Embrace the Wind by Caris Roane Read Free Book Online

ocean, swimming, then bounding out of the water for incredible distances, only to dive back in.
    Olivia. A shifter. A blood rose.
    Yet his instincts told him she was also part human and she wasn’t connected to Luther’s packs or he would have met her by now. Luther was the ruling alpha of the shifter community as well as the leader of his Shifter Brigade. All shifters, without exception, deferred to him.
    The fact that Olivia wasn’t involved with the Swanicott packs meant, by Realm standards, that she was a rogue. Not to present herself to Luther on entering Swanicott was a violation of shifter law.
    And she’d just confessed she had some way of tracking him, something she called ‘ghosting’.
    So, who the hell was this woman?
    He was grateful she’d left him to go for a swim. He needed time to dial down all the sensations that were coursing through him. He had no pain and Olivia had rescued him from a situation that could have easily ended in his death, possibly even the fall of the Nine Realms to Margetta.
    He realized now why he’d been unable to resist biting her when they were still inside the camp. His first instinct should have been to get them the hell out of there. Instead, his focus had narrowed down to the intoxicating scent of her blood, that spicy-cinnamon scent he’d never forget so long as he lived.
    Shit. A blood rose.
    He took deep breaths, then remembered that he needed to make contact with Marian and Chase.
    Pathing, he heard Marian’s voice break, even inside his head, Mastyr, is that you?
    He’d been so caught up with Olivia, he’d forgotten that his people would have been worried about what happened to him.
    I’m fine and I’m safe. He then relayed all that had happened, ending with, Did Chase take over for me?
    Absolutely.
    He nodded, even though Marian couldn’t see him. After I was abducted, how did things go at Britchett Falls?
    The best we can figure is that when Margetta took off, her spell broke. Chase took his troops straight in and offed at least thirty Invictus. And you’ll be happy to know he had his men take those stupid wraith youths back to Wraith Island. None of them had actually completed the forging of the Invictus bond by the time Chase got to them.
    He breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Thank the Goddess for that. His gaze tracked Olivia. He was frowning, still in shock that he felt no pain. By all the elf lords, had a blood rose really come to him?
    Please let Chase and Sawyer know that I’m good, but that I have something critical I have to deal with before I can get back to either of them.
    Got it. And Mastyr?
    Yes? He really didn’t want a show of sympathy, and he cringed waiting for it.
    Whatever you’ve got going on, don’t fuck things up.
    At that, he laughed and ended the conversation.
    Having taken care of business, he turned his attention back to Olivia. The water seemed to be calling him as well.
    He rose up and headed toward the ocean. Once there, he dove in, and it felt so good. The temp was icy cold, but his skin was on fire from having made love to Olivia and taken her blood. A swim was just what he needed.
    As soon as she saw him, however, she headed the opposite direction. He gave her the space she so clearly needed.
    He swam beyond the breakers and floated on his back, staring up at the stars. When was the last time he’d done something like this? And how strange to think that a couple of hours ago, he’d been battling the Invictus in Britchett Falls.
    The needs of his realm threatened to fall on him hard again. But with a new issue to resolve, as in what to do with his newly arrived blood rose, he shunted everything aside just to give himself a moment to ponder the conundrum of Olivia.
    He didn’t want the connection. After his wife had been killed, he’d promised himself not to get involved with another woman. But Olivia wasn’t just any female; she had the power to resolve his chronic blood starvation forever. And that was not a small