Fate of the Alpha: The Complete Bundle Read Online Free PDF

that with no training. But at least it had uncovered her hidden talent for magic.
    “That is what I’m talking about here, Ainsley. I’ve seen you hurl powerful magic. I’m not asking you to do anything you haven’t done before. Why are you holding back on me?”
    “That’s rich, coming from you. I know you’re not being up front with me, Julian. I don’t need you to shelter me. I’m a big girl. And don’t tell me I’m doing well, when I can’t even defeat an empty bottle.”
    He looked away. She was right, of course.
    Movement behind her caught his eye.
    Ainsley must have seen the alarm in his expression. She turned to find the source.
    The stump they had been using had begun to grow upward, and was now enveloping the Coke bottle.
    “Shit,” she said. “I didn’t mean to do that.”
    “It’s quite alright, Ainsley. Now make it stop.”
    She pursed her lips into an “o” again, then drew the air in and out and lifted her palms, but nothing came. She wasn’t letting go of the anger.
    The Coke bottle exploded into a cloud of glass fragments, and the stump continued to grow. Now the vines from the pumpkin patch began to snake towards them as well.
    “Ainsley?”
    She didn’t respond, only furrowed her brow in concentration as the plants continued to grow.
    Julian was beginning to wonder if it might be prudent to relocate, when shivering in the grass around the corner of the house alerted him to someone else’s arrival.
    “Why are you breathing like that, Ainsley?” A clear female voice called as the newcomer approached. “Just relax, let it flow.”
    The bell-like voice was somehow irritating. Even more so when Julian looked to see Ainsley’s countenance relax and the plants immediately cease their growth.
    “Grace!” Ainsley said happily.
    Julian was curious to finally get a look at Ainsley’s best friend. Over the last month, he seemed to be always arriving just after she’d left. He had joked once that he was Superman and she was Clark Kent. No one had laughed. All of Ainsley’s friends hated him. He was beginning to regret his pledge to protect the book.
    Grace was not at all what he expected.
    Julian had been picturing a curvy policewoman in full uniform - cold and dead serious where Ainsley was fiery.
    Grace must have been off-duty. She wore a simple white t-shirt and a pair of worn blue jeans with a crushed velvet jacket the color of the night sky. Her inky black hair was smoothed up in an intricate bun.
    Her body was the opposite of Ainsley’s - tiny and trim without a hint of Ainsley’s delicious voluptuousness. She carried herself like a ballerina, or more accurately perhaps, like a tiny woman who hoped to look more imposing.
    Her dark almond eyes flashed to Julian. She must have been curious about him too.
    The moment their eyes connected, a shock like cold water rushed through Julian’s veins.
    Confused, his first thoughts ran to the defensive. Magic shimmered along the surface of Grace’s skin, visible to his inner eye. Ainsley had told him her friend was skilled in cottage magic. Was she actually capable of ensnaring him in a spell?
    But she looked as stricken as he did.
    Julian felt his heart blast out an unfamiliar cadence as he took in her parted lips, her tiny clenched fists, her unblinking gaze. Suddenly he was overcome with a longing to take that determined little body in his arms and soften it with his embrace. She was beautiful. She was perfect.
    Grace shook herself slightly and addressed Ainsley.
    “I stopped by the construction site on my rounds. Erik seemed worried. I told him I’d pick you up. How’s it going?”
    “Not well,” Ainsley answered honestly.
    “You’re trying too hard, that’s all,” said Grace. “Let it do its thing. This is part of you, it should feel natural. Right, Julian?”
    How could she speak with such nonchalance when something so intense was obviously happening between them?
    He couldn’t bear to look into those eyes again, so he