living covenant 03 - eternal covenant

• Copyright
  
• One
  
• Two
  
• Three
  
• Four
  
• Five
  
• Six
  
• Seven
  
• Eight
  
• Nine
  
• Ten
  
• Eleven
  
• Twelve
  
• Thirteen
  
• Fourteen
  
• Fifteen
  
• Sixteen
  
• Seventeen
  
• Eighteen
  
• Nineteen
  
• Twenty
  
• Twenty-One
  
• Twenty-Two
  
• Twenty-Three
  
• Twenty-Four
  
• Twenty-Five
  
• Twenty-Six
  
• Twenty-Seven
  
• Twenty-Eight
  
• Twenty-Nine
  
• Thirty
  
• Mail List
  
• Acknowledgments
  
• Books by Amanda M. Lee
  

ETERNAL COVENANT

Living Covenant Trilogy Book Three

AMANDA M. LEE

WinchesterShaw Publications

Contents

Copyright

1.
One

2.
Two

3.
Three

4.
Four

5.
Five

6.
Six

7.
Seven

8.
Eight

9.
Nine

10.
Ten

11.
Eleven

12.
Twelve

13.
Thirteen

14.
Fourteen

15.
Fifteen

16.
Sixteen

17.
Seventeen

18.
Eighteen

19.
Nineteen

20.
Twenty

21.
Twenty-One

22.
Twenty-Two

23.
Twenty-Three

24.
Twenty-Four

25.
Twenty-Five

26.
Twenty-Six

27.
Twenty-Seven

28.
Twenty-Eight

29.
Twenty-Nine

30.
Thirty

Mail List

Acknowledgments

Books by Amanda M. Lee

Copyright © 2016 by Amanda M. Lee

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Created with Vellum

1

One

^“
Come back to bed.”

Aric’s voice was a low murmur as I swung my legs over the side of the mattress, yawning as I stretched and stared out the window. I love mornings like this, the bright sunlight filtering through the curtains and nothing but trees for miles in every direction. Mornings are my favorite time of day – as long as they don’t come too early. You know what I mean. Morning should start at ten, and everything before that should be outlawed. What? That’s common sense.

“I can’t go back to sleep,” I said, casting a fond look in Aric’s direction. He was naked, only a thin sheet covering him from the waist down. His black hair was tousled, stubble lining his strong jaw. He’s always handsome, but I love the way he looks before he gets up to greet the day. “My mother and your mother will be here in two hours. I have to make sure the house is clean before they get here.”

Aric made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. It was somewhere between a chuckle and a snort. “Who cares what they think? It’s our house.”

“I know that and you know that,” I said. “They’re going to take over our house because of the wedding, though. Did you forget the wedding?”

Aric’s eyes remained closed as he gripped the edge of the pillow and hugged it closer. “How could I forget the wedding? That’s impossible. You’re looking at a dead man walking here. You snagged me. You wore me down. You’re dragging me kicking and screaming off the market and down that long aisle. I could never forget the wedding.”

I made a face, which he couldn’t see because he refused to open his eyes, and reached over to flick his ear. Aric took me by surprise when he grabbed my wrist. He was strong so it didn’t take much for him to drag me back onto the bed and wrap his arms around me.

I wanted to be angry – and I did manage some faux outrage – but the truth is there’s nowhere I would rather be. “Aric, we have to get up,” I whined as I pressed my face into the hollow between his neck and shoulder. “My mother is going to freak out when she sees how messy the house is.”

“The house isn’t messy,” Aric argued. “We cleaned yesterday. It’s fine.”

“We didn’t clean,” I scoffed. “You moved the couch and I had a feather duster, and then you decided we could do something more fun with the feather duster if we were naked, and that was the end of the cleaning.”

Aric shrugged as he kissed my cheek. “Did you have fun with the feather duster?”

“That’s not the point.”

“That is the point,” Aric said, tightening his arms around my waist and making an odd cooing sound as he brushed his lips against my ear. “We’re almost married, Zoe. The wedding is right around the corner.”

There it was. That was the true source of my panic. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be married to Aric. I did. Trust me. He’s Aric Winters, after all. He’s strong, handsome, sexy and kind. He has a great sense of humor and is unbelievably loyal. On top of all that, he loves me. So what’s not to love?

It’s the wedding I can do without.

My name is Zoe Lake and I’m a bride. Ugh. Those are words I never thought I would say – even if only in my mind. I’ve been many things over the course of my life – all twenty-seven years of it, if you want to be exact. I’ve been a petulant child, mouthy teenager, wide-eyed college freshman, reluctant hero and magical mage. Throughout all of that, though, I never foresaw being a bride. I honestly thought I would mouth off to the wrong person who would kill me long before this day came.

Aric Winters changed all of that, and while I was excited to be engaged, the idea of going through a wedding ceremony sent chills down my spine.

“I think we should elope,” I announced.

I couldn’t see Aric’s face but I could feel his lips tip down as they rested against the ridge of my ear.

“If you want to elope, we can elope,” Aric said, his voice low.

I was surprised by the capitulation. “Are you serious?”

“Are you?” Aric challenged. “I only want to be able to refer to you as ‘my wife.’ I don’t care about a wedding. If this is going to become a big thing, we can leave and go to City Hall right now.”

That sounded like a good idea to me. “Let’s get in the shower.”

Aric shifted so he could search my face. “Are you serious? If that’s what you want, I’ll do it. Be prepared to never hear the end of it from our mothers, though.”

I blew out a sigh and shifted my eyes to the ceiling, frowning when I saw the distinct outline of a cobweb weaving between the arms of the light fixture. “They’re the reason I want to run,” I admitted. “I wouldn’t mind a small ceremony with us and our friends. They’re trying to turn it into something else, though.”

Aric licked his lips as he decided how to respond. His father, a state senator, was partly to blame for the wedding plans spiraling out of control. “I can make my father uninvite people,” he said finally. “I know it upset you when he sent the list of people he invited.”

“I wasn’t upset,” I clarified. “I was … .” What? Angry? Ticked off? Ready to call down lightning and burn James Winters’ pretty face to a crisp? I can do that, just in case you’re wondering. It’s part of being a mage, which proves to be another wedding problem. “All of your father’s friends are wolves and politicians, although I don’t see much of a distinction.”

Aric patiently waited for me to continue.

“The politicians are only coming out of obligation,” I explained. “The wolves are coming because they’ve heard I can set things on fire with the power of my mind and they’re curious. It’s like I’m an exhibit at the zoo.”

“Ah,” Aric said, realization dawning. “No one expects you to perform tricks in your wedding gown. You won’t have to fight off enemies and make it rain flower petals.”

That sounded mildly interesting. A few weeks before I’d absorbed a magical book to save my parents from a crazy guy in a compound who thought he could steal my powers and become unstoppable. After that, my powers expanded exponentially, and during a mild fit one afternoon I exploded a flower pot and controlled the swirling petals long enough to form them in the shape of a heart. “I could do the flower petal thing.”

Aric snickered. “If you want to do the flower petal thing, go ahead,” he said. “Make them form the shape of a naked woman, though. I think that sounds fun.”

I made a face. “What kind of naked woman? If you say a Kardashian the wedding is off, by the way.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of you,” Aric said, tickling my ribs. “I could deal with that chick from
The Hunger Games
, too, though. She’s hot.”

I tried to elbow his ribs, but I must have telegraphed the move because he expertly dodged it. “I can’t believe I’m marrying you.”

“I can’t believe you’re marrying me either,” Aric said, nuzzling my cheek. “I was worried you would say no, but now we’re close, baby. You’re going to be Mrs. Aric Winters in a week.”

“I thought we agreed I was going to keep my name,” I scoffed. “You said it frightened people so I shouldn’t dump it.”

“Yes, but I’ve had time to think about it and I’ve decided I want to strip your identity,” Aric said, his voice calm even though I knew he was playing a game. “I think your new identity should only involve being my wife. How does that sound?”

“Like you’re trying to fire me up so you can con me into fighting with you and then making up before our parents get here.”

“You know me too well,” Aric said, laughing as he gave me a soft kiss. “If you want to take my name, I’ll be proud. If you want to keep your name, I’ll be fine with that, too. People are afraid of Zoe Lake, and I want it to stay that way.”

That was another thing niggling at the back of my brain. “You don’t think something horrible will happen this week, do you?”

“You’ll have to be more specific,” Aric prodded. “Last week you thought the worst thing in the world was the fact that every store you shop at seems to have replaced track pants with yoga pants.”

“That’s a real problem,” I complained. “I don’t mind yoga pants. I have ten pairs of them. I prefer walking around the woods in track pants, though. I can’t run to the store in yoga pants either. I don’t care what anyone says. It’s inappropriate to pick out apples in the produce department when someone else is studying your butt in pants that leave absolutely nothing to the imagination, all the while imagining that’s the big apple they want to take a bite out of.”