Charming the Alphas (Hex My Heart, #5) Read Online Free

goin’ to say yer witch lost something and wanted it back bad enough to perform some shady magick.” Obsidian gave a curt nod toward the book on the table. “That spell book holds more than a few cures, if ye know what I mean.”
    He did to an extent.
    That wasn’t the whole story, but the person he needed to ask needed him to focus on stabilizing her before he could interrogate her. Marabelle’s skin burned blazing hot beneath his touch. Lucian and Zane jerked their hands back. “How is she still breathing?” No way she’d survive much longer. He didn’t see how she still lived now.
    “She wonnae be fer long. I... This has never happened. Nae that I’ve seen. If she goes any longer without yer mark even if ye cannae fully claim her...” Obsidian rolled his shoulders in a shrug and cocked a brow at them as if they should know this shit already. Truth be told, it fucking ate him alive that he didn’t. “It’s the only way to balance the forces that war inside her. For now. Even that isn’t a promise, but I do know she needs our healer. She’s versed in the ancient magick and fer Marabelle’s sake, luck would have it she has two of ye to draw on to help her survive the time it takes to get to the healer.” The second dragon who had stayed quiet up until now stepped forward, his hand on the hilt of a blade similar to Obsidian’s that hung to mid-thigh tucked beneath a long coat. His wolf scented the ancient power that mirrored Obsidian’s. Brothers?
    “Aye. Mark her and tame some of the energy warrin’ in her. We need to pony up and get the fuck outta here. Trust us or let her die. Choice is yer own.” Please didn’t seem to be a favorable word in their vocabulary, but Lucian appreciated the direct approach more anyway. Something in him believed the dragon meant well. Otherwise, both of them would already be staining Mara’s wood floors with their blood.
    Lucian moved quickly. With Marabelle’s limp body pinned between them for support, he took one side as Zane took the other. The world shifted to the monotone shades of gray, and together they sank their fangs as gently as possible into flesh. Mashed-up images bombarded him. Some of Marabelle, others of Zane. Then there was so much pain. He could hardly draw a breath the wall pressing into him.
    Thousands of razors slit across his flesh. Warm blood spilled over skin, rushed behind his eyes, as an iron fist squeezed the life from his heart.
    “Her pulse, Luc. Her pulse—it’s gone.” Zane shoved at his shoulder, drawing him back to the surface.
    His eyes shot to Marabelle as chimes rang in the background. On the last stroke of midnight, Marabelle’s heart stopped and she lay dead in their arms.
    They had failed her.

CHAPTER TWO
    T wo hours earlier.
    Marabelle Winters glanced at her watch. At ten o’clock on a Friday night she’d officially become a full-fledged criminal. “For realz, lady, you need a brain scan.” She muttered more to herself than the crazy warlock on her ass.
    “Come ou’ ya lit’le bitch, I c’n smell ya and I c’n smell ’em, too.”
    Smell who, too? Only thing she smelled was wet dog.
    A gargled, scratchy voice ping-ponged off the high walls and echoed over the entire open-style library.
    She switched her phone into silent mode and shoved it into the back of her jeans.
    Who the hell talked like that? Every warlock she knew walked around with a golden horseshoe shoved up their asses and had the pedigree to back it up. Hell, the entire Council suffered from a plight of wealth and prestige. It came with the territory of blackmail and deception. And war, she mentally added. War always brought wealth for the winning side and the last one to occur left the High Council with a fat horde every otherworldly Royal house turned green over. Except werewolf and dragon shifters. If the stories her father told her as a child were anything to go on, the shifters wanted blood for blood.
    Several voices clicked over in her mind, but