“Yes to everything, Grandfather.”
“You are already bonded to her, Jamison. You are bonded by spirit and by soul. By love. I knew it when you first brought Naomi home.”
“I thought you didn’t approve of me,” Naomi said.
“Not true, child. I saw how much in love you both were, and how much Jamison loved your daughter.
It reminded me of what your grandmother and I had together, what I had lost. While I am happy for you, it also makes me sad.” His dark eyes filled. “I am only half a man without her.” Jamison’s eyes grew moist. “Grandfather.” He enfolded the man in a heartfelt hug.
Grandfather Kee pulled Naomi down to give her a kiss on the cheek. He took her hand and Jamison’s and pressed them together.
“You are one,” he said. “The bond between you is true. I am shaman. I can see.” Naomi’s hopeful gaze met Jamison’s, and Jamison realized that his grandfather was right. The instant connection he’d felt with Naomi had been his destiny fulfilling itself. And hers. During his absence she’d remained true to him, even while telling herself she shouldn’t. She hadn’t sought comfort elsewhere or even gotten rid of his things.
Julie had known, and his grandfather had known. Even Coyote had known.
“Why didn’t the Alpha know?” Naomi asked. “You said that he thought we hadn’t completed the bond.”
“He wasn’t a true Changer,” Grandfather Kee said. “He just wanted to be one.”
“I guess I need to catch up too,” Jamison said.
Naomi laughed in her beautiful, unself-conscious way. Her smile was wicked. “I can think of many things we can catch up on.”
Jamison’s grandfather regarded her with twinkling dark eyes. “After your Christmas day in Tucson, you will come to see us and bring young Julie. We all miss her.”
“We’ll be there,” Jamison said. He embraced his grandfather again, his eyes wet. “Thank you.” Grandfather Kee squeezed Jamison’s shoulders, gave him a dignified nod, then turned and walked away, fading like the ghosts into the lingering darkness.
Jamison took Naomi’s hand, led her to her warm, familiar truck, and drove her home.
Later as Naomi snuggled down on Jamison’s bare shoulder, she murmured, “We have so many homes now. This one, my folks’ place in Tucson, and your family in Chinle. Kind of nice for an only child.”
“Julie’s an only child,” Jamison said in a speculative voice.
Naomi laughed and kissed the tip of his nose. “If we keep this up, she won’t be for long.” Jamison’s eyes warmed, his kiss when he pulled her down to him both loving and heat-stirring. “Then as the years go by, we’ll have even more homes to go to on Christmas.”
“Fine with me.” Naomi opened her arms as he slid on top of her. “My Changer mate. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Allyson James writes nationally bestselling, award-winning romances, mysteries, and mainstream fiction under several pseudonyms. She lives in the desert Southwest with her husband and cats and spends most of her time in the world of her stories. A list of Allyson’s current books and upcoming releases can be found on her website, www.allysonjames.com,
or contact Allyson via e-mail at [email protected]. And keep an eye out for Stormwalker by Allyson James, coming in Spring 2010!
Sweet Enchantment
Anya Bast
ONE
Bella had vowed to never bind her life to this man’s. Now here she was, about to do it. Worse, she’d made the decision only two seconds after learning of his predicament.
Ronan still didn’t know she’d entered his cell. He knelt before her, his arms extended to either side, his wrists wrapped in heavy charmed iron chain, and his gaze fastened on the cracked cement floor of the cell.
How low the great mage of the Seelie Court had sunk. The only charmed iron chain in the whole of the Seelie Rose Tower resided within the walls of Her Majesty’s Prison, and he was wrapped in every inch of it. His dark hair hung over his face, and his biceps and muscular bare back flexed as he moved uncomfortably against his bonds.
Bella liked the fact that the mage, Ronan Achaius Quinn, was in such a subservient position to her. He wasn’t a man who was subservient to anyone unless forced by charmed iron to be so.
For a moment she allowed her gaze to trace over him. She’d never seen a more beautifully made man in her life. Not before the day she’d clapped eyes on him and not afterward. The sight of him made a woman want the iron silk of his body rubbing up against hers, made carnal thoughts crowd the most prudish of female minds.
His long black hair shadowed his square jaw, the sensual pout of his mouth, and the icy blue eyes that were known for being able to draw the truth from the worst of liars. He wore only a pair of loose black trousers, leaving his feet and upper half bare. Ronan always wore black, even here in prison. His sculpted, powerful body moved a little as he tried to find the comfort his captors were so set on not giving him. He was strong not only in body and mind, but in magick too. However, the charmed iron neutralized the abilities he possessed. It was his sorcerer’s skills that normally kept him very high in the Summer Queen’s graces.
Not so tonight.
The Seelie wanted to kill him and she could hardly blame them. However, she couldn’t allow it. She couldn’t let Ronan come to harm, no matter what lay between them or what he’d done to land himself here. It didn’t matter that once he’d shredded her heart. It didn’t matter that she’d vowed never to offer any part of herself to him ever again. She’d been a fool to think she could ever keep a promise like that.
“I can smell your perfume, Bella,” Ronan said in a broken, gravelly voice, without looking up. “I’ve never forgotten your scent. I know it’s you.”
She shivered at his words and then shook it off. It was silly to think it was romantic. He was a mage, after all, even when stripped of his magick by charmed iron. He had a nose for different scents because of his work. His power was innate, allowing him to twist leaf, flower, and herb into powerful spells.
Not only was he a mage, he was only just on the barest side of Seelie. Ronan possessed Unseelie blood, enough to allow him to cast dark spells. The Summer Queen, the Seelie Royal, allowed him to remain in the Rose Tower because of the strength of his magick and, undoubtedly, his physical beauty. And perhaps there was a part of her that enjoyed thumbing her nose at the Shadow King, the Unseelie Royal, by denying him one of his strongest court members.