Free Enchanting the Alpha (Hex My Heart, #4) by Talina Perkins Page B

Ember’s sister concocted a mean supernatural version of moonshine, and all walks of the otherworldly kind loved to get their buzz on with her Moon Lust brew.
    He could lie all he wanted, but the last thing he went there for was the liquor. On most nights like this, his pack pounded back shots and tossed around a load of bullshit for hours, but he liked the off chance of catching a glimpse of Ember when she stopped in to see her sister.
    Tonight was his lucky night. When she’d waltzed through the double doors something shifted the second her ice-blue eyes connected with his over the rim of his tumbler. Their normal ability to ignore each other vanished with that one look.
    A blink and the connection was severed, but the coals he’d hoped had died down burst back to life and even now the veins crisscrossing him burned with wildfire.
    He hadn’t meant to speak to her. Or touch her, but when she passed by him, a whisper away, his hand shot out and his fingers fanned through her hair in passing. She probably hadn’t felt it, but he did. With the slightest of touches, the soul-deep connection they shared struck him square in the chest like a well-aimed sledgehammer.
    And he damn sure hadn’t meant to let her torment his thoughts again, but here he was, standing in the middle of a coming snowstorm, hard as granite and beyond lusting for her. He shifted himself a little to the left from the bite of his zipper.
    Searching for anything to help him calm the beast, he dragged his attention to the thick silver beams of moonlight pouring over the snowed-in town laid out before him. Gauzy white light drowned the roads and left only small spirals of smoke that disappeared into the blackened sky as the only proof of life. Tucked between two rising mountains filled with cone-shaped pines, Sweet Briar Hollow slept.
    When his wolf bulked and forced its way to the surface at just the slightest touch of her, he hightailed it out of the Matchstick bar and landed in the only place where he could command control over his wolf.
    If he had stayed longer, watched as more drunk fucking pricks hit on her, he would have dragged her back to his cabin, tied her to his bed and fucked her until he either worked her out of his system for good, or until nothing else existed between them. Not their past, the heartache he thought he’d fucking cut out of his chest and definitely no fucking lies. The only thing that would be left would be their bond as mates. He bit out a harsh laugh. Like it meant anything to her. In his world, it was ‘till death do us part. For her, who knew? He was done guessing in the matters of all things Ember.
    Regret welled inside him, but it was too late for that shit.
    Julian backtracked over the jagged rocks and made his way deeper into the dense forest. Shrouded in the shadows, he flicked open the satchel on his Harley and tossed in his discarded boots before stripping down to nothing.
    Maybe a run in the cold would do him good. Clear his head if nothing else. Winter drove all the humans inside and kept the bastards there.
    His pack bordered on several hundred acres of land along the ridge of the mountain. Days could pass and not a soul would bother him. He could get lost and he’d welcome the solitude.
    Snow covered his feet, and small flurries drifted along the current. He bowed his back and stretched his arms out. Another wave of supercharged magick collided with him.
    He angled his head and listened. Heavy footfalls padded by several feet of snow echoed in the distance and at the edge of his hearing, a woman’s voice joined the mix. Faint, even to his ears, but no denying the soft feminine chords.
    Not the husky, sensual voice of his woman, but someone who struggled. And who the hell was he kidding. She wasn’t his anymore, but the crux of that problem was still buried beneath a mound of bullshit chin deep. Every time they crossed paths and she raked her light sapphire gaze over him, every emotion he managed to suppress