Free Hexing the Alpha (Hex My Heart, #1) by Talina Perkins

CHAPTER ONE
    “T his better work or else we’ll be finding a new place to call home come next month, Cinder.”
    Honor gathered a pinch of crushed lavender and sprinkled in the last of the ingredients needed for her love potion. A puff of purple smoke twined high before diving back into the concoction that would— fingers crossed—work this time and play cupid for a very lonely woman. “Fourth time’s the charm. I hope.” Honor tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and let out a deep sigh.
    She’d promised her client a spell that would convince her boyfriend to take the last plunge toward marriage. Success would net her a cool two grand—enough to save her bar and the attached apartment.
    Getting the spell to work was proving to be more difficult than she’d anticipated. All three previous batches had fizzled out along with her patients.
    If she didn’t get this to work soon it was bye-bye to the only security she had and hello cold streets of Sweet Briar Hollow. Panic sent a cold shudder down her spine and she wiggled her toes nestled inside her favorite warm wool socks. She still had time. Twenty-four hours to be exact. Her gaze fell to her hands as she splayed her fingers out to call forth her magick, searching for a little calm in her own personal hellish storm.
    Encased in the magick-tinged wave of heat that flooded her body came a rush of power laced with memories of the last time she felt so much energy in her palms. Sweet, delicious, mind-blowing, pure masculine strength in the form of the sinfully sexy alpha pressed up against every inch of her body. Goddess, she so did not need this right now.
    An unbeckoned smile spread across her lips. “Stop that, Honor.” She flexed her fingers and forced herself to focus. Had it only been three nights ago that he’d almost taken her? Her core still vibrated with pent-up need for him.
    No, what she needed was to forget him. Forget the way his lips ignited a fire in her belly. Forget the way her body had molded into his embrace. The way his gaze, luminous with a red tinge she didn’t understand, pulled her into his world. Body and soul.
    But more importantly, forget how he’d left her wet and wanting, spread open for him on her bar top with a growled, “Sorry, pack business.”
    Yeah, forgetting one Jake Monroe, alpha shifter, wasn’t likely. She took a calming breath and counted out her heart beats to steady her thoughts.
    The Hollow in the winter was like living in Antarctica, and served as a damn cold bucket of water to her runaway thoughts. In fact, she was pretty sure the below freezing temperatures of her small Maine town rivaled anywhere else on the planet come January and no amount of lusting after Jake would change that for her.
    Honor tossed a look at the clock hanging behind her couch. Almost time to open the bar. She rolled her shoulders and called forth the five elements that fueled her powers, the call of fire her strongest. Heated energy crackled and popped in the small dining room, fusing the air with enough juice to power up ten love potions.
    She needed this to work. Maybe the spell just needed a jump-start. “Worth a shot anyway,” she murmured softly.
    A long drawn out growl from the chair where Cinder lounged watching the whole fiasco punctuated her thoughts. His black and orange patched fur was fluffed and bushy with static. “Hey, not long now and don’t give me that judgy look, buddy. We need the money and this,” she wagged a finger at the bubbling cast iron cauldron on her dining room table, “is the only way I know to get the fast cash we need and to keep kitty nip on the shopping list.”
    Her feline familiar blinked once as a human would shrug his shoulders.
    Sassy pussy . Whatever.
    She needed to get on with this before one –or all—of her three sisters dropped in and found her mixing the forbidden concoction. Not that they would turn her into the Council, but it would definitely put them all in a pickle if ever