The Fae Book 3: Butcher and Raine

Prologue (Raine): I Let My Guard Down

***TW for rough sex in the office of a yoga studio***

Some people just don't look like they belong in certain settings. They stick out. And although I'd had all sorts of people walk through the doors of my yoga studio, not one of them had ever screamed I don't belong here like the huge beast of a man currently standing in the back of my studio who had been watching the entire forty-five minute yoga class I was leading. He'd walked in quietly just after class began, wearing his black jeans, black T-shirt, black motorcycle boots and black leather jacket, fairly emanating darkness. Something told me he wasn't here to try downward dog or expand his inner consciousness through focused breathing. I could feel his eyes on me every moment and found it hard to concentrate on the class. Somehow, I still managed to walk my students through the poses, gently apply adjustments where needed and offer praise.

Oddly enough, despite his aura of menace, despite the leather cut, I wasn't afraid of him.I should have been. Looking back, I should have been but I wasn't. In fact, I should have run in the other direction as fast as I could. As far as I could. But even that wouldn't have been enough.

Maybe if he'd shown up in my studio and I'd never seen him before, I would have been more fearful. But the first time I'd seen him, I'd been at a biker rally two weeks ago with Harmony and Daisy and their husbands, Hatch and Burr. Our friend Willow was there with her sisters and their husbands. Harper had called to a giant man, dressed all in black, and waved him over to her despite her husband's protests, despite every man there tensing up as he approached.

Butcher.

The man had unwisely taunted Rome Romano, Harper's husband, who looked pissed when Butcher had referred to Harper as his girl. No one in their right mind would taunt Rome Romano -- he was a scary, powerful man -- but Butcher was cold and clearly didn't give a fuck. There was also the fact that Butcher was bigger than any of the other men present and there was an aura of menace around him that the others, intimidating as they were, lacked. This man, for want of a better description, seemed to be surrounded by darkness.

The strange eyes that I'd only ever seen once before -- on Burr, who was Harmony's brother and Daisy's husband -- had taken in our group immediately with his assessing glance. His gaze went over me...and when it returned to me for a brief moment, I felt something icy move down my spine.

And still, I didn't think about that feeling until it was much too late.

My instinct was warning me, but I shut that down because this man interested me. He appealed to something deep in me, and I couldn't understand why. He was nothing like the men I dated, nothing like the men I'd ever been with, nothing like all the men who quickly bored me. Being with this man would be like trying to hold lightning in your hand.

Oddly enough, just as I had that thought, just as Burr shook Butcher's hand, a storm moved in just that fast and lightning flashed and thundered violently, charging the air around us, making all of us look around uncertainly. I'd looked up at the clear, blue sky, not a cloud in sight, and once again, for the second time in just moments, I felt something cold skitter across my spine like a crab on sand.

Then, just as quickly as the lightning began crashing around us, it ended just after Butcher and Burr stopped shaking hands, their strange silvery eyes locked.

Now, two weeks later, I shot yet another glance at the beast of a man standing at the back of my yoga studio as I walked my students through the final minutes of class, noting two of the ladies had fallen asleep during the quiet meditation. Why are you here, Butcher? I suspected I'd find out after class.

"Slowly come back, open your eyes and hold that feeling of peace deep inside you. Think of the things you are grateful for," I instructed my class, while my eyes flicked to Butcher, who remained impassive. "Feel your lungs expanding. Now let go. Let go of everything but the good."