Chapter One

Geneva Black slammed the door of her silver Taurus and stalked across the parking lot to the large building that housed the Dallas branch of the Protectorate. The reflective surface of the building gleamed in the bright midday sun. Her conversation with that snotty witch from the council of witches still irritated her. She absolutely hated dealing with the snobby women. Their better-than-thou attitude always made her blood boil.

Shivers ran up and down her spine and goose bumps formed on her arms. Okay, that wasn’t natural. The air was warm even in early October. She stopped and clenched her hands at her side waiting for the feeling to pass. Even with no formal training, she could tell when magic was being used near or against her. The latent magic within her made it easier to tell that some kind of hex or ward had been cast, but this was so obvious a full human would have noticed it. If she’d had any doubts about it being directed toward her, there was also the fact that she was the only one in the parking lot. This wasn’t a mistake.

That she’d had a spell cast on her didn’t surprise her. As an intelligence agent for the Protectorate, she regularly came into contact with witches and wizards. It wasn’t the first time she’d been hexed. The problem would be figuring out who had done it.

The first thing she had to do was get the spell checked by the Protectorate witch. She didn’t feel any adverse effects, but that didn’t mean that it was benign. Even if it was just meant to be an annoyance, the spell would cause some kind of problem, symptom. Eventually. Most of the time it happened when she least expected it.

She pushed open the door and walked into the large lobby area. Her heels clicked on the white and silver tile on the floor as she entered. Intent on getting to the witch, she headed straight for the u-shaped, white and black reception desk and the electronic door just beyond the scanner. She barely noticed the group of men heading there too until her skin started tingling and shivers chased up her spine. Startled at the feeling, she stopped moving and waited for it to subside. What the…

The sensation increased and then slowly faded. Geneva covertly looked around the room. What had caused that to happen? Something about the spell had changed, although she didn’t know what it was. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the lobby. She saw Jake leading three men toward the door to the secure areas. Two of the men she recognized. Mark and Joe, she couldn’t remember their last names right off. They were members of one of the region’s werewolf packs. She’d met them while looking for information on three young were’s a few months ago. The other, she hadn’t ever seen him before. She’d have remembered him. He was gorgeous. His cocoa brown skin drew her eyes. She had the almost irresistible urge to walk up to him and touch him. His straight black hair had been cut in a short business-man haircut. Somehow on him the conservative haircut didn’t seem quite so strict or stuffy. Maybe it was something in his brown eyes or the sharp lines of his face, but he seemed a little wild.

Shaking her head, she focused on her problem. The tingles were gone now, but she needed to get to the Protectorate witch. Finding out what had been done to her had become even more important. The who part would have to wait until after she made certain the effects weren’t lethal.

With a few hurried steps, Geneva managed to get to the scanner before the small group with Jake. She smiled at Jamie, the energetic blonde behind the desk. She pulled her ID out of her jeans pocket and handed it to the cheerful woman with the perfect make-up and a cold caffeinated drink on the desk. Jamie nodded and Geneva stepped through the scanner. The door buzzed and she pushed it open. The group behind her would take a little longer. Those three men would have to be registered as guests.

She paced down the hallway, heading for the elevator. Pain sliced through her abdomen and head. She stumbled to the side, leaning weakly against the wall as she drew in gulping breaths. Her hand pressed to her stomach as her eyes slammed shut. Her muscles tightened. Trying to focus beyond the pain, she straightened, but immediately fell back against the wall as her stomach clenched and another shot of pain lanced behind her eyes. It hurt to breathe. Moving sent a wall of sensation slamming over her. She wasn’t in a hurry to try it again.

“What’s wrong, Geneva?” Carol Wilson’s soft voice barely filtered through the haze of pain. A hand rested on Geneva’s shoulder.

“Don’t know.” Geneva gritted through clenched teeth. She couldn’t ever remember feeling pain like this.

“Let’s get you to the medics.” Carol’s arm curved around Geneva’s shoulder and the woman began leading her down the hallway.

Geneva didn’t have the breath or strength to agree or argue. It was taking everything she had to keep from screaming out in pain. Every step she took only seemed to make the pain worse. Her mind whirled with questions. Why? What had caused this?

A started exclamation came from the hallway behind them. She heard the sound of hard-soled shoes hitting the tile floor at a fast pace. As quickly as the pain had hit her, it vanished, leaving her feeling normal.

She straightened slowly. Frowning she drew in a deep breath. Fucking hell, this was magic, not some sudden illness. She’d been in so much pain she hadn’t even thought about the spell. Now, she realized it had caused the pain. She didn’t know entirely what the spell did or more importantly what triggered it, but it sure wasn’t merely annoying as she expected it to be. Whoever put this on her wanted her to know she’d pissed someone off.

“Thanks for your help, Carol. Do you know if Sonya’s in her office today?” Geneva took a few steps on her own toward the elevator. She needed to get to the woman’s office before another bolt of pain hit her if possible. Damn, this wasn’t good. She just hoped it could be removed and that they could find whoever did it. She wanted to know why they’d put the spell on her.

“She’s up in her office. You mean that the pain…” Carol raised her brows, but her eyes went to the people wearing visitor’s tags standing nearby.

“Yeah, I really need her help.” Geneva would feel much better if she knew what set off that spell. She’d love to avoid a repeat of that pain.

“Hold on. We’ll share an elevator with you.” Jake smiled as he stepped up beside her. “That way you won’t be alone if it happens again before you get to Sonya.”

Geneva nodded taking slow, even breaths to calm her still-racing heart. She couldn’t do anything about her mind. It wouldn’t slow down. She had no idea who would put a spell on her or why. This wasn’t just annoyance and she couldn’t understand it. She hadn’t made anyone furious in months. This had to be about something more than a disagreement. Some witch had used a lot of power on this. That wasn’t even taking into account the risk of censure that the witch was chancing. If the witch’s council found out about this, she could lose her power. Maybe not permanently, but other witch’s had had their power taken for a year or more for spells much more innocuous than this. She thought it was probably a woman, because that was who she dealt with mostly, but she had come into contact with wizards.

The entire ride up six floors she couldn’t relax. It wasn’t all because she was worrying about what the spell would do, when it would activate again. That kept her hyperaware. Her mind had also locked onto big and hunky standing just behind her.
She just wished he was standing in front of her. She’d love to get a good look at his butt. Not that she’d do anything about it. She had enough to worry about right now, but she wouldn’t mind a good look at him.

Stepping out of the elevator, she walked in front of them, but turned onto a connecting hallway. She heard their footsteps fade as they continued straight, probably to Steven’s office. Only steps later, pain slashed through her gut. She stumbled and crumpled to her knees. Her arms pressed against her stomach as the pain grew. Her only thought was to get to Sonya’s door. She couldn’t stay out in the hallway. She had to get help.

Pushing herself to her feet, she hobbled shakily down the hallway. The short distance to the door to Sonya’s office felt like miles. She couldn’t think beyond getting into that room and getting help. She opened the door and practically fell into the room.

* * * * *

Evan Connor’s gritted his teeth. He tried to keep his expression unreadable as he sat in a chair across from Steven Carson. The wolf inside of him leapt determined to get out and go hunting. It wanted that sweet smelling woman from the elevator. The thought of her in pain and alone only increased the wolf’s struggles. The wolf’s reaction stunned him. The animal had never reacted like that to a female before. The attraction had always just been the normal reaction of male to female, not this deep primitive need. As soon as the impact of that thought hit him, he knew why the wolf didn’t want to let the woman out of his sight. He felt like an idiot for not realizing before that the strength of his reaction was something extraordinary. He’d found his mate and someone had put a spell on her. And he didn’t even know her name.

His lips pulled back into a snarl. By the time he realized she was his mate, Steven was sitting forward expectantly waiting to talk. Evan couldn’t stalk down the hall and find her. He could control his wolf for the meeting. He’d asked for it and he couldn’t very well walk out of it.

“You do have a point that we need to work together more.” Steven’s fingers steepled together as he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his desk. “But it isn’t going to be easy at first. Your men won’t want to follow Protectorate orders and my men won’t want to follow yours.”

Evan sat tensely. He didn’t want to hear all the old excuses again. “The Protectorate shouldn’t be an entirely human force. The beings you deal with aren’t human and don’t play by your rules. Until that change is put into effect, we’ll have to work together.”

“I don’t think that change will happen for years.” Steven leaned back in his chair, seemingly unconcerned at the thought of sweeping change in the Protectorate organization.

“I have better contacts than you do. It’s going to happen.” Evan didn’t have the patience to spar with the man. All of his muscles had coiled into tight knots and his focus didn’t stray far from finding his mate.

The phone at the right corner of Steven’s desk beeped. The brown-haired man picked up the small silver handset, a frown on his face.

“Yes, Mrs. Daniels.” Steven’s voice held a distinct bite of annoyance.

Evan heard only murmurs from the other end of the conversation, but he saw Steven’s expression turn from annoyance to concern.

“Tell Sonya I’ll be right there,” Steven said and quickly ended the call.

Evan tensed and then surged to his feet. His mate had gone to see a woman named Sonya. Even as urgency and fear pumped through him, part of him marveled at the immediate emotional response to a woman he’d never met. He couldn’t deny it and he knew the others in the room could probably see it. Fangs had burst through his gums. His eyes undoubtedly flashed golden in the light.

“What’s wrong with you?” Steven narrowed his eyes. He stood just to the side of the desk, frowning.

“That woman is mine!” Evan growled. He kept himself from storming out of the room and finding his mate, but the strain of holding back the wolf made it impossible to be subtle or diplomatic.

“What woman?” Steven walked over to stand in front of him. He clearly had no idea who Evan meant.

“The woman from the elevator.” Mark Drake, one of Evan’s betas stepped forward.

It didn’t surprise Evan that Mark had known which woman he’d meant. Mark was very observant.

“Geneva,” Jake supplied when Steven shot him a questioning look.

“Does she know she’s yours?” Steven asked.

“She will. Let’s go. Something’s wrong with her, isn’t it? She’s in pain again?” Evan strode for the door, not waiting to see if Steven followed.

Evan walked down the hallway to the intersecting corridor she’d taken. He followed her scent to a door. He could smell the acrid bite of fear and pain tinging the air. Throwing open the door, he walked into the room. The office held a desk and chair, but also a couch and rolling chairs. His eyes searched the small area and locked on the two women. A redheaded woman knelt beside a black couch near the woman he now knew as Geneva. Geneva sat slumped onto the couch, her fingers rubbing at her stomach. He ignored the red-haired woman, focusing on his woman.

Her shoulder-length, glossy black hair looked mussed. A rosy flush spread over her cheeks but otherwise her creamy skin looked pale. Drawing in heaving breaths, her full breasts rose against her vibrant red shirt.

“See. This is what I was trying to tell you. The pain hits, sharp and fierce and then leaves.” Geneva glanced once toward him, blue eyes glaring, but that was the only sign that she even knew he was in the room. She turned back to the unaffiliated witch who worked for the Protectorate.

“I don’t know what you did, but someone’s pissed at you. We’ll have to figure out what triggers it and what causes the pain to go away first. Then we’ll get to the spell and what we can do about it.” Sonya reached out and gripped Geneva’s hand.

Evan fought back a growl. Two quick strides carried him to the couch and he scooped Geneva into his arms. He couldn’t stop himself. He had to hold her. He sat down on the couch. She stiffened in his arms and drew in a sharp audible breath. The stiffness didn’t last long. A moment later, she exploded into a bundle of fury in his arms. Her swinging fist slammed into his cheek. He grabbed her arms and pinned them to her side. She bucked and writhed, trying to break free. She didn’t seem to fear him, toppling to the floor or hitting any of the furniture in the room.

“She doesn’t seem to be in pain now.” Steven’s voice came from just inside of the doorway.

“It stopped just before he arrived.” Sonya slanted a glance at Evan.

Geneva had stopped fighting. She sat stiffly in his arms. Apparently she’d decided to ignore him because she didn’t even glance at him. Evan leaned down and inhaled her scent, savoring her sweet arousing essence. He’d never believed it would be this immediate, this consuming. He didn’t know how he felt about it, but he knew how she felt in his arms. There was a satisfaction and content in simply holding her that he’d never have dreamed existed. He liked it even when she seemed ready to take his head off.

Geneva curled her hands into fists. Mr. Hunky was irritating the hell out of her. If she could, she’d hit the man again, but his strong arms caged her now, holding her arms to her side. She had no idea who he was or what he thought he was doing, but she wanted him to stop. The fingers of one of his hands splayed over her stomach, rubbing in slow circles. She wasn’t about to be soothed. The tall, muscular man would have to try harder than that to make her forget that he was holding onto her and wouldn’t let go. She also wanted to know why the other people in the room were just standing there watching him hold her. They should have been on him the moment he touched her. The man had obviously lost his mind.

“Steven, tell him to let me go!” She turned her attention to the brown-haired commander of the Dallas branch of the Protectorate.

The man behind her chuckled and nuzzled the hair away from the left side of her neck. Had the man actually gone insane? She’d been thinking figuratively, but he wasn’t acting a like a normal person would. He was gorgeous and just looking at him earlier had excited her. She’d admit that, but she wasn’t a mindless toy. He had no right to just pick her up and hold her when she wanted to be released.

Steven looked everywhere but at her as he cleared his throat—three times.

“Um, Sonya, you said she’s under a spell.” Steven looked at that red-haired witch.

“I haven’t been able to discover many of the details of the spell. I tried to ease some of her pain, without much success. Any time I managed to take a bit of it away, the spell increased causing more.” Sonya shrugged.

Geneva pried at one of the arms around her waist. She dug her nails into his arm, but the long sleeves of his blue shirt protected his skin.

“Damn it, Steven, get him off me.” She shot a glare over at the Protectorate commander.

“No one’s going to help you, Genny.” The big man’s arm tightened just a little. Hot breath brushed over her ear. She felt the slight graze of his teeth against her earlobe.

A shiver ripped down her spine. She clenched her jaw, torn between ignoring him and trying to reason with him. The fact that he was almost the only one talking to her decided the matter. If he didn’t listen, she could always get some satisfaction yelling at him. Maybe one of the others would finally wake up from whatever was holding them and actually give her some help.

“My name is Geneva. Why won’t they help me?” She asked.

His hand slid up her stomach and cupped the full curve of her breast. She gasped and grabbed his wrist trying to pull his hand from that sensitive area. Her nipple had tightened and hardened at his first touch. His hand didn’t budge. What cave had they found him in? He didn’t even seem to care that they were in public and he was intimately touching her. She sunk her nails into the skin of his wrist and finally he let his hand drop back to her stomach.

He laughed softly. “They know better than to get between a wolf and his mate. I’m Evan Connors.”

Her jaw dropped and her stomach clenched with anxiety and a little fear. She’d never heard of him, but then again, she didn’t have a lot of contact with werewolves. From what she knew, werewolves didn’t play around about mates. “I’m not your mate.”

“Let’s find out what this spell does and then we’ll talk.” He set her to the side and grasped her hands.

She was all for anything that got his hands off of her. Geneva felt the warmth of magic against her palms. It spread over her hands and up her arms. Her eyes lifted to lock with his. He was doing magic. Now, she knew who he was. She still didn’t recognize his name, but his ability gave him away. As far as she knew, there was only one male werewolf in the area who was also a wizard. As if she hadn’t had enough trouble with magic lately, now she had a werewolf who claimed to be her mate, but was also a powerful wizard.

“Turn off the lights and we’ll see what we’re facing,” Evan ordered, still holding Geneva’s hands.

The light’s clicked off, but it wasn’t dark in the windowless room. A hazy bluish light bloomed. She looked down and saw a glowing mist surrounding her. She’d have liked to move her hands through it to see if it was mist or just light, but she couldn’t tug her fingers free from Evan’s relaxed grip.

“So what did you do to the witch?” Evan asked as he stroked his fingers over her knuckles.

“So it’s a witch, a woman who did this? You’re certain?” Geneva asked. At least that would narrow down who could have done it to half the magic using population.

“No, I just said witch for magic user in general.” Evan shrugged. “It could be a wizard.”

“I don’t know what I did. Most of what I do is just ask questions, get information. I have made people mad at me before, but nothing like this has ever happened.” She slowly shook her head. She didn’t know what she could have done that someone wanted to cause her this much pain. She hadn’t pissed anyone off in months.

“Well, you weren’t supposed to be out of pain at all yet. I also think the spell activated early for some reason. We’re in luck there.” He tilted his head and looked at the mist swirling around her.

“Lucky? It’s not you that has pain ripping through them at odd moments.” She rolled her eyes. Only a witch or wizard would say something like that. As if getting slammed by a spell was something normal. In her experiences, spells were hardly ever good.

“No, we’re lucky the witch somehow made a mistake.” Sonya stepped forward, studying the hazy cloud.

“What is it? Stop discussing it like it’s a puzzle. It’s my life. I’m the one in so much freaking pain I can barely move, much less function.” She tugged at her hands to get his attention. “Why am I having sudden stabbing pains?”

“Because you were too far from me.” Evan smiled.