Lawful Mate: A Down In Flames Tale, #2

By Elena Kincaid

Ivy Spencer has known about the existence of her true mate since her thirteenth birthday. When she comes face to face with the man who has haunted her dreams for the past seventeen years, her secrets keep them apart. Uprooting her life to a new city and taking a new job is just the first step in getting the proof she needs to stop a dangerous killer.

Easy there, Tiger! Theo Jensen has to mentally chide his inner animal every time he's around his mysterious, gorgeous new hire at his law firm. It doesn't take long for him to realize that Ivy Spencer is his mate, but he knows she's hiding something from him, something life-threatening. Add to that, he's got his own baggage to deal with in the form of a cheating ex.

Will Theo be able to uncover Ivy's secrets before he loses her forever?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elena Kincaid
• Release date: Oct 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201933128

Book preview

PROLOGUE

The wind howled as the golden leaves swirled in a perfect circle around the giant Silky Willow, her ancestral tree. Ivy saw it clear as day in her dream. It’s what woke her and got her out of bed, her bare feet padding noiselessly as she strode out of her room, out of her house, into the center of the dancing leaves.

She had just turned thirteen the day before. The hanging lights adorning the willow tree from yesterday’s celebration twinkled with the rising sun. Looking at the sky, she closed her eyes, reveling in the warmth and peace that surrounded her. When she reopened her eyes, she saw she was no longer alone. A boy, maybe a year or two older, stood before her, wearing flannel pajama pants with a Metallica T-shirt, along with a shocked expression and his mouth slightly agape.

The leaves swirled faster, the sound of the wind grew louder, and the boy looked around wildly before setting his sights on her again.

What’s happening? How did I get here?

I don’t know, she answered truthfully. She barely remembered walking the near quarter of a mile from her house to the willow tree. It also seemed odd how they both spoke in normal volumes with complete coherency, as if wrapped in their own private bubble, while the wind practically roared, as if from a distance. Perhaps her powers were growing. It dawned on her that her mother and grandmother were capable of doing the same thing.

Clawed nails suddenly extended from the boy’s right hand, and Ivy instinctively stepped back. She was about to go into defense mode when a gut feeling told her to stop. She didn’t want to hurt him. Her instincts proved right when, a few moments later, he retracted his claws and raised his hands up in surrender.

I’m sorry, he said. I didn’t mean to frighten you.

He’s a shifter. What kind, she couldn’t tell yet. You didn’t, she lied. She realized the lie was less about her bravado and more about not making him feel bad. They were both creatures of instinct.

She took a few steps closer to him, examining his face—his long, dark lashes accentuating his green eyes, perfectly sculpted nose, narrowing cheekbones leading to a cute, pointed chin with a slight dimple at its center. He had a light spattering of symmetrical freckles on the bridge of his nose, fanning out across the tops of his cheeks that made him look even more attractive. The wind ruffled his golden-brown locks, still messy from sleep. He’s beautiful. She had never had the desire to kiss a boy until now—until she zeroed in on his pillowy cupid’s bow lips.

His face softened as she stopped inches from his tall, lanky frame. He seemed to be examining her as well. Then he smiled, revealing straight pearly whites, and she could have sworn her heart stuttered.

You really don’t know how I got here? he asked, his voice a soft velvet sound with a slight rasp.

Ivy shook her head. Maybe we’re both dreaming?

The boy tilted his head as if pondering the same thing. It doesn’t feel like a dream, though.

Ivy didn’t think so, either. I know. She thought about the blessings her grandmother and mother had bestowed on her last night—one was to one day find her true mate. Her grandmother had been lucky to find hers later in life after both her children were fully grown. Ivy’s mother, though she had once loved Ivy’s father, had not yet found hers. Perhaps this was destiny giving her a glimpse. Or Ivy’s powers were growing, and she just wanted to hang out with a cute boy. Ivy smirked at the aforementioned cute boy.

Or maybe I did bring you here somehow. After all, I am a powerful witch.

Throwing back his head, he laughed. Are you, now? He crossed his arms in front of him. What’s your name, oh powerful one?

Ivy opened her mouth, but the sudden stillness in the air caught her attention. She turned her head to the side in time to see all the now flightless leaves fall to the ground. When she turned back to her cute boy, he was gone.

She blew out a long puff of air.

Okay, so maybe not that powerful after all.

CHAPTER 1

Ivy awoke with a start, bolting upright. She flopped back down on the bed and emitted a loud, heavy sigh. She’d had that same frustrating dream for nearly two decades now, once a year, every year, the night she went to bed on her birthday. Years later, when she told her mother about her recurring dream—leaving out the part that the dream was a manifestation of what really happened and that the boy was as real as she was—her mother had given her a funny look and waved it off as nothing but a dream. Ivy knew it wasn’t nothing , not then, not now, despite not seeing the boy again other than in her birthday dream, which liked to replay itself. Ivy was sure her mother hadn’t been entirely forthcoming. Poppy Spencer had an annoying way of revealing things to her daughter when the wind told her to, as she liked to put it.

Ivy snorted,