Read Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser Series) for Free Online Page A

surrounded by wolves.
    The dark prince — I guessed his hierarchy based on the deference of the others — ran his fingers through my hair and loosened my hair clip. My curls tumbled around my neck and shoulders. He dipped his head to smell me, as if I was a glass of fine wine. He ran his fingers along my arm, which was currently twisted up over his shoulder. I danced my fingers at the back of his neck — hardly touching — and he shuddered in response.
    The magic built between and around us.
    I wanted to press myself against him. I wanted to taste him with my actual mouth, not just my magical senses. I wanted a different kind of build and release, but that wasn’t how I played this game.
    Everyone knew that witches didn’t run with wolves. Very few of the Adept intermingled at all. Rusty’s parents — a witch married to a necromancer — were definite anomalies, and were treated as such. Plus, I had a feeling these wolves were just visiting, because with magic that tasted like this, I would have noticed them before. Visiting werewolves were definitely not relationship material.
    The song ended.
    The beat just dropped and left me hanging, raised slightly on my toes, hands in the air. Practically wrapped around a stranger.
    The club was closing. I hadn’t even noticed the hours passing. Wolves could apparently dance all night.
    I moved back, just a half step. My breathing was ragged.
    The lights came up. It was definitely closing time … where had the evening gone?
    I turned my head slightly and caught sight of the perfect jawline of my companion. The other wolves melted into the rapidly thinning crowd. The dark prince brushed the curls away from my ear. His breath was hot as he whispered, “Take me home, little witch. I like the way you dance.”
    A shiver ran down the side of my neck and into my spine to pool in my nether regions. My limbs were loose and compliant. I could take him home. I could forget I didn’t know him at all. I could share magic, and touches, and bodily fluids …
    An ache of regret spread through my chest. I wasn’t going to … no matter how tempted. My grandmother’s warnings about being intimate with the magically-inclined, about the vulnerability of such actions, echoed through my mind.
    I stepped back and flicked my eyes over his shoulder to see Sienna waiting for me on the edge of the dance floor. My sister didn’t look too happy. I’d let it go too far with the wolves for her comfort … Sienna’s arms were folded, which meant she was scared. Just as I should have been, surrounded by werewolves. But their magic, which still swirled in a dying ebb around us — heavy enough that even Sienna could probably feel it — didn’t feel frightening to me.
    The dark prince groaned lightly, as he turned his head to follow my gaze. “Your friend doesn’t approve of me?”
    “Witches don’t run with wolves,” I answered.
    He laughed. “Don’t be so sure.”  
    His laugh was infectious, so I grinned back at him.
    “At least give me a name.”
    “Jade.”
    “I’m Hudson.”
    “Of course you are.”
    “Is that funny?”
    I smiled and stepped around him.
    “A phone number would also be nice,” he said, but I’d caught sight of the man seated at the table behind Hudson — if man was the right word at all. If I thought Hudson to be the perfect male specimen, this guy was epically more manly. More brutal. Hudson was long and lean. This guy was hard and terrifying. This was who had scared Sienna.
    And he was currently staring at me — glaring actually — his arms crossed and his lip almost imperceptibly curled in a snarl. Emerald green glinted off his eyes, as if the overhead lights were casting a strange glow.
    “Scary … eyes,” I murmured, frozen in place like prey.
    “He won’t hurt you,” Hudson said, but he honestly didn’t sound all that sure.
    Sienna, her hand low at her side, snapped her fingers — a warning we’d used as children. The sound woke