1. Kiera

ONE

KIERA

It was pitch black out and hotter than Hades. To add to my misery, my car's AC wasn't working. To be fair, it hadn't worked in years and I hadn't had the money to fix it. As hot air whipped through my open windows against my clammy skin, I wished it did.

That was it. I'd made up my mind.

Fixing my AC was on my to-do list during my stay in Crescent Creek. Surely, this small town had a mechanic's shop somewhere.

First, I had bigger fish to fry, though. I needed to wake the alpha of the Ashen Tribe.

As I followed my GPS, I drove along a narrow dirt road that seemed to vanish into thick woods ahead. My thoughts flip-flopped between the job I'd taken and my recent conversation with Miranda, the woman who'd hired me. She had sounded on the verge of hysteria when she contacted me two nights ago. Although, given her situation, I understood her panic and was surprised she'd waited so long to reach out for help.

Miranda had cast a potent sleeping spell on her alpha, a spell she hadn't been able to reverse. To make matters worse, a month had passed since she'd cast the spell. While the specifics behind her decision to spell her tribe's alpha weren't given—which I preferred—I'd agreed to help. One, because I needed the money— hello, broken AC. And two, because it got me out of the city while trouble potentially brewed for me.

City mouse was about to meet country mouse for a long weekend.

After rounding a sharp corner, the thick woods I'd been driving through opened up to reveal a clearing with four small campers huddled together. My headlights skimmed over them and a small pond as I turned the last corner. Jostled by a few sizable potholes, I gripped my steering wheel tight. Not knowing which camper to park at, I chose the first one, coming to a stop beside a motorcycle.

A woman with long, dark hair and tattoos covering her arms exited the camper and walked my way. She had to be Miranda. I flashed her a smile and moved to slide out of my car.

"Hi. Kiera?" she asked.

"Yeah. Hey." I grabbed my bag from the passenger seat and hoisted the strap over my shoulder.

"Great," she said, seeming relieved. "Perfect timing."

I tried to keep a neutral expression on my face. It was the middle of the night. While I wasn't sure why she'd insisted I perform my reversal spell at night, I also hadn't asked.

Prying into clients' lives and issues wasn't my thing. People had their reasons for hiring me to do what I did, and I wasn't about to grill them on it.

It would be bad for business.

"Thanks," I said, my gaze sweeping over Miranda.

Right away I picked up on the fact that she was a half-breed—part shifter, part witch. I'd assumed from our previous conversation she was a full witch who had mated a shifter or was affiliated with this tribe somehow. However, her being a half-breed might be why she couldn't reverse the spell on her own. If so, this would be an easy job. I'd reverse her spell with minimal effort, and then head back to the Crescent Creek Inn, where the Ashen Tribe had been kind enough to book me a room for the next four days, and relax.

"I'm so glad you agreed to help," Miranda said. "I don't know what I did wrong. He's just—he's not waking up." Panic flared through her eyes as her teeth sank into her bottom lip.

Again, the idea that she might be finding it difficult to reverse the spell because she was a half-breed crossed my mind. I kept the thought to myself though, because I didn't want to offend her. While I didn't take issues with half-breeds, some witches looked down on them. I didn't want her to think I was one of them.

"It's okay. I'll figure it out," I assured her, flashing what I hoped looked like a confident smile. "Where is he?"

"In here." Miranda started toward the first camper, and I followed.

When we reached the metal door, she swung it open and motioned for me to step inside. I made my way up the wiggly cinderblock placed in front of the door as a step and hoisted myself into the tiny camper. Two burly men crowded the space inside. While my magic couldn't pick up on the type of shifters they were, I could sense they belonged to the Ashen Tribe, too.

"You must be Kiera," the muscular man nearest me said. "I'm Daxton, Neo's younger brother. Thank you for coming." Despite the friendly smile that graced his face, worry flickered through his eyes.

"Nice to meet you," I responded, hoping to maintain a professional demeanor.

These guys were intimidating.

"I'm Lorenzo," the man opposite Daxton said. His gaze swept over me with a hint of appraisal in an unabashed way.

The guy was bold, I'd give him that.

Even though he was handsome—both men were—my focus remained on the task I'd been hired to do and nothing more.

"It's a little cramped in there, guys," Miranda muttered from where she stood outside the camper. "Can you two step outside and wait while Kiera does her thing?"

Lorenzo gave her a dramatic eye roll before making his way past me to the door. The man was so large, I nearly had to slide into the booth in the corner so he could pass by.

"Oh, and could you call Joe?" Miranda asked, her eyes on Daxton as he followed Lorenzo out the door. "Now that she's here, we'll need him next." There was an edge to her tone I didn't understand.

I had no idea who Joe was, but whatever job he was hired to do for them after I was done wasn't my business.

"You're sure she can do this?" Daxton asked, his voice low and his gaze never once shifting to me. I bristled. Having someone act as though I wasn't in the room while they were talking about me had always been a pet peeve of mine. "If we call him, we need to be certain Neo will wake. The last thing we need is to tick off Joe. We can't screw this up."

"I know. She's powerful," Miranda insisted, her gaze drifting to me briefly. "She can do this." The corner of her lips curled into a small, hopeful smile.

"All right. I'll call him." Daxton glanced at me, optimism swirling through his eyes. Suddenly, the weight of the situation pressed down on me. This was serious. They needed their alpha back, and I was their best chance at that happening. "Good luck," Daxton said.

"Thanks," I whispered.

He stepped off the wobbly cinderblock and Miranda came inside the camper, closing the door behind her.

"Can you take me to him?" I asked, hoping I sounded more composed than I felt.

"Yeah. He's back here." She motioned to an accordion door that had been pulled closed.

When she moved to slide it open, the plastic panels squeaked along the metal track and a tiny room became visible. It was only large enough for a full-size bed with a wooden cabinet acting as the headboard. In the center of the bed was the most handsome man I'd ever set eyes on.

His jet-black hair was longer on top than at the sides, and he had a tanned, smooth complexion. The scruffy layer of stubble covering his jawline tempted my fingertips, and he was toned and muscular.

Subtle ripples of magic floated through the air around him. Miranda's magical essence—earthy, yet faint—wove through it, too.

"This is a potent spell. How did you manage it solo?" I asked, hoping I didn't offend her, while also feeling intrigued by her capabilities.

Being only half witch, performing a spell of this magnitude shouldn't be possible for her.

"I'm not entirely sure," she admitted.

My thoughts veered back to our initial conversation over the phone. She'd mentioned a month-long struggle to break the spell. My gaze shifted to the tiny window at the head of the bed.

The moon was almost full.

"I'm willing to bet you cast the spell during the last full moon, tapping into its magic and amplifying yours," I suggested.

Miranda blinked. "I didn't even think about that. Honestly, the moon phase slipped my mind with everything we were dealing with. All I wanted was to get him to simmer down."

"Your emotions were running high," I continued, taking into consideration the role emotions played in a witch's magic.

"Absolutely," she affirmed. "But shouldn't my emotional state help me reverse it, too?"

I shook my head, my gaze shifting from Miranda to Neo. "Not necessarily. You're pulling from different emotions now—frustration, overwhelm, maybe even a touch of defeat. When you originally cast the spell, you were most likely driven by a set of different emotions."

"Can you reverse it?" Miranda demanded, sounding slightly panicked.

I smiled. "Absolutely."

Bindings and banishings were my specialty, and reversing this spell was essentially a banishing. However, while I knew I could get the job done, I wasn't sure I wanted to. In the world of shifters, things were different, and I had no idea how her alpha might react to her actions if he hadn't sanctioned them.

Would waking her alpha lead to dire consequences for her?

Pushing the thought from my head, I riffled through my bag, digging out the things I needed. A white candle. A lighter. My quartz crystal. A chunk of black tourmaline. And a knife, in case I needed to use my blood to amplify things. Once I had everything laid out along the headboard, I glanced at Neo and then focused on my breathing.

I grabbed the lighter after a few breaths and lit the candle. It helped to cleanse the space. Next, I reached for my crystals. Placing one in each hand, I closed my eyes. I focused my thoughts on the hints of magic floating through the air, singling out a thread of the spell. When I locked on one, I grabbed hold of it with my mind. Focusing on my mental grip, I tapped into my magic, sending dark tendrils of banishment out to swallow it whole. There was minimal resistance as Miranda's spell unraveled.

Until I reached the final thread.

It lingered, refusing to dissipate the way I wanted. This was why I'd brought the knife. Sometimes spells were tricky, sometimes they called for a little more oomph.

Blood was that oomph.

Without releasing my mental hold on the thread, I opened my eyes and placed the crystals on the edge of the bed. I reached for my knife next and turned my palm upward. Hovering the blade above it, I whispered, "Blood, my essence, I call on thee, infuse my magic, set it free."

I winced as I sliced the blade across my palm. Droplets of my blood fell onto Neo's shirt, but I paid them no mind. Focusing on the final thread of Miranda's spell that lingered, I imagined it catching fire and disintegrating. As it did, a surge of warmth rippled through me. Energy sparked and crackled through the air, and then the spell released.

A heartbeat later, Neo stirred.

My gaze fixed on him as every fiber of my being became attuned to his awakening. Neo's eyes snapped open, locking with mine, and my breath hitched inside my chest. His arm darted out, and he wrapped his fingers around the wrist of my bleeding hand, sending a jolt of something through me.

"Did you bleed for me?" he demanded in a sultry, sexy voice that vibrated through my core.

This man oozed danger and seduction. It was both intoxicating and alarming all at once and I realized quickly I was in trouble.