Daphne was already on board, her eyes bright. “We have to. The aesthetic alone demands it.”
Krystin looked amused. “I can’t believe I’m the voice of reason here, but sure. Let’s summon Wen a boyfriend. God knows she needs one.”
“Rude but fair.” I cleared my throat dramatically, finger hovering over the page. My blood had left smears across the symbols. “Okay. Here goes absolutely nothing.”
I started reading. The words were old-fashioned and formal, but I hammed it up anyway, putting on my best witch voice. “‘By blood and bone, by moon and star, I call to thee across the far...’”
The lights flickered harder. Thunder crashed.
“‘Through realm and veil, through space and time, I summon forth this soul of mine...’”
My finger traced the symbols without thinking. The ones covered in my blood. They felt warm under my touch, but that was probably just because I was bleeding on them.
“‘What fate has bound, let now appear. I call my match, I draw thee here.’”
The lights went out completely.
Everyone screamed. Including me. We grabbed for each other in the darkness, phones fumbling.
Then came the sound. A massive, catastrophic CRASH from the back of the store. The noise was wrong. It sounded less like furniture falling and more like reality itself had just torn open.
The lights flickered back on. Off. On again.
We heard cursing. Grunts. Growls that definitely didn’t sound human.
“What the fuck,” Krystin breathed. She had her phone out, flashlight swinging wildly toward the back of the store.
The sounds got closer. Stumbling. More cursing in a voice that was deep and rough and male. More of those growling noises that made every hair on my body stand up.
And then he appeared.
A man. Massive. Easily six foot nine. Completely naked. Bleeding from a dozen wounds across his chest and arms. His skin was covered in what looked like fur in some places, disappearing in others. Tattoos decorated his body, shapes and swirls and intricate drawings that wrapped around his arms and across his chest, making him look equal parts dangerous and delectable. His eyes-
His eyes were glowing red.
Actual glowing red.
He stumbled into the reading nook, and those eyes locked onto mine with the focus of a predator. His chest heaved. Blood dripped onto my floor. He opened his mouth, and when he spoke, his voice was a growl that vibrated through my bones.
“Mate.”
Then his eyes rolled back, and he face-planted onto my bookstore floor.
The four of us stared at the unconscious naked man bleeding all over my hardwood.
Nobody breathed. The storm raged outside. My finger was still on the spell book page, blood smeared across the symbols.
Krystin broke the silence. “So. That just happened.”
I looked down at the book. At my bleeding finger. At the massive, naked, probably-definitely-not-human man on my floor.
“What the actual fuck did I just do?”
2
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Wen
