Hunted (War of the Covens 1)

“Lucien!”

They pulled apart at the sound of Ella calling his name and Caia tried to catch her breath as reality flooded in. Lucien studied her, searching her face for … something. Then he smiled, brushing his thumb across her lips.

Her heart thudded. Had that really happened? Were all first kisses that amazing?

“Lucien!”

He cursed under his breath, not taking his eyes off her as he helped her to her feet. When Caia retreated from him, she saw him raise his hand as if to bring her back to him. But at the sound of Ella’s footsteps he curled his fingers into a fist and dropped his hand back to his side.

“There you are,” Ella called, striding toward them. “Lucien, the pipes have all burst!”

That got their attention.

“What?” He turned to his mother.

She threw her hands up in bewilderment. “A few seconds ago, I heard Alexa squeal in the kitchen—the pipes have burst! Water, everywhere! Then Julia ran in from the downstairs bathroom, Morgan from upstairs, and they’re the same. Magnus is checking Caia’s bathroom while Isaac and Draven take care of the plumbing. But there’s water, everywhere,” she ended on a whine.

Lucien cursed again and started heading toward the kitchen.

“Can we fix it?” Caia asked quietly, reeling from the news as much as from Lucien’s kiss.

Ella nodded. “Thankfully, Isaac and Draven are plumbers, but it’s put a little damper on the party.”

Caia nodded numbly as she stopped in the doorway, watching as the others mopped up the small flood in the kitchen.

This couldn’t be happening.

She glanced back toward the shadows of the porch where she and Lucien shared their explosive kiss.

Could it have been explosive enough to have done this?

She bit her lip, heart pounding. First, the pipes in the airport, then her bathroom … oh, and that morning with Ella when she’d cried over her father’s photograph.

Was this her doing?

She shook her head and retreated from the doorway.

The blood rushed in her ears and she could feel adrenaline rocketing through her body.

Kicking off her shoes, she ran down the porch stairs, past the lawn chairs, and into the woods, not stopping until she was at least five minutes from the house. Leaning against a tree to catch her breath, trying to slow her panicking heart, Caia shook her head in disbelief.

“It can’t be me,” she whispered. “How could it be?”

What was going on? Is this what the pack meant when they called her different? But pipes bursting? What did that even mean? Why was she causing it?

“No …” She gasped.

Because suddenly she knew why.

She could feel something inside of her pulsing. It had always been there, throbbing like a barrier below the energy she tapped into when she changed into a wolf.

It was alien and strong.

“What’s happening to me?” She pleaded with Gaia as tears pricked her eyes.

Growling a profanity she’d never said in her life before now, Caia yanked off the satin dress in haste and ripped her hair out of the French twist. And then she began to run, faster and faster, her feet tearing on bracken, her toes sinking into moss and dirt, her muscles aching. And with fear riding her the entire way she dove, arms first as if diving into a pool, high into the air, pushing the change like she’d never done before.

As she landed, it was on her wolf pads, her graceful lupine limbs pushing her deeper into the forest and away from her troubles.

14

The Change

The school was quiet. Everyone was inside; the bell for first period had rung ten minutes before. Caia felt limp, as if she were no longer a part of her body. The night of the mating ritual, she’d run as hard and as fast as she could from the house, pounding out her anxiety on the dirt beneath her paws, until she began to feel a resolve.

She didn’t want to be alone in whatever was happening to her, and although she loved Jaeden, there really was only one person who made her feel safe. Even if he discombobulated her in other ways.

Lucien.

By then she’d been away from the party for well over an hour, so she returned as quietly as she could, finding her torn dress and then scaling the house to her bedroom. Caia had hesitated as she remembered Magnus was supposed to be checking the water pipes in her bathroom. But the room was dark and quiet, and there was no light filtering from under her en suite.

Aching, she’d tried to squelch the butterflies in her stomach enough to focus on what exactly she would tell Lucien.

He would think she was crazy.

Caia moaned and fell back onto her bed. Lucien was so good, so caring and fair. He took time with his people, took their problems upon his shoulders as if they were his own. He would need a mate just like him, not some troubled girl who was falling to pieces. And what if what was inside her put the pack in danger? He’d try to help because that was who he was—and what if she hurt him? Hurt any of them?