family.

  Zoe’s mouth had fallen open at the magical display, and Troy looked flat-out dumbfounded, but Daniel found something surprising in the field as well—a girl. Some girl he didn’t know was out in the middle of his secret, elite team of white wolves, apparently telling them what to do. What the hell?

  Daniel picked up his pace, pulling ahead of Zoe and Troy and waving to his brother. They needed to cut the magic show for a moment so that he could bring the civilians onto the field, plus Daniel was in need of an explanation right now as to why they’d brought someone outside the family into the fold. Noah broke fro
m the group to trot over, but before Daniel could demand some answers, his brother brushed on past and went to give Zoe a hug.

  Daniel pressed his lips together. His irritation really should take second place to looking out for their cousin. Naturally, Noah would be on top of that better than he would—his kid brother always had a softer touch. He was talking quietly to Zoe, wringing the first smile out of her that Daniel had seen since the fire.

  He waited while they reconnected and surreptitiously checked out the short, spiky-haired girl in the field. She was dressed all in black and tiny, but with mouth-watering little curves in all the right places. The thing was, the white wolves were all mated—Noah to Emily, Kaden to his cousin Terra, and Owen to his other cousin Nova. It didn’t make sense that they’d bring a smokin’ hot girl out to the field just to show off their powers.

  So, what was she doing here?

  Noah finally stepped back from comforting Zoe and gestured back to the field, where Owen and Kaden were still tossing blue orbs of magical energy back and forth while the hot girl looked on.

  “Well, the Wolf Hunter’s got some serious shit to deal with now,” Noah said loudly for the group. “This is some real firepower here. We’re finally learning how to actually use it without, you know, burning down the entire forest.” His asshole brother smirked like that was some kind of joke. Daniel had to spend considerable time convincing Mama River to let them practice out here, and their early attempts at magic-handling hadn’t helped. At all.

  “Glad to hear you’re not quite such a danger anymore,” he called out to Noah, then he tipped his head back to the field. “Looks like you’ve been getting some help.” But when he flicked a look at the short-haired girl, her brilliant green eyes were locked on him like a sighting laser. He jolted at the intensity of her stare, then covered it by hurrying over with his hand extended. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Daniel Wilding.”

  But she didn’t take his hand—instead, she twisted those pretty lips up into a smirk and waved her hand in a circle in the air. When she finally held it out to him, palm up, there was a cracking ball of blue magical fire floating above it.

  Holy shit.

  “You might want to be careful about touching a witch, Daniel Wilding.” Her smile was dangerous and sexy and freaking him straight out.

  A witch. He dropped his hand and stepped back. “Alrighty, then.” Witches could kill you with a simple touch—no ball of energy required—and it wasn’t like witches and wolves got along. In fact, the hairs on the back of his neck were bristling out so fast, it was like they were looking for a new home.

  She was laughing at his freaked-out expression as he backed away from her magic-filled hand. Her teasing little laugh wasn’t an unpleasant sound—in fact, it was downright sexy—but that only raised goosebumps on his skin. He’d heard the stories about shifters lured in by witches with a taste for wolf. They would trap them in an alluring haze of sex—witches were impossibly beautiful, something about the beauty spells they cast—then the witches would literally carve out the male wolf’s heart to get at the magic inside.

  He swallowed. There were legit reasons witches and wolves didn’t mix.

  Her laugh tempered into a smirk. “It’s all right, cute stuff.” She clapped her hands together, and the blue ball of fire disappeared. Then she took two steps forward, closing the gap between them, and patted him on the cheek! “I’m here to help, not hurt.”

  He backed off more, out of her reach, nearly stumbling and going down, then he shot a wild-eyed stare to Noah, who had crept up on them. What the hell was his brother doing, bringing a witch here? Much less one who seemed radically careless about that deadly touching thing.

  “This is Skylar Starling,” Noah said, sweeping a hand in her direction as if having a witch in the field with them was something they did every day. “Kaden recruited her from one of the covens downtown.”

  “Recruited?” the girl said, her voice hiking up. “I was told there were hot shifters in the mountains that I could play magical tricks with. That wasn’t exactly a hard sell.”

  Oh, Jesus. Daniel darted a look at Noah, but he was just grinning. Zoe was smiling as well. Was he the only one who thought it was actually dangerous to have a witch sniffing around a pack of wolves? Sure, Noah had some residual witch in him, but he was a wolf first—that witch stuff was buried in his DNA, giving him some bonus powers and a startling white fur coat, but he was still primarily a shifter. The downtown covens, on the other hand, were a hotbed of the Dark Arts, filled with seductive witches just waiting to lure an unsuspecting wolf to his death.

  “Come on, Daniel,” Skylar said with a smile that made him feel unsteady. “Why don’t you join us?” She fluttered her delicate fingers at the other three white wolves like they were already best of friends.

  “Yeah, Daniel,” Noah said with a laugh. “Why don’t you let Skylar bring out your inner witch?”

  “Shut up.” He wanted to say, What the hell, Noah? Daniel might have an inner witch, but he certainly didn’t want to bring it out—and telling this pixie-sized witch about it was just asking for trouble. Although, if Kaden recommended her… Daniel peered at her again. Kaden worked with witches during his time on the force. And Daniel knew they weren’t all heart-eating monsters. If Kaden had cleared her to help out with the team, Daniel should probably just suck it up and let it go.

  But then she pranced over to him and grabbed his hand. “I promise I won’t bite.”

  His heart nearly jerked to a stop. There was some kind of electric zap when she touched him, but not in a bad way—in fact, her small hand roaming over his felt not bad at all. Her touch was sending small pulses of pleasure racing into his body—it went beyond the smooth warmness of her skin, the gentle press of her fingers holding his hand palm up, and the crazy sexy way her green eyes were holding his captive. His mouth worked, but no words came out. What on earth was she doing to him? Casting some kind of spell?

  Before he could articulate that, the question answered itself. She was holding his hand up and passing her other hand over it… and a small ball of blue light appeared, floating over his palm.

  He was gaping again, mesmerized.

  Skylar smirked. “Now that’s not so scary, is it?”

  It should be… but somehow her touch made it less so. And those eyes…

  His cousin Zoe said something, but he missed it with the way Skylar’s blazing green eyes were still holding him captive. What kind of magic was this? By the time he turned to look, Noah had shuffled Zoe and Troy off toward the main house. Which was just as well—they needed to get settled. And Daniel needed to sort out what was happening with this… witch.

  She snuffed out the magic in his palm and released him. The small, pleasurable sparking sensation dissipated. Had she been working some kind of spell on him? It sure as hell felt like it… then again, he was already missing it. Craving it, even. Insane. He was still blinking when Kaden and Owen sauntered up to join them, smirking at Daniel’s obvious discomfort with this whole thing.

  “Hey, thanks for the warning,” he snarled at them. “Next time you bring in someone new, how about a heads up?”

  “Say what now?” Owen asked, his Texas drawl coming out. “You were busy taking care of your family. We were fixin’ to tell you in the morning. Just hadn’t gotten around to it, is all.”

  Daniel frowned. Maybe he was over-reacting. They’d obviously been practicing in the field for a while before he arrived, and none of them had been turned to ash or had their hearts cut out. Owen looked vaguely offended; and Kaden was giving him a look like Daniel might be mentally unbalanced.

  He cleared his throat and turned to Skylar. “All right, I guess we could use some help on the magic side of things. How’s that going to work, exactly?”

  “Your boys are naturals.” She smirked and ran a flirtatious gaze over them. “And their magic is definitely on the wild side.”

  He gave Kaden and Owen a pinched look. “They don’t need any
encouragement to burn down the forest. What they need is control.”

  “You heard the boss man,” Skylar said, her smirk tempering into something more genuine. “Let’s stick to magic handling for a while before you wild things try something more advanced.” She turned back to him. “What about you, hot stuff? Are you up for a few private lessons?”

  That drew snickers, but Daniel’s hands were already up, holding her off. “No thanks. I’m good.”

  “Your loss.” She ran those pretty green eyes over him, which rose heat in several parts of his body, including his cheeks. What the hell? Why was he reacting to a simple look from this girl? Then she turned her back on him. “Okay, boys, one more round tonight. Then we’ll hit it again in the morning.” She skipped with light steps back toward the center of the field, and Daniel couldn’t help watching her go. Her little butt was curvy in a way that made his hands ache—as if they wanted a handful of her in those tight black pants. Which was so messed up. She was a witch, for God’s sake. The literal definition of playing with fire.

  “Need some help cleaning up the drool?” Kaden was barely suppressing his laugh.

  “Fuck you.” Daniel scowled.

  Kaden laughed outright at him, then jogged over to join Owen, who was already tromping out into the field. Skylar had conjured two blue balls of energy to toss their way, like a game of magical hot potato, catching and passing the crackling balls. The three of them quickly got into a rhythm that was impressive with how fast they were handling their magic. Kaden was probably right to bring Skylar in—Daniel hadn’t seen them do anything like this before tonight.

  And their skills would need to be top-notch to catch the Wolf Hunter.