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Now we’re back to offer our weekly free Romance excerpt, and if you aren’t among those who have downloaded Seduced by Innocence, you’re in for a real treat:

Seduced by Innocence: A New Adult Paranormal Romance of Shifters & Witches (Rose’s Trilogy, #1) (The Seduced Saga)

by Kimberly Kinrade

4.0 stars – 172 Reviews

Kindle Price: FREE!

Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled

Liquid fire poured into me, filling me with the intimate sense of him as he leaned in to claim my lips with his own. I reached for him, needing him closer, needing to feel his flesh against mine, but my arms couldn’t close the distance between us, which grew wider with each hitched breath. So close to finally feeling something real, something carnal and deep, I cried out in frustration, dropping my hands as he disappeared. My cries deepened into a frenzy of panic and my eyes flew open. I clutched my blanket and stilled myself to calm my racing heart.

Just a dream. Always just a dream.

***

Rose Wintersong didn’t have an ordinary upbringing. Raised in what most would call a hippy commune, but what is actually a powerful coven of witches, she never questions the life fate chose for her.

Until she meets Derek O’Conner.

Derek challenges everything Rose believes and forces her to see the secrets hidden beneath the whitewashed walls of her idyllic country life.

Rose knows she should walk away, that the sexy martial arts instructor is bad news bred to create discord in her tight community… but the animal magnetism between them is impossible to fight.

Caught between the passion of first love, and the steady beat of the life she’s always known, Rose must choose between the innocence of her youth or the pleasures of womanhood–but lost innocence comes at a price, and Rose harbors a dark secret that could destroy everyone she loves–including Derek.

 And here, for your reading pleasure, is our free excerpt:

ONE

 Sudden Endings

ROSE

These sudden joys have sudden endings. They burn up in victory like fire and gunpowder.

— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

LIQUID FIRE POURED into me, filling me with the intimate sense of him as he leaned in to claim my lips with his own. I reached for him, needing him closer, needing to feel his flesh against mine, but my arms couldn’t close the distance between us, which grew wider with each hitched breath. So close to finally feeling something real, something carnal and deep, I cried out in frustration, dropping my hands as he disappeared. My cries deepened into a frenzy of panic and my eyes flew open. I clutched my blanket and stilled myself to calm my racing heart.

Just a dream. Always just a dream. It could never be more than that. Not with my dream man, not with any man. Knowing this did nothing to dampen the disappointment that weighed heavy on me each time I entered that one moment where dreams and reality co-existed and I forgot who I really was and what would happen if I ever experienced that level of surrender. But fear replaced my self-absorption when the alarms penetrated my foggy mind. Outside my cottage, footsteps raced through the cold night, crunching on newly fallen snow. Through my frosted window, flashlights wavered back and forth, looking for something, or someone. It’s happening again!

The floor under my bare feet felt like ice as I slipped out of bed and fumbled in the dark for my clothes. Sandy, my loyal Alaskan Husky, whined when I moved to leave the cottage without her. I ran a hand through her thick white fur. “You want to come? I have to go check on your puppies. Do you want to see your babies?”

She barked once and wagged her tail.

The alarm shut off, leaving us both in a stunned silence that filled the room. Sandy licked my hand and stood by the door waiting as I pulled on my boots and coat and braced myself for the cold. I rummaged through the basket next to my door, looking for my warmest gloves. At least in the winter I had a ready excuse for covering my hands.

Outside, the black pitch of night greeted me. No one had turned on the floodlights yet, which made me wonder if they’d been damaged. Flashlight in hand, dog by my side, I headed to the main house on our coven’s 100-acre property as I sent my magic ahead of me to sift through the energy from the attack.

Before I could get more than a few steps, Blake ran up to me and laid his hand on my arm as he fought to catch his breath. He ignored Sandy’s low growl as he pushed me toward the door. “You should go back in. They’ve broken onto the property again. Bastards slashed the tires on three vehicles and left a deer carcass as a gift.”

My heart thumped with extra force at the news. “That’s horrible. Whose cars?”

“The property truck, Darren’s car and Lauren’s.” His jaw hardened, and he narrowed his dark eyes, squeezing my arm tighter in his anger. “Bastards will cost us hundreds in new tires. They even smashed out the windows. We’ve got to strike back. Teach them a lesson.”

Using my gloved hand, I eased his fingers off of me. He flinched at the touch, despite the layers of protection. Good thing I had a thick skin, sort of. I kept my voice calm, even through my own rage. “That’s not a decision you can make on your own. We’ll all talk about it when we meet tomorrow morning.”

He waved his flashlight over his watch and smirked. “More like a few hours. It’s 2 a.m. The meeting’s in two hours. Where’s Ocean?”

“She’s on a date, and I’d better check on the puppies and try to get a bit more rest.” I stepped around him to continue walking, but he blocked me with his large body made of the kind of muscle you get, not from the gym, but from manual labor day in and out. He smelled of pine needles and snow, a scent that would have been appealing on anyone else but him.

“Rainbow wants everyone inside except the security team. The puppies are fine,” he said.

I’d thought about it a lot, what it was about Blake that revolted me so much. Easy on the eyes, dedicated to our coven, though lacking magic of his own, he would have been a safe choice, if I’d had any choice at all. He’d even indicated an interest on more than one occasion, and the only almost-kiss I’d ever experienced had been with him on my thirteenth birthday. But his touch made my skin crawl, even through clothing. I shifted away from him. “What about my sister? She must be scared.”

“She’s sixteen, Rose, not a little girl anymore. She’s not as helpless as you think. Just go back inside. We’ll handle this.” He smiled to soften the command in his voice, and I sighed and walked back into the cottage.

I’m not a little girl anymore, either. Guess no one got the memo.

Not for the first time I wished for a lock on my house, but none of us had locks, despite the recent string of break-ins. I shed my winter gear and gloves and toweled off the snow from Sandy’s paws. Knowing I’d never get back to sleep, and frustrated that I’d been dismissed by Blake like some kid, despite the fact that I was nineteen and he was only twenty-one, I searched my one-room dwelling for something to occupy my time until our daily pre-dawn meeting.

My favorite romance novel sat on the dresser next to my bed, and I reached for it, grateful that I could at least breathe in vicarious passion through the lives of others, if not my own. My hands stilled on the book as shivers of energy traveled through my body, connecting me to the earth, to my coven and to my family. Mother’s voice called out to me through one of those lines. “Rose. Help! Hurry!”

We almost never communicated telepathically. The drain on energy and resources was just too much, and, with the modern convenience of cell phones, unnecessary. Besides that, most members of our coven didn’t have enough power to do it. Heart racing in my chest, I ran out the door and through the dark with Sandy at my heels, straight to the lower level of the main house where Mother lived. The air crackled with fear and desperation and the ramped up emotion of it all forced my gut into uncomfortable knots.

As leader of the coven, Mother commanded the most power and respect. She’d never reached out to me for help before, which made this all the more alarming. I forced my legs to pump faster, Sandy running at my side, as I navigated through the icy paths masked with shadows of the night.

There should have been others out with flashlights, checking the property, but I didn’t see or feel anyone. Perhaps the mental cries of Mother drowned out everyone else?

When we reached her door, I hesitated. Mother didn’t like people barging in on her. While everyone else in the coven had a default open door policy—meaning literally anyone else here could walk into your house without knocking—Mother was immune from that. To some extent, so was I, but only because my coven feared an accidental touch. Only in my own home could I go gloveless. My best friend and roommate, Ocean, was the only person in the coven not scared of me and my dark gift.

Sandy whined and clawed at the door, jarring me out of my thoughts. Inside, something clattered to the ground, and Mother screamed. I pushed the door open and tried to mentally ready myself.

But nothing could have prepared me for what I found.

A giant brown wolf stood before Mother, baring his teeth with a low, throaty growl that sent shivers of fear up my spine. Mother cowered in the corner of her couch, eyes like saucers as she backed away from the wolf with her hands in defense position. She made eye contact with me as I walked in and yelled, “Help! Rose, help! He attacked me.”

Sandy growled and the puppies in the kennel barked and yipped. Sandy stood in front of her puppies, ready to attack this new threat, hackles raised on her back.

Feeling utterly useless, I shouted at the wolf. “Get away from her!”

It turned its head to me, large golden eyes glowing in the dim light. For a moment I felt a connection to the beast, as if he was trying to tell me something, but the moment shattered when Mother shrieked at me. “Do something, Rose.”

What did she want me to do? I didn’t know self-defense…  no one would let me study it. I had no weapons… other than myself. Mother, who—even cornered by this magnificent beast—looked in control and poised, with her midnight black hair in an up-do and her face made up with flawless makeup, glanced down meaningfully at my hands.

This couldn’t be. She couldn’t possibly want me to use my power on the wolf. It didn’t even work on animals.

But this wolf, three times the size of even a large wolf, felt more than animal. Something tickled at the back of my mind. Something I should have known but had forgotten. It hovered on the edge of my memory, teasing me with knowledge just out of reach.

The wolf howled, his head high in the air, and more howls tore from the nearby woods, echoing through the cold night.

Then it all clicked and I took a step back. So it was true. All the stories and rumors. The O’Conner clan really could shapeshift, and they were here, on my land, attacking my family.

For months they’d been terrorizing our coven, trying to drive us out of our rural home in Washington. We refused to be bullied by the wealthy Druids who commanded the public favor in the local, and even international, spiritual and business communities.

We didn’t have the money to fight them legally.

We didn’t have the power to fight them magically.

And we had no idea what they wanted from us.

But they’d attacked relentlessly. Sabotaging our cars, destroying our property, leaving dead animals for us to find. Now, they’d sent someone to hurt Mother. Maybe kill her. Anger boiled inside of me, reaching through me and around me, and the steel traps around my power uncoiled as I took measured steps toward the wolf.

Reason left me. Fear abandoned me. Only rage sustained me as I reached out with a bare hand to touch the flesh beneath the thick fur of the wolf.

With a final push, it flooded out of me. My darkest secret. My cross to bear. It pooled into my hand, turning it into the worst kind of weapon. My flesh turned into a fire only I could withstand, and the wolf howled in agony as his mind, or soul, or whatever part of him made him ‘him’, turned to ash and left him forever.

I collapsed to the ground, vision blurred, body cold, hardwood floor beneath me shifting and dipping. Blackness pressed in on me, but before it could claim me entirely I saw the wolf shift back to human. A naked young man, no older than myself, lay in a heap of skin, muscle and bone, staring vacantly at me, eyes glazed over with a white haze that indicated he’d never be himself again.

Though his body still lived, I’d killed his soul. And a new kind of darkness squeezed my heart as I faded into nothing.

TWO

I Bite My Thumb at You

DEREK

Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

I’D ALWAYS BEEN most comfortable at night. The cloak of darkness allowed me to hide my sins, or flaunt them, depending on the company.

Tonight was a little bit of both.

The leggy waitress sauntered over to the pool table that I’d rented for the night. Lose a few games and everyone wants to show you how it’s done. That’s when I pull out my A game to cover my expenses for a few more days.

Living from cheap hotels and traveling the country on a motorcycle wasn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but it kept me busy and kept me in the company of beautiful women. How could I complain?

She handed me a tall glass full of amber liquid and raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow at my choice of a non-alcoholic beverage while everyone else worked at getting sloshed.

“It’s all about illusion. People see what they want to see. Right now, they see a cocky prick who drinks too much and bets too much on half-assed games of pool. It’s how I keep my edge.” Of course, bragging about this didn’t exactly work with my stay-under-the-radar plans, but even I enjoyed the admiring glance of a woman who respected my techniques.

“You’re like that detective, in those old television shows. Columbo, I think. Acts dumb but is really super smart and always, like, gets the bad guy in the end.” She twirled a strand of long blond hair and chewed on her lower lip as she talked.

When she bent over to pick up an empty glass from the table, her cleavage spilled out of her tight blouse, giving me an eye full and making things uncomfortable in my jeans.

She slipped me a piece of paper with a phone number on it and winked. “You have really pretty eyes. They’re, like, blue with sunlight in them. Like a cat.”

Wrong species. “Thanks, they are a bit unusual.”

“I think they’re cool.” She leaned in closer. “I get off at closing. Want to give me a ride home?”

“If I’m still around, yes.” The most honest answer I could give.

The light of desire dimmed in her eyes a bit, but she smiled and walked away, swinging her hips to the music.

I adjusted my jeans and focused on the game. Daryl, the big guy who’d challenged me, had won the last three games and had bought drinks for his buddies to celebrate. This final game was all or nothing, and for him, it would be nothing. He just didn’t know it yet.

It only took me one turn to sink the eight ball and win the game. I put my leather coat on, then reached for the money, well over three hundred dollars, and pulled back just in time to avoid a broken hand as he slammed his pool stick against the table.

“You fucking cheat. Yer a shark.” The jowls of his chin vibrated with his rage, and his beady eyes squinted like a rat. “You ‘aint getting none of my money, or yours.”

It was for moments like these, rare though they were, that my drinks were always alcohol-free.

I relaxed my body and assessed the room around me. Two exits, one in front and one in back. I could get through the back door easily enough and hop on my bike. Daryl had two friends at least as big as him, but their collective mass had more to do with their daily beer intake than any gym memberships.

I could take them, if I had to. But better not to fight, especially in the bar. If the cops showed up before I could extricate myself, it would create a whole new pain in the ass I didn’t want to deal with.

I reached for my money again, and he lunged at me. Anticipating his move, I shoved the money in my back pocket as I twisted to the side, then used his weight against him to knock him on his ass.

He hadn’t been hurt, so his buddies didn’t know whether to fight me or help him up. Most people, even oversized idiots, didn’t want trouble with the police.

Hands in the air, I gave my surrender. “Look, I just got lucky on that last one, but I won fair and square.” I backed up toward the door, ready to bolt if he or his friends came after me.

Daryl slapped his friend’s hand away and used the pool table to help himself stand. “Give me back my money, or I’ll rip yer face off and take it back myself.”

I shot a mournful glance at the hot waitress, who realized that I wouldn’t be sticking around for closing, then darted out the door to my bike.

Daryl and his friends had no chance to catch up to me, which was for the best, since I really didn’t want to be responsible for taking his money and sending him to the hospital all in one night.

As I pulled out of the parking lot, my cell phone buzzed in my pocket. Very few people had this number, and those that did weren’t likely to use it at this time of night… unless….

My hotel in Portland, Oregon was close enough that it made more sense to go straight there than try to find someplace safe to pull over. Not to mention it was freezing outside. Ten minutes later I had settled into my hotel room and checked the messages on my phone.

Five calls, and all from the last person on earth I wanted to speak to.

I selected the last incoming call and pressed the green call button on my phone. The first ring cut off as a familiar voice answered.

“Son, is that you?”

I sat on the cardboard-like bed and pulled off my boots. “Yeah, Dad, it’s me. What’s up? Is Mom okay?”

“She’s fine. But, Dean…. ” His voice trailed off as if he didn’t know how to say what he had to say next. Except my dad always knew what to say.

“Dad, what happened? Is Dean okay?” Real fear gripped my chest. I hadn’t seen my younger brother since I left home two years ago, but we still talked every chance we got. I may have been a shitty brother, but I loved him.

“There’s been an accident, Son. You need to come home. Dean’s in trouble.”

It took four hours to get home, and I thanked the gods that be that I hadn’t been back East or in the mid-West when the call came in. Pulling onto the vast estates that my parents owned, I imagined what they would think when they saw me.

It had been two years, and I’d changed a lot. I also smelled like a night at the bar.

I pulled off my helmet and attached it to my bike, then walked the long path to the front door and rang the bell. It may have been my family home, but it wasn’t my home anymore.

My sister, Tammy, met me at the door and pulled me into a hard hug. “Oh my God, Derek, where have you been? We’ve missed you.” She stepped away to look at me and smiled. “I’ve missed you. How could you just abandon your little sister like that?”

“Tam, we talk every week. It’s not like I disappeared.” But I had to admit, it felt good to see her again. She’d grown a lot. Last time I saw her she’d just turned sixteen and had been a late bloomer. Now she was a young woman, and she’d definitely bloomed. A growl formed at the base of my throat at the thought of any man touching her, but Dean, her twin brother, could look after her. They’d always been close. I was only four years older, but it felt like a lot more, especially after I left.

“What happened? Is Dean okay?”

Her smile at seeing me faded, as she struggled to hold in the tears forming in her eyes. “No, no he’s not. Come in. Dad wants to talk to you, I’m sure, and Mom is dying to see you.”

She took my backpack from me. “They’re in the library. I’ll put this in your room.”

“I still have a room?” I’d assumed they’d turned it into a gym, or a scrapbooking room for my mom.

“Of course you still have a room.” She rolled her eyes and for a moment looked like the sixteen-year-old girl I’d left behind. “This is your home. Your family. You’ll always have a place here, whether you want it or not.”

Her words cut at me, though I didn’t think she meant them to. She and Dean could never understand why I left, why I didn’t want to join the family business and become Dad’s mini-me. Sometimes, I had a hard time understanding it myself.

David O’Conner commanded a room, whether alone and casual or amidst hundreds of people in formal wear. He pushed his plush leather chair back from his mahogany desk and stood when I walked in. “Derek, you’ve come home.”

My mother, Lauren O’Conner, the woman who had turned down a New York modeling career to become a literature professor, replaced a copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales that she’d been perusing and smiled up at me. “My boy.”

They’d aged since I’d seen them last, but they wore it well. A creeping of grey hair at his temples gave my father a distinguished look, and my mother, always a beauty, still carried herself with a grace and elegance that few women could mimic.

She put her delicate hand on my face. “Have you found what you’ve been looking for, out there on the road?”

I shrugged. “Maybe life isn’t about the answers, but rather the adventure.”

“Always the wandering philosopher.” She shook her head, but didn’t lose her smile. “I’ll let you and your father catch up. Come tell me of these adventures when you have a few moments to spare, will you?”

I kissed her cheek, still smooth despite the fine lines forming around her eyes. “Of course. It’s good to see you again, Mom.”

When she closed the door behind her, my dad held out his arms to, and I accepted his hug, then pulled back. “I’m not staying. I’m just here to help with Dean until he’s better.”

My dad’s smile faded. Seemed I was on a roll at tearing the hope from everyone tonight. “I know you don’t want to be here, but I’m glad you came. Tammy needs you now most of all. This has hit her the hardest.”

“She seemed okay to me.” A lie. She had only seemed okay on the surface, but I could tell she carried a lot of pain and rage in her eyes.

“You know your sister. She doesn’t want anyone thinking she’s weak.” He walked to the leather loveseat in the corner and sat down, gesturing for me to join him. I sat across from him in the matching chair.

People always said we looked alike. My father’s dark hair had turned salt and pepper, but I’d seen pictures of him when he was my age, and I supposed I could see the resemblance. We were both tall, with a lean build, dark hair and unusual eyes. But where I was most comfortable in jeans and a leather jacket, my dad enjoyed fine tailored suits, even when working from home, like now.

Around us, books covered the walls from floor to ceiling, and my fingers itched to pick one from a shelf and start reading. I’d spent a lot of time in this room as a child growing up, and it brought back memories. For the last two years, I’d had to keep my library on an e-reader, and I missed the feel of actual paper between my fingers as I read.

On one wall, a fire burned bright, crackling as it consumed the wood and filling the room with the smell and memories of campfires.

Dad noticed my focus and smiled a real smile. “You know you’re welcome in here anytime. These books are for everyone, not just me.”

I nodded without committing to anything. It would be too easy to get sucked into this life again, and I wasn’t willing to give up my freedom. “What can I do to help with Dean?”

“Before we talk about Dean, I’d like to hear about your adventures. What have you been doing? You haven’t used any of your trust fund, so I’m curious about how you’ve been supporting yourself.”

“I’ve just been traveling. You know, seeing the country. I make do.” I didn’t want to talk about this right now; I just wanted to see my brother.

“You know, Son, if you just come home, there’s a place for you here. A place for you at Rose Botanicals. You don’t have to work in my office if you don’t want to. We could find you a place that suited your… temperament.”

I stood, angry that he’d use this time to once again push me into his mold. “I’m going to see Dean. I don’t want to have this conversation again, Dad. I can’t be who you want me to be. Not now. Not ever. Just let it go.”

His disappointed sigh followed me out the door and up the stairs to Dean’s room, where I assumed he’d be. When I walked in, Tammy looked up at me with unshed tears still full in her eyes. When I saw Dean, the tears flooded my eyes as well.

“What the hell happened to him?”

THREE

Seek a Foe

ROSE

Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.

— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Dear Diary,

I dreamed of him again, the man who haunts me at night. But the dream is changing. Before, all I felt was longing and unfulfilled desire. This time, I could touch him, feel him, taste him. It happened in a flash, as dreams often do, and carried with it the scent of magic, but for that moment, I was normal. My touch no longer brought death, only pleasure.

I wonder if I’ll ever know that during my waking hours. I can touch others, of course, not each contact with flesh brings about their soul’s death. My skin carries the dark infection like a Trojan horse, harmless until it’s unleashed.

The true danger lies in never knowing when it will unleash itself. It fights to claw its way out of me, like a trapped wild thing scraping at the door of my subconscious, looking for a way to escape.

That first time it happened, I’d been a young girl hurt by the ridicule of another. My hurt had turned to anger, and that anger had let loose the locks that kept my dark gift contained.

When Mother was attacked, fear and intent set it free.

And Mother always said that passion, too, would undo me, releasing my darkness against my lover’s flesh.

It was a risk I could never take, save in dreams.

TEARS FELL FROM my eyes and bile rose in my throat. I pushed out of bed and ran to the bathroom to empty the contents of my stomach in the toilet rather than my bedroom. I’d never used that much of my power before, not since… Not since I was six and Donna Smuckers said I was a devil worshipper. I hadn’t meant to hurt her, hadn’t meant to wipe the light from her eyes like that. I didn’t even know I could.

The unwelcome memory played side-by-side with last night’s horrors. Two lives lost because of what I was. Did it matter that last night was in defense of Mother? That the wolf would likely have killed her, and probably me? It seemed like that little fact should have weighed heavier, like it should have given a moral rightness to my soul. But nothing could erase my guilt.

With shaky legs I walked back into my living room. Ocean, my best friend, stood in the kitchen with a pot of tea, while Jasmine, my little sister, flipped through pages of a book on my coffee table. They both looked up at me as I sank into my favorite overstuffed chair and propped my feet up on the matching red ottoman. Sandy whined and put her head in my lap. I stroked her soft ears and murmured platitudes I hoped would give her some calm after last night’s scare.

No one spoke, and I raised my eyebrow. “Well? What happened after I passed out?”

Ocean brought me a cup of tea and sat on the couch next to Jasmine before answering. She crossed her long legs, baring more thigh as her already short shorts crept up higher. Even in the winter she showed more skin than most people did in the summer, but she got away with it. Ocean was like her name, vast and strong and inviting. She could have been a mermaid in another life with her long red hair full of wild curls and green eyes full of mischief. But any playfulness had been dampened by what happened.

Now, she was all business. “Rainbow had Blake take the guy that attacked us back to their property, and he’s getting the cars fixed. No one blames you, Rose. You did what you had to do to protect your mother and yourself.”

I ignored her last statement, took a sip of my tea, and thought about all that had happened last night. One thing didn’t make sense. “Why was he here at all?”

Ocean frowned. “Who?”

“The wolf guy. What was he doing here? How’d he get in Mother’s room in the first place?”

Jasmine huffed in annoyance. “Why even ask something like that? Who knows why these creeps do anything? They could have killed our mom.”

I looked at my sixteen-year-old sister. “How is Mother?”

She shrugged and ran a hand through her dark bob with purple highlights. “You know. Normal. Nothing fazes her. She wasn’t happy you missed the meeting this morning, though.”

Ocean kicked Jasmine and shot her a nasty look. “You had to bring that up?”

I sat my tea down on the table so hard the water sloshed out. “What? Seriously? I was unconscious. After saving her life. That’s a legit reason to miss a 4 a.m. meeting.”

Jasmine narrowed her hazel eyes at Ocean. “What? I’m just giving her the heads up. She should know. I’m not saying I agree with Mother.” She looked at me. “Obviously, you couldn’t have been at the meeting. I’m sure she’s grateful for what you did, but everyone else is really nervous. You haven’t done that since you were little. People forget, but now… I don’t think they’ll forget anytime soon.”

“Right. I’ll be even more of a leper. Great.”

Ocean grabbed my hand, my bare hand, and held it, looking me square in the eye. “They can go screw themselves as far as I’m concerned. You did what you had to do, and I’ll never be scared of you, Rose. Never.”

I squeezed her hand and then pulled away, scared enough for the both of us. People had a right to be worried. What I could do shouldn’t have even existed or been possible, and I’d never known how to handle it. It’s why I was home schooled in high school, why I took online classes for college, and why I had no friends or social groups outside of our coven. I was too dangerous to be around people. Rose—the beautiful flower with the deadly thorns.

Outside, the stillness of the morning gave false-promises of peace. I knew the truth, nothing about this day held peace, but I had to find some way through this. “I’m getting dressed, and then I’m going to find someone who will teach me self-defense.”

Ocean smiled with as much force as Jasmine frowned, and my sister jumped on the attack. “You know Mother has forbidden that. People might find out about you, about us. It’s too risky. You could hurt someone.”

I pulled a long-sleeved cotton shirt and another pair of jeans from my drawer, then slammed it shut. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sis.”

“I’m not trying to be mean, but you know this is a bad idea.”

“No, I really don’t know that.” My voice escalated with my own anger. “What I know is that draining people of their life is a bad idea. What I know is that I can never do this again and still live with myself. I need other tools, other ways of defending myself and others. If I’d done this earlier, that boy might still be alive.”

Jasmine crossed her arms over her chest. “He is alive, Rose. Don’t be dramatic.”

“Dramatic? Seriously?” Oh if only I could hit my sister. “You weren’t there, Jas. You didn’t see him after I touched him. You don’t know anything about what I can do, or how it makes me feel.”

She stood and stomped her foot. “You always think you’re so special, so much better than everyone else. Well, I’m sick of it. Do what you want, but don’t blame me when it all goes wrong.”

The door slammed hard behind her, shaking the windows and causing Sandy to bark. Ocean and I looked at each other with matching stunned expressions. My heart felt heavy. “Does she really hate me that much? Does she really think I think that I’m better than everyone else?”

Ocean shook her head. “She doesn’t know what she feels or thinks right now. She’s sixteen and full of conflicting hormones. Don’t take it personally, Rose. It’ll pass. Jasmine loves you. We all love you.”

I tried to remember being sixteen. It wasn’t that long ago, but it all blurred together. Nothing ever seemed to change in my life, and all my memories felt like photocopies of each other. Always the same.

Jasmine lived a more normal life than I had, so maybe she had a more diverse spectrum of experiences. I hoped so, for her sake. “Do you think she’ll tell Mother about my classes?”

“I don’t think so. Besides, it doesn’t matter.” She spun me around to face the mirror hanging on my wall. “You do realize that you’re an adult? She has no legal claim on your life or your choices anymore.”

My reflection didn’t convey an adult in charge of her own life. Instead, my mousy brown hair, ordinary hazel eyes and make-up less face made me look young and unremarkable. The kind of girl who lives under the thumb of another, and who never speaks out in her own defense.

A new awareness settled in me, and I turned away from the girl in the mirror. “You’re right. It’s time I took control of my own life. Let’s find a place to learn self-defense.”

Ocean’s face lit up in a smile, her dimpled cheeks, red lips and emerald eyes so beautiful. “Perfect! I’m so proud of you, Rose. Okay, I’ll look online for different places today and we can check a few out tomorrow.”

“No.” I reached for my jacket and purse. “I’m going today. Now. I don’t want to wait anymore.”

Much to her credit, my best friend didn’t hesitate a moment. She pulled on her coat and scarf and waited while I put on my boots, then marched me out of the cottage and to her car. “Get in. I’ll drive. I’m taking the class with you.”

“Thank you.” My insides let out a sigh of relief. If she were with me then I wouldn’t do anything bad. I wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone. She’d stop me.

Already I felt better about this new adventure.

Fate guided us as we went in search of a studio. Ocean’s car actually ran out of gas on a corner that featured a gas station, a laundry mat, a coffee shop, and a martial arts studio called Inner Peace Martial Arts.

When the car sputtered to a stop, Ocean slammed her palm down on the steering wheel and cursed.

I tried hard not to laugh out loud at her antics. Instead I said, “Guess you have to push while I steer.”

She glared at me. “We can both push. I’ll steer while pushing.”

I got out and went to the back of the car, while she stood by the driver’s side and leaned in to steer. Once in place, she hollered back to start pushing. It didn’t take as much strength as one might imagine to push the car to an available spot at the gas station. She had a Fiat Coup, which wasn’t big at all, and we had the advantage of nudging it along with a little magic.

Ocean emptied out her purse on the counter in the gas station, scrounging for loose change and small bills. She collected bits and pieces of what amounted to $4.32 and presented it to the cashier.

Such a small amount of gas pumped into her car quickly.

I pointed to the martial arts building. “Let’s go check them out.”

She nodded and drove us across the parking lot.

My palms became slick and my heart rate raced as I came face to face with my own rebellion. This was real, not some fantasy. I was actually going to disappoint my mother and coven leader and walk into this new way of living.

I steeled myself, took a deep breath, and opened the door into the heated studio.

And nearly walked right into the absolute sexiest man I’d ever laid eyes on.

The man from my dreams.

He turned to look at me, mouth open as if about to say something, but he just stood there in silence, chiseled jaw slack. His blue eyes shimmered with a hint of gold, giving him an animal-like quality. But it wasn’t just his eyes. He stood so still, as if poised to leap for his prey in a great hunt. Well-defined muscles rippled under his tight black t-shirt, and his gaze held an intensity I’d only ever seen in my forbidden dreams. He smelled wild, like a forest at night. He possessed strength, power, a sway over others, and I would’ve backed away, intimated, if not for a shuck of black hair that fell onto his forehead, softening his features and giving him a boyish quality that tugged at my heart.

I pushed my mess of hair out of my face and tried to smile. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to run into you like that.”

This all happened so fast that Ocean still stood behind me, half inside and half outside. When I didn’t move, she pushed me forward. My mystery man steadied me with strong, confident hands as my friend muscled her way in. “Rose, what the hell—”

She stopped mid-sentence when she saw a man with his arms around mine. “Uh, okay. Hi, I’m Ocean and this is Rose. And you are?”

Leave it to Ocean to make abrasiveness so charming.

Whatever it was about me that had caught his attention would fade away in the brightness of Ocean’s beauty and spunk, I knew that from experience. It didn’t bother me anymore. Not everyone could be a star.

But he only glanced at her briefly, then locked eyes with me again. “I’m Derek. I work here. Is there something I can help you with?”

He worked here? We had to leave. No way could I focus on learning to defend myself with this guy around. I’d be frozen in place.

I opened my mouth to tell Ocean we had to leave when she beamed at him and walked over to the desk. “Yes, you can help us, Derek. Rose and I need to learn self-defense, pronto!”

He released my arms and waited until I too walked to the desk before he took his place behind it and pulled out a brochure. He handed it to me. “Here are our classes. We have three a week for beginners, with one for more advanced students afterward. Have you taken any kind of martial arts before?”

“No, never.” I had to remind myself not to stare at his lips. Or his chest. Eyes. Focus on the eyes.

“Then you’ll want the beginner classes.”

Ocean pulled the brochure out of his hand and put it back in the rack. “Actually, we’d like private lessons. Do you do those?”

I groaned under my breath and glared at her. She just twinkled a mischievous grin back at me, but she was forgetting one thing.

I’d noticed the prices for the classes. Not cheap. And that was for a group. “How much are private lessons?”

“Normally, they’re $100 an hour. If you and your friend want to take them together, I can give you each half off, so $50 an hour per person. Plus, you’ll need to buy your uniforms.”

That settled that. “I’m sorry, we’re going to need to think about this. It’s a bit out of our budget right now.”

I tugged on Ocean to get us out of here, but she ignored me. “Do you own this place?” she asked.

He pulled his focus off of me to look at her when he answered. “No, I don’t. I trained here growing up, and I’ve just come back into town and needed some work, so Master Kyoung offered me my job back… until I leave.”

The last part seemed to be an afterthought that he had a hard time saying out loud, almost like he felt obligated to say it. My heart inexplicably sunk at the thought of him leaving town. I had no claim on anyone, let alone him. He could do what he wanted, why should I care?

I shouldn’t let him stop me from getting the training I needed either. He’d be leaving soon, so that was a good thing. I wouldn’t have to worry about getting distracted by some random hot guy that made all of my insides gooshy, even though he didn’t feel so random when I had memories of that body, that face, from my dreams. Still, I had no time for gooshy, thank you very much.

“Is Master Kyoung here right now?” I surprised myself by asking.

“Yes, he is. One second.” He left through a door into what looked like the main workout studio, with a mirrored wall and padded floors. Two voices echoed through the hall, his and a man with a thick Korean accent, presumably Master Kyoung. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but when they came back in, a short man with kind eyes bowed to me, and I bowed back. “You Rose? You interested in training? Learning to fight?”

“Yes, Sir. But I’m afraid your prices are steep. I was wondering… ” I swallowed and willed myself to continue. “I was wondering if you had a website to advertise your studio, or if you needed a new one. I do web design and I can make you a really nice one if you’d be willing to trade for lessons and two uniforms?” I held my breath as he considered my proposition.

Ocean’s eyebrow shot up, and she grinned. I started to feel pretty pleased with myself as well. Regardless of the outcome, I hadn’t given up until I’d explored all options.

He turned the laptop on the counter to me. “Show me your work.”

I typed in the site I’d developed for Mother for her kennel, then opened up new links to type in a few other sites I’d built for members of our coven. “Here are a few examples. I can customize it to exactly what you want.”

He clicked through the pages, looking at the sites, then opened up a new site on the screen. “You make this better?”

I browsed through his website, impressed with the quality and ease of navigation. My heart sank. “Honestly, this site is very well made. Unless you just want a whole new look, there’s not much I could do to improve on it. Whoever you hired did an excellent job.”

He nodded. “Yes. I use new website. New look. And you and friend train with Derek.” He slapped Derek on the back. “He teach you how to be strong. How to defend yourself. That work?”

I would have hugged him if I’d known him better, and didn’t have an aversion to touching people. Instead I smiled and bowed again, thanking him for his willingness to work with me.

Then I looked at Derek, his eyes still locked with mine, and my knees shook from a sudden weakness. What had I just gotten myself into?

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