Rescued (Book One of the Silver Wood Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel by Hazel Hunter

Atwater. Abel, help me welcome Troy’s friend Summer.”
    The older man gave her a long, silent look before he loomed over her and offered his hand.  
    “Well, girl? Have you no manners?” he boomed when she didn’t take it.
    Troy was by her side a heartbeat later.  
    “Summer has been cursed and cannot be touched. Hello, Father.”
    “Troy.” His father sniffed. “Do you bring this cursed woman with you everywhere, or have you presented her merely for my benefit?”
    Cursed? Is that what he’d decided had happened?
    Erica took Summer’s arm and led her back to the others to introduce them.
    The well-dressed body-builder was named Lachlan Darrow, whom Erica said served as Abel’s assistant and helped run the various business concerns of the coven.  
    “A pleasure to meet you,” Lachlan said to Summer, although he didn’t try to touch her.
    The young couple turned out to be Troy’s younger brother, Wilson, and Wilson’s wife Aileen.  
    “Welcome to Silver Wood.” Wilson’s tone hovered one degree above icy, and he kept glancing back at Troy and Abel. “Are you from Boston?”
    “New York City.” Summer turned to smile at his wife. “You look ready to be a mom.”
    “By the New Year at the very latest, I hope,” Aileen said, her small face glowing as she gave Summer a sweet, dimpled smile. “How did you meet Troy? Do you work together?”
    “A mutual friend introduced us, actually.”
    Summer glanced at Ewan, who was talking to Lachlan and seemed to have no particular interest in her now. She also felt no tug inside as she had with Michael and Troy. Her gaze shifted to where Troy and Abel stood. The two men appeared to be having a very terse conversation. From the way Abel was now glaring in their direction she guessed Troy was telling him about her.
    “Would you excuse me for a moment?” she said.
    Once she joined the men they stopped talking and turned toward her.  
    “Mr. Atwater, I don’t want to impose on you and your family. If you would rather I   not stay here–”
    “So she does have manners.” Abel eyed her. “Until we ferret out the truth about you, and what is to be done about this curse you carry, you are to remain with Erica, Aileen or one of the other women of the coven. You will also avoid having any physical contact with the men.”
    She gulped. “I couldn’t stop Ewan in time–”
    “So I saw.” Abel turned to Troy. “You may use the northwest rooms. Your brother and Aileen are living in the cabin Wilson built for them over the summer.”
    “It’s better if we have separate rooms,” Troy said. “We’re not sleeping together.”
    “You brought her here, so you’ll guard her every night. How you do it is your business.” Abel turned away. “We breakfast together in an hour in the dining hall.”
    “Thank–” Summer watched the older man stomp back inside. “You.”
    “He’s angry with me, not you.” Troy took her backpack and they followed Abel.
    Inside the pavilion was even more impressive, with blazing stone fireplaces, cozy hand-made furnishings and walls hung with intricate tapestries. As Troy guided her through a labyrinth of corridors back to their rooms she saw open doorways leading to a library, a weaving room, a glass-walled hothouse, an enormous kitchen and a long dining room with a table large enough to feed forty or more. She also saw some rooms she couldn’t identify: one with a raised platform around which huge floor pillows were scattered, another half-filled with racks of plants hanging upside down, and a third with some sort of shrine.
    “How big is this place?” Summer asked as Troy stopped at a pair of double doors and opened them.
    “I don’t know anymore. It looks like my father has been adding on since I left.” Once she walked in he followed and closed the doors behind them. “I apologize for the way he spoke to you. It’s difficult for him to be empathetic when all he wants to do is thrash me senseless.”
    Summer