Dark Wolf (Spirit Wild) - By Kate Douglas Page 0,13

blatant sensuality that he felt the connection clear across the room.

His body reacted on a level totally separate from his brain, though he wondered how many other men in the room were suddenly as aroused as he was. He sensed a thread of desire drawing all of them closer, but he fought the pull. Fought the need that pulsed deep and steady on a level he’d never once experienced.

He planted his feet, even though they wanted to move. He felt his wolf rise and forced that creature back as well.

Who was she?

What was she?

He stared at her as she raised her eyes and glanced in his direction. Then she quickly turned away, and once again appeared to focus on the small crowd that pushed closer. He recognized the mayor and a few city officials, but they were nothing. No one of interest. Only the woman.

His heart thundered in his chest with the certainty that she was every bit as aware of him as he was of her. He pushed, sending a soft yet powerful mental command, calling her to him.

She fought him. Smiling, shaking hands, and sharing air kisses with one person after another, she slowly worked her way across the room. Her aura spiked, the red growing brighter, stronger, and he knew she drew on her own psychic power as she continued to ignore him.

Look at me. Now. Raise your head and look at me.

I think not. You’re much too pushy.

Stunned, Sebastian took a step backward. She’d heard him. Heard him and answered him telepathically. She’d not raised her head, not looked his way, but she’d still managed to put him in his place.

Damn. She was absolutely magnificent.

He started slowly across the room, working his way through the throng that continued moving in her direction, as if they merely needed a chance to be close, to touch her hand, to speak to her.

The same way he did. He might have felt like a fool, except she was so obviously enjoying herself, so entirely involved in the people pressing all around that he couldn’t deny the joy he felt in her pleasure.

It was as if she took the goodwill of those around her and sent it back tenfold. His father had charisma, but he couldn’t touch this young woman. She was charisma personified, a veritable magnet, drawing everyone to her. Who in the hell was she?

He turned to a matronly woman standing beside him. She, too, was trying to get close. “I don’t know who she is. That woman who just came in. Do you?”

She looked at him as if he’d just stepped out of a cave. “Why, that’s Lily Cheval. Her father is the one being honored tonight. He couldn’t be here, so Lily’s attending in his place.”

Lily Cheval. He should have known. “Thank you,” he said, but the woman had managed to move a few steps ahead and wasn’t paying him any attention at all. Her focus, hell, the focus of every person in the room, was entirely on Ms. Cheval.

Sebastian turned his head and studied her again. His father had lied. She wasn’t merely attractive, she was absolutely breathtaking, from her long, tawny curls to her caramel skin barely covered in some sort of fabric that flashed like dark fire.

With the crimson flame of her aura all around, she was a burning torch of pure sensual energy. The crowd had moved closer now, and Sebastian was no more than ten or twelve feet from her.

She raised her head, and he was drowning. Drowning in eyes of deepest amber, eyes so pure, yet filled with so many secrets, he didn’t care if he never found the surface again.

A sharp pain pierced his skull, a sense of intrusion, of foul air and darkness.

Sebastian blinked. Lily stared at him for a brief moment. Her aura spiked a brilliant lavender, then faded to a muddy brown. Her eyes went wide, and her hand went to her temple. Slowly, gracefully, she crumpled to the floor.

Someone screamed. A man called for calm. A woman was on her phone dialing 911. Sebastian shoved his way through the few people still separating him from Lily Cheval. He knelt beside her. Her aura was shifting color again, from gray and brown to a brilliant gold.

Someone or something watched over her. He wasn’t certain, but he placed his fingertips against her throat and felt for her pulse, then brushed her hair away from her face. It slipped like silk through his fingers, but she was breathing on