Elemental Flame Read Online Free Page B

grabbed my overnight bag I'd set down on the kitchen floor. "She wanted to go home. I sent her home." Hefting the bag on my shoulder, I turned and faced the two of them. Both of them had some seriously angry looks on their faces. "What?"
    "She was telling us why she left Alfheim . There's something happening there," Ivan tilted his head to his shoulder.
    "So?" I narrowed my eyes. "I don't give a crap about Alfheim . Or any other world out there. Right now, our world has an open Cairn nearby and there are Boggarts coming through it. I suggest we get our shit together, go find it and knock it down."
    "Ah… ma petite , such language. Your little trip did not soften your anger," said a voice from behind me. It was deep and rich with a smooth Acadian accent.
    
    I sighed and turned to face one of the most beautiful red headed men I'd ever known. Bastien Dante LeBlanc, Alpha of the Aces pack.
    Great, just what my day needed. A Lycan.



THREE
    " W hat do you want , Bastien?" I tried to keep the irritation and whine out of my voice. I don't think I was very successful.
    He looked good. His recently shorn hair fell just over one brilliant golden eye. He'd shaved his face smooth, and filled his t-shirt, denim jacket and matching jeans flawlessly. The cowboy boots were a nice touch. I didn't know if Lycans were just born sexy or if it was something that came in the DNA. Kyle's boyfriend, Jack Roberts, was a Lycan also (though he was an apogee, a turned wolf and not a born one like Bastien) and he was sexy too.
    There was also a draw to Bastien I couldn't explain. Well, yes I could. Or I thought I could. I believed the draw to him was due to his venom, which he'd transferred to me in a bite during our first meeting. A little incentive for me to find his missing pack mates. We'd found them, Crwys and I delivered a cub, and I didn't turn into a wolf.
    Crwys. Lady Darksome! I'd done so good not really thinking about that creep and there he was again.
    Bastien had his hands shoved into the tight front pockets of his jeans as he sauntered closer. " Bonjour Kyle. Ivan. Where is the petite mère ?"
    "Hey Bastien," Kyle said as he and Ivan moved about. Show was over. The Boggart was gone.
    "Grey's around here somewhere," I gave an exaggerated, frustrated sigh. "Call her on the group chat wolf link if you need her. I'm tired. I want something to eat. And we have a Cairn to find and close." That was something else that perplexed me. When Bastien bit me, he'd forced a mental link between the pack and I. Once the venom was gone, I assumed the link would evaporate. But it hadn't.
    "A what?"
    "A Cairn. Faerie portal. Door. A place where little nasties are coming in," I gestured to the kitchen. "If you want tea, help yourself, but we've got work—"
    "It is the chiot , chérie ," Bastien blurted out in a voice just a bit louder than normal. "She wishes to see you."
    The pup? I gave him a hard look. "She's a month old. How can you know she wants me?" It wasn't a good response. I already knew how and why, because the mother died before the child could be born, and while Crwys delivered her, I had been the one to keep the little Lycan's soul grounded. There was a bond there—something delicate. Tenuous.
    "You already know."
    "Yes. But…she hasn't called for me."
    "Because she is stubborn. Like her mother was." Bastien pulled his hands from his pockets. "She wants you to hold her. She wants you to…" he winced. "Play with her."
    I knew what he meant. When I'd held onto the little pup's soul, she'd appeared to me as a tiny wolf pup, all cute and fuzzy and playful. And she'd dozed in my arms. She'd also found comfort in Crwys's arms and that's when I remembered him kneeling beside me in the garden at Ina's house, holding that baby in his arms.
    "Bastien, that's all nice and warm and fuzzy, but I just can't right now. I don't think I'm…capable of being…close."
    "It isn't my choice, chérie