Familiar Desires: 5 (Protective Affairs) Read Free

brought before the Council
to be accepted. There’s usually a celebration in acknowledgement of the union.
That didn’t happen so don’t tell me I had an obligation to contact you for
anything. I’m not their Familiar.”
    Carson Samuels cleared his throat. The wizard’s lips
twitched. “We know what you did.”
    Alana looked at the dark-skinned, black-haired wizard. She didn’t
feel quite as much animosity toward Carson as she did toward some of the others
at that end of the table. Mainly because he had been nice to her and tried to
help her when the relationship with Kane and Michael had ended almost as soon
as it began. She also thought if anyone could understand some of the
difficulties in a shifter and wizard mating, it would be him. He’d been born a
wizard, but had mated with his Familiar and was now also a shifter.
    “I’ve never tried to hide it. I asked them to end it. Since
I wasn’t the one they wanted, they needed to be able to find her. They never cut
the connection between us. I had to find someone to do it, because I wasn’t
letting their pride ruin all of our lives.” She frowned at the people in front
of her.
    They all looked so disapproving. Maybe in a way, they had
some cause, but they didn’t have the right. The Familiar bond had formed between
her, Michael and Kane. When she’d thought they didn’t want her, she’d left the
area. They were her mates, but witches weren’t bound by the same instincts and
urges as shifters. She hadn’t felt she could remain tied to them as Familiar
when they seemed to be dating someone else. While she’d still been gripped by
anger and hurt, she had found someone to sever the link.
    She’d regretted cutting the Familiar connection, the magical
link between Familiar and wizard, but the reasons hadn’t been simple. When she’d
resisted sealing the Familiar joining, the strength of the attraction to them
and the physical sensations of the link had grown. She’d been angry, hurt and
jealous, but she’d almost been driven mad by the increasing effects of that
link. The intensity of that tie as well as the feeling of possessiveness
engendered by the mating only made the emotions more severe. It had taken time
for her to be able to think rationally about what happened between them.
    She hadn’t realized the letter might not be real until after
the witch had broken the tie to Michael and Kane. The scene in the restaurant,
well, she wasn’t sure about that. It might not have been what she’d thought,
but that was something she’d have to work through with Michael and Kane without
the distractions of disappearances and a mission.
    “We want to know the name of the person who did it.” Carson
drummed his fingers on the table and watched her steadily.
    “Why do you need the name?” Alana knew better than to take
their request at face value.
    “We have to talk to whoever you found to do it. There are
rules held by even those who don’t take a Familiar. Breaking a binding between
witch and Familiar is one of those things that should never be done and she
knew it.” Roger’s voice hardened. “Did she even tell you it was a temporary
fix?”
    “What do you mean temporary? I felt the severing of the
connection.” She felt a jolt of alarm go through her. The Council wasn’t averse
to trickery, but it usually didn’t concern the rules they went by with magic.
“Why now?”
    “Why now? It’s the first time you’ve been in front of us. We
know it’s a woman from the feel of the magic. She must go before her own coven
for what she’s done.” Roger drummed his fingers on the tabletop.
    Michael and Kane were her mates. Unfortunately for her,
mating was biological for a shifter. A human or wizard felt some of the
attraction, but wouldn’t feel the intense certainty and desire until the
transformation was nearly complete. It was different than being than being
their Familiar. The Familiar bond was about the match of magic and enhancing
the abilities