Read The Moon, the Madness, and the Magic for Free Online

who remained in the realm around these mountains knew most of the true facts regarding their beginnings. They’d been born within days of each other but not to the same mother. Nor had they been sired by the same father. Yet these two men’s fates had merged thirty years ago on Beltane eve, and so it seemed now with Celeste’s as well.
    Explaining to Rourke Grayland who and what he was became her first task, and it was the one she dreaded the most. If the men didn’t know about their past or the responsibilities that loomed before them, how did one go about explaining it? How would she tell a man who had no idea the Lore existed that several days after his birth, his mother had shifted into her animal form in order to hunt and, as a result, was accidently shot by a hunter?
    Did she start, “Oh, nice to meet you, Rourke. I’ve heard so much about you. By the way, did you know your mother was a wolf?”
    Riiiiight. What seemed like the direct approach would have any sensible man laughing in her face, especially a man who’d spent his life living in the city, insulated against magic and his own kind.
    Her hair rose around her like curling rivulets of pale yellow smoke on a breeze. Something would come to her.

    * * * *

    Rourke slammed the ball over the net and jogged to his towel. “Game, set, match,” he announced. The sexual tension seemed to lessen in the presence of the pines. This place drew him in and soothed him. He desperately needed a peaceful place.
    “You sure that wasn’t out?” Dane always pushed the limits.
    “In by a foot.”
    “Out by…” The banter died on Dane’s lips.
    “Was not,” Rourke started to argue at Dane’s hedge, but he didn’t miss the exact moment when something distracted his brother’s attention from their argument. He immediately stopped arguing to look over at him. The familiar cocky smile, the one Dane thought looked sexy and he reserved for only the hottest women, quirked a corner of his mouth. Rourke considered teasing him, goading him into another argument, until he followed his brother’s gaze in the direction of his interest.
    The scene slowed down in his mind, playing out in slow motion. Air blew out of his lungs like he’d been gut-punched, and Rourke’s insides twisted into knots at the vision drawing Dane’s undaunted attention. No wonder his brother looked thunder-struck. The blonde from last night.
    The sight of the woman standing on the veranda was enough to suck rational thought from any man’s brain. Not only was she perhaps the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, but sexuality exuded from her like heat from a bonfire.
    As desirable as a succubus.
    The unfamiliar word floated on a thought and swirled through his mind as he stared at her. He’d read about them in novels—elusive beings capable of seducing men in their sleep, fucking them mindless, and draining them of their semen and, with it, their life force. If he believed in legends, the impact she had on him fit the bill, and conversely, he found himself thinking he’d gladly succumb and die happy.
    Her long, flaxen hair was almost as pale as her ivory skin. In the slight mountain breeze, the strands looked like a living, breathing life form, curling and waving, rolling and whipping like ribbons of long, blonde vines. He imagined all that hair stroking him, caressing him. The sight of her sent blood pumping to his cock. His balls grew heavy, and his erection thickened, hardening as he looked into the creature’s pale azure eyes. Her gaze met his, locking, forming an instant connection with him, cutting through his defenses, and gutting him with need.
    The sun flickered through the rustling leaves. Relief. He was relieved it was daylight. This wasn’t a nightmare. No, she was more like a dream, a wet dream. With the powerful light glowing behind her eyes, he thought she might just be one woman he’d be afraid to fall asleep beside, afraid he’d lose himself in her presence.
    The thought was