Free GettingLuckyinGalway by Allie Standifer Page A

she vaguely heard the small
man whisper. “Goddess forgive me, but a brownie must do what a brownie must
do.”
    With that he let loose a long string of lyrical words that
stopped her in her path. Her head filled with the individual notes, each more
unique and lovely than the last. Her world ceased to exist outside those
strange, mesmerizing words until finally the words disappeared.
    Calder was left standing in a strange, brightly lit glen,
but she wasn’t alone. Her possible mate, the vainest man she’d ever met in her
life stood side by side with her, a perplexed expression crossing his face.
    “What are we doing here?” he asked softly and without a hint
of his normal arrogance.
    “How the hell should I know, magic boy? This is your best
buddy’s doing.” A quick look around showed her nothing. Literally there was
nothing to identify the land and/or country. Wherever Nob had sent them, he’d
done a good job of concealing all natural landmarks. “So wrinkle your nose,
cross your arms, blink your eyes, bob your head, click your heels, just do
something and get us the heck out of here.”
    “I beg your pardon. I do none of those things. Magic is
inherent to me therefore ridiculous gestures are beneath me.” His nose went
straight back in the air.
    “Then you’d better come up with something, Lucky Charms,
because we’re not in Kansas anymore and you sure as hell aren’t Toto.”
     
    Really, the things he’d been forced to do since meeting his Liaria fairly blew his spectacularly intelligent mind. “Why don’t you go piss on a
rock or something while I get us out of this mess.”
    “You arrogant, useless male,” Calder sputtered then
disappeared in a flash of brilliant colors. With a flick of her tawny tail, his
mate bounded off, growling the entire time until she disappeared from his view.
    “I am most certainly not useless,” Roark muttered to
himself, even while he wondered if what she said could possibly be true.
Whenever Nob or his family called him vain or self-centered, Roark took their words
as good-natured teasing or jealous barbs.
    However, in the past twenty-four hours Calder called him a
number of unflattering names and she didn’t have the benefit of knowing how
extraordinary he was. Then again, telling her to urinate on a rock probably
wasn’t a show of great intellect on his part.
    “You’re a useless mate, male and leprechaun.”
    He spun around to face the owner of the masculine voice only
to find no one there. “What the—”
    “Step up, be a man, grow a pair. If you don’t there is
another male out there capable of being your Calder’s mate. Lose her and
there’s isn’t another for you. She’ll spend the rest of her long life not
giving you another thought while you won’t be able to go a minute without
yearning for her.”
    No matter where he looked, the owner of the voice remained
invisible to his eyes. “Show yourself and face me like a man.”
    A shout of laughter taunted him from above. “First you’d
have to be a man and I can’t see this happening anytime soon. Balls don’t make
a male, Elf. Maybe it’s time you learned that lesson.”
    Anger and overwhelming fear had his hands shaking as he
hastily stuffed them into his pockets. His magic sensed nothing when he moved
in a slow circle. “Who are you? How did you get here?”
    The low, taunting laughter rang out again. “What makes you
think I wasn’t here first?”
    The high green grass brushed Roark’s bare feet, the gentle
wind causing the chill to cover his skin. “This is your home?”
    “Let’s just say I belong here more than you do.”
    “Where’s Calder?”
    “Now you think about her? Minutes have passed and you think
about yourself before the woman created to be the better side of you.” All
pleasure and amusement left the ghostly voice. The wind went from gentle to
brutal in seconds.
    “She left me, not the other way around. Besides, she’s a
shifter, a lioness, more than capable of