“Was he an extraordinary wizard?”

  “A witch,” I correct.

  “Doesn’t matter. An old curse placed on a whole family by some rotting, long-dead shrew who was likely both incensed and inept can’t last.”

  “Dark curses fade?”

  “All the time.”

  I shoot Shock a skeptical scowl. “Why have I never heard this?”

  “How much do you know about dark magic?”

  “Very little.”

  Shock sends me an acidic smile. “There’s your answer. Only those engaged in the dark know how to wield it.”

  And the Denzell family is notoriously steeped in it. “Old curses don’t have to be countered or solved? They just…fade away.”

  “I’ve said so more than once. Are you stupid?” Shock shakes his head in exasperation. “After a time, the only power a curse possesses comes from the idiots who still believe in it.”

  He’s insulting me, but I don’t care. If the leather-clad asshole isn’t lying, then I might actually be free to beg Kari to Bind to me.

  On the other hand, is there any reason Kari could pose some unseen threat to Shock? To the Anarki?

  “A human barmaid? Seriously?” He laughs.

  I suppose not.

  Scrubbing a hand down my face, I assess everything he’s said. I don’t know what’s true, but one thing is clear: I have to tell Kari why I didn’t want her Binding to me and why I broke her heart. I owe her that. She’ll probably think I’m lying. Or that I’ve lost my bloody marbles. But the truth will be out. Then, I can either continue to keep Kari at arm’s length and be utterly miserable for the next nine hundred years or⁠—

  “Oh, spare me the theatrics of the young and indecisive.”

  I level a glare at the dodgy prick. “Why would you explain curses to me? Why bother?”

  A smile tugs at Shock’s rugged face. “Tynan says Kari serves some of the coldest ale around. Who am I to resist?”

  Kari

  As I prepare to close the Brew for the night, I search the thinning crowd for Ronan in the mirror above the bar. He’s still in the same spot, nursing a scotch the waiter served him earlier. His stare never leaves me.

  I don’t understand him. That wizard Called to me—something he’s never done in all his decades of random shagging. Since those words are the magical equivalent of a wedding vow, they should mean something. Indeed, Tynan swore that, once a wizard speaks those words, he never wants another woman. Ronan must be the exception, since he left with that blonde who, apparently, doesn’t believe in bras and could only find half her skirt.

  After the tosser’s betrayal, I cursed him, cried, then mentally filed him away with all the cheaters and fukbois. I braced myself to see him pick up another meaningless fuck the next night. But he didn’t. More shocking, he hasn’t in nearly a fortnight. In fact, he hasn’t so much as looked at another woman.

  Is it possible Ronan wasn’t lying when he said nothing happened with the blonde?

  Perhaps, but it’s more likely I’m rationalizing because I want so badly to believe him. Like a fool, I’ve been contorting myself through these mental gyrations for nearly two weeks.

  Another glance at Ronan in the mirror as I pretend to clean a glass. Another woman with a pouty mouth, generous cleavage, and a killer dress—all the items on Ronan’s must-do list—approaches him. I tense and tell myself to look away. But no, I hold my breath and force myself to watch.

  As with every other woman of late, Ronan smiles politely and declines. I exhale in relief as the woman slinks away.

  Is it possible Ronan actually…cares? That he truly thinks of me as his mate? If so, why won’t he have me Bind to him?

  Blast it all, why couldn’t I fixate on a different man, a normal one? Human. An accountant, maybe. Because I would find him utterly dull. Ronan, with his seductive, bad-boy vibe, does something to my heart no man—not even Edward—ever has.

  “Kari?”

  Even his voice jets shivers through my system. A mere whisper, and I break out in goose pimples. My nipples bead. My heart jumps. And, no doubt, he knows it.

  Pasting on a polite smile, I turn toward the gorgeous wizard. His smoldering gaze threatens to dismantle my polite front.

  “A word, love?”

  One likely meant to seduce me out of my knickers and leave me brokenhearted again come morning. “I’m closing up. It’ll have to wait.”

  I do my best to sail past him, but he stays me with his long, hot fingers around my wrist. My shivers explode into tingles. With one touch, he reduces me to a mass of need, horrifyingly aware of my damp, empty sex clenching hungrily. Of my heart crying out for his devotion.

  “Ronan—”

  “Please. I know I’ve been awful. Let me explain. Five minutes.”

  “Explain what?” Why he left the pub with another woman? Why he acted as if I’m the only woman for him, then, moments after that terrifying attack, whittled me out of his heart with seemingly no effort?

  “My behavior. It will sound mad, and you may not believe me, but I swear…every word is the truth.”

  He’s pleading—something I never thought he would. I’m still too angry to listen. But if I don’t, I’ll always wonder…what if.

  I shoo the other patrons out, lock up behind them, then turn to Ronan with a sigh. “All right, then. Tell me.”

  “Thank you.” He may not have his hands on me anymore, but his stare still holds me captive. “I told you not to Bind to me and let you think I shagged that woman because I’m trying to protect you.”

  “Is that what you call it?”

  “But keeping this to myself is clearly hurting you more.”

  “Oh, now it matters?”

  “My family is cursed—or I’ve long believed they are. Because of it, no Wolvsey ever takes a mate. As the curse goes, any Wolvsey who takes a mate will be forced to watch her die and is doomed to spend the rest of his life alone. I’ve been terrified that Calling to you would be your death.”

  His expression tells me he believes every word. It sounds farfetched, but what do I know about magic?

  “When you were attacked, I feared that my need to make you mine had killed you. My only hope was to put distance between us, forbid you to Bind to me, and hope that saved your life.”

  “So why the blond tart?”

  “You weren’t giving up on me, and I knew that, after the terrible way Edward treated you, you would cut me cold if you thought I’d shagged another woman. But I swear, she kissed me once, and I felt ill. Even if I hadn’t…I had no interest in her. I only want you, love.” Pain twists his frown. “I still don’t know if we can truly be together. The curse may have faded. But…I don’t know that. And I can’t take a chance with your life.”

  He looks so sincere that I’m torn. Even if every word he’s uttering is rubbish, he believes it. But that hardly excuses his behavior. “You’re telling me why you ripped out my heart, but not asking me my wishes on the matter?”

  Ronan streaks his strong fingers through his midnight hair. “Did you hear me? You could die.”

  I slam a glass onto the counter between us. “I could die walking across the street, too. I’d rather take a chance at being happy than spend my life in misery. But since you’ve elected to doom us both, get out. If you come back, I’ll kill you myself.”

  Chapter

  Nine

  I storm away from Ronan, hoping to reach the back room before I start ugly crying. Clearly, he believes this curse, since he haunted my pub for the past twelve nights, his watchful gaze never straying. Even Raiden’s lone visit to the Brew didn’t budge Ronan from his protective perch. But the damn wizard thought nothing of condemning us both to hell without even consulting me.

  Damn him.

  Suddenly, Ronan appears in front of me and grabs my arms. “I merely meant to protect you.”

  I glare at him, knowing pain is written all over my face. “If you care for me at all, you⁠—”

  “Would do everything in my power to keep you safe. This curse has afflicted my family for nearly a thousand years. It’s robbed us all of our ability to sense our mates as other wizards do.”

  That stuns me. “Y-you never sensed that I’m your mate? But I thought… The fever in your blood…”

  “I know little about the instinct. No living wizard in my family has ever felt it. None have been able to explain how the instinct feels.” He grabs my shoulders tighter, his face full of apology. “But when I’m with you, I know I’ve never felt anyone more right. Every other woman left my heart empty. You fill it, love. Completely.”

  I suck in a breath. Is he really saying…?

  “I love you,” he murmurs. “I don’t need an instinct to know that.”

  Those three little words crumble my defenses. I should be stronger, make him suffer. But why? Keeping us apart is the last thing I want.

  With a cry, I hurtle myself into Ronan’s arms. “I love you, too. But I’m scared to trust you.”

  He holds me tight, stroking a gentle hand over my hair, crooning as I sob. “I know. Don’t cry, love. Please. My heart knows no other.”

  Ronan eases me back and wipes away my tears with a smile. God, he’s beautiful. And when I look into his eyes, I see only the wizard I once considered a friend before he became my ultimate lover, not the remote bastard he’s played these past days. Ronan may be a wizard, but he’s a good man—willing to sacrifice everything rather than risk the family curse ending me.

  But I refuse to let him. Together, we’ll overcome whatever stands between us. We’ll stay strong so no curse can beat us.

  Grabbing his face in my hands, I pull Ronan’s mouth to mine, pouring all my devotion into the kiss.

  He stiffens, then wrenches free. “Kari, we can’t. I love you, but⁠—”

  “No.” I cut off whatever he intends to say with a more insistent kiss, my tongue dancing around his, teasing and tempting him.

  He tears away. “I won’t risk disaster. The curse…”

  “Won’t come between us again.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I do.” I send him my sexiest, come-hither expression—and begin stripping off my shirt, one button at a time.

  His eyes bulge. “Oh, love. Kari…. I can only resist so much.”

  “Then stop trying.” I seize his lips again and guide him to the back room, manage to open the door without breaking our kiss, and fumble around until I flip on the overhead light.

  He steps away, panting and shaking his head. But his stare consumes me. His fists clench. His cock tents his jeans. He definitely wants me.

  I smile as I tug on his shirt, yank him inside, then slam the door behind us. Then I slide my shirt off my shoulders and let it slither to the floor.

  Ronan closes his eyes as if he’s praying for strength. “I wanted you to know about the curse, but I can’t risk you.”

  “It’s my life to risk.”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  “It’s not that complicated, either.” I unsnap my jeans and toe off my trainers, wriggling my hips until I kick away my clothes, knickers and all.

  Ronan is looking again, and his stare turns scorching. “God help me, woman. You could test a saint. And that’s something no one has ever accused me of being.”

  Thrusting his hands into my hair, he tugs, positioning my mouth a breath from his. Our stares lock. Our breaths sync. Then he devours me.

  Thrill gushes through my veins as his kiss sweeps through my soul, and he owns me. With every brush of his lips, I taste his desire and concern. With every dominating sweep of his tongue, I savor his love. My heart flips. I know I’ve made the right choice. We belong together, curse be damned.

  I attack his clothes, determined to pull them from his body. Ronan pauses our kiss, meeting my gaze with eyes so green, I melt. The way he focuses on me, his stare sizzling with hunger and promise, ignites an unrelenting ache between my legs.

  With a flick of his wrist, he melts his clothes from his body. I gasp as I drink in his wide shoulders, hard chest, ridged abdomen, and the thick stalk of his cock standing up for me…

  I’ve never wanted a man more.

  Eager to love all of him, I sink to my knees and grip his thighs, enveloping his steely length in my mouth. He cries out my name as I stretch my lips wider to take him to the back of my throat.

  “Yeeeessss. Oh, love. Your mouth…” His hips buck, sliding his cock against my tongue. “Oh, fuck… That’s perfect.”

  Exactly the way everything between us should be. I refuse to let a curse part us, and I intend to prove that to Ronan.

  When I swallow more of him and drag my lips slowly, slowly up his stalk before swiping my tongue across his sensitive crest, he tightens his fingers in my hair with a hiss. “Love… Fuck all, I need inside you now.”

  Before I can blink, he hoists me into his arms and lifts me onto a nearby crate of liquor bottles draped with a moving blanket. He grips my thighs and spreads them wide, crooking his hands in my knees and pulling me to the edge.

  “Lean back, hands behind you.”

  His low-voiced demands make me shiver and rush to comply.

  “Good girl.” He takes my hips in his hands. “Look at me.”

  Ronan waits until I lift my heavy-lidded stare to him. The way he’s peering at me, as if he intends to claim me once and for all, spreads wildfire heat through every cell of my body. Need scalds. My empty pussy cramps. My heart beats with love.

  “You’re mine,” he growls as he drives deep, filling me to the hilt in one demanding thrust.

  I take every inch with a cry, feeling complete. Whole. Ecstatic.

  Groaning, he sets a blistering, harsh pace, as if he intends to claim me so completely, nothing and no one can ever separate us. I melt all over again.

  He holds my gaze as he fills my body over and over. “You please me as no other ever has. As no other ever could.”

  Then his mouth crashes over mine, and I’m lost in a torrent of blistering passion.

  Before Ronan, I thought my sex life, while short, was decent enough. But I know better now. The sensations my wizard stirs, the feelings we share… This is like nothing I’ve ever imagined. It’s special. Priceless.

  Forever.

  I throw myself into our kiss, gasping against his lips when his thumb slides over my desperate clit and lingers, pushing me with insistent circles toward a cataclysmic orgasm.

  Burning with need, I feel my body tighten around him. I swell with desire, with love, as he hurtles me straight into a chasm of pleasure so vast, I come apart and scream until the walls around us rattle. My cries echo, melding with his groans. Breaths, thoughts, and sanity elude me until he raises my hips, leans over my body, and fills me with his most demanding strokes yet. Then, with a shout, he follows me into the bliss of our shared nirvana, cementing us as one.

  Ronan

  For long moments, Kari and I remain wrapped in each other’s arms, struggling to catch our breath and reclaim our ability to think. Still buried inside her, I savor the bliss of holding her…because reality and regret are beginning to set in.

  I shouldn’t have given in. I should let her go…

  “Whatever you’re thinking, stop. I won’t let any silly curse come between us.” Kari grips my shoulders even tighter. “I’m ready to speak the Binding.”

  Her insistence and loyalty are touching but futile. “Kari, love, I want that as well, more than you know. But it’s too soon. I need to research the curse more, learn if it’s possible⁠—”

  “I won’t believe we’re impossible. If we heed the curse, we’ll be separated. And it will have beaten us. Together, we have a chance.”

  I love her optimism, but she doesn’t understand magic—or the peril enveloping magickind. “One that may cost you your life!”

  “What sort of life will it be if we’re apart?”

  A miserable one. Of course, Kari will fall in love again someday—likely with a human—and get married. As much as the thought of her with anyone else makes me murderous, I should walk away so she can live long enough to find happiness.

  I’ll spend the rest of my centuries alone. Year after bleak year, stretching into empty decades, sits before me.

  It’s a bitter pill to swallow.

  Damn my foolish ancestor who betrayed a mate capable of cursing him. Damn my family—even me—for never researching how to end such a hex. Not one of us has ever lifted a finger—or a wand—to break it. Shock claims that believing in a curse gives it strength. I have no idea if he’s right or utterly full of shit. But I can’t gamble with Kari’s life.

  After I kiss the tip of her nose, I pull away and dress us both with a wave of my hand.

  “Ronan?” Kari curls her fingers around mine.

  She wants reassurance. I don’t know if I can give it to her.

  I sigh. “If there is a way for us to be together that ensures you won’t be at risk, I’ll seize it with both hands and never let go.”

  “No. This can’t be it.”

  Kari throws her arms around me. I hold her just as desperately.

  I know I should release her to keep her safe, but now that the time has come, it’s killing me. She’s become my heart. My everything. If the curse forces me to give her up, I have no idea how I’ll bear it.

  I kiss her, my lips lingering on hers, feeling my heart beat with hers—until a disturbance in the air jars me from the moment.

  Quickly, I thrust Kari behind me and whirl to face the threat. Instead, I find Tynan. Another whoosh, and Bram stands beside him. Others follow. A bloke with wavy brown hair and resentment broiling in his very blue eyes, a hulking wizard with a nearly shaved head and an angry mien, and a sophisticated-looking male in Savile Row tailoring. He holds the arm of one of the biggest humans I’ve ever seen. With black hair and goatee, along with an expression to match, the warrior is clearly one I shouldn’t fuck with.

  “Ronan.” Bram rears back in surprise. “We expected an empty room since Kari promised me a place to hide from my meddling sister… Anyway, this is Caden MacTavish, Ice Rykard, and Simon Northam, Duke of Hurstgrove.”